Rash of finance-pro suicides baffles experts – D.S.
Items from The Economatrix:
Gold’s Protection Against Counterparty Risk Is Coming Alive
Putin Has Nuclear Economic Bomb-Jim Sinclair
The big economies cannot avoid a soft default as they face their debt reckoning: U.S. and other central banks battle it out for artificially low interest rates on unsupportable levels of debt.
I keep thinking, at some point, surely someone will stand up and refuse: Massive Car To Car Warrantless Search In DC Region – J.M.
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Worthy of a face-palm: Republicans to Officially Present Alternative to Obamacare – B.R.
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The Police Can Take Your Cash Without Charging You with a Crime. – D.S. Warning: This website has offensive material in the sidebar.
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How Sanctions Against Russia Could Signal the Beginning of ‘World War III’ – JBG
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29-Year-Old Welfare Parasite Would Not Accept An $80,000 A Year Job Driving A Truck. – H.L. If that doesn’t start your blood boiling, I’m not sure what would. I watched this interview on the Hannity Show. Parasite might be too nice a word.
“…there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!'” – Abraham Kuyper
SurvivalBlog has received a number of concerned queries from readers who may end up on the customer lists confiscated by the ATF in the raids on EP Armory and Ares Armor. We are still gathering information on what exactly happened, but the picture that is beginning to emerge is that an individual across the state lines used EP Armory lowers, purchased through Ares Armor, to build rifles without serial numbers and then sold them to others. If that is indeed the case, that individual broke the law (in regards to the Gun Control Act of 1968). Bear in mind that this is mostly speculation, at this point, and we still need to hear why these raids occurred from official channels.
This is the type of arbitrary capricious behavior that can be expected from an organization that is known for its random designations and decisions. There is no law that mentions what makes a firearm complete. (The 80% is completely random.) There is also no clarification on how many firearms you have to make before you are considered a manufacturer. The ATF wants to keep the concepts as muddy as possible, so they can continue to make rules as they go along to fit the situation. Until the states get a backbone and stop the ATF, you can expect these abuses to continue.
In the meantime, the ATF has a long history of raiding manufacturers and retailers, confiscating inventory and information (including customer lists), and then doing nothing with it. Unless you have built an illegal firearm (by making it select fire without registering), completed the builds and sold them, or otherwise brought attention to yourself, you probably don’t have anything to worry about, even if your name was on the list that the ATF confiscated.
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Today we present another entry for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 51 ends on March 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.
When people talk about “The End Of The World As We Know It” (TEOTWAWKI), it is almost always in ways of how we might prepare for the end, what equipment to have, how much food to store, and what skills we must learn. These are all valid points. Most people can agree on common standards in these areas, but what if the act of preparing for the end can cause danger to yourself and your family?
I’m not mocking prepping; I’m a prepper myself. I’m simply stating that a prepper must be in the correct mindset to make choices they may not have expected to make. Say a disaster happens; you’ve prepared for this years ago, and you know what to do. You go home, get your bug out bag, and get to your bug out location, which you have stocked with ammo, food, and everything you need to survive for at least a year. What if that location becomes compromised? Maybe, word got around about a guy with a lot of gear and food, and people slowly started to flock to your location. Some went to ask for food, and some that want to take it. What do you do?
I’ve asked a few people this question. Some were preppers, some were regular people, and some were people in my life who I considered very smart and successful at life in general. I was expecting some of the answers I got, and I was surprised by others. Most of the preppers I talked to had a “stand my ground” mentality. Nobody was going to take “his” or “her” stuff without a fight. The regular folks said to start hiding supplies. (I wasn’t really sure if this would be a feasible plan.) The answer that shocked me the most and opened my eyes to this problem is what I got from the people in my life that I thought of as successful. (These people are not preppers, but they have good jobs and have climbed the ladder fast.) They said they would grab a bag of bare essentials and leave.
I was very against this idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I believed that the common prepper mentality was very crippling. It is impossible to predict the future. You can have a lot of guesses about what might happen, but that is it. What if something comes and you are away from all that stuff you stockpiled, or you get injured right off the bat, or somebody steals everything? Prepping for a disaster is good insurance. However, if somebody doesn’t have the mental fortitude to abandon all of it if they need to, then all the prepping in the world cannot save you.
That being said, how do you prepare for that? Sometimes it’s just the type of person you are. There are survival stories all over the place of people living through almost impossible odds, without any prepping for it. To name a few of these people, there is Harrison Okene, who was trapped underwater for three days when his tugboat capsized; Norman Ollestad Jr., whose plane crashed in the mountains at age 11, and he climbed down, dragging an injured woman; Eric LeMarque, who got lost while skiing and used iPod radio signal as compass for seven days; Ricky Megee, who was lost in the Australian outback for 71 days; and many more. These people were very different in nationality, situation location, and the supplies each one had available to them. I found this very interesting while I was researching this. The recurring theme, in most of the survival stories I researched, was the complete lack of supplies. If any of these people did have supplies, they had no qualms about using them, but they had nothing compared to what is deemed necessary by the average prepper today.
There was some luck involved in these incidents, but was that all? How did these people survive with few or no supplies and little or no training? For every story of survival miracles, there are hundreds of stories about those who died or were never heard from again. What is that special “stuff” that they have that other people don’t?
We need to rule out a few things first. Was it their experience? I don’t think so. Many of these survival stories depict city slickers and woodsman that both survive, so that can’t be it. Is it their dogged willingness to survive no matter what? A lot of people think that this is true, but I don’t. I think that if determination and a little luck were all it took to survive in those situations, then we would have a lot more success stories. So what is it then? I didn’t figure it out for a few months.
It happened when I was talking to my father about getting ahead at work. One simple thing he said to me struck me like lightning. He said, “Dave, you just need to be the guy that gets things done.” I know that doesn’t sound like one of the Ten Commandments, but when you really think about it isn’t that who always seems to come out on top? Isn’t that who gets the big account at work? Who gets the girl? Who are the people celebrated by society for heroic acts?
We all know one or two people like this. They are the guy or gal who are always calm in a crisis and react to situations with speed and decisiveness. They are the guys to take down the robber in the bank. They’re the person who jumps down to pull a civilian away from subway tracks on which they fell. Once I realized this, I started to see it everywhere. You can also. I want you to go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeLTeUn9IHk where you see a victim fall on the subway rail and is then rescued by a fellow commuter. Now watch everyone else on the platform. It’s amazing when you really look. Most people do next to nothing despite being so close to the victim. This is not because they are bad people or just don’t care. It’s just their natural reaction. The person who saved the victim was one of the furthest away, and the reaction was instant without time for thought. That was not the only example. You can search for “real life heroes” on YouTube and find many more. These types of people are the ones who have the natural talent for getting things done. I believe these are the people who have the best chance of surviving TEOTWAWKI. That’s great for them. What is everybody else supposed to do? That is the really difficult question to answer. Luckily this problem has been around for a while, and other people have thought up solutions.
The army needed a way to keep soldiers from freezing up during battle. (I’m former military, and any of the former military guys reading this knows how epically messed up the situation can get, if someone in your chain of command freezes up. The way they do that is to train and train, and after that,they train some more. The theory behind the practice is to convert every action to muscle memory, so that you don’t even need to think; you just react. This is a pretty effective method. The one downside is that it’s very time-consuming, and you need a large amount of discipline, if you want to do this on your own.
Another way to deal with this problem is to just bypass it. By that, I mean that you team up with someone in your life that can just get things done. That way when the SHTF, you just stick to him like glue. I am personally not a fan of this practice. While it is better than nothing, it is just hard for me to completely trust someone like that, unless I know him or her really well. You also may guess wrong, and you can’t take chances with something this important.
So, if you’re one of the lucky few who was born with the natural ability to complete any task you were given, then I salute you and wish you luck. If not, then don’t lose hope. Start practicing those drills until they are second nature. Remember, the right survival mindset is a far more precious commodity then a fully-loaded AR-15.
In conclusion, I now only believe that the people truly prepared for disasters are the ones that are ready and confident to do so with NO supplies. So, you need to ask yourself, can I survive with just my bare hands and the right mindset? The answer for myself is, “No.” If it’s “no” for you as well, then you really need to work on this. Supplies and weapons are great to have, but you can’t bet your life on the guarantee that you will be able to use them. I hope that everyone learned something from this article and that it won’t be too controversial. Good luck and stay safe out there guys.
Dear Sir,
I have been a daily reader of this site from the very beginning and have found it to be a very valuable resource for my information and awareness needs. Mr. Rawles has always been a straight forward, no nonsense fount to which the prepper/survivalist community relies upon, a mecca as it where. Mr. HJL specifically, (I don’t know how to formally address a pseudonym, my apologies), you have started off in your editing of Mr. Rawles’ sight with great enthusiasm, and I respect that. This site has large shoes to fill. I think you are off to a great start. That being said, I feel I must write to you and make a request. Regarding the article “Where There Is Smoke“, in my opinion, you have gotten away from the concrete and no-nonsense tone of this blog to the fringe elements of your audience. The “reptilian eyes” sentiment just seems a bit off the edge for the flavor of what I thought this site should be. I am not judging the veracity of these claims, but this seems not the place to expound on this line of thought. The net is full of conspiracy sites, and that serves to confound many and leads them off on a tangent that does not contribute to the basic and bare-bones truth of what may become of our future. I ask you in all humbleness to please refrain from proceeding down this path. What I believe is needed is a home of enlightenment and wisdom that this landmark venue was originally destined for.
HJL Replies: I guess you missed my comment under “Notes from HJL” that prefaced the article.
“Today’s entry in the writing contest deals with a subject that many of us would just rather pretend doesn’t exist- mental illness. This subject has long been a difficult issue to deal with in our society, and being diagnosed as mentally ill (whether correctly or incorrectly) has long lasting consequences. Because the issue is so complicated, it is often terribly abused by those in authority, leaving no recourse for those who are victimized. It is also an area that we need to prepare for, because it is not going away. During a TEOTWAWKI event, it will only get worse. The causes of real mental illness are many, and the length of duration is as varied. However, once diagnosed as mentally ill, you always have, at a minimum, the stigma and legal consequences for the rest of your life (unconstitutionally, I believe). As a reader of this blog, you are probably already outside of what is considered “normal”. It wouldn’t take much for someone to use that against you.”
Mental illness is an issue that we will have to deal with for a long time to come. There is no sense in pretending that it doesn’t exists and that it doesn’t affect us. I, myself, have been in a situation where a doctor wanted me to sign an agreement that I admitted I had a particular mental illness in order to save his license. (It’s a long story involving doctor’s misconduct in a messy situation.) I held to my principles,and the doctor was eventually disciplined, though it took years for the process to work.
I published this piece because I wanted our readers to hear from someone on the inside of “mental illness”. What is logical to you or me just doesn’t make sense to them at times, and we can’t just turn our backs on them. We have a moral obligation to help.
An example of the repercussions would be the right to protect yourself. The 2nd amendment doesn’t give you the right to defend yourself. It simply outlines a God-given right that is pre-existing in all humans. If we incarcerate a person (or commit them to a mental institution), we take away that right to self defense. That only works because the state guarantees their safety while interned, but what happens when you release them back into society? Since they are no longer under the control of the state, the state cannot guarantee their safety any longer. Yet we do not allow them the ability to protect themselves in the best manner possible. This is a huge issue that stands just under the radar because no one wants to deal with the realities of it. Yet in a TEOTWAWKI situation, it WILL rear up. Dealing with mental illness needs to be part of our preps, both as a defense against those who would do us harm and for those loved ones of ours who are subject to the illness.
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Recently my husband went to our family physician for a routine physical. The first question out of the nurse’s mouth was, “Do you own any guns?” After saying this, she became silent and shook her head, “No”. It caught my husband off guard, and he said “Yes” without thinking about the implications of her question. Later, the doctor came in and the first thing he said to my husband was, “Do you own any guns? He answered the same as before, “Yes”.
Later, at home, we were discussing this. My husband has a diagnosis of BIPOLAR DISORDER. The next time he is asked that question he plans on saying, “I do not think that question is pertinent to our situation.”
Why did they ask those questions? Is this yet another big brother thing with the government? Sadly, I’m concerned that my husband is now on a list somewhere, possibly with the police. I told him to say “No”, the next time. I think we also may need to hide our guns. My husband’s mental illness is very stable. He does not pose a threat to anyone. Even his psychiatrist said that he was the most stable bipolar patient that she has.
Just thought you might want to warn folks of this question that your physician may ask the next time your physical is due. – M.V.
HJL Replies: While I understand why medical care facilities may want to ask those questions, I do not think it is safe to answer them. They started asking those questions because mass statistics show that there are certain behaviors, illnesses, and injuries that often proceed life-threatening suicides or homicides. However, with the advent of governmental interference in medical records, and the potential violations of liberty that will occur, it is readily apparent that you cannot answer those types of questions without repercussions, especially since the answer, once given, will be part of a permanent medical record that the politicians and the IRS have access to.
Crews to begin removing trees on I-5 to put in new traffic cameras – RBS
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The Idaho is now struggling with how far should police be allowed to go to get your DNA in legislation.
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Idaho bill effectively nullifies new federal gun control measures. – C.J. The bill has passed both the house and the senate at this point.
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Last week, we ran a link to an article about “How Wolves Change Rivers”. D.H. sent this in as a response: Rethinking predators: Legend of the wolf
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The Nampa Police Department is continuing to have to deal with the shooting of a dog. About 70 people packed the City Council chambers on Thursday to discuss the shooting. Many citizens are asking that the policeman be fired. – RBS
Gold Versus Bitcoin: An Unnecessary Argument – B.R.
Items from The Economatrix:
Ron Paul & Jim Rogers Discuss Truth About Global Economic Collapse & The Elite Agenda
Eric Sprott – Gold To See Powerful ‘Golden Cross’ Within Days
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Fire-Sale Of US Treasuries Is A Warning Of Acute Stress Across The World
Homebuilder Confidence Misses Expectations Again As Outlook Plunges To 10-Month Lows
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The rhetoric is ratcheting up as the U.S. considers sanctions against Russia: Russia can turn U.S. to radioactive ash: Kremlin-backed journalist. – T.J.
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Oak Harbor, Washington Council member left a meeting after council refuses to kick out legally armed armed veteran. – N.G.
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Upstate New Yorkers Burn 1,000 Gun Registration Forms– G.P.
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A parent is appalled over essay, asking 8th Graders If They’d Rather Be Slaves Or Factory Workers. – Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large. While the parent spent time educating their child what slavery was and that was the cause of the young child’s distress, what was disturbing to me was how many of the students chose slavery as the best option.
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Video: ATF cracking Ares Armor safe. – B.B. The Jack-booted thugs hard at work. I hope they had to break a sweat opening it up.
“There is only one way to go: full speed ahead for God and Country.” – Joseph J. Foss, United States Marine Corps, Medal of Honor
From californiarighttocarry.org:
“On March 14th Federal Judge Janis L. Sammartino ‘modified’ her TRO to allow the BATFE to conduct the raid pursuant to a warrant at the request of the ATF effectively nullifying her earlier TRO against the ATF in the case of Lycurgan Inc. v. Jones aka Ares Armor v. BATFE. The jack booted NAZIs of the ATF raided Ares Armor.”
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Today, we have two guest articles. The first, from our resident medical editor, deals with a subject that worries many of us&emdash; “Stretching your medicines when they are unobtainable”. The second is critically important if you find you are in that dreaded state of “refugee”, but could come in handy in many other situations&emdash; “Surviving Through Winter and Into Spring With Free Wild Food”.
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Update: Concerning the Wyoming welder in yesterday’s Odds ‘n Sods, A SurvivalBlog reader has informed us that he has offered his services to the family. Apparently, the whole trouble stems from the complaint of a neighbor. This follows a disturbing trend I have noticed. The county where I serve as a volunteer firefighter allows burning of weeds on designated “burn” days. In the past few years, I have noticed that most “illegal burn” calls stem from neighbors trying to get others in trouble because they dislike them, rather than actual fire calls. I really believe this “schoolboy” behavior stems from government encouraging us to “tattle” on each other rather than work through our differences.
In any case, The welder may be on the Glenn Beck show (possibly Monday). Let’s stand shoulder to shoulder with this family.
When the availability of medications becomes severely limited, what’s a person to do if they suffer from diabetes, or pneumonia, or chronic pain, hypertension, asthma, or any serious condition?
Underlying this simple question are several more. Without sufficient medication:
Now is the time to consider a future when medications are worth their weight in gold. The following are time-tested tips, which you can use when drugs are in short supply.
Based on thirty years of medical experience, the above are the most common and effective ways to minimize your dependence on medication. However, there is more to health than the physical, and depending on our Creator God rather than medications alone is often, I believe, the ultimate answer.`
Cynthia J Koelker, MD is SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor. For further information on the above topics and many more, visit her web site at www.armageddonmedicine.net, where you can also register for upcoming Survival Medicine Workshops.
The intensity and length of this winter’s coldness reminds me of a survival disaster that happened to me during one particularly frigid and frightening winter in the Adirondacks at our wilderness homestead.
Back in the 1970s, I had moved my family away from hectic, urban living to the peaceful and beautiful Adirondack area of upstate New York. One summer I happily foraged and harvested many wild edibles I found all around me. I gathered enough nutritious bounty that summer to prepare and can 420 mason and atlas jars of food in the form of pickles, wild berry jams and jellies, cattail inner piths, milkweed buds, and other edibles that were suitable for canning. I had already collected that many jars for that purpose, so all I needed to get were new lids. When I was done with that process I stored the jars in my handy, insulated, 9 foot refrigerator pit that we had dug on our property. That many jars filled the entire storehouse. I calculated that between those cans and additional wild foods I’d harvested, dried, and stored, we’d have an ample supply of food to last us through the winter and into spring. By then it would be time to harvest the early wild edible leaves, buds and blossoms that would herald the arrival of new wild food–my favorite time of the year.
Alas, I learned a difficult but vital lesson that winter. And that is, when you live in the wild and are not near a grocery store, you had better create and maintain multiple stores of long-lasting food. (And of course, free wild food would be my first such choice.)
Imagine my terror and despair when, after a particularly intense January blizzard in -20 to -30 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, I dug out to my refrigerator pit only to find that nearly all of those carefully-prepared and stored jars had exploded from the severe cold! I was heartbroken and very afraid. As I pondered the mess, that just two days ago had been a wealth of nourishing food, the thought came into my mind that I would have to do what the Algonquin Indians did when they were desperate for food in very harsh winters; they became tree bark eaters. In fact, the name Adirondack is a derivation of a negative word that the Algonquin’s neighbors (the Iroquois) used that means “bark-eater.”
I did not care that it was a negative term. All I cared about was that I was able to recall it when I needed it, and that the innermost part of the birch bark is what you can scrape off to have a powdery kind of substance that is very nutritious.
That winter day, I mentally rolled up my sleeves, surveyed the immediate area where a number of branches had been blown down by the storm, and found a birch branch. I cut into the reddish inner bark, scraped until I had some powder, made myself some birch bark tea, and sipped it slowly. Making a tea out of a wild plant and drinking it slowly is not only refreshing, but is also one of the essential steps I developed to help me determine if a wild food is okay to consume or not. Over time and through much experience, I worked out my “Rules of Foraging”, and I followed them rigorously throughout my foraging life.
Those rules are based on years of trial and error, as I tested the various wild plants I came upon and added the acceptable ones to our diet and to my ever-expanding list of “forageables”. The “Rules of Foraging” are provided at the end of this article, and in my wild food books and my DVD. I knew, when I left the woods and set out to teach the skills of the forager, that the essence of getting to know a potential wild edible plant would have to be boiled down to a procedure that anyone could apply. I was also very aware that the single most important bit of advice I could impart was how to safely eat the bounty that is wild food. The rules are as complete as I could make them, so feel free to copy and use them for yourself, and supply them to anyone who has the wild food adventure spirit!
Because winter vagaries are the norm in New England, where I grew up, I did have an idea about the environmental challenges of winter living. However, that first winter of living fully in the wilderness had its own unique set of circumstances, as did the following winters that I lived away from civilization. Some additional wild food tips on winter survival that I discovered are these: In case you were wondering about whether any leaves that get blown off during winter storms might be edible, my experience is that they are not. I found a black mold on winter leaves in the snow, so do not consider them a food source in winter. The next tip is that if you have any apple trees in your vicinity, chances are that there may still be some frozen right on the branches that you can pull off and eat when they defrost in your home, or you could dig beneath the trees and find frozen apples there. The same would be true for berries on bushes or that have fallen to the ground.
It’s kind of amazing what you can come up with when your survival depends on it, and I was very fortunate that our family chose a location where we did have access to land where many naturally growing plants could be harvested all year long. This next tip is something you do before winter happens, and that is to memorize each of the edible plants and trees in your area so that when their leaves are gone and other identifying characteristics are under snow, you’ll know where and what they are and can forage from them. You could also make this a warm weather game to play with your children before winter comes, so they will feel empowered by their edible plant and tree identification when it is winter. There are any number of ways to interest and involve children to learn the survival value of wild edibles they can find right nearby.
One thing to know about another edible tree– the pine tree– is that when you are foraging in the cold and need nourishment, and you know there is a pine tree nearby, get some needles from the tree, wash them in the snow, and twist the needles to get the pine juice from them. It really helps to pep you up a bit.
Birch tree twigs are similarly beneficial in that chewing on them is not only satisfying to the taste but also is a good workout for your teeth! So that first winter I discovered birch tea and chewing twigs, and I wanted to increase my options to include birch flour. The first birch inner bark piece I brought home was from a large branch and that bark was very hard. I knew I would not be able to grind it into flour with my little non-electric, cast iron meat grinder, so I went back outside and found a younger, thinner branch.
The curl of that inner bark reminded me of cinnamon stick rolls that come from the inner bark of the cinnamon tree, and that birch inner bark was easier to cut into and peel out the inner layer. That bark piece I was able to further slice into long slivers that I could grind (and grind, and grind), and I was finally able to produce a kind of coarse flour that I used for baking. At that time I wasn’t able to get the flour as fine as I would have liked, but nowadays you can get really sturdy grinders to do the job. I recommend that you have at least one that can operate without electricity as part of your survival arsenal.
One other reason I thought of the birch tree as my first tree-foraging attempt is because that tree, as well as the willow tree, have parts that have can be isolated to become the active ingredient in aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, which Bayer has marketed so successfully). So, I knew that I would get a double benefit from the winter birch– food and medicine. Since birch has that medicinal quality, you’ll want to combine birch flour with other flours when you are baking with it. Birch sap is also another food source from that tree, but since it takes gallons of birch sap to boil down into a little bit of syrup, that turned out not to be as viable as tapping maples for their syrup.
As a note here, over the years I learned quite a lot about harvesting various useful and edible parts of trees to the point where I had so much information to share that I wrote a book about it. That book is “Eat the TREES!”, and it includes a wealth of details, stories, and specifics on identifying, harvesting, and storing tree parts. For example, I learned that pine inner bark can also be ground into flour, but that it has an intense flavor, so you would want to combine it with other flours to make it taste better. I experimented with the various flours that I created from edible trees and plants, and I came up with some good combinations. In the Wild Food Recipes section of “The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide”, I discuss which wild plants make good flours, and there are many recipes in that book that include wild flours.
While that first winter was a true survival challenge, it did show me how valuable trees can be when you really have a hunger situation in the dead of winter and not many other food options. I was very fortunate that during the previous summer and into fall I’d had the foresight to dry a good quantity of various wild edibles that grew freely nearby. These included lamb’s quarters, amaranth, clover, and others of the plants I discuss in my materials that are found on my website– OfTheField.com.
The wild plant, amaranth, in addition to being very plentiful, is a particularly excellent wild food and makes such a good flour that today you can find it in many food stores. It is also listed as one of the recommended flours in gluten-free recipes. My first attempts at amaranth flour were coarser than current commercial, finely-ground flour, and they use amaranth seeds while I used the entire plant. I used to pour out my dried amaranth parts into a pillowcase, pound it into a powder and store it in glass jars. At the time, in the wilderness, it was wonderful to have that nutritious food on hand.
I want to mention specifically here, because it’s very important, that if you are going to store any wild food, you have to be sure to get it bone dry– crinkly dry. It is possible to dry wild food over a fire as long as you string the food up high enough! You can string up your plants to dry around the house (sometimes my rooms looked like a forest!), and in warm weather I would place my tray of edibles in the car to dry beneath the back window. And if you are considering building a solar food dehydrator for your food drying needs, my son Eric has compiled an informative and entertaining .pdf course on that topic, which you can find on our website. The reason I stress the drying aspect regarding wild food is because I had some instances of mold growing on my stored, wild food, and I had to get rid of it. Such a waste. You do not want to think you have food available, and then find out you didn’t dry it well enough before storing it.
With thorough drying and storing procedures, it is possible for wild food to keep for many years, and still retain the nutritional value. I still maintain pounds of dried amaranth, both leaves and grain tops, for possible survival use, and I can tell you that I have even now dried pine needles, mints, balsam leaves, curly dock, and others that I gathered and dried carefully 38 years ago. It is a real treat to have flour that you made from various wild plants, but that flour lasts generally only about six months, while the sustainability of adequately dried plant parts is measured in many years.
The spring that arrived after that harrowing winter was probably the most eagerly awaited of my life. As the weather started to warm enough for the beech trees to bud, I gathered tree tips and buds and brought them home to put into stews, stir-fries, and salads. I also gathered the buds and tips of pine, balsam, and oak trees that had begun to grow but then froze when the weather turned colder again. I knew they wouldn’t be continuing their growth and that there would be plenty more, so I gathered to my heart’s content and added them to my food ingredients. I also revisited the birch trees and gathered some spring inner bark, which is kind of buttery and much easier to harvest and grind. And then as spring got underway for real, I was able to go about my usual harvesting routine for the early spring wild plant parts, and on into the rest of the harvesting season that would continue until the snow fell again.
I can assure you, I was much better prepared for my next winter in the Adirondacks!
About The Author:
Linda Runyon is the editor of the “Of The Field” website and the author of many wild plant books and instructional materials.
These rules are for your own protection when investigating plants that are new to you. If followed closely, they will protect you in the field.
DISCLAIMER: This is information about wild food. The editors of SurvivalBlog and the author make no claims as to the correctness, safety, or usability of the data. The information contained herein is intended to be an educational tool for gathering and cooking wild plants. The information presented is for use as a supplement to a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle. The nutritional requirements of individuals may vary greatly; therefore the author and publisher take no responsibility for an individual using and ingesting wild plants. All data is to be used at your own risk. Using the above Rules of Foraging greatly helps to reduce that risk, but they are not fool-proof.
Today, we’re taking a close look at the CMMG Mk4LE M4-style carbine rifle. It is made in the U.S.A. Over the past 30 years or longer, I’ve had the opportunity to test a lot of AR-15-style rifles; some were excellent, some good, and some were just so-so, not eliciting any real surprises. I know a lot of folks love the Colt line of ARs, and I don’t have a problem with that at all, but I work hard for my money, and I look to get the most for my money. I’ve only owned a few Colt ARs over the years because they are so expensive. I’m not saying they aren’t worth it. I’m just saying I want the most I can get for my money.
There are companies who claim to be “manufacturers” of AR-style rifles, when they are nothing more than an assembly line. They buy the parts from other makers and have their name stamped on the lower receiver and barrel, and just throw the parts together. Some are decent guns, and some are real bargain basement guns, looking like something they really aren’t. Corners are cut, and you aren’t really getting what you think you’re getting in many respects. CMMG is NOT one of those companies.
The good folks at CMMG are producing some outstanding firearms these days. Some time back, I reviewed their new Mk9 T, 9mm AR. SurvivalBlog readers got a first look at it, long before any other gun writers, magazines, or blogs had a sample; I had the first one. I was very impressed with the 9mm from CMMG. However, I’ve owned several different variations of the standard “M4” over the years, and that is the gun we’re looking at today.
A quick run down is in order, the Mk4LE is chambered in 5.56mm and will also shoot .223 Remington, and they are not the same round. The 4150 CrMo barrel is 16-inches long and has a Nitride coating on the inside. CMMG used to call this a WASP coating but no longer use the term, for whatever reason in their literature or on their website. However, the barrel is stamped “WASP” on it, and it has a 1:9 barrel twist. There is the standard A2 flash suppressor on the end of the barrel. The hand guards are M4 type with an aluminum heat shield. The pistol grip is the standard A2 configuration as well. The upper and lower receiver is forged 7075-T6 aluminum– the industry standard. The trigger pull is mil-spec; it is not the greatest but not the worst I’ve run across. There is a mil-spec 6-position telescoping butt stock. The front sight is the “F” height and forged, and the rear is a flip-up/fold down MagPul back-up polymer sight. The gun weighs in at a little over six pounds without the magazine, and you get a 30-round aluminum magazine with each gun, plus a lifetime warranty. No sling was included, and I wish AR makers would at least include a plain old GI Nylon or web sling with their guns. The upper receiver is a flat top version. I took off the MagPul poly rear sight and installed a detachable carry handle on my gun. This is a personally owned gun rather than a sample from CMMG.
There is an on-going debate over AR barrels. Many insist that they need a chrome-lined chamber and barrel. I’m not one of them. I can take or leave chromed barrels. The military mandates that all their M4s have chrome-lined barrels for longer life and easier care. However, many experts say that chrome-lined barrels are not as accurate as barrel that are not chromed. In my experience, and I’ve owned both chromed and non-chromed barrels, the difference in accuracy isn’t all that different. I own ARs with chromed barrels and chambers, some with the Nitride coating, and some with no coating, and I honestly don’t see any difference in combat accuracy between the barrels.
There is a bayonet lug under the front sight for all you deer hunters, who insist on a bayonet on their ARs. The only time I used a bayonet on an AR was in my Infantry School for stabbing stuffed dummies. However, I know a lot of folks insist on having a bayonet lug; to each his own. I don’t have a dog in this fight.
I like the heat shields in the two-piece hand guards on the CMMG AR. Many, many makers or assemblers of ARs elect to use much cheaper hand guards with no heat shields. I prefer mine with the heat shields. During rapid-fire, the hand guards can get hot. The hand guards are the M4 style– oval and not the smaller “carbine” hand guards.
I’ve been cutting back on how many rounds I put down range during my firearms testing. To be sure, I lose money on firearms articles. I receive some gun samples from the gun companies, but by the time I’ve done the paperwork, calculated my gas going to get the guns and doing the testing, and added the cost of the ammo I expend (I get some ammo free but not all), I actually lose money on each and every gun article I write. So, I’ve cut back to about 200 rounds of ammo for my testing. However, sometimes a gun is a just a lot of fun to shoot, and I get carried away. During my testing for the Mk4LE, I fired more than 400 rounds over several shooting sessions. No one ever accused me of being a good businessman!
When I first bought this rifle for my personal use, I fired it with the MagPul poly rear sight, and the gun’s zero was dead-on for a 300-yard zero. I’ve only run across this, having the sights zeroes when I took the gun out of the box, a very few times over the years. When I replaced the MagPul rear sight with a carry handle rear sight, I had to adjust the windage a bit to get my zero back.
I used Winchester’s www.winchester.com 55-grain FMJ USA-brand white box for function testing. From Buffalo Bore Ammunition www.buffalobore.com I had their 69-grain JHP Sniper load, and from Black Hills Ammunition www.black-hills.com I had their 55-grain FMJ reloads, 52-grain HP reloads, and their 68-grain Heavy Match HP fodder. I also fired the Winchester 55-grain FMJ for accuracy; I was getting 3.5-inch groups, if I did my part. The Black Hills 68-grain Heavy Match HP load gave me a 2 3/4-inch group, and the Buffalo Bore 69-grain JHP Sniper load tied the Black Hills 68-grain Heavy Match HP load. I mean it was a dead-heat time between those two roads. All this firing was done using open sights, too, over a rest. However, I thought the Mk4LE was capable of better accuracy. So, I mounted a cheap 3-9X40 scope on the gun and didn’t zero it. I just wanted to see what the gun was capable of. The Black Hills 68-grain Heavy Match HP load gave me several groups right at 1 1/2 inches and the Buffalo Bore 69-grain JHP Sniper gave me groups just a hair bigger, and I mean it was just ever so slightly bigger. On another day, the accuracy test could have gone the opposite with the Buffalo Bore load beating the Black Hills load. Needless to say, my groups weren’t centered on the target since I didn’t zero the scope, but it was still on paper.
There were zero malfunctions during my testing, and I fired not only 400 rounds during my testing, I’ve also fired this gun numerous times since I purchased it, and I’ve yet to encounter anything resembling a malfunction of any kind. I’ve gotten the gun hot, very hot, firing four 30-round magazines through the gun, as fast as I could pull the trigger. What a waste of precious ammo, but I like to know what a gun is capable of, and it just perked along.
I like to save the best for last. The Mk4LE has a full-retail price of $849.95. However, you can usually find them discounted quite a bit at your local gun shop. I purchased mine for $799.00, and I’m extremely pleased with it. You can find lesser-priced ARs on the market, and you can find more expensive ARs as well. With the CMMG Mk4LE, you are getting a solidly-built gun with all the features you want in an M4-style rifle. You can check out the CMMG website and find quite a few different variations of M4-style rifles. I’m willing to bet you’ll find exactly what you’re needs require. For survival, law enforcement, small game hunting, personal/home protection, and just plinking fun, I love my CMMG Mk4LE and have all the confidence in the world that it won’t let me down under the harshest conditions– survival or combat.
I don’t like to compare one gun against another. However, if your local dealer has other AR-style guns in-stock, compare them to the CMMG. If they happen to have a Colt AR, compare that side-by-side to the CMMG. Then make your decision on which you want to spend your hard-earned money on. I’m betting most would pick the CMMG over the Colt. Also, please, all you Colt fans, save the hate e-mails. I’m NOT putting the Colt AR down. I’m just alerting SurvivalBlog readers to some other options when it comes to an AR for self-defense, survival, or whatever your intended purpose is in wanting an AR. The Mk4LE is a lot of AR-style gun for the money. I have to carefully watch how I spend my money these days, just like everyone else. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio Pat Cascio
I like big knives, especially for camping and survival purposes. They can handle most chores with ease, whereas, smaller knives usually require more work. The Cold Steel Espada line-up for folding knives are awesome, to say the least. While they are made in Taiwan, you get as good as you want from that country. We live in a global economy, and we’d all better get used to products from other countries.
We’re taking a close look at the G10 Espada, large size folder. They also have a medium and an extra-large, as well as the polished G10 series. However, I’m only covering the G10 “economy” model, which is not quite the right term for this massive folder. Where the G10 polished series is a little bit higher in price, the handles are polished, and the bolsters are also polished, the G10 Espadas have a simple, checkered G10 handle scales with no bolsters and partial stainless steel liner, but still 90% of the strength of the polished G10 model.
The large G10 Espada has a 5 1/2-inch blade, made out of AUS 8 stainless steel– one of my all-time favorite steels because it holds an edge a good long time, and it’s fairly easy to touch-up the edge. Plus, we have the added advantage of the steel being a stainless steel. Keep in mind, no steel is really “stainless”. It just means that it stains less; you still have to care for it or it can rust. The 5 1/2-inch blade is 4mm thick. With the blade open, it is 12 1/4 inches long. Oh yeah! This is a handful of a folding knife. However, the knife only weighs in at 8.2 ounces. I’ve had smaller folders to test that weighed more.
The large G10 Espada has a large bowie-style clip blade, and it is meant for serious cutting, too. With the belly of the blade, you can cut, slice, dice, and slash through just about anything. As I’ve mentioned before, many knife fights involved slashing moves. However, with the long 5 1/2-inch blade, you can stab and stab deeply. The Espada gets its name and design origins from Spain. Cold Steel’s owner, Lynn Thompson, is a very serious student of history and cutlery. For my two cents worth, he got the Espada right. It just looks like something from Spanish cutlery.
The Espada has the Tri-Ad Lock, and this is one of the strongest, if not the strongest lock I’ve encountered on any folding knife. To prove how strong the Tri-Ad Lock is, be sure to check out the video on the Cold Steel website. You’ll be amazed at the demonstrated strength of the lock. Thompson puts his products through some serious testing, to be sure. While the Tri-Ad Lock “appears” to be nothing more than a simply lock-back lock, it is NOT!
The checkered and nicely configured handle scales have been designed to put your fingers on the handle, where they belong in a fencing grip. I also like the gracefully curved butt end of the handle scales. You get two pocket clips– one for right pocket carry and one for left pocket carry. They are on the butt end for a tip-up blade carry. The curved handle sticks out of the pocket, so it is easy to grasp in order to draw the knife, which is easy. There is a “disc” on the top rear of the blade. As you draw the knife from your pocket, if you apply a little pressure to the side of your pocket as you pull the knife out of your pocket, the disc will catch on the top of your pocket, and as the knife comes out, the blade will “automatically” open and be fully opened when it comes completely out of your pocket. It’s faster than any “automatic” folder. It only takes a few minutes of practice to learn how to deploy the knife, with the blade open, as it comes out of your pocket.
One of the methods I use for testing a knife blade is chopping down blackberry vines. They are extremely tough, and many knife blades simply don’t have what it takes. The large Espada sample I had didn’t take much effort at all to slice a blackberry vine in two. A light swing of the blade and the vine was easily sliced in half.
For survival purposes, the large or extra large Espada can replace a fixed blade knife. You can chop with the large Espada, and it chops quite well. No, you can’t chop down a tree with one, but it can chop all out of proportion to what any folding knife should be able to do in the chopping department. I also used the knife around the kitchen. I do a lot of the cooking in our house, simply because I’m a very good cook and find it relaxing. Meat, frozen or thawed, was no patch for the large Espada. Veggies and fruits were no challenge at all; the knife just zipped through it all.
Now, I honestly thought that the large Espada was gong to be too big for my pockets. However, I wear one brand of cargo pants and one brand only, and they have extremely DEEP pockets. Once the Espada was put in the pocket, I didn’t notice the knife in my pocket at all, not even when seated. My friend, Lynn Thompson, at Cold Steel, carries two of the polished extra-large Espada, one in each pocket.
The Espada reminds me of the original Crocodile Dundee movies, where a mugger is attempting to rob Dundee and pulls out an automatic folder. Dundee reaches behind his back, pulls out a huge fixed-blade Bowie knife, and tells that mugger, “That’s not a knife (referring to the mugger’s knife), now, this is a knife”. I’m sure the mugger peed his pants. Well, the Espada reminds me of just such a knife. You’d better believe that if someone pulled out the large or extra large Espada and threatened me with it, I’d sure remember an appointment I had across town and get there, in a hurry. The Espada is not for the faint of heart. It’s an awe inspiring folder, and when you pull it out of your pocket, anyone standing nearby, will wonder where you had that big folder hidden.
I’m sure the large and extra large Espada won’t be legal for pocket carry in a lot of jurisdictions, so please check your local and state laws before carrying this folder. Like all Cold Steel knives, the Espada is always in demand, and they might be a little hard to find, but they are well worth it. Full retail on the large G10 model is $167.99; it’s worth every red cent of it, too. If you’re in the market for a folder than can act as a fixed blade knife and a new knife for your survival gear or BOB, take a close look at the large or extra large Espada. I think you are going to be quite impressed. The knife is awesome, to say the least. Some folks have just described it as “scary”, and I can’t argue with them on it. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat CascioPat Cascio