Notes from HJL:

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:

  1. 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 $225),
  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 gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand,
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589.
  3. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100 foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  4. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P .),
  5. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  6. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  7. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  8. EP Lowers, makers of 80% complete fiber composite polymer lowers for the AR-15 rifles, is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  9. Autrey’s Armory — specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. 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,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepperis providing a $500 gift certificate.

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, and
  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.

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.

Composting to Maintain Sanitary Conditions and Nurture Crops, by G.M.

One of the many important problems confronting people in a SHTF situation is maintaining adequate sanitation. Clean water, soap, personal hygene, toileting, and kitchen waste will all need to be addressed. I am going to describe some of the things we do on our 1/4 acre suburban homestead to control waste and feed the plants we use for food. It seems to me that having an established system in place to deal with waste before SHTF is better that trying to cobble something together when all kinds of urgent needs have to be addressed in an emergency. A good composting program that is established before SHTF may save a few years of frustration, garbage, vermin, and despair.

I begin with a disclaimer: We live in the coastal Pacific Northwest. Winters here are cool and rainy, summers are warm and dry. Any description of how we do things may need to be adapted to work well in other climates. All biological activity in compost piles is temperature dependent. Organic matter will break down more quickly in warm weather than in cool weather, and may stop completely during very cold weather. Tailor you efforts to the environment you live in.

What is compost? My definition is that compost is organic material that is reduced by biological processes into a more stable form. By “more stable” I mean less prone to decay. Composting is a kind of directed rotting process; the end product can slowly degrade, but no longer “rots” with the associated smells and disease hazards.

What can be composted? The complete answer to this question is somewhat complicated, but generally any small, non-toxic, soft plant materials (like leaves, stalks, and kitchen wastes) can be composted without any problems. Animal products and things like paper and small tree branches can be composted too, but the process is a bit more elaborate. Simple composting of vegetable matter and animal waste is easy, clean, and safe.

How does composting work? Organic materials are arranged in a way that encourages decomposition– a process of organic substances being broken down into simpler forms of matter with the help of insects and microorganisms. What remains after these organic materials are consumed and “broken down” is a biologically stable humus called compost.

Why would anybody want to compost? Composting reduces potentially offensive organic materials such as garbage, yard waste, and animal waste into an inoffensive soil-like substance that is a beneficial source of plant nutrition in gardens, flowerbeds, and woodlots. In a SHTF situation, waste of all sorts will need to be dealt with in a way that protects public health and reduces the unpleasant effects of rotting garbage– disease, odors, rats, insects, and diminished morale.

How do we make compost? There is a lot written about composting, much of what I have read is unneccesarily complicated. Composting is basicially accellerating a natural process– the breakdown and recycling of organic material. Many sources I have read specify a certain mix of ingredients; many sources recommend physically moving compost materials to “mix and aerate” them. The purpose of all that mixing is to accelerate the decomposition process and generate enough heat within the compost pile to kill weed seeds and disease. My experience is that mixing, layering, and blending are not necessary. What those activities do is speed up the composting process by the additon of muscle energy or mechanical energy, which is not needed if enough time is allowed for material to break down naturally. If you throw all your yard waste into a heap and leave it exposed to the weather, in four years it will be compost. So, we can actively manage our compost pile by shoveling and mixing and aerating, or we can let it all sit there in a dumb lump for four or five years, and it will be ready for use in the garden, orchard, woodlot, or ornamental plant bed. Leaving the heap to break down without physical mixing is called “cold composting”, and it works just fine, only slower. I should add that leaves alone will pack down like pages in a book and be very slow to break down. This can be remedied by shredding the leaves, and/or adding other ingredients like twigs, grass clippings, kitchen garbage, straw, and plant stalks to the compost pile to improve aeration and reduce compaction.

The argument can be made that cold composting doesn’t generate the heat necessary to kill disease organisms (collectively called “pathogens”), or weed seeds. I agree to a point, but compostable materials (including feces), are not plutonium and don’t need 300,000 years to degrade. Eventually most organic materials become safe because almost everything organic is food to some living thing. Even bacteria and viruses are food for other organisms. Once a thing has been eaten and excreted, it is not the same as it was before being eaten. Obviously, do not compost materials infested with disease or parasites; burn them. If in doubt, burn.

What should be done with the finished compost? Compost is plant food. If fecal matter has been included in the compost, it may be preferable to use it on non-food crops or food crops that are neither consumed raw nor allowed to come into direct contact with the soil. Such compost would be well suited for use on woodlots or decorative plantings. If growing your own food is a life and death part of a SHTF situation, I speculate that there are far greater threats to survival than the application of properly prepared compost to food crops. In our garden, compost without fecal matter has replaced almost all fertilizer.

What are the dangers of cold composting? A properly built compost pile should not provide shelter for rodents or other nuisance animals. Kitchen waste is especially attractive to animals and should be put into the center of a hot working pile, or cold composted in containers that prevent access by rats, mice, opossums, raccoons, dogs, or any other animals. Compost that is not adequatly heated may contain viable weed seeds– a problem for the garden, but not important for the purpose of neutralizing nuisance materials. We haven’t had any weed problems with well-aged compost. Raw materials put into a compost pile may contain organisms that can cause disease to plants as well as people and animals. At our home, we do compost fecal matter from dogs, but it is isolated for three years before being added into an active cold compost pile, where it will be composted for another three years or more. Our dogs are healthy, and I believe the chance of disease is small; still, the compost containing dog feces is used for non food plants at this time.

How do we get started composting?

We have a spot (heap) about 4 x 12 feet where we toss everything compostable that has no other place to go. It is confined by wire fencing and is about 4 feet high. Leaves, grass clippings, sawdust, tree trimmings, chicken litter, and fir needles all go onto the heap. Four years into the future, the center of this heap will be ideal compost. Dog waste is composted separately in barrels for three or four years and then tossed on the bottom of the heap, where it has contact with soil for an addtional three or four years. As the heap is shoveled out from one end, the undisturbed end of the heap keeps working.

We have plastic garbage cans with holes drilled into them that we use to begin composting yard and kitchen waste before the can is dumped into the larger composting pile. Instead of hauling waste materal to one location in small loads, we have multiple cans placed around the property near where we generate and gather waste material, such as yard debris and kitchen waste.

Animal waste attracts flies. It takes a few years to establish a composting environment that limits houseflies– another good reason to start composting before SHTF. A few years ago we started managing dog waste by putting it in above ground barrels that were aerated by holes drilled in the sides and bottom. It has worked surprisingly well. Houseflies have things that parasitize them; one being a mite that will kill houseflies in astonishing numbers. I have seen flies in our dog waste barrel so burdened by mites that they could not fly. Seeing that was like watching a 1950’s horror movie. We have fewer houseflies now than we had before we started the dog barrel composting. Treating dog waste in a barrel is nearly odorless and not offensive. The waste is reduced in quantity and becomes compost– neutral, odorless, and neighbor-friendly.

In our dog waste compost barrel, the mites that killed the houseflies were succeeded the following year by a kind of grub that is the larva of the black soldier fly. These grubs look like the mealworms that one can buy as fish or reptile food in pet stores, except that “compost maggots” are a dirty gray instead of beige with tan stripes, like mealworms.

We are fortunate to have black soldier flies colonize in our yard. Black soldier flies don’t go in the house. The adult form doesn’t live long and isn’t a nuisance. The larvae eat amazing amounts of waste; I have fed them inedible meat scraps and waste grease from the kitchen (things normally not recommended for composting). The black soldier fly larvae eat it all, very quickly. I watched a piece of spoiled salt pork half as big as my fist disappear in three days, fat and all. Black soldier fly larvae migrate out of the compost, after they have matured, to seek a place in the soil to pupate and complete their life cycle. Our chickens love the migrating larvae!

Composting is safe and odor-free when done properly, and it creates a useful product while eliminating a potential source of odors, vermin, and disease. It would be prudent for all preppers to learn how to compost before the Schumer hits the fan, when they will be confronted with a waste problem that gets bigger every day.

Guest Article: Why Prepping Leads to Peace of Mind, by S.L.

I got a clue about prepping on Feb 9, 1971, when I was rolled out of bed at 6am by the Northridge-Sylmar earthquake. Shortly following that unique event, the National Guard came through the neighborhood announcing immediate, mandatory evacuation because the Van Norman earthen dams were expected to collapse and send a 30-foot wall of water into the Sepulveda detention basin through our suburban neighborhood. I was 13 years old; my siblings were 10 and 9. This was a pre-cell phone, pre-ATM era. We camped out at a public park with thousands of others for 24 hours before we could return home. Thank God for the kindness of strangers. Society was a little less sharp-edged then.

Flash forward to today. Though my prior profession died with the credit collapse in 2008 and I’ve experienced long bouts of unemployment and lousy, lesser jobs, my personal situation is much better than most. My wife and I have no debt, and we have two nice suburban houses; one is a rental. Both vehicles are paid off because we paid cash. She has an excellent job that has carried us through rough times and is the main source of our long-term investments. We can easily survive on 20% of our net pay. I have a few guns, a little ammo, and a bit of reloading equipment (add sarcasm now). We have a substantial amount of in-hand precious metals (the equivalent of many years’ worth of income), a generous portfolio of bonds, annuities, and cash equivalents. We hold nearly zero stocks. I want to increase our food stores to carry us from six months to one year. Our house is partial solar, and even though we are in the desert, we could live here in re(physical, of courselative comfort for many months without any utilities (water, gas, electric, or communication). The house is a fortress, but it looks normal. We have 14mm 3M security film on all windows; premium locks, installed and reinforced correctly; a Pella triple locking sliding door; an audible-only burglar alarm because, when it goes off, my neighbors walk outside with MP5s (now that’s neighborhood watch!); CCTV; multiple big UPS systems in the house, as well as a unique PV/generator/battery/grid power system (Xantrex 6048 with battery bank, selectable loads, and generator interface); and a tool inventory any tradesman would be proud of (from my early days as a HVAC mechanic).

Our cars are also loaded. We carry 72-hour kits are in the cars (and duplicate kits at the house). For communications, we have multiple multi-band ham transceivers, both hand-held and vehicle-mounted. My Toyota Sequoia 4×4 has traversed the dirt roads leading out of town multiple times. We carry modest water supplies in all vehicles, but have hundreds of gallons of potable water, plus six ways to clean our 14,000 gallons of pool water, in a pinch. Our kits include Level IIIA vests You get the picture by now.

I have a bug out location with a friend in central Utah, if things got so bad in the city we had to leave. We could get there without touching paved roads. But our ability to shelter in place is rather extreme given we are in a desert community. My approximately 100 neighbors would come together in this relatively close-knit gated community, and we would be a force to be reckoned with. Many are ex-military, some current LEO, and all of similar mindsets.

I read this blog to work on my weak areas. The gardening has been most challenging and often frustrating with our summer heat. Some things we can’t do prior to collapse, like attaching glass shards to the top of our cinder block walls, like the Europeans or wwiring up explosive deterrents. However, we can survive and thrive for quite some time in the event of SHTF, and many are equipped to help our less-prepared neighbors.

So, when I read about possible currency defaults, it’s covered. A food shortage crisis is covered. Power outages are covered. Cash, precious metals, communications, defense, coordination with others, refrigeration, and emergency cooling are all there. This journey has taken 20 years, and we continue to add items previously overlooked. Thank God I am blessed with a wife who understands the risks and why I’m taking such precautions.

This is our insurance against a society going down the tubes. We may not thrive as we used to, but we will not shrivel and beg for help, like the unprepared folks following Katrina and other calamities. That, my fellow readers, is why I can now sleep peacefully. I have done all that my resources and skills will allow. The rest is up to our Creator, and I can answer the question, “What did you do to prepare and protect your family?” My answer is, “Everything I could possibly afford or learn to do.”

We are preppers on a long learning path. Though I wish I lived in a more stable time, these are the cards we are dealt. All we can change is how we respond. Fortunately, many of the high dollar investments/expenses are fairly good investments– solar house, guns, and precious metals. Plus, we enjoy fresh and tasty vegetables! It’s all good.

Thank you, JWR, for your blog, the information, and, mostly, the encouragement to keep moving forward. You likely have no concept of the breadth of your influence.

Letter: Recent Experiences from a Southwest LEO

HJL-

I am an LEO in the Southwest. I had a few experiences recently I thought the readers of the blog would be interested in.

First, our Police Department recently switched to Federal Flight Control Buckshot. All I can say is, “WOW”. For those not familiar with it, instead of a wad opening up like a tulip at the front, fins pop out at the back so the shot cup crown stays intact and round. It makes a huge difference. We were seeing all nine pellets within 5-6″ at 25 yards, and honest 8-10″ groups at 40 yards. We were hitting steel at 100 yards as well. This is a real game changer for those that use buck shot.

Second, I recently had a chance to sit down with a rep from Combat Medical Systems (the Quik Clot makers) at a training course. A point of note brought up was on the procedure for stopping bleeding with the impregnated Z-fold Quik Clot gauze. After packing the wound, DIRECT PRESSURE MUST BE HELD FOR 3 MINTUES. If after three minutes, bleeding has not stopped, UNPACK THE WOUND AND REPACK WITH NEW GAUZE. This is the only time I have heard to unpack a wound rather than pack more on top, so it was notable, but it is what was being taught. The philosophy is that the medicine in the first packing did not work; so if it is in place, the medicine from the second will not reach the wound. He also recommended that if three minutes of direct pressure didn’t stop the bleeding on a wound serious enough to use a hemostatic agent, it may be time to just go to a tourniquet.

Third, I recently went on a call for service regarding a cache that had been discovered. I thought it could be used as an interesting teaching point with some things to do, and things not to do.

Some teenage boys went hunting and located a sealed tin of ammunition tucked away in a rock pile. Being teenage boys, they opened it on a rock, and shot it up. Being teenage boys again, they came back the next day to look for more ammunition. During this second trip, they located an ammunition can. They opened this can, discovered some military EOD items, and called the police.

The cache was in the national forest, within 5 miles of a larger highway, and approximately 3-4 miles off of any road or trail. The cache was not buried, but was tucked in and under a large (car size) boulder pile (approximately 40 or so boulders). The cache consisted of multiple ammunition cans (15+) in various crevices.

My thoughts on the cache:

  1. Geographically, I think the cache was in a decent location. It was far enough off of the beaten path that it went undisturbed for roughly 20 years. It was on a probable route out of the closest metropolitan area, was defensible, and could be hiked to fairly quickly if needed. It was located at a prominent geographic feature, so it could be found again. The problem was that it was located at a prominent geographic feature, so it was found. If a certain rock pile or tree attracted your eye, rest assured it will attract others. There were hundreds of rock piles in the area, but the one he chose stuck out for some reason, even to us pointing it out to fellow responders. If he had used that same rock pile, and then used 150 feet of rope on a known azimuth, it would have most likely remained undiscovered.
  2. The ammunition cans were used, yet (after 20 years) were still intact with minimal rust and wear. The ammunition cans were hid around an area of approximately 60’x60′, so all his eggs were not in one basket though multiple cache locations would have been a better idea. The ammo cans were not coated with any anti-rust material. The cans were not buried and were merely hid and tucked under rocks. It had been good enough for 20 years of secrecy, but still found. If they were buried, they would still be out there.
  3. The items cached were varied and included food, medical supplies, firearms, ammunition, and a detailed inventory lists of contents of cans. This list had been updated at several points in time over the years, and was dated; hence I knew the age. There was a rough hand-drawn map of an overhead view of the area in one of the cans, with numbers at various locations. These numbers corresponded correctly to the can numbers on the inventory list. To “decode” the map, we found three cans by searching in a grid, then figured out the can numbers by comparing them to the inventory list. With three cans, we were able to triangulate the correct orientation of the map and quickly locate the other cans. If you include a map or inventory list, please come up with a better code.
  4. The cache also included non-tax stamped goodies and stolen military EOD compounds. Something for readers to consider: From a public safety standpoint, ammunition is no biggie in our neck of the woods, nor are reloading supplies (primers and powder), even in massive quantity. However, stolen EOD goods do raise feathers, and they usually lead to calls to a local military EOD team and the ATF, Both of which come with lots of really sensitive metal detectors and other things. So, instead of two or three cops looking around, you have 30 people from various agencies. From that same public safety standpoint, we can stop (or not even start) a search after a few hours, if we are looking for strictly ammunition. If we miss some it’s not a threat to public safety. If we miss EOD stuff, it’s a big deal. So, the few hours spent searching may turn into days.
  5. Personal information should be removed. I am in no way offering legal advice or any recommendation, nor advocating possessing non-stamped goods or EOD items. However, Venezuela just made hoarding illegal, and what is legal today may not be legal five years from now. Be mindful of this when you are preparing your cache. Sterilize any personal information from your cache. Remove price tags, maybe even cut off expiration dates or destroy them. Only cache private party sale guns. Cosmoline should remove any fingerprints, but be mindful of other non-gun items that weren’t coated as well. If you cached a legal AR or AK in California or New York 30 years ago and wasdug up now, there could be some legal ramifications. Consider placing your MBR and hi-caps separately from your other cache. Also consider various cache locations with different types of goods.

I know one of the main concerns when caching items is the safety of the items and the prevention of theft. I don’t mean to add more work on to people considering a cache, but protecting yourself against possible future legal ramifications should be considered as well. God Bless! – Anonymous

Letter: Gun Plus Ammo Storage

Jim,

Can you store a handgun along with the ammo in the same ammo can providing you have the silica gel packs inside. – M.

JWR Replies: Yes, but the ammo should be vapor isolated (with two layers of sealed Zip-Loc bags) from the lubricants on the pistol. (For fear of the lube deadening the primers.)

Economics and Investing:

K.F. sent in this link that explains some of the mechanics of rampant inflation.

—-

B. sent in this link about 10 Characteristics of Debt Free People, noting that: “There is a lot of directed activity for preppers and folks who just want to be more self-reliant generally, but it frequently is a set of broad statements without any implementing recommendation’s. This article is short but provides some real psychological and practical steps and might be of interest to your readers. I personally believe this to be the most important and the first step because it provides the freedom of choice for all that follows. It is written more for suburbanites, but the themes are universal.”

Items from The Economatrix:

The Stock Market In Japan Is COLLAPSING

Senate Passes Farm Bill; Trims $90 A Month From Food Stamps For 850,000

The US Economy Is Growing Much Slower Than You Think…

The Final Swindle Of Private American Wealth Has Begun

Odds ‘n Sods:

State Dept. Webcast Features Guest Who Called Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice ‘Uncle Toms’ – P.M.

o o o

The latest episode in a disturbing trend we are hearing more about: Corrupt state crime lab chemist ruins countless lives by falsifiying evidence – B.R.

o o o

B.B. sent this in: New Google patent suggests automatically sending your videos and photos to law enforcement. Notice that there is no requirement that the event being logged is an illegal activity, only that multiple videos be posted with similar timestamps and geolocation.

o o o

Another Off-Grider Shutdown: History Channel’s Mountain Man Targeted by Government Zoning Officials – B.

o o o

K. sent in this excellent article about 18th Century Woodsmanship and Its Modern Applications.

Notes from HJL:

I’m publishing a couple of odd and ends letters today that I’ve received over the past couple of weeks that I need help from our readership on.

Today we present two entries for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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 $225),
  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 gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand,
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589.
  3. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100 foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  4. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P .),
  5. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  6. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  7. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  8. EP Lowers, makers of 80% complete fiber composite polymer lowers for the AR-15 rifles, is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  9. Autrey’s Armory — specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. 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,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepperis providing a $500 gift certificate.

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, and
  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.

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.

Trading Posts of the New Frontier, by TCG

We have all heard the stories of the panicked rush on grocery stores by the unprepared masses at the onset of an emergency. Within a matter of a few hours even a so-called superstore can be picked clean of all worthwhile supplies. We all accept this as an inevitability when the SHTF, and this is why we prepare. Many may not know, however, that even after the shelves at the local store are bare there are still more resources that I believe will become available after TEOTWAWKI.

As soon as I was old enough to work I started bagging groceries at the local family-owned grocery store where my father worked. That store had a stock room with almost as much floor space as the front of the store, including a large walk-in cooler and freezer. The stock room and cold storage areas were always filled to the brim. We only got a delivery truck once or twice a week, and the truck generally had to travel a great distance from its origin to get to us. Several years later, the owners of that grocery store sold it to a larger chain. The new owners promptly closed the store for major remodeling. When we returned to work several months later, we employees were amazed by the changes that had been made. The floor space in the front of the store had been greatly expanded at the expense of the stock rooms. Now the back of the store consisted of a narrow hallway with only enough room for a few pallets of promotional or sale items and the cold storage areas had been greatly reduced as well. We soon found out that instead of one or two trucks a week, we received multiple trucks a day. The pallets that were unloaded were staged in the back hallway and almost immediately taken to the front to be stocked on the shelves. Gone were the days of checking in the back room for a customer request, because there was literally nothing in the back room! In the past, at the onset of one of the major winter storms that are common to the area, our store had plenty of products to sell to the panicked and unprepared for days, maybe even a week. Now, anything useful was gone in a few hours from the shelves with nowhere to resupply from. When the storm would hit, sometimes the store would be closed for days because the trucks could not safely make the trip to bring more food and supplies.

In the present, I work at a job in the transportation and logistics field that I have been at for almost a decade. One of the customers we service is the very same grocery chain that so drastically overhauled my hometown “mom and pop” grocer so many years before. Unfortunately, the trend towards the dependence of constant resupply versus stored, back-room stock that I first experienced at a young age is now the industry standard. Every large grocer, supercenter, retail outlet, and big box hardware chain store depend on multiple daily deliveries in order to keep the shelves stocked and the doors open. The trucks no longer travel cross country to grocery stores with their products, delivering once or twice a week. They come locally from massive centralized distribution centers (DCs) delivering multiple times a day. Working in my current career made me realize just how fragile this system of “just in time” delivery is. Any SHTF situation, from the highly likely scenario (such as inclement weather or a natural disaster) to more devastating events (such as an EMP or Marshall law), can and will disrupt the delivery cycle we have all come to depend upon. When the excrement hits the air conditioning, the store shelves will empty quickly without daily resupply and panic will ensue.

This short history lesson on my working life and supply chain tutorial may be insightful to some, but what does this have to do with preparedness and survival? The answer is the aforementioned DCs. These DCs have become the nation’s stockroom, each providing product support to hundreds of stores. Through my current career, I have been fortunate enough to be allowed to tour some of these DCs and have been blown away by many of them. The vast amount of provisions from canned goods, perishables, toiletries, and building supplies all housed under one roof would exceed any prepper’s wildest dreams.

When the SHTF, I am by no means advocating anyone run out and start looting their local Piggly Wiggly distribution center. I am also not advocating relying on the availability of any product, good, or service after the grid goes down. I believe that when things finally go south, the situation will initially be pretty terrible. Food will run out, water will stop flowing, and people will start dying. The people who have prepared will survive during this time off of their stored provisions, their self sufficiency, and their knowledge and skills. We would all like to be totally self sufficient, but not all of us are as prepared as we would like to be, for various reasons. When we are forced to live off our provisions, even the totally prepared will realize there are things they overlooked in their preparations. Finally, some supplies are simply not renewable. Eventually the terrible times will pass and the survivors will look toward rebuilding. At this time, I foresee the DCs as the new trading posts of America, akin to the ones of frontier days.

No doubt after the dust settles, panicked buying and thieves will have cleaned out the most obvious places containing supplies. But I believe many distribution centers will remain intact. Many DCs are located away from major population centers due to zoning laws and the need for a lot of real estate to facilitate large buildings and both semi truck and railroad access. Another way DCs will stay secure is anonymity. Many DCs have ambiguous names and signage that do not obviously state to the casual onlooker what the buildings contain. Most DCs are neutral colors and windowless, blending in like the gray man of the architectural world. Everyone knows where their local grocery or hardware stores are located, but not many can tell you where the distribution centers for those stores are at. By nature of the millions of dollars of inventory they contain, many DCs are very secure buildings that are not easily accessed by unauthorized people. Most have multiple sets of steel doors that must be opened before entering the warehouse proper. Many are surrounded by tall fences topped with razor wire. Some even have natural or geographical obstacles that make them inaccessible to even the most determined thief. During a hurricane several years ago, a DC my company services went so far as to block entrances with semi trailers to deter looting in case the area was devastated. Even though most DCs house product intended for stores owned by national chains, many distribution centers themselves are locally owned and operated. If widespread panic broke out, it would be safe to assume that many of the local owners of these well-stocked DCs would be present to protect their property and livelihood. This owner protection further insures the survival of many DCs and availability of assets for rebuilding after TEOTWAWKI.

I am fortunate enough to know where many distribution centers are located due to my career. Without working in the logistics industry, most would not possess this knowledge off hand or would have incomplete knowledge of distribution centers in their area. Even after almost ten years in logistics I am still often surprised to find new DCs in my area that I didn’t even know existed. There are many ways to find DCs in your area, with one of the simplest being to pay attention to the semi trucks. Where are the long haul sleeper trucks delivering to and where are the short haul daycab trucks picking up at? Keep track of the company names on the trucks you see. If you see a lot of the same company, it could mean there is a DC in your area. Also, listen to the CB radio on the trucker channels. Besides the often colorful and humorous stories you will hear, many truck drivers will talk to each other about where they are going, where they have been, and what they are hauling. If you suspect you have found a DC location, scan the channels on your CB during their business hours. Many still use a base station within the facility to call trucks in and out of the doors and to talk to local drivers. I have learned a lot over the years by listening to CB chatter. There are also several online resources that can be used in order to locate DCs and determine what they warehouse. MacRAE’s Bluebook is free and has listings of industrial warehouses and manufacturers across the country. Other websites like Manta and Cortera have many businesses listed in their directories and provide basic information for free, while more detailed descriptions are available via subscription. One of my favorites is Leonard’s Guide. It has a pretty good warehouse directory for free that is searchable by geographical location. Listings describe what the facility specializes in and provide direct links to contact information for most warehouses and DCs. Leonard’s Guide has a more extensive directory available online for a fee. They also publish this directory annually, and while comprehensive and useful, it is a little pricey and may be outside of most people’s budget. For a more affordable print directory, National Provisioner magazine usually puts out an annual Plant Operations Issue. While not as complete as the print version of Leonard’s Guide, it would be better than nothing when the world has to do without the Internet and electricity.

Watching the trucks in your area, listening to the CB, and searching online will probably provide you with information on many DCs you might have never known existed. Once you have this information compiled, it is time to go through it and extract what will be useful to you. There are a few places that should be avoided after the SHTF. The first and foremost are cold storages and freezers. While most cold storages and freezers have engine rooms with large backup generators, they are totally reliant on grid power to maintain the frigid temperatures inside for any duration of time. After a week, at best, the generators would run out of fuel and anything inside would begin to rot. The amount of disease from bacteria and vermin from a place like this would facilitate giving it a wide berth. The only possible exception to this rule would be one of the few natural cold storages located in several places around the nation. These cold storages are underground in the space left behind from limestone quarries. They can naturally maintain temperatures as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit and use up to 70 percent less electricity to cool down to cold storage and freezer levels. While unlikely that they could be maintained for any significant amount of time, it is possible they could be powered by renewable sources of energy. Another place that might initially seem promising would be manufacturers. However, as retailers shed their stock rooms, manufacturers did away with warehousing area. Many manufacturers my company deals with literally load right off of the line into trucks that leave straight for a DC when full. They have so little storage space that if a truck doesn’t show up on time it can present a major problem as there is nowhere to go with the product produced. There are many types of DCs that are valuable to know and are quite common across the nation. The most abundant of these are dry grocery DCs. These are a must to know about as they generally have a wide mix of products including food, water, toiletries, and household products. Another common DC houses the products of building supply stores. These contain many valuable building supplies and tools that would be useful for rebuilding society. Beverage supply DCs are also good to know. While these may be looted initially by criminals looking for the alcohol many of them warehouse, most have vast stores of bottled water that could be left untouched. Further research in your specific location will reveal less common places that may hold items of value when the lights go out for good.

After going through and locating the distributions centers of value in your area, it is time to organize the information you have extracted. The maps I keep in my bug out bag (BOB), with my stored supplies, and at my emergency bug out location all are marked with the locations of the DCs in my area. Along with that, I keep laminated index cards bearing information specific to each DC/location (such as what they warehouse, who the owners and managers are, contact information, and what the building looks like.) It would also be a good idea to try to drive by these locations and take a quick picture to include with your laminated index cards. These facilities are often non-descript, and it may be a loved one that is not familiar with the facility using the information you gathered. It is also a good idea to keep track of DCs that are near your bug out location and along the route to it.

So the house of cards comes crashing down, but you are prepared. You get you and yours to somewhere safe. You have the supplies, the knowledge, and the skills to stay fed, warm, healthy, and secure. From a distance you watch the world burn. When the fire goes out it is up to you to help the world rebuild. And maybe by now you have a few less beans, bullets, and band-aids than you did before. The six nearly identical superstores in your old town are nothing now but hollow, burnt-out shells. You can faintly make out the shape of the Home Depot you used to frequent in the pile of rubble that takes its place now. Even the convenience stores have been picked clean. This is when the knowledge of the near-by DCs comes in handy. All of the junk silver you acquired, the case of bourbon you set aside, the now desirable skill sets you have learned can be bartered for supplies you now know you need, supplies you have run out of, and supplies to start rebuilding. These DCs will be one of the cornerstones providing the survivors of TEOTWAWKI the necessary tools and supplies to not only continue to survive, but to start to thrive again.

Learning Prepper and Barter Skills at Your Local Dump, by N.J.

Everyone these days is trying to budget and spend their hard earned money wisely. One place I found that I was able to spend a very limited amount or get items for free is at the local dump. It is a great place to accumulate items you could use in a SHTF situation. This may relate only to individuals living in suburban or city areas. There may be one in your county; it is important to find out if there is. If you have not been to your local recycle center or dump, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Take note that there might be a yearly or daily fee associated with using the dump. If at all possible, research the requirements to use the dump by calling ahead or using the local government website. The only thing that was required at my local dump was being a resident of the city and to purchase a twenty dollar yearly pass to the recycle center. Dropping off house hold appliances and tires had extra fees on top of the yearly pass. The pass included free mulch and sometimes top soil.

There is a social community at the dump, and you would never believe it unless you have experienced it. During my time spent as the dump supervisor for my local town, I interacted with many people that were involved with the unique subculture of the recycle center. I would like to give the readers some suggestions about what might go a long way toward improving the type of treatment and service you receive. This helps in order to be uninterrupted in gathering items or commodities that will be useful to you. Develop a first name relationship with the attendant or attendants and even patrons. People have developed strong friendships with other individuals and families they have encountered. At your dump there might be a “no scavenging” policy. I was the type of person to look the other way, if I knew you or you minded your own business. A small act of bringing the recycle center workers a bottle of water or a snack will bring you leniency. The main key is to be discreet and quick. If you see an item that might be useful grab it. Having a hook-like tool and small tool box will be something useful to bring with you. That way you can extend your reach into dumpsters and do small disassembles for parts if necessary.

The dump is a great place to find useful items for bartering. I gathered candles, tools, books, and anything I figured could be useful in a barter or economic collapse situation. I furnished my first apartment with a lot of things I found. People throw away things still brand new in the box! I once found a $500 coffee machine unopened in the original packaging. Many residents I was friendly with would put in orders with me for items they were looking for and sometimes put up rewards for finding those items. Couples and families would make a routine of showing up and making rounds just to see if they could find anything good or what had value.

Firewood is a sought after commodity by patrons that frequent the local dump. The firewood and yard waste would go into a special area. It either came from residents doing yard work or from the forestry division of the city. It was constantly searched for spring, summer, and fall. Residents would brag about how much they saved on their energy bills each month by burning firewood to heat their homes. Gathering firewood for winter was very serious business for many people. I have seen individuals go to such great lengths as to bringing their own chainsaws to make lumber pieces more manageable to carry and load into their vehicles. I often saw people collaborate to help each other. The most common occurrence was residents dropping off wood and another person that wanted the wood would arrange going directly to each other’s home to help each other. In the end both parties received what they wanted, while taking less trips to the dump and conserving fuel. I have seen great friendships come about by this practice.

Another thing residents really took advantage of was the recycle center’s mulch. The mulch came from the forestry department’s composting of trimmings and branches. I have watched families work at least eight hours, making trip after trip refilling their buckets with mulch. I was told it works very well for helping growing vegetables in the garden. With your yearly pass, you were able to get unlimited amounts of mulch. That is a great deal for someone trying to be frugal with their resources. Besides the two main interest grabbers being the firewood and mulch, there are a lot more things that might be useful in times of uncertainty. There was a section at the dump for dropping off a mixture of rocks, stones, dirt and bricks. A lot of people would pick up rocks and stones and take them home. I could picture someone taking home dirt, stones, and bricks home to use in building a nice root cellar. Good dirt would not last long at the dump. It would be taken home for a variety of home garden needs. I could also see someone using a mixture of dirt, stones, rocks, and bricks to set up defenses around their property. With these items again, I have seen people communicate interest in what someone is dropping off. They will talk with each other and work out arrangements to cooperate. That is an efficient system for both parties but best for the one picking up the items.

There was a special section of dumpsters to recycle lumber. It was great for getting lumber or boards to burn if there was a shortage of firewood. You would be very surprised on the amount of good boards you could find, from hardwoods (such as oak or mahogany) to softwoods (such as pine or cedar). Even treated lumber or press board is easy to find, from 2×4 pieces of lumber to 4×4 pieces. This is a great way to practice and learn woodworking. I knew several people that would use the lumber for all sorts of projects and build different things. One’s imagination is the only limiting factor on what could be built. You might even save lumber to use in boarding up your windows or doors during an emergency situation.

A great thing about the recycle center is the individuals and families. It is a great community to practice your people interaction skills. This is one of the most important skills you must learn for a SHTF scenario. If you don’t know how to interact with all different sorts of individuals, bartering almost seems out of the picture in a severe economic downturn.

There were plenty of times where I, being friendly and asking politely, received things of value without any expectation for payment in return. I will tell you about a couple of examples from my personal experiences, but these are just a few of many instances. A gentleman and I somehow got into a discussion about gardening, and he told me about all the different types of vegetables he planted for the harvest season. Peppers were a vegetable he mentioned. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind bringing some pepper seeds to me, if he had any extra to spare. He happily obliged; on his next trip to the dump he greeted me with a friendly smile and a zip lock bag full of pepper seeds. He also gave me a brief explanation of what worked best for him when growing the pepper seeds. There were also plenty of occasions where I would help someone shovel mulch, unload, or just have a pleasant conversation and ask if they wouldn’t mind bringing me something to drink next time they came around. Believe it or not I was rarely turned down. Every so, residents often went even further. Once I was brought muffins and other times different types of snacks. I learned never to be afraid to ask someone a question. The worst thing someone can say to you after you ask them a question is “no.” There is an old saying: “The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.” The dump is a great place to meet like-minded individuals within your community and to practice your communication skills.

After practicing and perfecting your people skills, the next thing to work on is bartering. I would often collect lawn mowers and barter them to my supervisor for cash or alcohol. I have found snow blowers and traded them to a friend for cash. A great example of bartering was when I would find coupons and barter them to a friend for scrap metal. Bartering is an everyday occurrence at the recycle center. I have seen people trade different items they have picked up often. Maybe one party throws in some dollars or another item to sweeten the deal. Often, sometimes it could just be items that one party wants to trade for something that will be more useful to them. There are many more examples of bartering, but you need to get down to your own recycle center and practice. I believe the dump is one of the closest things you can get to a cash-limited society.

There are all different types of ways you can practice and learn skills for a survival scenario. One of the best skills to learn and practice is to fix things that are broken. You sometimes will get lucky and find things you can use that are still working and completely functional. Often a small part of something you find useful is broken. It’s a great opportunity to figure out how it works. Often you can buy replacement parts or even keep your eye out at the dump for another of that same or similar item to find the working part you need. I would often tell people that the dump has a great return policy; you can take it home, hold onto it for awhile, and if it doesn’t work out the way you wanted or you were unable to repair the item, just bring it back to the dump. A huge hit at the recycle center for repair-minded people were lawn mowers and snow blowers. Handy people would take them home, tinker around with them, repair them (when possible), and sell them.

Another skill worth practicing is making from the items you find at the recycle center. A lot of people I knew would gather enough items of value, fix the ones not working, and host a yard sale. Besides gathering items and selling them, there were a lot of people interested in gathering scrap metal. You might get lucky enough to find some copper pipe, an old brass faucet, or some romex wire. Some people do not know what these materials are worth, or they are simply too lazy or don’t have enough to make it worth their time. Learn to identify different types of metals and what they are worth. I always carried a wire cutter and a magnet to identify different types of metals. A magnet does not stick to copper, brass, or aluminum, which are the three main types of scrap metals you should be interested in. Be careful, it can become an addicting and fun hobby.

Besides all the barter and survival skills you can learn at the dump, you can also practice charity. It’s not a hard thing to learn at the dump when you are looking around. If you see an item say you might not want or use, but you know a friend who could use it, take it and give it to them. I knew a lot of people who would stay on the lookout for items that they could give to their church to help others. I knew a father and son what would look for lightly used mattresses for women that were less fortunate. Being charitable is also a great way to help others, while also reducing goes into the landfill. It’s great seeing people find items that they can make useful instead of seeing these items destroyed and never used again.

Letter: Communications Radios

Hello Sir,

In an effort to get our neighbors in the valley to keep in touch in case of emergency, what type of radios would you recommend? We are roughly under five miles apart with hilly, somewhat cliffy topography with a lot of brush at an elevation of just under 7,000′. I used to use Spilsbury “backcountry radios” between outfitters and air taxi services in the Idaho wilderness, but those are fairly spendy set-ups and hard to find. I doubt the neighborhood will opt for hams either. Any other options? You’re recommendations or those of experienced readers would be appreciated. – T.K.

Letter: Social Media Intel During an Emergency

HJL,

I am a long time reader and understand JWR’s recommendation against the use of social media. The recent snow storm that has crippled the roads in major southern cities has proven a positive of social media that I hadn’t fully realized. With a “friends” list of over 1,000 (who are mostly just acquaintances) I was able gain valuable intelligence down to the neighborhood level. Friends reported on road closures, traffic jams, people in need of help and their location, people providing help, and businesses that were open and taking in those that were stranded. This sharing of information undoubtedly saved lives and was shared by the people. No government agency or news media was able to provide this same level of understanding as to what was really happening on the ground. We have heard the stories of the flash mobs and other lawless behavior that has used social media as a means of command and control, the most famous being its use during the “Arab Spring.” Why can’t the good guys use this as a resource as well? With due diligence paid to JWR’s concerns, I recommend having an account that shares the minimum necessary of your personal information that is ONLY used during an emergency to access the many eyes and ears you are acquainted with. That level of detail of first hand accounts maybe invaluable one day. Please read all of JWR’s warnings on social media. – P.N.

HJL Replies: I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with JWR on this issue. In this specific case, you were able to obtain intel, but the reality is that you were only able to obtain that intel because so many others are oblivious to the concept of OPSEC. There are always ways of obtaining that level of intel without actually compromising OPSEC. Ham radio operators, for example, have long maintained such local networks, usually in the form of radio clubs. There are many areas that still actively use FRS, MURS, and CB for local communications. Intel is available without compromising OPSEC, and just the act of owning an account compromises OPSEC to a certain degree.