The Pachamanca: A Survivalist’s Feast, by J.C.

Sometimes, in survival situations, it is in one’s best interest to avoid detection when possible. However, this can be difficult to do when food preparation comes into play. Fire is often a necessity, when it comes to cooking outdoors, but fire creates smoke, which can draw unwanted attention. There are alternatives to open fire cooking, namely solar ovens, but these alternatives often require special conditions, like minimal cloud cover, to work effectively. Camp stoves are also a possibility. However, they can be bulky; often require a scarce, non-replenishable fuel source; and sadly, not everybody is going to have access to one of these stoves in an emergency. So, what is one to do when the time comes to cook and the options are few? One potential solution to this conundrum is the ancient Peruvian method of cooking, known as the pachamanca– a method with which I am both familiar and very fond.

The pachamanca is a form of pit cooking that involves cooking a variety of foods in a deep pit, using heated stones. The foods cooked often include tubers, namely potatoes and sweet potatoes; legumes, traditionally green lima beans; meats, including lamb, mutton, chicken (or other available fowl), and guinea pig; and plenty of maize. While pit cooking is not endemic to Peru, the pachamanca, I find, is the easiest form of pit cooking to modify to meet survival cooking needs. In order to be practical, this (or rather, any) method of cooking may need to be altered to meet the needs of you and your party. Fortunately, one of the great things about the pachamanca is that it takes kindly to such adjustments. What if you don’t have chicken? Well, just substitute a squirrel or rabbit. The pachamanca has all the beauty and adaptability of nature itself, and this is just the beginning of what makes the pachamanca such an excellent means of food preparation.

Pachamanca is a great form of cooking in that it can be set up in most outdoor environments, requires very little fire, is highly efficient, and can be easily concealed. I say that it can be set up in most outdoor environments because almost wherever you can dig a hole, you can build a pachamanca. I say that it requires very little fire because the flame needed to heat the stones can be put out and scattered as soon as the rocks have been moved into the pit. I say it is efficient because to cook the same amount of food on a fire would take several hours of tending to the flame and making sure nothing burns. I say that it is easily concealed because the pit can be covered with dirt and leaves and left alone for between two to three hours. In fact, in the olden days of Europe, bandits would take a sheep, wrap the edible meat in the animal’s skin, and cook it in a pit for several hours. This method of cooking was preferred, because keeping an open fire going for a long period of time could have drawn the authorities to the location of the bandits’ camp. Alright, now that I feel I have adequately described the pachamanca and its benefits, I will discuss how to make one.

The three most important parts of a pachamanca are the pit, the stones, and the food. A pachamanca pit must be deep and wide enough to hold several food items and multiple layers of stones. The stones must be large (but not boulders) and capable of holding heat very well. The actual food items are not of consequence as much as the order in which they are placed in the pit. The first (and most important) part of making a pachamanca is the pit.

A pachamanca pit is best dug in soft, dry soil. It is best not to dig a pit immediately after a rain or place it near a stream or other body of water. If the pit is dug in wet soil or near a stream, water will tend to pool in the pit, defeating the purpose of using it for cooking. I have made a cooking pit in wet soil before. It’s not impossible, but it’s certainly not fun. The pit should be about three or four feet deep. Ideally, the pit will have a diameter of about one foot and nine inches; it will be circular in shape. It may help to pack the walls of the pit a little bit. Pile the dirt beside the hole; you will use it to cover the pit after filling it with food and hot stones. After the hole is ready, it is time to prepare the food.

As I mentioned before, the foods used in a pachamanca are usually sweet potatoes, potatoes, meat, corn, cooked lima beans, and occasionally, tamales or other corn-based food. As far as meats go, feel free to throw in whatever you may have. In a survival situation, chicken and lamb (or mutton) will likely not be available, and most people in the U.S. wouldn’t eat guinea pig even if it was available. So, feel free to substitute squirrel or game birds. Some versions of pachamanca even use beef, so venison should work as well (as long as you include a piece or two of fat in the parcel to keep the meat from drying out). The quantities of the individual food items are irrelevant so long as they are placed in the pit in the correct order. Once you have decided what all you are going to include, the individual food items are best wrapped in soaked corn husks. Wrapping prevents the food from drying out and also protects against burning. If using corn husks, it is best to soak them for twenty to thirty minutes; this will prevent them from burning in the heat of the pit. To wrap a piece of food, start by taking three soaked corn husks. Tear one of the husks lengthwise into many thin, long strips. These strips will be used to tie the corn husk parcels prior to placing them in the pit; this helps keep dirt and other foreign substances off of the food. Lay the other two corn husks together lengthwise so that they overlap slightly. Place a small piece of food in the center. Roll the parcel lengthwise before folding each end of the package over the center. Secure with two or three strips of corn husk. Corn husks are not the only material that can be used for wrapping; banana leaves, parchment paper, or burlap will also suffice. Once the food is wrapped, it is time to prepare the stones.

The stones used in a pachamanca should be rounded and small enough to be carried in your hands (without injuring yourself). Volcanic stones are the best because of their ability to withstand unimaginable heat. However, common river rocks from a stream bed will serve the purpose of the pachamanca. It is best to avoid other types of rocks; they may become too hot and explode. Be sure to pick dry, round rocks with no cracking or fractures. The number of rocks you will need will vary, depending on the size of your pit and the size of the stones. It probably won’t hurt to overshoot on the number of rocks you get on the first few times, but any conspicuous stones should be removed from the area prior to concealing the pit. After the stones are gathered, it is time to prepare the fire. Seeing as how the goal is to be as inconspicuous as possible, it is best to keep the fire going only long enough to heat the stones. When the fire is going fairly strong, begin to arrange the stones over the fire in a pyramid shape; a shovel or long metal tongs will be of assistance in this task. It is difficult to tell exactly how long it will take for the stones to reach the necessary temperature, so the duration of the heating period is a matter of personal discretion.

Once all of the three vital components are ready, it is time to start cooking. Place a layer of hot stones on the bottom of the pit, using a shovel, tongs, or if you have great dexterity, two thick, sturdy sticks. After the hot stones, place the parcels of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Then, put a layer of stones on the tubers, and put down your meats. After that, slide in another layer of stones. Finally, add your corn and beans and another (optional) layer of rocks. After the final layer of rocks, cover the pit with several blades of long grass and the dirt you excavated from the pit. Now, you can dowse or smother the fire and conceal the cooking pit. The pit can be left alone for two or three hours, and anyone who stumbles upon the scene will see no indicators of human presence besides the small, dead fire. In a situation w.r.o.l., it might be advisable to break a few limbs and slightly alter the landscape to create the illusion that your cooking site was simply a poor, and now abandoned campsite. However, even without rule of law, this is detrimental to any outdoor environment. Upon returning to the site, eating is simply a matter of removing the dirt from on top of the pit and carefully extracting the parcels of food.

It is advisable to practice this technique once or twice while you can afford to mess up. With practice, this method of food preparation can become a valuable addition to your survival cooking repertoire. I hope that this ancient and venerable cooking method proves to be useful to you in your survival endeavors.

Letter Re: The Water Solution

HJL,

I enjoyed the water article by EG. I own a farm and spend a great deal of time moving water around for irrigation purposes, and, yes, water is very heavy and difficult to move. I would like to give the folks some short hand for water. First, when burying water lines, go large. The smallest line I will install is two inches, when moving water over a couple hundred feet, because there is viscosity friction that builds up inside the the pipe wall the farther you go. It costs the same amount to dig the hole and the same amount to bury it; it just pays to go large whenever you can. The difference between 2-inch pipe and 1 1/2 inch is a 50% loss in volume; a 1-inch pipe can carry less than 25% that of a 2-inch pipe. Also, gravity system height does matter. Water builds pressure at .44 pound per one foot in elevation. So, if your local water tower is 100 feet high, you would have 44 pounds of pressure, which is not bad. I use gas and diesel pumps to move water, and one gallon of fuel will pump thousands of gallons great distances. If you can locate below any water source then you can be guaranteed great pressure. – MH in the west

o o o

HJL,

The article “The Water Solution, by E.G. describes how to plumb water from a catchment system to your house water lines. Public Water Utilities will consider E.G.’s method unsafe because of the direct connection to a source of contamination (the water catchment system). Think of it this way. A person turns off the main electric breaker for their house and then takes an extension with a male plug on both ends, plugs one end into a house receipt and the other end into a running generator. That seems perfectly safe. They perform the steps in any other order, and an electric Utility Lineman or Homeowner can be electrocuted. The safest way would be to have a transfer switch installed. Line power or generator power, it’s impossible for both to flow at the same time. Taking water from a possible contaminated source (water catchment) and relying on remembering to turn off the main water value or on a check value to function correctly is a health hazard to all connected to the Public Water Utility. The correct way is to install a “Wye” with union fittings. Wye installed one way– you are connected to the Public Water and physically disconnected from the catchment system. Loosen the union fittings, swing the pipe to the other side of the Wye, and tighten the union fittings. You are now connected to the water catchment system and physically disconnected from the Public Water Supply. – M.G.

o o o

HJL,

I’m a missionary in Papua New Guinea. My main job is setting up other missionaries who are building houses in bush locations among tribal groups to plant a church. One of the things I do, besides installing the Solar Electric Systems and wiring is setting up the pressurized water system. I’m familiar with the 12-volt Shurflo RV pump that E.G. mentioned in his article. One thing that I do when I install these systems, that helps the longevity of the pump, is installing a small pressure tank. This helps when you need a small amount of water for a longer period of time, like when you flush a toilet. Without this pressure tank the Shurflo pump has the tendency to constantly cycle on and off after you flush a toilet because the flow rate is right on the threshold pressure that turns the pump on and off, and therefore it doesn’t know if it should be on or off. The pressure tank solves this problem by storing a certain amount of water pressure in the tank, so that when you flush the toilet, the pump doesn’t need to turn on. This will also increase the life of your pump. Another thing I’ve noticed is that if you mount the pump on a supporting post under your home or anywhere physically on your home, it will vibrate the entire house, and the noise of the pump is amplified through the structure, which is really annoying, especially during those late-night potty breaks when everyone is trying to sleep. To solve this problem, we set a separate post in the ground, which is not attached to the main structure of the home, and mount the pump to this post, eliminating the annoying vibrations and noise during pump operation. Hope this helps. In His Grip, – J.S.

Economics and Investing:

Why Gold’s Base Price Should Be North Of $2,000

o o o

British middle classes will be replaced by ‘tiny elite and a huge sprawling proletariat’, says Government adviser . – P.M.

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Items from Mr Econocobas:

12 Numbers About The Global Financial Ponzi Scheme That Should Be Burned Into Your Brain

Russia Is Doing It – Russia Is Actually Abandoning The Dollar

The Winter Was So Cold No One Got Sick! Lower Health Spending To Push Q1 GDP To -2%

Another Fiscal Time-Bomb: Public Pensions Assume Perpetual Bull Market And Still Have $1.1 Trillion Deficit

Odds ‘n Sods:

Criminal Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Indefinite Detention Case. – H.L.

Even the perception of “Liberty and Justice for all” has now been shredded.

o o o

A study on mob mentality and subsequent loss of personal morals: Your friends really DO make you behave badly: Researchers warn being in a group leads to ‘mob rule’ and causes people lose touch with their moral beliefs. – R.D.

Also, the first season of this TV program has 13 British men left on a deserted island for four weeks with just the clothes on their back, three knives, and three machetes.

o o o

US fears ‘Pearl Harbor’ in space. – P.M.

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An article of interest from Business Insider… even a generally left-of-center site, like this, is calling bogus on the screed from the chicken little gun control crowd. Why The Supposed Rise Of Mass Shootings Is A Myth. – B.C.

o o o

Couple reports 3,000 gallons of water stolen near Gualala. – T.P.

Notes for Friday – June 13, 2014

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:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  10. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate,
  11. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate, and
  12. RepackBoxis providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208, and
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

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.

Useful CERT Publications For Preppers, by T.L.O.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program was created in 1987 by the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Los Angeles officials were asked to help Mexico City with a critique following an 8.1 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people. It was noted that many “spontaneous volunteers” (people with no training who pitched in to try and help others) had saved over 800 trapped victims, but at least 100 volunteers were killed in the effort. They died because of a lack of knowledge and training that would have kept them safe.

LA officials knew they would have a similar situation happen after a big earthquake and decided to offer training to help protect would- be rescuers. It was very successful and taken nation-wide by FEMA in 1993. 

CERT groups are essentially local volunteers that have enough basic training to keep themselves out of trouble when helping out after a disaster. They can do the less technical activities that free the professional up to do the really dangerous stuff.

CERT provides free training to teach interested individuals and groups about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills. We have taught church groups, Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, and other interested people in our community. If I had my way, everyone in the county would take the training, whether they join the group or not. A CERT graduate can use that knowledge at home or work in everyday life and assist the professionals in an actual disaster response, even if they are not a member of the team.

Our program was started in 2003. Currently our group has three trailers equipped for disaster response. We have responded to assist with sandbagging and evacuations from a gas leak and from wildfire. We have done traffic control during emergencies and even responded to assist with a murder investigation. (They needed some of our equipment!)

In between disasters, our group provides traffic control for community events– races, parades, et cetera, which is good practice and gets us noticed. Our group also attends various events to provide disaster handouts and to promote CERT, and we make presentations to various groups about disaster preparedness. We are always looking for opportunities for training, as well. As the CERT Coordinator in our community, I am also gradually introducing the prepper mindset into the group and my community under the guise of, “You can’t help if you aren’t prepared”.

CERT provides a variety of continuing education material that is made available to the public at no charge. Studying the publications discussed below will provide you with a basic foundation in emergency communications, leadership, disaster psychology, traffic and crowd safety, first aid, incident management, and other facets of disaster response. This info is easily adapted for use by the average everyday prepper.

I highly recommend that everyone take the CERT course, which generally takes 18-20 hours to complete. It includes both classroom time and hands-on practice with a mock disaster drill at the end of the class. Various speakers present different parts of the class, such as Fire Suppression, which is conducted by our local fire department. You are not required to join a CERT group after completing the course. The curriculum is designed to teach basic skills to the average, non-professional, potential volunteer. Students are constantly reminded that personal safety is the first priority; if the rescuer is hurt, he can no longer help! Below are some of the sessions:

Disaster Preparedness. This is a basic introduction to basic prepping and includes why people should be prepared and how to start. I have actually scared people to tears with this presentation, because they suddenly realized how vulnerable they really are.

Disaster Medical Operations. This includes setting up treatment areas, recognizing life-threatening problems, triage, and basic first aid. (It is amazing to me how many of our adult students don’t know anything about first aid!) We do both classroom sessions and hands-on practice.

Fire Suppression. This is usually the most popular class session, since most folks are closet firebugs, though we have had students cut and run during the actual drill. Students learn about fire chemistry and the fire triangle, types of combustibles, and hazardous materials. Fire prevention, size up, and fire extinguisher drills end the session.

Light Search and Rescue. The first thing students learn is how to assess a damaged building to determine if it is safe for a CERT volunteer to enter. The student learns how to safely locate, rescue, and apply initial first aid to people trapped in buildings and other confined spaces. We also learn to recognize when a rescue operation is beyond our training and should be left to the professionals.

Disaster Psychology. Here we discuss how people react during and after a disaster; we learn what to expect from survivors and how to help them in their initial recovery. Working a disaster also effects the rescuers in a lot of ways. We present information on what stresses volunteers (both during and after an event) and how to mitigate the effects and work with a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team.

CERT Organization. This includes CERT structure and National Incident Management System (NIMS), decision making, and documentation (if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen). CERT members are required to take a NIMS class after joining a group.

Terrorism. We learn what it is; how to recognize an event in progress; and what to do before, during, and after an incident. We also encourage our students to take a weather watcher’s class and a CPR Class. Note: CPR is not performed in a mass-casualty incident, so we do not teach it during our classes.

CERT Publications. There are many continuing education training manuals available to CERT groups that are equally applicable to preppers. Most are offered in both MS Word and PDF format. Some of the manuals offer PowerPoint slide shows, as well. Unlike EMI, most of the CERT material is aimed at the average person. Instructor guides are also available for some of the following courses. An instructor is supposed to have had the CERT Train-the-Trainer course before teaching this material, but the rules say nothing about self-study. All of the CERT material can be downloaded free from www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams/training-materials.

  • CERT Participant Manual. This is the manual that is used in CERT classes. It is a treasure trove of basic disaster response and preparedness information. The current version has 344 pages. (We give this book to class participants- hint, hint.)
  • Hazard Annexes. These are appendixes that supplement the Participant Manual. You will find specific information on natural hazards, such as earthquake, flood, tornado, et cetera. Included is an explanation of what the hazard is, how to prepare for it and what to do before, during, and after. The idea is to download the chapters dealing with hazards most likely to occur in your area. There is an annex on pandemics that everyone should grab.
  • CERT Animal Response I and II. (108 pages) These modules include disaster plans for animals (both pets and livestock), general animal behavior and safety issues, such as possible disease transmission, PPE (personal protective equipment), and first-aid for animal-caused injuries. General animal care and handling, animal first aid, dealing with owners, and animal ID are also covered. There is an appendix in the second module that lists additional resources that are available on-line.
  • CERT Emergency Communication Manual. (52 pages) This CERT manual is a how-to reference on communication plans, different communications devices, such as phones and two-way radios, radio discipline, technique, and proper radio use.
  • CERT Tools for Leadership Success. (49 pages) This publication reviews disaster psychology, the ICS (Incident Command System), and scene size up, and how leadership relates to these areas. Building a rapport with team members and traits and responsibilities of successful leaders and team members and leadership styles are discussed. There is a step-by-step-guide to effectively and smoothly take charge of a group and role-play exercises. I did find the information on leadership style particularly interesting in that an effective leader must be able to change his style to fit the situation and the team.
  • Traffic and Crowd Management. (60 pages) I wish this book had been available when I was first learning how to manage traffic. How hard could it be, I thought? Silly me. I found that efficiently dealing with traffic and crowd flow is as much art as it is science. It took awhile to perfect my hand signals and body language so that drivers knew what was expected and knew that I meant what I “said”. One important skill is “reading a crowd” to determine if things are going south and how to deal with such a situation. Coordinating efforts with other team members can be difficult, as well. This little book lays all that out in a way that makes it easy to understand and apply.
  • Flood Response for CERT’s. (40 pages) This manual gives instruction in applying CERT skills to flood response and safety concerns when working around flood waters. There is a first aid section aimed at dealing with common flood-related injuries and one on filling sandbags and building sandbag barricades. As filling and moving wet sand is back-breaking work, attention is given to proper lifting, stacking, and moving sandbags properly.
  • CERT Firefight Rehab. (42 pages) Firefighter rehab is designed to ensure that the physical and mental well-being of members operating at the scene of an emergency (or a training exercise) don’t deteriorate to the point where it affects the safety of the individual and team. Firefighting is inherently dangerous in the best of circumstances, and any additional physical or mental stress increases the danger. Firefighter Rehab is a process that provides first responders on the scene of a fire with any necessary first aid for such things as dehydration and smoke inhalation and monitoring for life-threatening conditions as heatstroke and heart attack. This manual teaches you what to look for, basic first aid, and how to set up a rehab area, and it offers a step-by-step discussion of the process.
  • Cert Exercise Swaps. (122 pages) One of the more useful practices in emergency response is participating in a realistic mock disaster drill. This manual explains how to design and conduct an effective, well thought-out tabletop or operational (hands-on) disaster drill. It also provides guidelines for swapping drills with other CERT groups. There are several activities included that develop skills and an appendix consisting of documents to be used to set up, run, and critique a drill.
  • CERT Program Manager Course. (260 pages) While this particular book is written for CERT Coordinators the information is easily adapted for use by any organized group. Instruction includes setting up your organization, promotion, working with volunteers (including termination of a group member-never pleasant but sometimes necessary) and instructors, setting up training programs, policies and procedures, evaluation and sustaining the group.
  • Wildland/Urban Interface Modules A, B, and C. (58 pages) This manual was developed for California, but the information is applicable anywhere. It defines the Wildland/Urban Interface (where civilization and undeveloped lands meet), wildfire behavior, defensible space, pre-planning, and evacuation. Part A is “Awareness and Prevention”. Part B is titled “The Approaching Wildfire!”, and Part C is “Citizen Wildland Fire Preparedness & Basic Concepts”. (There is no instructor guide.)
  • Introduction to CERT. This is an abbreviated version of the CERT Course that can be completed online. It does not qualify you to join a CERT group, nor does it offer hands-on practice, but it is a good basic introduction to the subject.

There are other useful publications.

The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is based at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Among other things, they provide independent study courses to anyone who is interested. The course material can be downloaded free. You can, if you want, officially enroll, read the material, pass the online test, and receive Continuing Education (CE) and sometimes college credits.

EMI provides training materials for both professional responders and laymen, so not all of their publications are applicable to John Q public. I would recommend you start with the following:

  • Decision Making and Problem Solving. (134 pages) It’s pretty self explanatory, I think. I found this book very helpful in organizing my planning and being able to prioritize. Topics covered include the decision making process and styles, traits and ethics of good decision makers.
  • Effective Communication. (156 pages) This covers accurate communication, both oral and written, which is the single most important facet of operation and is always the weakest link in any operation. Messages are often garbled, lost, misunderstood, insulting, contradictory, mangled or badly presented (or all of the above), sometimes with disastrous effects. This manual teaches communication basics and ways to improve your communication and listening skills. Very easy to read- putting it into practice is hard work!
  • Leadership and Influence. (180 pages) This training manual starts with the concept “leader, know thyself”; know your own strengths, weaknesses, thought processes, and motivations. Topics include important leadership concepts, such as building trust, introducing change, and negotiating. It includes self-assessments, case studies, and activities. You should read the two manuals above before starting this one.
  • ICS 100. (about 84 pages) The Incident Command System (ICS) is a flexible organizational and operations framework that was developed by the United States Navy and modified to manage wildfire and then expanded to include all disaster management and Search and Rescue response. This has evolved into the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which was developed after 9 /11 and is now the national standard for disaster management. ICS can be modified to work for any group– even your own household. For a general history go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_Command_System.

These manuals can all be downloaded from http://training.fema.gov/IS/ Click on the course list and scroll down until you find the listings for the above manuals.

Another useful resource can be found at http://www.cert-la.com/education/preparedness.htm. This is the website for the Los Angeles CERT. They have many downloadable documents on preparedness and disaster response. It is well worth your time to visit this site.

I would suggest you make hard copies. There are better than 1500 pages of information available. I’d go to a local copy shop rather than use my home printer. Request double-sided copies, since it reduces paper use, cost, and bulk on the bookshelf. I watch for binders and folders at the thrift stores, which are much cheaper than buying new, and label each one.

Now that you’ve downloaded the files, printed everything out, and studied every word, the hard part begins– putting it all into practice. Don’t be discouraged, if things don’t immediately fall into place. Skills have to be developed by and adapted to the individual. Results must be constantly sized-up and new habits formed. It will come as you learn to recognize what theory or concept fits where and how it applies to real life.

Letter: Banker Immunity

My conclusion of why you pay for Banksters crimes:

Big banks that assist the US Treasury in exchange for their implementation of financial policies overseas are almost universally held harmless in De Facto Immunity from prosecution for domestic and international financial crimes. In a clear case of what I think is a perfect “Quid Pro Quo” (“this for that”, in Latin) the bank personnel above the lower ranks are protected. The bank executives know they will not serve time and, in the worst case, only fines will be levied on the bank. Those fines are merely a cost of doing business, which are paid by the stockholders. From what I can tell the upper level employees have not even missed a bonus let alone suffered a felony conviction and imprisonment.

I think a clear picture of the problem emerged in the UK Telegraph’s article on April 16th, 2014.

“US Financial Showdown With Russia More Dangerous That It Looks”. by Ambrose Evans-Prichard on April 16. As the article quotes Newsweek: “The Treasury has deputized the entire US financial system to achieve its foreign policy goals”. Based on the recent book “TREASURY’s WAR” by Juan Zarate, former White House and Treasury Official, US Prosecutor, pretty much outlines the nature of the global nature of the effects of Sec 311 of the Patriot Act, designating countries, organizations, and individuals as money-launders.

Thus the banks become the infantry and artillery and special ops of the Treasury Department’s overseas activities. Several items in White House Peer Review papers suggest that these enforcement duties should remain governmental functions. In their desire to protect the US and extend the “Anaconda Strategy” developed by the North in fighting the US north-south Civil War, Treasury can designate a country, bank, or individual as a “Money Laundering Center”, with which everyone involved with them upstream or down, is then declared OUTLAW, persona non gratis, and more radioactive than Fukishima. No one, for fear of being barred from the lucrative capital markets in New York City, will deal with them. Their lifeblood– cash flow– stops. Without the likes of JPM, BOA, CITI, Goldman, and Morgan Stanley, very little money can be raised until other capital centers develop. That was a practical reason as well as symbolic reason the “911” attackers targeted New York and the Twin Towers. It is the beating heart of the capital markets.

All of us know who they are– the “Systemically Important” entities, critical to current US Global Strategy. Most Americans, if not people around the globe, are aware of the legion of unprosecuted crimes committed by Big Banks. But since they break laws with impunity due to their de facto immunity, a serious moral hazard has been created. Other bank executives are emboldened to new heights of criminal activity, and this creates more “unindicted co-conspirators”. I believe this is unconstitutional, bad practice, bad policy for the USA, and that it will have terrible long-term consequences, already showing in the huge loss of respect for the USA’s integrity of law.

For contrast, the NY Times notes that there were eight hundred forty-nine (849) convictions after the “Keating” Savings and Loan Scandal in the ’90s, and but only one (1) conviction since this meltdown began in 2006, and that was an Egyptian born Credit Suisse employee. None of the so-called TBTF bank personnel were imprisoned. I don’t think these banks are “Too Big To Fail,” however, they are “systemically important.” But that is not, in my opinion, the reason they will not be allowed to fail. As I see it the US Treasury Anaconda Strategy, cutting off cashflow to entities they designate as “Primary Money Laundering Centers”, is an effective short-term tactic but has serious negative long-term strategic implications for the USA. De facto immunity for big banks has, in my view, sent the current situation spinning out of control, like a loose cannon on a storm tossed deck, injuring friend and foe alike. The people of the US deserve a respected rule of law, not one for banks, and a different one for other people. IMO, injuries inflicted by Banker Crimes are legion, from false home repossessions to usury, to front running trades and rigging markets for their no-brainer profit trades. Do any readers NOT know someone so injured? Thus the actual financial fabric of our society is being rent for profit by the Banks, as such.

Of course the proof that the system still works will be the vigorous prosecutions of those banks whose crimes have not passed the statute of limitations. The old Populist slogan addressing low corn prices was: “Raise more HELL, and less corn”, which may be metaphorically the solution here. First it is clear the Big Banks and the Treasury, which is supposed to regulate them, must be separated, and the Banks and Bankers prosecuted for their crimes including jail time. Having Treasury depend on the Banks to enforce their rules seems unconstitutionally incestuous to me, and without checks and balances. An oligarchic state is ruled by Banks and other large interests, a Representative Democracy or Republic is not.

In my opinion what happens next is critical in determining who rules. Restoring enforcement to the Treasury of its regulations, foreign and domestic, and actual, real Regulation of the Banks and Financial Sector will do much to restore the respect to the US Financial Sector, which today, seems to be sadly lacking in that regard. They might be feared, but they are not respected, IMO. That could turn to contempt and tends to weaken the US Dollar in value and in status as a Reserve Currency. Myriad challenges to the US DOLLAR as a Reserve Currency are in progress as we read this, and actually putting our Financial Sector back under the Rule of Law, may in fact seriously retard, diffuse, and deflect some of these challenges. – D.G.

Odds ‘n Sods:

With new hack, cellphone can get data out of computers

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The NSA Claims It Is “Too Big to Comply” With A Court Order. – H.L.

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Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog Editor At Large, sent in this list of links for AK builds:

Get a spare set of firing pins, extractors, or fcg parts for your AK! You never know when those will wear out. You should always have a spare set on hand.

They also have a fresh supply of AK parts kits.

Lastly, they are now offering a complete set of AK build jigs for $350. Everything you need to build any flavor AK you want!

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40 Reasons You Shouldn’t Move to NYC. – G.P.

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Aggressive police raids for thee, but not for me. – B.B.

Notes for Thursday – June 12, 2014

As I am going back through our past postings, cleaning them up after the move, I have noticed a distinct lack of articles dealing with the sharpening of tools. If you are so inclined and have the skills, that might be a good article. I’m interested in all kinds of sharpening, from manual to machine.

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In case you are looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift, Infidel Body Armor is running a sale now through Sunday.

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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:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  10. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate,
  11. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate, and
  12. RepackBoxis providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208, and
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

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.

The Water Solution, by E.G.

I am writing this article because most of my friends are still living in major U.S. cities and I feel that this information could be very valuable to them. In a grid down situation, one of the most important items to have on hand is a quantity of stored water. According to the Rule of 3’s, in an extreme situation, you cannot survive three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. I went off grid in October of last year, and I have learned a lot. I live on top of a mountain, and I do not have a well. Instead of my own well, I haul my water from a community well, using a late model Ford F-250 truck with a 460 cubic inch engine. The truck is a big gas hog but will haul a 425 gallon tank up the mountain. After all, 425 gallons weighs 3400 pounds, so it’s quite a load.

Because in a grid down situation, the community well, which is connected to the grid, would not work without a backup gas generator. The problem with this setup is that securing a well three miles from my home would be extremely difficult, and in a long disruption the well would require increasingly unavailable fuel. A working, clean source of potable water would also become a potential target. I needed a backup plan. In the short term, I am able to store 1500 gallons of fresh water in a holding tank. The 1500 gallons of stored water, under normal use, is equal to a six-week supply.

I recently installed a rainwater catchment system to add to my overall stored supply. I live in an area that doesn’t get a lot of rain, so water is a precious commodity. The area I live in, on average, gets only 14 inches of rain per year. Properly sizing of your water catchment system is exactly like sizing a battery bank for your solar electric system. You always want more than what you can use, before what you use is replenished. Meaning if you only get an inch of rain per month, you will want to be able to collect as much of that rain as possible. Your holding tank in this scenario should exceed what you can collect in a one-inch rainfall. If you have more rain per month, your holding tanks can be smaller.

The formula in measuring exactly how much water your roof area will collect is as follows: Surface area (in square feet) multiplied by the amount of rain multiplied by 0.623. So, if I have 1400 square feet of roof space multiplied by 14 inches of rain multiplied by 0.623 that will give me 12210.80 gallons of rainwater per year. This also would equal 872 gallons per inch of rain. A catchment system, to allow for fluctuations in weather patterns, would have to exceed 900 gallons. Otherwise, the ability to pump this water to a larger holding tank would be essential.

Some homework is also necessary when trying to calculate the amount of catchment area you will need. In a normal year, a weather pattern might change over the year. For instance in your location, does most of the annual precipitation fall only in a few months or is it spread out across the entire year? In your location will you have a very wet spring and a dry summer? How long are the winters? How much snow melt will you have once the snow falls.

If your precipitation all falls within a couple of months during the year, you may want to consider having a larger holding tank. I am located in an area where most of my precipitation will be in the autumn, though the spring has some, and the driest period is the summer. What this means for me is that I need to catch and hold enough to get through the summer and be able to not only have water for my family but also for supplemental watering of the garden.

A few of my friends that have city water also have a rain catchment system and rain barrels. In a grid down situation, you need to be able to have access to that water. Carrying your own water in buckets and trying to make it useful is a waste of energy, especially when you are most likely going to try to conserve energy, due to the possibility of rationed calories. Water weighs roughly eight pounds per gallon, so hauling all your water could quickly get exhausting. Think of all the ways water is used in your own home– for cooking and cleaning, flushing your toilet, taking a shower. All of these common, everyday uses for water would be exponentially more difficult without water pressure.

I have come up with the solution to this problem that will cost less than $200 and requires almost no plumbing skills. You will need the following items:

  1. Three ¾ inch diameter 5” galvanized pipe nipples,
  2. Teflon tape or plumbers Teflon,
  3. Two standard filter housings,
  4. One general use filter to fit the filter housing,
  5. One finer filter to fit the filter housing,
  6. Three 6’ lengths of wash machine hose,
  7. One 12v SHURFLOW fresh water RV pump,
  8. One set of hose adapters for the fresh water pump, and
  9. One 12 volt battery.

First, take the galvanized pipe nipples and thread them into the filter housings, linking them together so that water can flow from one to the other. Then attach the other two nipples at the other sides of the filter housings. Next, attach the wash machine hose to the nipples. Take the input side and attach it to your rain barrel valve. Once that is attached, install your filters; you want to put the standard filter in the first filter housing and use the finer filter for the second housing. Using these filters will prevent any debris from entering the pump, which would cause the shut off to malfunction. At this point thread the set of hose adapters onto the pump. Next take the hose from the other side of the filter and attach the hose to the input side of the pump. You will see the pump has a direction arrow to indicate the flow direction. Finally attach the hose to the other side of the pump and then to your outside spigot. Once that is done, make sure you shut off the water main coming into your home or install a check valve coming out of the main. If there is no check valve or the water main is not shut off, you will pump all your water into the city pipes and loose it.

Once your water main is shut off, turn on the spigot from your water catchment system and the outside spigot to your home. You can now connect the pump to the battery. The SHURFLOW freshwater RV pump is really the heart of this system. The pump I purchased for my back up system cost $90.00. It operates on 12 volts, and when it is in use will draw about 90 watts or 7.5 amp hours of battery power. The pump has a pressure switch, which will shut off the pump once it pressurizes the system to 45psi. It also has a high temperature shut off, which will prevent it from overheating and burning itself out.

Once you have the pump connected to the battery, the pump will begin to pump the rainwater or stored water into your home and pressurize the plumbing to 45psi. Once your plumbing is pressurized, the pump will shut off. The pump uses a mechanical switch to shut itself off and works on pressure, so it will not drain your battery when it is *****NOT?****in use.

When you go back into your home, you will be able to run the water in your sinks and flush your toilet, all from the RV pump. The only drawback to this pump is that the speed of the water is slower than what you would get from the city and, if you are washing dishes and someone flushes a toilet, the water pressure will drop significantly. The benefit to this system is it can be run off a car battery, which can be kept topped off by even a small solar panel. Most likely you wouldn’t be running this pump for any extended period of time, so the draw on your battery would be limited.

Your plumbing can handle the pumping of water into the spigot. In fact you can attach this pump to any part of the cold water side of your plumbing system, and it will not make a difference. Water does not have to come from the main in order for you to have water pressure. If you have water stored on the inside of your home, this can be attached to a spigot or valve anywhere in your home.

Another benefit to this system is that it can be attached to an inexpensive camping in-line water heater, and you will be able to have hot water. Because a camping inline water heater operates off a couple of D-cell batteries and can be hooked up to a propane tank, you will be able to have hot water. If you take the hose coming from the pump and attach it to the water heater then run another hose to the outdoor spigot, you can have on-demand hot water. Once the heater is installed, you will be able to switch back and forth from hot to cold, by simply shutting off the propane tank. One item to note here is that because you are heating the entire plumbing system when you connect this to your home, you will need to adjust the water heater’s temperature to a comfortable level.

For a long-term grid down situation, I would consider moving the pump to the inside of your home and plumbing a line from your catchment system into your house, as well as setting up an interior valve to attach your backup pump to. This entire system can be mounted to a board, plumbed, and ready to go in case of loss of water. If you have this prepared ahead of time, you could restore water pressure in your home in a matter of just a few minutes.

Letters Re: Militarized Police

SurvivalBlog was privy to an email exchange of readers when Mike Williams, SurvivalBlog Editor at Large, sent us this link about the militarization of police in the U.S.: Just Shoot: The Mindset Responsible For Turning Search Warrants Into Death Warrants, And SWAT Teams Into Death Squads. We thought that our readers might like to see this exchange as well.

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I gotta tell you, part of the problem causing this has been:

  1. Force reduction efforts in the services. A lot of guys get out, and because we’ve been doing COIN for so long, think that being a soldier and being a cop are essentially the same things,
  2. A lot of those guys don’t really have too many other marketable skills, if they came straight from combat arms. I’m not bashing them; this is the honest truth. Their recruiters, also the transition programs in the services, aren’t much help to them,
  3. Money. Many police departments see a cost savings in training former military; also there are federal incentives to hiring veterans. It sounds like an immediate “win-win”,
  4. Plenty of cops have “small pee-pee syndrome” because they couldn’t make it in the military, didn’t go in to begin with, or just plain old “tryhards, me-tops, wannabes”. Lots of smaller police departments are this way too, and all that DHS money that flowed over the last 10 years, combined with Excess Defense Articles and DRMO gear (because the army just wanted to UNLOAD as cheaply and quickly as possible) also helped foster this mindset,
  5. A lot of former soldiers are just better soldiers than they are cops. It IS NOT THE SAME THING, and too many people assume they are. At best, LEOs and soldiers are “kissin’ cousins”.
  6. Lots of police departments have envy of the Feds, in terms of equipment, training, missions, and funding. It’s somewhat like what happened to SOF– the more direct action took prominence. The less attention and development traditional and foundational SOF skills, like special recon, Foreign Internal Defense, Building Partnership Capacity, took a dump because they’re less fun, less sexy, and that’s not where the money is.

I’m active military, and I’m saying that too many former service members go into the police force, and too many cops want to be soldiers or want to be Feds.

It’s a cultural problem and one of professionalism and mindset, AND, what we incentivize. – D.C.

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I think that there is something more than what you are saying. I have been concerned about the militarization of the police for years. It used to be that there was like one SWAT team for a major city, but now, it’s like each small city and town have them. It bothers me that the average cop in a police car has more firepower than most soldiers normally carry. I can understand the side arm and the shotgun on the dash, but most of the police have AR-15’s, and some are even carrying fully automatic AR’s in the trunk. That bothers me.

The idea of a No-Knock Warrant is also foreign to me, other than for a murder suspect or for a Major Crime (Kidnapping). Why a judge would issue a warrant of this nature is unbelievable to me, unless for a major crime of the nature presented before. Judges who do, should be removed from the bench. Police should never enter a house without a warrant or without major probable cause, unless invited by the resident. Serving a warrant ain’t one of them.

The idea of a policeman being ex-military doesn’t bother me very much, but the training for the police should be for police actions and not for military actions. Some of the training techniques discussed in the article are frightening.

Maybe I am just naive, but I have thought of the police as the friends of the average citizen and not necessarily their guardians. I hope that I am making some kind of sense here.

BYTW, since you are on active duty, stay safe. – B.T.

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Thanks. Just to be clear, I am NOT placing the bulk of blame on the former soldier/recruiting aspect. I do think it’s contributed to the cultural shift, but to dig into it even more, I see it more so when we’re discussing direct active duty to police transitions than in say career Guard and Reserve personnel who have a law enforcement career. Those individuals, generally older and with moral ties to their communities, understand the hazy separation between the two worlds; they know it’s there. They understand why it’s there, and most of them are glad it’s there. I’m speaking only from personal experiences here.

There is that equipping aspect to this as well. There really is so much gear available, fairly cheaply, and it’s like a smorgasbord. A lot of that is like I said, due to the rush of money pumped into DoJ and DHS agencies post-9-11. You had small towns buying decontamination kits from DoD and defense contractors obtaining full-on decon suites used post-chemical attack. The truth is, the MRAP is mostly excess above need now, and DoD is anxious to not have to pay for their maintenance or to keep them in the inventory. If a bureaucratic pencil-whip can move them from DoD to DHS, or then to a city or town’s police force, then what’s the harm? Some places, unfortunately, have a legitimate need to keep a couple of those around. Many, if not most, do not; and yes, I would rather towns have it and never use it then need it and be SOL. However, when you have a really neat toy, the temptation becomes strong to justify its continued existence.

The No-Knock is a scary thing, but I’m curious as to how it originated, genuinely curious, because I want to see what the justification was for the doctrine.

I think qualified immunity is in DESPERATE need of reform. – D.C.