Pat’s Product Review: Titan Straps

In another life, I worked as a truck driver. I drove different types of trucks– dump trucks, “straight jobs”, and even pick-up trucks– delivering all manner of cargo. Today, my deliveries are made using an SUV. If I have to haul something, it’s usually on the luggage rack on top or inside. If I have anything bigger to haul, I’ll call a friend with a pick-up truck.

There’s one thread common in hauling anything, and that is that you have to secure it to keep it from moving around. For hauling anything on top of my SUV, I keep some rope in my emergency box as well as several bungee cords of different lengths. The rope is a real pain-in-the-butt, as it is either too long or I have to cut it into pieces and then replace it down the road. More often than not, I forget to replace a length of rope until I actually need it. How many times has that happened to you? Bungee cords are a very useful thing to have around. The only problem is they never seem to fit anything without wrapping them around your cargo several times, and I’ve broken more than my share of bungee cords trying to stretch them too far. The weather takes a toll on them, too.

Several years ago, I sold my two motorcycles because of my bad back; I just can’t ride any more. However, back when I was riding I would often strap something to the rear seat or someplace on the bikes, and that stuff would shift around. I used bungee cords for attaching things to my bikes. It was a decent solution, but not a good one, to be sure.

Titan Straps , sold by Lawson-USA are made in the USA, and are headquartered out of Bozeman, Montana. I received several different color Titan Straps– bright orange, light gray, and tan. Their website shows blue straps, too. I’ll be honest in that I just tossed the plastic bag with the straps in it on my filing cabinet until close to time for me to test them. I always have a long que of products awaiting to be tested. I thought, just by glancing at the straps in the plastic bag, that they were cheap– real cheap plastic straps with plastic buckles. WRONG!

I like to give products I write about a good test. Sometimes products are tested for days, weeks, and months at a time. Some products can be tested right away. So, I figured I’d get around to testing the Titan Straps shortly before their turn in the queue came up. Okay, I was wrong, wrong, wrong! The Titan Straps are NOT manufactured out of cheap plastic with cheap plastic buckles! Don’t you hate it, when you’re wrong?

Titan Straps are made out of polyurethane injected with a UV protectant for an extra long lifespan. The buckles are aircraft grade aluminum, heat treated with polished edges, so they don’t cut into you when you tightening down a load. On the end of the Titan Straps are a very aggressive pull tab, that you can easily pull to tighten a load with gloves on in cold temperature. Each Titan Strap is 25 inches long, and you can attach two or more together, if you need longer lengths. Each strap has 24 holes in it, so you can get the straps nice and tight on any load, too.

I didn’t have anything to haul. So I simply put my 6-foot aluminum ladder on the roof-top luggage rack of my SUV and tied it down with several of the Titan Straps. Then, I drove up the mountain to my usual shooting spot. This was a good enough reason to do some shooting while I was up there. Part of the road is paved and part is gravel. The county recently laid down some more gravel, and they put it down much too thick. It was a total washboard– rough enough to loosen a bad filling in a tooth, if you had one. The ladder stayed firmly attached to the roof rack up and down the gravel road.

Some of the benefits of the Titan Straps are that they are very supple in cold temps, non-marring, cut and tear resistant, chemical resistant, and won’t absorb water. There are hundreds of uses for them, too. If you need to haul anything on your SUV’s luggage rack, tie something down in your pick-up truck, or bind a load, you really should have some Titan Straps handy.

After my incorrect initial, first glance opinion of the plastic bagged Titan Straps, I’m happy to report that these straps are an outstanding product. Get some and keep them in the emergency box in your rig or under the seat of your pick-up truck. You’ll be amazed at how handy this simply invention is, and it makes your job of securing things a lot easier and much faster, too. They have a break strength of over 200-lbs, so you can strap down cargo without fear of it breaking the straps.

The Titan Straps website shows them, in different colors, for $7.99 each. I suggest getting at least four or more of them. You’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. Keep in mind, these are NOT a cheap plastic strap with a plastic buckle. These are heavy-duty, American-made products, well-designed and manufactured out of first-class materials. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Recipe of the Week: Mrs HJL’s Sweet, Southern Cornbread

In response to requests for the Sweet, Southern Cornbread recipe Mrs. HJL makes to season our cast iron skillet, here’s her recipe:

  1. Pour about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil into a cast iron skillet. (It should be enough oil to cover the skillet with roughly 1/4 inch of oil.) Place skillet and oil in the oven and turn oven on to 425 degrees.
    • 1 cup freshly ground corn meal
    • 1 cup bread flour (or use finely ground Hard White Wheat flour for a healthier, but heavier cornbread)
    • 1 tsp. salt
    • 1/3- 1/2 cup sugar (Yes, we like it SWEET!)
    • 1 rounded tsp. baking soda (or use a heaping Tablespoon of baking powder and no cream of tartar; we tend to avoid the aluminum in baking powder)
    • 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
  2. Stir the above dry ingredients together.
    • 1 cup of buttermilk (or milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice added)
    • 1 egg, beaten
  3. Mix the wet ingredients together. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir until moist. (The batter should be about the thickness of pancake batter, so adjust flour or milk to get this consistency.)
  4. Once oil is very hot, pour batter into the skillet. (To test the oil, drop a dollop into the oil. It should sizzle right away. Hot oil makes a crispy crust on the cornbread.)
  5. Bake at 425 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into the middle. If the toothpick comes out with wet dough on it, keep cooking. Varying altitudes will effect the cooking time.

Serve with beans, creamed chicken, chili, or just enjoy with butter.

Five Letters Re: Hardtack

Dear Editor,

When I was in college we had a history class which we re-enacted the civil war battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. We actually dressed in period clothing and ate food the solders would eat. Hard tack was one on the meals we had. Another staple was beans, I found if you put the hard tack down and had the beans on top it was a little easier to eat. If this was all I had to eat I would go looking for something better for supper. FYI the hard tack works well as a hammer. – K.

—–

Hello Hugh,

Glad to have you as part of SB. Regarding the recent post about hardtack, I have some experience here having made several batches over the years. Original, old time hardtack was said to be tough enough, yet not brittle, that when thrown against a brick wall would chip at the edges, but not shatter. It was essentially never eaten alone, as it would break the teeth of those attempting such a feat. This was not a good idea in a time when dentists were few and far between. Rather, the hardtack would be soaked in coffee or soup or gruel or grease and fat of salt port to allow it to soften somewhat. Breaking it into smaller pieces with the help of the butt of a rifle or hammer helps. Sounds great doesn’t it? But it does do some things well, and that is why it persists. It lasts. I have some left over in my cellar that I made 3 or 4 years ago, with no sign of going bad or mold or off flavors or discoloration. Some of it was stored in mason jars, some in ziplock baggies, and some wrapped in newspaper, just to see what effect each storage method had. The difference in effect was negligible. That said, when I did a side by side taste test with the 4 year old hard tack verses some fresh stock I made the other day, the fresh was definitely better. To make it, simply grind wheat berries into flour, add enough water to make a dough that doesn’t stick to your fingers, roll it out until half an inch thick, cut into squares (or rectangles, whatever), pierce with knife or fork several times each to aid the air circulation as they dry. And I do mean dry, rather than bake. Place them in the oven at about 250-275 for half an hour or so, then flip them over and repeat for another half hour. Then take them out of the oven to cool. Then back in for another 45 minutes to an hour, or even longer if your dough was quite wet when you started. This slow cooking is the secret to hardtack that passes the durable-but-not-shattering test. I got in a hurry once and turned the heat up to 300 for awhile, and while it gave a nice toasted appearance to the hard tack, it made it much more brittle. Many modern recipes will call for salt, sugar, lard, milk, butter, and all sorts of other things. While these no doubt improve the taste and nutrition content of the hardtack, they take away from the shelf life and durability, which is the main thing hardtack has going for it in the first place. If you wanted it to taste good, pack snickers bars instead! (Emphasis added by HJL) Salt and sugar attract moisture; lard, butter, and milk increase rancidity. I’ve only ever made it with fresh ground whole wheat, so can’t speak to white vs wheat. I figured all hard tack was from fresh ground whole wheat, back in the day. If other readers have different experience, I’d be glad to learn from them. Cheers, – J.

—–

HJL:

Hard Tack has always been made with wheat flour. The generalized process of grinding wheat grain often includes sifting which removes the chaff (bran). This process makes wheat flour appear whiter than it would be if simply grinding the wheat berries into a coarse wheat flour.

Since early times, milling has been a process of separating the outer wheat bran and wheat germ from the inner endosperm portion of the wheat berries. Through mechanization in the 19th Century, though, the process became more streamlined. New equipment was introduced into the process which refined flour milling. Sifters, bran dusters, and even middlings purifiers all contributed to the industrialization of the variety of mills. A technique adapted from Europe, called “the New Process” also helped American mills achieve a better and more refined flour. Through these processes, the commercialized wheat flours became finer, lighter in color, and more desirable by most. Then came the bleaching process and additions of nutrients to enrich the final flour product. Rather ironic that now there are so many of us prefer freshly ground whole wheat flour. – LynnS

—–

Dear Mr. Latimer,

In just reading the post concerning Hard Tack I wanted to share with you the following web site dedicated to hard tack. I have not yet attempted any of these recipes but the post got me thinking about it again and I plan to give it a good test! – M.B.

HJL Adds: S.V. also sent in the link to this web site.

—–

Some Discussion:

Lembas was made with Elven magic by the Lady herself. Without that – no lembas.

Below is the hardtack recipe I use and my results. The recipe was derived from a Civil War recipe drawn from a no longer there re-enacting web site. At 8 years old (stored as noted below) didn’t make anyone sick. I’m not sure if it did nourish anyone. Any fat in it can eventually go rancid, any seasons can eventually go stale.

Finding weevils in the hardtack was fairly common so I doubt that the small amount of fat going rancid would matter. Hungry is hungry.

—

HARDTACK

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
6 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup water

Dry mix the ingredients.

Add the water and knead the dough. Dough should not be sticky.

Roll out to an even thickness. I use a shallow sided cookie pan. The shallow sides control the thickness

Cut to shape. Poke three rows of holds with a fork.

Place in the oven for about 1/2 hour or until just golden.

Makes 10-12 biscuits.

To cook them really thoroughly, set them aside for a day, then cook them at 225 degrees for 30-45 more minutes. The second baking will remove any “sweat” and really dry the biscuit. This is important.

—

I took my original recipe from a civil war reenacting webpage (it’s not there anymore) and experimented. The recipe listed above is what I wound up with. I first made a double batch then put them in 1 gallon Ziploc baggies and put the baggies on the guest Bedroom closet shelf. All food trials included a bowl of hot chicken bouillon for dipping/soaking. One week later I tried one and I’d hate to have to live on them. Two weeks later I had the same result. I continued to test them at one month, six months, one year, 18 months, two years, 2-1/2 years, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 years with the same result. I gave one to a friend’s step-son – a reenactor, and he liked it so I gave what was left to him. Apparently they were a hit at the reenaction. I have made a batch or two since then.

If you’re going to consume them in a month or so – bake up a batch with whatever is in it and try it. The water/salt/flour recipe is the standard. – W.B.

Letters: Hearing About Southeast’s Winter Storm

Dear Hugh,

I live just north of Atlanta and, fortunately, I work from home, and I also live alone. So I was not stuck in the massive traffic jams everyone saw on TV. I was nice and warm and comfortable in my home while all this happened. My sister, who lives three counties over, had trouble getting home, but nothing like the 16 hour commutes most people had. It did hit home the fact that I live near a major population center and will have to plan any evacuation in a SHTF situation accordingly. All the Monday morning quarterbacks and Northern naysayers blamed it on us Southerns not being able to drive on snow. That was part of the problem; there were plenty of accidents blocking some roads and interstates. The real and most eye opening problem was the shear number of people all trying to leave the city at once. Like Atlanta Mayor Reed and Georgia Governor Deal said, it was like someone blew a whistle and said “Go!”. Everyone- schools, government employees, private companies all left at the same time. Any traffic system would have had a hard time handling that volume of traffic. Even without the snow and ice it would have been a nightmare on the streets. In a SHTF scenario where Atlanta had to be evacuated, then throw “PANIC!” into the mix and I imagine it would have been even worse. Desperation would set in and no telling what someone might do to go an extra mile or two, or what they would do to get some fuel or a working car, when their family’s safety was involved. I could not imagine trying to get out of Atlanta on any of the three major highways that go through the city and the backroads were just as clogged by everyone trying to avoid the interstate chaos.

It really got me thinking to either move farther out from the city or relocate to a different, less populated state altogether. Snowmaggedon happens once every five years or so and is over in a day or two. SHTF would be an entirely different story.

Side note: Snowmageddon did bring out the best in our neighbors and fellow citizens. People from our sub-division gathered up bottled water and snacks and handled them out along a major through-street near my house that was gridlocked. People thanked us profusely and some even tried to make donations or pay for the stuff. We said no thank you. News report showed people all over the Metro Atlanta area were doing the same. Some in our neighborhood were even willing to open up their homes to anyone who needed it, but the traffic started moving about 9:00 PM, slowly but smoothly. We had no takers for overnight accommodations. – M. in Atlanta

Economics and Investing:

Beretta USA Chooses Tennessee for New Factory Site – JBG

Gold Mint Runs Overtime in Race to Meet World Coin Demand – Bloomberg – B.R.

Economic Meltdown? Analyst Says You Need to Watch for These 20 Early Warnings – M.A.

Items from The Economatrix:

U.S. Economy Expands 3.2% In Fourth Quarter

Consumer Confidence in U.S. Fell Last Week to Two-Month Low

Baltic Dry Index Collapses 50% From December Highs To 5-Month Lows

Odds ‘n Sods:

Winchester has issued a recall notice on a few lots of it’s .22 LR rimfire ammunition.

o o o

More evidence that the mainstream is catching on. This looks like an interesting movie trailer: Goodbye World. – G.

o o o

Linking to the letters we received from the South East is this blog: Rescuers along U.S. Highway 280 face a scene that ‘looks like Armageddon’ – JBG

o o o

J.C. sent in this video about magnesium bars saying: “Perhaps it’s not legally a fraud, but it is deceptive to gain sales. Many Mag sticks will not light a fire or even light themselves. Hard to believe someone in the manufacture would not know that. Magnesium bars are wonderful for starting fires, just make sure you buy one that works, check out the video.”

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Labour was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.” – Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher. (Author of “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, 1776)

Notes from HJL:

February 2nd is the birthday of Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum in 1905 and died March 6, 1982). She is, of course, remembered for her novel, Atlas Shrugged, which is considered a Libertarian classic. While I sharply disagree with her views on religion (atheism), I admire both her skill as a writer and her ability to articulate some core precepts of human liberty.

Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins. Every month, we’ll take a look at the “month that was” in precious metals, covering everything from price action to the information that’s driving the numbers.

January in Precious Metals

December closed on the usual down note as the last bit of tax-related selling went through, but January started off strong, as the big commodities index funds had to buy gold to meet new percentages. The index rebalancing only added fuel to an oversold gold market, as the price jumped $30 in 48 hours. Part of the reason for gold’s very good month may have been more people realizing that the stock market and real estate were in a bubble, with even National Public Radio running pieces on the QE-inflated stock market. In a Fox Business interview, Peter Schiff put to words the unease that many may be feeling about the phony recovery when he said, “We have a lousy economy, and the Fed is patching it by creating inflation.” “We are spending all this money that the Fed is creating. That IS inflation… if the Fed were ever to do the right thing, and let interest rates go up, and shrink its balance sheet, the market would implode.“

On January 6th, someone tried to stop gold’s rally by selling 400,000 ounces worth of gold contracts in the space of ONE second. It only had a temporary effect though, as the market had rallied even higher two days later, into the high $1,240s level. Violence in Thailand, Egypt, and Syria lend safe haven support to gold. Mining companies began releasing reports around this time for the fourth quarter of 2013, showing increased production and level expenses. This was/is from a practice called “high grading,” where the miners are only working the purest veins in order to recover a higher amount of gold per ton of ore processed. This reduces expenses per ounce of gold mined in the short term, but it lowers the overall life of the mine. When no “good” ore is left to mix in with the low grade ore, the mines become unprofitable and are shut down, leaving the low-grade gold in the ground.

By January 17, gold prices were at a five-week high of $1,254/oz. This was the same day that Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, announced that it was the subject of an investigation by Germany’s highest regulator into currency, gold, and silver manipulation, and that it would be quitting its involvement in the London Gold Fix. The London gold fix is a twice-daily conference call between five of the world’s largest banks, where they “fix” the benchmark rate of gold. This benchmark is used in trillions of dollars of transactions, including hedge funds and gold purchases by central banks. The president of Bafin, Germany’s top regulatory agency, said that the manipulation in currency rates and gold may be larger than the LIBOR scandal.

On January 23, strikes in South Africa against the platinum mining companies began, halting production of 70% of global platinum supply. Prices weren’t affected much, as the mining companies had stockpiled six weeks of above-ground ore. More important for gold that day was Pakistan banning gold imports for 30 days. This was the second time since August it had done this to prevent the outflow of dollars from its economy. Of the four metric tons of gold imported into Pakistan in the last six months, more than 25% of it was smuggled into India. This caused gold to post its biggest one-day jump in three months, hitting a two month high of $1,279, and closing at $1,270/oz.

Another big story in January was the news that Germany only repatriated five tons of gold from the Fed in all of 2013, and that the bars were melted down and recast by the Fed before they were given to the Germans. Germany only got 35 tons back from France, which is less than six hours away from the Bundesbank’s vaults in Frankfurt.

In the last week of January, citizens in Cyprus rioted at the headquarters of the Bank of Cyprus, demanding their money back after they were “bailed in” against their will. This group of over 8,000 people have been trying since November 2012 to get their money back.

The last week in January also saw money pouring out of emerging market economies ahead of the FOMC meeting, as Indonesia, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey, among others, saw their currencies hitting multi-year lows. Even Russia was caught in the currency devaluation as foreign investors scrambled for dollars to bring money back home. Combined with a high-yield “trust fund” in China almost defaulting and setting off a chain reaction, investors had had enough and pulled out. This caused a big safe haven demand for gold, which spiked to a 10-week high of $1,279/oz. This all contributed to the safe haven demand gold saw this month.

Another factor was the demand in Asia ahead of the Chinese New Year on January 31st. Asian demand was high, but not quite as high as expected. This may have been because buyers went bargain-shopping on the $1,186 low in late December.

As expected, the Fed reduced its monthly quantitative easing program by $10 billion, meaning that “only” $65 billion would be created from thin air to buy bonds and mortgage-backed securities from Wall Street banks in February. This put more pressure on the emerging market economies, who were just last year complaining that the U.S. was conducting a “currency war” against them by flooding the market with money. Now that the money spigot is being closed, their economies, which had become dependent on the Fed’s liquidity, are suffering withdrawals.

The month closed out with central banks in India, South Africa, and Turkey making emergency rate hikes to stop runaway devaluation of their currencies. This helped the situation enough for panic to ease. Consumer-fueled fourth quarter GDP in the U.S. showed 3.3% growth, which helped Wall Street break a losing streak and spark profit-taking in precious metals.

Market Buzz

Indian Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram , said on January 27, that the easing of restrictions on gold imports into the country would be reviewed at the end of the fiscal year on March 31st. Any action would be conditioned on how far the reduction in the Current Account Balance has progressed. The government is under increasing pressure to ease the draconian restrictions on importing gold to what has traditionally been the world’s largest gold consuming country.

On CNBC, Peter Schiff declared, “The Fed is trapped; buy gold now.” While the Fed did taper this month, Schiff’s assertion that it has no exit strategy and will have to continue at least some money printing may very well prove true (just before interest rates rise enough to prevent the Federal government from making interest payments on the debt.)

Eric Sprotttakes a look at the April gold take-down and the explosion of physical demand the paper manipulators didn’t expect. He runs the numbers and shows that if the Indian government hadn’t enacted extreme restrictions on gold imports, global demand would have outstripped all supply.

Our good friend at the Perth Mint Bullion Blog have an article on how “Gold Can Never Be In A Bubble,” a thought-provoking piece that’s well worth the read. Also, I take a look at the mainstream media’s MOPE over how China is holding a record $1.3 trillion in U.S. debt and at putting it into perspective. If we’re told that the world economy will explode if China tries to sell off its U.S. debt holdings, how are we supposed to believe that the Fed can unwind a substantially larger balance sheet?

On the Retail Front

Speculators in London and New York may not think gold and silver are worth holding, but everyday people on the street sure do! The Royal Mint ran out of 2014 gold Sovereign coins two days after launch, and sold suppliers that it would take until the end of the month to restock. The U.S. Mint sold over 3 million American Silver Eagles the first two days of sales, and rationed them for the entire month. Since the Mint had two extra weeks this year to make the initial stock of Silver Eagles, some wonder if it was a government-mandated ploy to prevent another record-breaking January for the popular bullion coin. January 2012 sales topped 6.1 million coins, and January 2013 sales hit 7.49 million before the Mint ran completely out.

Speaking of the U.S. Mint, it reported that profits on bullion sales more than doubled in 2013, up 108.8%. An all-time record of over 42.6 million Silver Eagles were sold before supplies were cut off on December 9th, and nearly 1.1 million ounces of gold bullion Eagles and Buffaloes were sold. The Perth Mint in Australia reported working three shifts in an attempt to meet gold and silver demand. Gold sales for 2013 were up by 41% and silver sales were up by 33%.

In Russia, Nomos Bank ,a major private bank, revealed that it had purchased close to 100 metric tons of gold and nearly 400 metric tons of silver to sell to its customers through its branch offices. Japan’s largest bullion dealer reported that gold sales were up 63% in 2013, as Japanese citizens prepare for the Abenomics QE designed to raise interest rates to 2% in two years. If they can stop inflation rising and not overshoot their target, they will be the first central bank to ever pull that off.

Looking Ahead

February will start out slow for gold, as Asian demand will be soft after the spending spree for Chinese New Year. The U.S. stock market hasn’t seen a real correction in over two years, so is past due, especially after a Fed-fueled 30% gain last year. In the short term, the two major factors that would cause a run on gold is the emerging markets resuming a meltdown and China’s “shadow banking” crisis blowing up into a Lehman Brothers-type event. Western analysts are warning that the Chinese government has likely made things worse by bailing out the “Credit Equals Gold” high-yield trust, which reinforces expectations that the PBOC will ride to the rescue and make all investors in risky loan deals whole.

Indonesia carried out its ban on the export of unprocessed ore, despite the shortage of refiners. That means that 4% of global gold production has just been halted. On top of the requirement that all ore be refined in-country, the government is slapping a 20% tax on exports. The mining companies have flat refused to pay it, and have halted production. This is a huge deal in copper, nickel, and tin. Rising prices in these base metals will help silver and the platinum group metals.

Guest Article: When Preps Become Poison, by S.B.

As desert-based urban preppers, my wife and I have invested a lot of research, time, and expenses building up a substantial supply of food, water, household supplies, medications, fuel, alternative power, and home defense resources. We’ve studied, we’ve trained, we’ve networked with like-minded families, and we’ve done our best to be ready for what increasingly seems to be the inevitable.

And then things changed.

Roughly four years ago I began experiencing unexplained episodes of debilitating vertigo, ear ringing, hyper sensitivity to sound, hearing loss, and fullness in my left ear, similar to that feeling you get when you’ve been swimming and your ears get full of water. Five ENT doctors later I was finally diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease– a rare and chronic autoimmune affliction to the endolymphatic components of the ear that manage the moisture and fluid content of the inner ear. Meniere’s can affect either one or both ears. Fortunately only myleft ear is affected at this time.

There is no cure for Meniere’s; there are only ways to mitigate the potential for episodes and symptoms. The primary treatment is the elimination of salt in the diet and the body. Salt causes the body to hold fluids, so my primary preventative treatment is to severely restrict my salt intake and to take a diuretic to help rid the body of excess salt. All this came as a surprise to me as it was rare that I used a saltshaker. One of the secondary treatments is allergy management; allergies cause inflammation and inflammation leads to increase in mucous and fluids in the body, especially the sinus cavities and ears.

At the end of four days of allergy testing for nearly 200 potential allergens, we found that I was allergic to eggs, soy, and an assortment of trees and weeds. Yes, those healthy egg white and spinach omelets I ate almost everyday for breakfast are now history. As for soy, I had no idea so many items from food to skin care products to interior car parts and bedding contain soy. Most of the store-bought meat we eat is fed and raised on soy products as well.

To my wife’s credit, our food preps were very well diversified with the staples of bulk packed buckets of rice, beans, flour, grains and pasta, as well as canned foods and supplemental spices and treats to give variety to the bulk items. We also had about 1/3 of our food preps in the form of #10 cans of freeze dried meals, meats, TVP (soy), fruits, and vegetables. Herein lies the problem and the point where many of our preps became poisonous for me.

It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever develop Menieres, but what about high blood pressure or other chronic illnesses and allergies that can force you to not only change your diet but also your lifestyle?

Not all freeze dried foods are created equal. When it comes to salt and soy I can tell you that most of the full meal products contain two to four times more salt per serving than the USDA Recommended Daily Allowance of sodium, which is 2400mg for healthy people and much less for someone with high blood pressure or Menieres.

Ideally, we’d all eat locally or personally-grown, whole foods and meats everyday, but that may not be the reality in a SHTF scenario for those who do not live in rural areas. In our plan to build a diversified larder, it was smart to keep an ample storage of quick, easy, “add water and go” dehydrated meals. We still do store these. However, very little of that is of use to me personally now, except in miniscule servings.

As we rotate through our canned foods, my wife (being our home food planner and nutrition expert) replaces as much of our food stores as possible with “low to no sodium” and “no soy” options. For instance, something as simple as canned tomatoes can range from 20mg of sodium per can to 400mg per can. Canned soup, beans, and a host of other items have a wide range of sodium levels, as well.

The moral of this story is the importance of thinking about your age, your health, and how your health and nutrition requirements might change unexpectedly over the course of your life and your prepping. I had no idea or warning my health would change so suddenly and unexpectedly and chances are you have no idea what is in store for you either. Taking a close look at the health patterns of your blood relatives is a good start, since many maladies such as high blood pressure and heart issues are hereditary. Most importantly, before you buy a pallet of survival rations you should definitely read the labels and think about what in that package might become your poison someday.

Letter Re: Nixtmalization of Corn

Hugh,

Seasoned readers of Survivalblog may remember a letter on May 28, 2012 referring to “Optimized Corn” presented by ShepherdFarmerGeek. This is a very important article, since it discusses how to transform corn (generally regarded as nutritionally inferior) into a really great source of nutrients. This gringo had no clue what this was all about, but I did “know” corn was Baaaaaad. It is not so, however. The process is called nixtamalization (or liming) and was practiced by early Mexican cultures, but was omitted by Europeans in their preparation of the grain. This mistake was the root cause of Pellagra and other dietary based maladies. I recently ran across a very informative video demonstrating the liming process and the making of both masa and tortillas. Readers may check it in this video: Nixtamalization of Corn to maximize the utilization of its nutrients – M.E.

Economics and Investing:

Russian Bank Halts All Cash Withdrawals – BR

And the Brits’ government isn’t fairing any better than us: Queen down to her last million due to courtiers’ overspending, report finds – GP

Restaurant Owners Fight Rise in Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers – L.

Items from The Economatrix:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: World Risks Deflationary Shock As BRICS Puncture Credit Bubbles

In A Typhoon, Even Pigs Can Fly (For A While)

No, The Plunge In Home Sales Was “Not” Due To Cold Weather

Initial Jobless Claims Miss; Back To Levels First Seen 6 Months Ago

Odds ‘n Sods:

We’ve linked to Rural Revolution before, and now Patrice Lewis has another entry at WND worth reading: The burgeoning underground economy

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This Isn’t Your Average Smash-And-Grab – This One Took Under a Minute, Netted $70K in Stolen Guns and Has the Feds Involved. – K.

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Startup Thinks Its Battery Will Solve Renewable Energy’s Big Flaw – RBS

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While not in the US yet, this may be the future of Big Cities: A ban on autos? Major cities consider going carless

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BR sent in the link to this disturbing article: FBI Appears To Have Collected Tormail’s Entire Email Database… And It’s Using It. . Particularly disturbing is this quote:

“Even if it’s getting a warrant to search, it’s now searching its own database, rather than having to go out to get the information from others who might challenge the requests.”

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BR also sent this video in: Rear Admiral Lee Addresses Restrictive Regulations on Religion I have seen this video before, but it is powerful and moving.

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GP sent in this blog post that contains link to pictures of the Ukraine revolution as it is unfolding.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” James 5:1-6 (KJV)