Odds ‘n Sods:

Freeze Dry Guy has begun their 2013 Warehouse Blowout Sale, with a couple of great specials on LRP rations and freeze dried ice cream.

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Some wisdom from T. Mark Graham: Combat Load: How do I carry this stuff?

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Report shows UN admitting solar activity may play significant role in global warming. (Thanks to Lee M. for the link.)

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The Kindle edition of Alex Smith’s new book on get home bags, everyday carry kits, and related topics titled Getting Home is on sale for just 99 cents at Amazon.com, for just this week. This 137-page book is a quick, informative read. I found it to be well-written and fairly comprehensive.

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267 Sheriffs and 6 State Sheriffs Associations Saying ‘NO’ to Obama Gun Control. (Thanks to Walt B. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Corruption, like a cancer … eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, floppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society." – President John Adams

Note from JWR:

Ready Made Resources begins their bi-annual on sale on Mountain House freeze dried #10 cans, today, Monday February 4th. This is a sale on Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, discounted the maximum-allowed 25%. Mountain House is allowing an additional 10% discount for select varieties including Diced Chicken, Diced Beef, Ground Beef, Cottage Cheese, Raw Egg Mix-Uncooked, and Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Peppers, for a total of 35% off those items.

In addition, since they warehouse most of their inventory, Ready Made Resources is willing to mix and match entrees, so that customers do not have to buy a full case of six cans of the same item. The sale ends on February 18th, so order soon!

Mahaffey’s Book Review: The Disaster Diaries

The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse

Reading level: Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (January 24, 2013)ISBN-10: 1594205272, ISBN-13: 978-1594205279
This book goes way beyond the beans, bullets and Band-Aid counsel. In fact, he’s kind of ‘out there’- in one of the finest ‘structured’ swashbuckling adventure sprees that I have read in a long while.  The Disaster Diaries is fun, rousing, thoughtful, and provocative.  Zany (can that word be used today?) might describe more of the unconventional catastrophes depicted in the storyline. The dark humor orientation is evident by the Dr. Strangelove reference in the title.

After the birth of his son, Sam is beset by the powerful parental instinct to protect his child. He worries. He questions, “What would I do if X happened?”  A plague of Hollywood disaster type vignettes infect his dreams and waking thoughts in pandemic proportions. (Pun intended) He worries from A-Z (no, literally, aliens to zombies). He sets out to answer those ‘what if’s’ and so, our journey begins. I was reminded of the old television program Connections, one question answered leads to the next question. The inquiries arise from diverse scenarios delivered in snippets of Sam’s imagination interposed throughout the book. Sam talks to the experts, interviews experienced professionals, veteran and practicing specialist in various fields of study. He consults anyone who can educate him from heroes and celebrities and doctors to former gang criminals and Inuit dog runners. But the writer goes a step further and walks the reader through his internships, training camps and practicums. He makes a study of survivalism and shares his coursework with you, the reader. His humorous and engaging chronicle of his tutelages inspires the reader to commence their own quest preparing for the unknown. This book will light a fire.

Numerous quotable quips and clever, sage counsel are delivered by an assortment of colorful characters, teachers of the lessons that Sam sets out to learn. The educationalists are as interesting as the lessons they deliver. I chuckled out loud numerous times. Sam drops philosophical truisms and sprinkles substantive quotations from classic books and revered authors. His tone is matter of fact and knowledgeable, never underestimating the readers’ intelligence but never delivering his message in a vicar’s voice. You will not find hyperbole, proclamations or a political rant. As a writer, his descriptive panoramas of extreme environments are lyrical and graceful. From vistas of Montana to the cosmic northern lights to the arid deserts of the American southwest, the reader is beside Sam every step of the way. His imageries of physical encounters and actions are clear-cut. Sam’s wit is fresh and his imagination is untamed. His writing is a joy to read.

We know that major disasters happen. Even a small event can really wreck your day, your health, your routine. That’s why we buy flashlights, spare tires and fire extinguishers. Sam Sheridan makes the point “If 9/11 can happen, anything can happen.”  It’s not an outlandish proposition; consider Tsunami 2004, Fukushima, Katrina, Sandy, Aurora, and Sandy Hook…  Most of us prepare for the smaller calamities so why do people consider it paranoid to prepare for the big catastrophes? Yet that is the one of the major questions the author wrestles in Disaster Diaries. Preppers are often seen as paranoid and are portrayed in the media as… (Bluntly stated), nuts!

Sam leads the reader through his quests for knowledge to a deeper level of understanding of what it means to be a survivalist. He questions the role of one’s responsibility to survive. He questions, the rationality- is it paranoia or an internal mechanism of instinctual awareness? He questions the ethics and will to be a survivor and what that means to an individual, a community or even humanity. Although this book provides a treasure of information and some recommendations on ‘tools’ (read weapons), this is more than a how-to’ book. This is a story of a man coming to terms with responsibilities and his need for preparedness. How he came to recognize that to survive requires more than storing water and food. He probes and finds teachers to gain the desirable skills. He takes action and we, the readers, benefit.

This book is more suited to a more mature pool of readers, due to the (at times) graphic violent descriptions. There are no X rated sexual scenes. There are a few expletives in the book. At scarce times in the reading, I wanted to ship a bar of soap to Sam so that he could wash the potty mouth, but, as the cursing was sparse, I think he could get by with a good, hygienic rinsing.

I hope Sam is sleeping better these days knowing the knowledge (and experience) that he gained will help protect his family. I am sure this book will inspire others to do more than the 3 B’s and not feel like a loon for asking the ‘what if’s’. Good on You, Sam!

It’s a fun read well worth your time and money. I could go on in glowing praise, but I have some things to do … quests and all.

In disclosure I received an advance copy of this book. I have never met the author and have no known familial ties. No other payment/ compensation or fee was exchanged for this honest review.
Comments can be directed to mahaffeysreview@gmail.com

Pat’s Product Review: Infidel Body Armor

In the past, working as a police officer, security officer and private investigator, I used to wear soft body armor – it only made sense to give myself every advantage available, and to afford myself a better chance of going home safely at the end of the day. Body armor isn’t anything new, I believe it was used as early as the 1920s – in a more modern form than the armor that knights used to wear into battle.

Richard Davis, who started Second Chance Body Armor (now out of business) paved the way for much of today’s soft and heavy body armor. If memory serves me correctly, Davis started selling his soft Kevlar body armor in the early or mid-1970s. He made quite a name for himself, by actually demonstrating the effectiveness of body armor in live-fire demonstrations. He would fire a .44 Magnum handgun (with full power loads) into his own chest, while wearing his body armor. Needless to say, it was a very effective marketing tool. I still remember when I owned a gun shop in Portland, Oregon, and I bid on a large quantity of body armor for the Salem, Oregon police department and won the bid. However, I didn’t have the funds to purchase the Second Chance Body Armor, so I contacted Davis and explained the situation to him. He told me to add his name on the awarded bid, and he sent me the armor, and I sent him a check.

Today, there have been many advances in the design and effectiveness of body armor. Many police officers, wisely wear some form of soft body armor under their uniform shirt. The only problem I see is that most police officers still attempt to wear the same size shirt, and you can clearly see the outline of the armor under the shirt. This isn’t rocket science. Get a shirt that is a size or two bigger! And, for some strange reason, I see many police officers wearing their “concealable” body armor over their shirts! Come on! The idea is that, the bad guys don’t know you are wearing the armor, so if they shoot, they will shoot a center of mass. But if they see you are wearing body armor, they will go for the head. This is common sense!

Recently, Infidel Body Armor sent me a sample of their hard body armor for testing. This is super-tough stuff to be sure. A complete set-up, with a front and back steel plate and a vest make up the set. The hardened steel plates are made out of AR500 steel – this is the same stuff they use to armor Hummers and other light military vehicles. This is 1/4 inch hardened steel that has a polymer coating on the front and back and comes in a vest. They offer several different styles and designs of vest you can pick from. Each steel plate is bent at a 20 degree angle to conform to your upper torso. The polymer coating on the front and back of each plate is worth note. This coating prevents bullets from splattering off the armor and into your face or arms or lower body. In effect, it is something akin to a sponge – it traps the bullet fragments in the polymer. Each plate is 10 by 12 inches and weighs 7 pounds. Heavy? Well, not as heavy as you think, when you actually put the armor inside of the vest and put it on. I was actually surprised at how comfortable the entire set-up felt.

Chad Cooper, who owns and operates Infidel Body Armor, also sent me a single steel AR500 hardened steel plate for my testing. And, it had already been shot with a .30-06 armor piercing round. There was some damage to the polymer coating, but only a very slight dent to the armor itself. Cooper told me that he didn’t know if the polymer coating would stay on the plate – he attempted to re-coat the plate with more polymer coating – so I had been warned ahead of time. If you’ll go to the Infidel Body Armor web site, you can see the steel plates being tested, and not with just a few rounds, but with many rounds – as many as a hundred rounds fired into a single plate. The standard for testing the effectiveness of any body armor is that it will withstand 7 hits from the calibers of ammo it is meant to stop. Infidel goes above and beyond in their test. No, their armor is “certified” by the big name company that does this sort of certification, but that means absolutely nothing to me!

Cooper has designed his line of hard body armor for the Prepper crowd, not for law enforcement. Law enforcement requires a certain certification for armor, and that means you pay a lot more for that certification. Cooper’s intent is to provide the Prepper with the most effective hard body armor, at the most affordable prices around. He has reached that lofty goal!

Look, the last thing you need in a SHTF scenario is having yourself or a member of your group taken out of action by being wounded or killed. You don’t have an endless supply of replacements like the military does, so if a group or family member takes a hit, or is killed, it can put your group in serious jeopardy. A lot of Preppers don’t take this into consideration – losing someone to a bullet to the torso. Sure, we all want to think it won’t happen to us, but we all know better than that, don’t we? You can have all the latest gee-whiz gear and weapons to aid you in your survival, but if you are shot, what good will you be to the rest of the group or yourself? Something to think about!

I took the Infidel Body Armor steel plate out for some testing as soon as I received it. I fired 10-rounds of .308 Winchester FMJ ammo at the plate. On the first round, the polymer coating flew off, as I was warned it might do. I taped the polymer coating back on around the edges of the plate, and continued firing. There were some small dents, hardly worth noting. And, I removed the polymer coating and saw all the little bullet fragments that it had trapped under it – preventing what could have been small shrapnel injuries to the wearer. Additionally, most of my hits were dead center on the plate – one round on top of the next, and still no sign of penetration or of the plate weakening. On several more outings, I fired a grand total of 100-rds of .308 Win. ammo at the plate, ammo from Black Hills Ammunition and Buffalo Bore Ammunition and Buffalo Bore produces some pretty hot loads, and still there were no signs of the plate giving way or failing. On several other tests, I used some Federal 5.56mm 62-grain steel penetrator ammo on the test plate, again, no failure on the plate, and it really just shrugged off the 5.56mm ammo. Handgun rounds? It was a total waste of time firing those at the plate. All my testing was done from only 25 feet! There were no splash-backs from the bullets, they were trapped in the polymer coating.

Infidel Body Armor rates their plates at threat Level III+ and I don’t see any reason to question this, even though they are not “certified” by the big name company that does this sort of thing. The body armor is rated to withstand 9mm, .357 Mag, .45 ACP 12 GA shotgun, 5.56mm, .308 Win, .30-06 and many other lesser calibers. Infidel has on-going tests and haven’t had any failures in their steel plates. I have dealt with Chad Cooper before, on some of his other products, and find what they sell to be of the highest quality, and they are just good people to deal with, too.

As I mentioned above, Infidel Body Armor is designed and meant for Preppers, or anyone else who might feel the need for very affordable body armor, including police officers, if they can get past the idea that this armor is “certified.” Again, a certification means nothing in my book. It’s what the armor does on real life that matters to me. When you get something “certified” you are paying a lot more money just to have a name or title associated to your product, which means the cost is passed on to the consumer. The US military won’t let their troops wear this armor because it hasn’t meet their standards, and that’s too bad. Why are we, the taxpayers, paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars more for body armor, just because it has a certification on it, or a certain brand name? You can be getting the same or better life-saving coverage for less money? That’s the FedGov for you: if there is a way to waste our tax dollars, they will find it. I’m not expert on body armor, but I know what my own testing has proven to me. Hits at any angle didn’t penetrate the Infidel Body Armor. I was totally impressed!

If you are serious about your survival in a SHTF scenario, it’s worth checking out the line-up of body armor that Infidel carries. Now for the good news, depending on which plate carrier you elect to buy with your plates, the prices are very affordable. It’s way less than you will pay for similar hard armor that may not have the polymer coating on it. The Stryker vest with a front and back plate is only $305, and the Viper carrier and two plates is $375, and the Banshee carrier with two plates is only $425. If you buy elsewhere you can easily pay double, triple, and more for similar vest and plates. The goal was to produce the best hard armor around, at a price point that was affordable, and Infidel Body Armor reached that goal. Their initial goal was to be at $300, and they only exceeded that by a few bucks. You can even use your own vest if it has plate carriers in it. However, the plate carriers that Infidel sells were designed specifically for their plates. I mentioned that the vest with plates was extremely comfortable, and it was. I was really surprised how comfortable the vest with 14 pounds of steel plate was.

I should mention, that even though the polymer coating that had been re-coated came off on my first shot with a .308 Win round, this won’t happen when the plates are snuggly inside the carrier. There’s no place for the coating to go, and it will stay on the plates!
 
With all the stuff happening in DC these days, it’s only a matter of time before they get around to banning body armor for civilian use. As a matter of fact, there are a good number of locales that already outlaw the use and purchase of body armor by civilians, just like some places won’t allow you to put a laser on a firearm. The insanity never ceases to amaze me. So, if you are in the market for some serious body armor that will stop most common high-powered rifle rounds and handgun rounds, I highly recommend the product line at Infidel Body Armor. Why pay more? – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Letter Re: Thoughts Trailers and Towing Capacity for Times of Fuel Scarcity

Dear Jim,
I’ve been having blinding flashes of the obvious lately that I wanted to share.
 
A friend of mine just got a few AS degrees in IT, not realizing just how FUBAR the business world is for his new profession. IT professionals are no longer employees. They’re contract workers, rarely working in a position more than a year, and often a lot less. They don’t get benefits or retirement packages. They get specific tasks, get done, get paid, and get shown the door. This is not conducive to stable living. The career has changed so much that they are doing the minimalism trick and moving to the job. At first, that means renting long term stay hotel rooms, economy suites etc. But that’s pretty expensive. The blinding flash? A trailer.

Get a town vehicle and pull a trailer that you can live in. Depending on pay and vehicle defines the kind of trailer to pull, but I’ve found through my own Google searching that there’s many manufacturers of modest very light trailers which can pull behind any pickup or SUV, and even behind a Subaru. Ones you can stand up inside. Ones with hookups for most trailer parks. There are even ones with garage space, called Toy Haulers, which could be used for workshops for many professions, including space to store a table saw or electronics bench, welding rig and generator and gas bottles. All sorts of stuff, and its out of sight, out of mind. The Garage models are heavier so will require a stronger tow vehicle, but anyone driving and RV could tow a specialized trailer to a job site instead, chain it to something solid, and live next to it. Put it in the contract. I can see contract labor is the future, or even the present, and businesses are veering away from employee benefits in the modern economic disaster area thanks to that last election and the ongoing Derivatives Bubble. Investing in business seems very risky. Contracts avoid the risk.
 
Since the Tow Vehicle is massively fuel inefficient thanks to its specialization, the answer to getting around is either bicycle or motorbike or scooter. Roads being what they are, scooters are somewhat risky. They go down in potholes, in the road, often in front of traffic. A used Enduro motorbike, road legal with license plate and mirror and turn signals, or an older but working small displacement road motorcycle offers a means to get around, buy groceries, run errands. And it can be carried on or in the trailer. People do that. Its not as comfortable as a car, but its more comfortable than walking and cheaper than an 8 MPG tow vehicle.
 
As for the trailer itself, insulation seems to be key, as is power generation. Not all jobs will have hookups, meaning a (really quiet) generator is going to be needed unless you’ve got solar panels installed on the roof. Cheap solar that charges a battery is the answer. The more panels you’ve got, the more power for heat, lights, radio, fridge, and living humanely. Water will always limit trailers, so a hookup is far preferred. If you park somewhere with common showers, room to stretch out, and real hot water that might be a better choice. This also implies there’s a real business opportunity there: running trailer parks for traveling professionals and technicians. Installing WiFi or including ethernet in the hookup bundle? Winning strategy for a business based on short and medium duration stays. Run a restaurant that delivers in the park center and you make yet more money and attract clients that have no time to cook or cleanup.
 
Professionals are going to be there to sleep and clean up, then back to the job they’re on. Its not the traditional slumming situation. You’ll have doctors and repair techs, IT guys, web designers who work directly with the customer (a niche that exists), event planners (business marketing, MBAs), horse dentists, mechanics, factory design engineers and techs, welders, CNC machinists, compliance officers, all sorts of things which make for contract labor. As the cost of fuel goes up and goes synthetic ($33/gal for synthetic biodiesel), the people who do this will be modestly to highly paid. They’re just living in trailers so they keep more of it.
 
The strongest argument for residence trailers is that if you live light enough, you have your bugout gear with you, and you are yourself bugging out every time you move. Moving to jobs and away from bad economies is a viable survival strategy. You can’t take hold of opportunity trapped in one place, not really. You “make do” in one place. You build labor saving devices and get things comfortable, but business moves with the economic winds, and those winds are turbulent today. America has largely exported its thinking and manufacturing jobs to China and India, and its left us with high unemployment. That unemployment is hiding behind the largest Back To College surge since the Veterans returned from WW2. Students aren’t counted as Unemployed. When they graduate, we’ll see more real numbers. They’ll hit the job market and find little or nothing unless they starting thinking outside the box. And some will be thinking about this. Sincerely, – InyoKern

Letter Re: Cooking the Farmyard Fowl

James,
I really learned a lot from the Cooking the Farmyard Fowl article by Irishfarmer.  My chicken flock is reaching an average of two years of age and they are laying fewer eggs.  It is time to learn how to put them into the stew pot.

I had two questions raised from that article.  How do you make a killing cone, and how do you kill and process a chicken?  I found good information at the following links:

How to Make a Killing Cone  It includes sizing information ranging from bantams to turkeys.  That page referred me to How to Kill and Process a Chicken

On another subject, I have been compiling information, such as the above, on all subjects of preparedness, by creating PDF files using the free openoffice.org Writer software, and storing the files onto 4GB SDHC cards, which are suitable for use in any basic Android OS type of e-reader device.  I select e-readers based on their ability to display files from SD cards and to be able to charge up from a 12VDC power source.  One such suitable device is the Pandigital Novel, which is now showing up on discount electronics web sites.  I believe that these e-readers and SD cards will be highly useful for both survival and barter in the post SHTF world.

Regards, – Curtis from Texas

Recipe of the Week:

OkieRanchWife’s Cowhand Soup

This doesn’t freeze well but I doubt there will be any leftovers to freeze. In an emergency situation this great because the liquid comes from the cans.

2 pounds of ground beef or bison
1 medium red or sweet onion, chopped, (can use dried)
3 cloves of minced garlic, (can use dried or powdered)
4 stalks of green onion, chopped, (can use dried)               
3 cans of Mexican style tomatoes (Rotel)
2 14 ounce cans of ranch style beans
2 14 ounce cans of red kidney beans
1 14 ounce cans of whole kernel corn
2 4 ounce cans of chopped green chiles
Sliced jalapeño peppers, to taste.
1 envelope of taco mix
1 envelope of Ranch dressing
Worcestershire sauce (to taste)
A-1 sauce (to taste)
Salt & pepper (to taste)
Extra Cumin if you want
Extra Cayenne Powder if you want

Cooking sequence:
Brown the ground meat in a stockpot. Cook until browned and crumbly.
Add the onion, garlic and taco mix. Stir until well mixed.
Add ranch beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, chiles, corn, jalapeños.
Add the ranch dressing mix, Worcestershire sauce and A-1, salt, pepper and cumin.
Mix well and simmer for 1 hour.

Chef’s Notes:

Do not drain any of the canned ingredients. They all go in the pot.

Ladle into soup bowls. You can garnish with shredded Cheddar Cheese if you’d like.

– OkieRanchWife

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Soup Recipes

50 Soup Recipes

Currently Available as Free Kindle e-Books:

Gluten-Free Made Easy As 1,2,3: Essentials For Living A Gluten-Free Life

30 Delicious Poke Cake Recipes

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics and Investing:

Schiff Report: Dow 14,000, GDP, Jobs, Fed, inflation, treasuries, & gold. Peter Schiff observes: “All of this is an illusion created by inflation.”

Gold Leasing: The Case Of The Disappearing Gold. (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)

Americans Rip Up Retirement Plans

Items from The Economatrix:

Gasoline At Highest Price Ever For This Time Of Year

Fed Officials See Brighter Global Economic Outlook

Why The Dow Will Hit New Highs Before Crashing 50%

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader B.H. wrote to mention: “I’ve found it helpful to use WalMart.com as a locator for ammunition (at November, 2012 prices!)  Search for the product (“223” for instance) at WalMart.com and click on the links for the products that interest you. If it’s not available in your local store then you can “find in area stores” using Wal-Mart’s live inventory updates.  This morning I surprised a local clerk who was convinced that she didn’t have any .223 ammo in stock for the past six weeks, but she didn’t realize she’d been resupplied overnight.  The web site also offers to e-mail you when something is in stock at a local store.”

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Rise of the Preppers: 50 of the Best Prepper Websites and Blogs on the Internet

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Total Semiauto Gun Ban Hidden in Feinstein Bill

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Former Navy SEAL and bestselling author of the book “American Sniper” Chris Kyle was killed at the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range in Texas Saturday.

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Be careful with fireworks. (Especially when handling them in quantity.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid, Copper for the craftsman, cunning in his trade. ‘Good!’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall. But steel – cold steel is master of them all.” – Rudyard Kipling

Notes from JWR:

Safecastle has begun their Maximum Mountain House Sale, with every Mountain House freeze dried #10 can listing discounted the maximum-allowed 25%. Beyond that, Mountain House is allowing an additional 10% discount for select varieties including Diced Chicken, Diced Beef, Ground Beef, Cottage Cheese, Raw Egg Mix-Uncooked, and Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Peppers. That’s 35% off those items.

—

Today we present another two entries for Round 45 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) 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, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 45 ends on March 31st, 2013, 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.

Creating a Secure Post-SHTF Community, by Old Bobbert

This is the time for all of us to learn something abut “Building a community”. We have done our best to be prepared to survive and to continue to enjoy an acceptable good life, and provide for the present and for the future. Time surely appears to be getting very short. Now is the very best time we will ever have to ready ourselves to rebuild our community and provide the services and protection that we will need.

We sincerely believe that our post-SHTF life must be more than simple survivalism, more that just having enough basic food to survive at a lower calorie count, more than simple security from the Golden Horde. Life must continue to be about improving one’s self. Life must be about enlarging God’s kingdom here on earth. Life must be about creating strong love for families. Life must continue to be about helping those who truly cannot help themselves.

We have envisioned being able to help our very small town of about 500 population, to be a tight knit community of survival oriented family units working together to provide for our selves and others as may be needed.  Our small town consists of about 125 homes with a terrific grouping of skill sets plus a 153-year history of working together on common interest projects. The nearest larger town is about six miles in one direction with another even smaller town about fourteen miles further up the road. A large segment of our town already strives to set aside a 1-2 years supply of basic food, fuel, and medicine.

Yes, about 60% of our little country town is Mormon and about half of them actually go to church with us. That is not the important thing. What really counts is that the folks around here are personally experienced in droughts, flash floods, forest fires, landslides, economic downturns, and just plain bad luck on occasion. In actuality we have experienced all of these disasters in just the immediate past 12 years. All of them!  And FEMA  and the Red Cross didn’t show up until the third day after the flood!

As for my family, we are actually two retired couples,, ages 72-72-61-62, plus four  small dogs  and two large cats, residing in a spacious shared home. . We have agreed that we are going to stay here when the SHTF.  We are long-term (20 years) close friends and have learned to trust one another. We have compatible skills and experiences. Yes! two women can share a kitchen and stay friends. Actually sisters in every sense of the word.

Our location is in rural southwest Utah and is centered on a very wide valley mouth (about 4 miles), and next to and above a usable small river. There is an all year creek feeding the river right in the center of town. There is plenty of drinkable irrigation water. We have a two lane state road passing through and only two other roads coming into town. We can be very security oriented immediately! We have a goodly number of retired military and police individuals who are ready and committed to help as needed.

Many of our folks have large gardens and grow wholesome food. There are very large pastures in the immediate area currently used to graze horses and cattle. Many of the ladies here in town raise chickens and are bartering eggs already.

We, as a community, already know mostly who will need medical help, as well as who can probably help to “pull the wagons “when needed.

As for our combined four retirees family, we are fortunate to share a very large well situated home with ample auxiliary power, good water, and a large septic system. A twelve panel solar array (2.3 KW) and a thirty-foot wind turbine  (1.6KW) will provide plenty of power as needed during the “hard times”. A Taller pole would be much preferred. We can heat the entire house with wood easily.

Our alt electricity system is a grid tied 48-volt system with 16 gel deep cycle 6-volt batteries. The batteries are situated in the garage and we are safe from battery fumes because of their gel configuration.

The turbine is good  for our situation and our location. It is a FALCON MACH 5 from Missouri Wind and Solar.  Good people to work with!  They carry all of the miscellaneous parts needed to make the power system perform to our specs.

Our electric power situation is not the only one in town. Two other families also have solar power arrays. However, we do have the only wind turbine. We will be able to provide recharging for the many kindles, notepads, laptops and battery powered small appliances we all seem to need so badly.

Our home is now plumbed to filter the local irrigation water to the kitchen for drinking and cooking. In addition to watering the garden, we can use that water for showers and to flush the toilets. We have a roof mounted solar water heating panel. The small twelve-volt glycol fluid pump at the water heater tank in the garage is powered by a roof top tiny ten-watt solar panel.

I have spent nearly twenty years building an excellent library of specific topic books and videos so that what ever breaks down, disappears, wears out, or proves to be inadequate to our needs, will be rebuilt, repaired, replaced, or expanded. We will do whatever it takes to make it work! We have the specific knowledge needed to do the job. And we can teach others as well.

We have recently made a small investment in Kindles and an exterior hard drive for data storage. Nearly every day one of us downloads and/or copies data from another source into the kindle. Amazon.com has a huge list of EBooks available for free and a great many for just 99c.

Additionally there are 40,000 free eBook’s available from Project Gutenberg. No fee or registration is required. It is fabulous.

Another good site for free EBooks may well be your favorite university. Here is a search result from Google looking for “free university EBooks”.

A great place to find very good quality new and used books and videos is Half Price Books stores. We paid $9.99 for a box of CDs covering 1890 to 1995 National Geographic magazines. Every word, every photograph, every map. 

Our personal main physical library has roughly five types of books. We work on expanding these regularly.  Where do we find books and videos?

Everywhere! Yard sales, consignments, public libraries, Craigslist, etc.

Our favorite topics are mainly these:

History – American

Medical  – “how to do it “

 Drugs –  Essential oils, homeopathic health care

 Food  – storage and usage

 Farming – anything we can find about non-electric farming
 
 Military – Army-USMC infantry low to mid level skills and leadership

Biographies – great men and women who built this nation

 PLUS … K-12 BASIC LITERARY AND MATH SKILLS!!!

These information jewels are of tremendous value now,  and even more when we start to rebuild our lives after the onset of chaos resulting from the loss of power, or the loss of financial systems, or the loss of regular food deliveries to our stores.

How will we use these data banks? Simply put, they are our DIY “how to” tools. We will build up a community known locally for good individual and town security, good medical care, good solutions to problems, great barter items, education for the children, gunsmiths, charged 12 volt batteries, protected trading fairs, barber and beauty shops, and nothing for free.

We will start with the community we already live in and know well. We will work with people we know and have learned to trust !

I am a 72-year-old diabetic with COPD and I need a regular supply of meds and a supply of oxygen 24/7.  We were able to get a used Oxygen Concentrator from the local company that provides my bi-weekly liquid oxygen restock. A patient had passed away and that person’s concentrator was then considered unusable. The delivery tech cut off the power cable and gave the used concentrator to me.  They wrote it off as destroyed.

I replaced the power cable and put the unit in the garage stores room as my backup. Further, I was able to obtain a supply of reserve air filters for the unit and extra tubing parts in order to be prepared when the O2 deliveries stop.

COPD is now the #4 killer in the nation. These oxygen usage situations are everywhere and are very serious.  Many persons with various serious medical situations keep that knowledge to themselves.  Finding them is important. Helping them to help themselves and others is critical.

A simple web search for “ Used Oxygen Concentrator” will produce more information that anyone may want or need. Three things are important.  #1. Free to low cost shipping costs, #2. 30 plus days of warranty, and #3. a 5 liter per minute flow. Do not buy under 5 liter flow.  Here is a link from the web search I did for these facts. There are many others available. http://www.dotmed.com/ The companies selling new ones all have good used stock as well. These same factors apply to obtaining other diagnostic and treatment equipment.

You can do a web search for companies selling new units and just make a list of their names and phone numbers. Do about 10 of them. I suggest that you make a list of questions with ample space between them to write the answers. Make enough copies so as to have a page for every company you are going to call. Now work the phone and make good notes about the answers to your questions. Always note the name of the person you are talking to. This is always a good research method for just about any important inquiries you might have.

As a diabetic I am concerned about safeguarding my insulin and keeping it cool. There was an article published in this blog site on 12-19-12 about a non-electric “zeer pot”. It is simple and it works. Look it up for yourself.

 In our town we have at least 4 elderly widows who now live alone. Surly there are others. When the SHTF we will try very hard to enable them to move in with a “compatible” family who has room for them. Every family needs a grandma, especially one who brings food, blankets, books, smiles, and experience with her. This will reduce the levels of community needs for winter firewood, summer cooling, childcare, etc. And we will all be happier!

Why do we believe this type of community care is important? Experience and history both teach us that if we do not care for those who “can not take care” of themselves, then no one will be cared for. We will succeed, or fail, together. If we do not take care of each other, no one will be taken care of.

Another element that we should keep in mind is, how should a community deal with strangers wanting help coming to one’s door, especially if they have children? We all know that we must make difficult decisions well in advance before the situation occurs. So be smart! Make these types of decisions before you are stressed.  Should you have to turn someone away, I suggest that you provide to them a small amount of food. One simple meal of beans and rice in amounts as needed. Send them on their way With a stern warning to not return.

A simple solution to future problems is to decide how you will respond to a situation in advance. And then perhaps agree in advance that the only new folks who will be accepted into your community are the family members of current residents. But first, I would require the current residents to commit to sheltering and feeding their newly arrived family member.

The newbies will need to be “thoroughly interrogated” as individuals, one at a time, and questioned separately as to skills and education and especially their background. Then the resident family will need to be questioned to assure that all of the family’s answers are the same. Do not be reluctant to say no!

Perhaps these suggestions are not exactly what you need. Talk about and make the decisions the decisions in advance. Be very careful whom you invite into your town, your secrets, your homes, and your hearts. Your worst enemy will be someone who will turn on you out of envy!

What about non-family exceptions? Keep in mind that your community will surely need some specific skills. Perhaps you need a plumber or a carpenter or a nurse or a teacher. Ask questions about skills and experience. Just what are the skills you will need almost immediately?  Most likely it will be Military and Police. These two are fully separate responsibilities. They should work together, each within the parameters of their specific tasks. 

Who is in charge? Perhaps an administrator, or mayor, or chairman. The actual title of the community leader really is not important. It just needs to be one that everyone understands who is the boss.

Your community leader will most likely perform best if he/she has two associates who work with him/her as counselors and surrogates with specific areas of authority and responsibility. One should be responsible for everything concerning medical and health. The other should be responsible for everything concerning food and supplies. Both will most likely have other areas of responsibility.  Before management decisions are final they would need to be very sure that they are both ready to support the leader.

Your military commander should be, if possible a combat veteran, responsible for every thing concerning security outside of your local area boundaries. Your police commander should be an experienced lead officer, and be responsible for the community security inside your boundaries. Both should report directly to the leader. Neither should be a counselor. You will have enough to worry about without a mutiny.

These tasks are going to be much the same in every sized group and in every type of location. Yes! There will be differences, just be flexible and understand that not everyone will immediately agree with you. Be patient and teach through honest dialogue and skilled questioning. The best leader is usually the best listener.

Now back to our basics, books and videos. We do not want to reinvent the wheel. This wonderful web site has a terrific suggested book list of lists readily available to you. Use it first!  SurvivalBlog.com blog.

Below we have a list for you of some of the books on our shelves. Some of the choices we have made for ourselves may well be nothing like what you feel that you need. No matter! You’re in charge. Smile anyway! Just do a list and get to work before the SHTF.

Our single expensive knowledge tool to date is the “Appropriate Technology Library” on four CD’s. The cost about six years ago was huge, $400. The four CDs contain 1,050 books. That’s about 49 cents per book! They cover everything anyone would ever need to know to start or to restart civilization, or just to build or repair a community infrastructure. The pricing has increased a little and the material is now available on two DVDs. Their web site is
http://villageearth.org/appropriate-technology/appropriate-technology-library

REMEMBER THAT ONLY CORRECTLY APPLIED KNOWLEDGE IS REAL POWER!

Here we go. Already on our book shelves as I write this, from among the suggested titles on the Rawles gigantic list of lists: –

When there is no doctor * When there is no dentist
The encyclopedia of country living * Nuclear War Survival Skills
Ball Blue Book of Preserving * Boston’s Gun Bible  * Tappan on Survival
Physicians desk Reference * The Merck Manual * LDS Preparedness Manual
Alas Babylon * Lucifer’s Hammer * One second After * Earth Abides
Molon Labe * The Postman ( book & video) * Out of the Ashes (1 thru 12)
Unintended Consequences (see warning) * Tunnel in the sky * Footfall
Atlas Shrugged * Jim Rawles Books ( All of them)*
Plus twenty-one more from the Jim’s lists.

I am only including a selection of our other books that we have actually read, and there are many more just waiting to be picked up and gently used. As a rule, strictly reference books are stored in place, to be used as needed by someone to successfully complete a task or to teach a topic. Our total count in the library is in excess of six hundred plus the 1,050 on the CDs.

Farming 1918 Edition / Four Volumes Set – Sears & Roebuck
Farm Knowledge – Illustrated – pre-electricity -2,000 pages
American Survival Guide – 120 issues ( 10 years )

Medical  / drugs Essential Oils by Bowles / Barron’s
The PDR Family Guide by Three Rivers Press
Acupressure’s Potent Points by Michael R. Gach
AMA Family Medical Guide by Random House
The Green Pharmacy by James A. Duke
Everyday Health Tips by Prevention Magazine
The Botanical Atlas by Daniel McAlpine
Prescription for Nutritional Healing by P. A. Balch
Armageddon Medicine by C. J. Koelker, MD

History Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Original Intent  book  *  Wall Builders DVDs by David Barton
Patriots of the American Revolution by Richard Dorson

Military Expertise: Company Commander by Charles McDonald
Company Command   by John G. Meyer
Army Officers Guide by L.P. Crocker
On War by Clausewitz
Command in War by Van Creveld
West Point by Bruce Galloway
Citizen Soldier by Robert Bradley
Total Resistance by H. Von Dach

Biography Roosevelt F.D.R.  & Teddy
Franklin  *  Churchill  *  Washington
Adams     *  Jefferson   *  Monroe

Food My wife has more than 40 books on everything imaginable
Concerning buying, storing, preserving, canning all types of Food. And that’s not counting her cookbooks & videos.

One more thing, no one should rely on the Internet for information because when the power fails, the Internet will die! It will be too late to get the information you will need.

It is our sincere hope that our readers will give serious thought concerning the timing and extent of your preparations in the areas of helping others and building a good life after we have survived the major disaster we are all facing. We are sure that Almighty God does answer our prayers for direction and decisions. Please refer to James 1:5 for this assurance.

We are passionate in teaching others the concept of making difficult decisions well in advance.

Remember Winston Churchill’s advice to the graduation collage class during the worst moments of WW2   “ Never Give Up.”

Some Advice for Newbie Preppers, by Jillie

Around two years ago, I was sitting at my friend’s house visiting and he tells me about the supposed end of the world on December 21st, 2012.  At first I thought he was feeding me a line of horse manure.  He went on to tell me that he was going to buy the car of his dreams that he wouldn’t be able to afford, rack up his credit cards, get a big loan and live it up.  He wasn’t going to have to pay it back anyway, the world was going to end and we were all going to die.  Well my stomach got queasy and was left feeling very disturbed.  Well thank God for him that he didn’t do just that….right?

As time went by I tried to put it out of my mind.  I wouldn’t watch any kind of movies that had anything to do with the end of the world.  If my boyfriend would bring up the subject, I would choke up and ask him to change the subject.  I would just try to put it out of my mind, what I didn’t know didn’t hurt me.  I lived by that motto.

About one week before the rumored Mayan Calendar end of the world date (12/31/2012), I finally had a sudden feeling, a calming, easy feeling about the situation.  I don’t know if I finally came to terms with the fact that there was nothing I could do with that situation, so whatever happened, happened.  I really felt good for some reason.  I was really okay.

When the date came around, and then went, that was when the reality of it set in.  What if something did happened?  I wasn’t even a little bit prepared for what could have happened.  If something did happen, I wouldn’t have lasted a week.  I didn’t know the first thing about preparing for a huge catastrophe. 

Not knowing where to start, I sat down in front of my laptop and began my investigation.  To my surprise, there are web sites on prepping.  I couldn’t believe all this information, I wish I would have thought about this sooner.  Have I been living with my head in the clouds?  On my search I immediately found a blog site called SurvivalBlog.com.  I read a few articles and I was hooked.  It’s been only a few weeks now and I must say, I have learned a lot over a little time. 

My first thought was food so that’s where I began.  I went on to learn that it’s ok if you have a small income because you can do it a little bit at a time.  Make a list, then from that list figure out how much extra money you can put aside each month or every two weeks to buy and put away.  I have all kinds of big plastic containers not being used that I could store this stuff in. 
I am not much of a cook but a few months ago, I did a search online on easy ways to cook while camping.  I found recipes that you can breakfast, bacon and eggs in a paper bag over the camp fire.  Very impressive.  I will take those recipes and modify them if I need to, organize them and put them into my binder labeled “What to do in a Crisis” under “Cooking”.  I also studied the ins and outs of bottling food from the garden.  That doesn’t seem like an easy chore but I have the rest of this winter and all summer to figure it out.

First aid was the next thing on my mind.  I found a few sites online that you can buy antibiotics without a prescription called “Canadian Express Meds” to name one.  I don’t know how legit they are or if their medication is any good.  I could talk to my doctor, she might surprise me and be understanding to my needs.  I already have a good first aid kit but learned that I will have to add quite a lot to it.  I will look through my first aid books and add another section in my binder called “First Aid”.
A big item on my list of needs is Essential Oils.  I would have lavender in my first aid kit along with Calendula essential oil.  Calendula essential oil helps regenerate your skin.  The men in the War used to have Tea tree essential oil in their First Aid kits.  They would use it to disinfect their wounds or so I was told.  You can on the other hand definitely use these oils for many other purposes.  Cypress essential oil can be used to help control bleeding. I would put it on my wrist holding a cloth over it so it would soak into my bloodstream.  If you had to do a small surgery and have to create a sterile environment, you could get a bucket, fill it with hot water and put some lavender and tea tree essential oil in it.  I would put 2 drops of each kind of oil per one cup of boiled water but cooled down enough to stand putting your hand in it.  Lavender oil can be a mood stabilizer, give your young ones a warm bath or a good wash down with just a few drops of lavender in with the water, your children will sleep soundly all night long.   Ylang Ylang essential oil is a good aphrodisiac.  There are many oils to choose from and if you don’t know much about them, it would be very beneficial for you to read up on it.  You can even make different medicine with essential oil as well as dilute some in with your kitchen fats and message it into your tired, aching or pulled muscles.  You can get tiny bottles of different oils so it could fit in your pocket and make a good trade item.  To the right person they are worth a bundle.  Chamomile essential oil that I have is worth almost forty dollars with the tax.  Ylang Ylang is worth a fortune also.

Then I learned about Bug out Bags/Bail out Bags and what to put in them.  Of course there is fire starter, matches, lighters and cooking tools, safety gear, personal hygiene, I found many lists that people where kind enough to provide online.  For newcomers like myself “The Desperation Shopping List: The 7 Critical Items That Are Guaranteed To Be Stripped From The Store Shelves When You Need Them The Most” is a good list to consider.  Although, I just found it a few hours ago, it would have been good to start with.  More sections that I will add to my binder.  That was an enormous help.  It’s amazing how other people’s thoughts could be such a big help to other people.  A lot of these things I have laying around here and there but mostly I will have to set some sort of budget for that as well.

Then came shelter, now that could be a problem.  If I couldn’t stay in my home, where would I go?  Yes, there is ways to make temporary shelter with paracord, survival blankets, tarps and so on.  I live way out in the country with miles and miles of woods.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  I am doing my homework on shelters in the woods.

If I had to leave my home on foot and I set up shelter, eventually I am going to want to sleep.  What about security?  I can be pretty handy with a knife but if I don’t see or hear them coming, I’m done for it.  I am a 5 foot 3in., 105 pound female so I am going to have to have the jump on them.  So far I have found one way to get ahead of this situation.  I was looking on YouTube the other evening about trip wire set ups and one of them really stood out to me.  It is by CripticCRICKET and it is titled “Trip Wire Alarm-Homemade, Simple, and Loud.  He added some string to a key chain alarm and it turned out pretty great.  As for the shelter situation, I am going to have to do a lot more reading up on the subject.  I am sure I will come up with something creative and safe.

Of course there are my two dogs.  My two, four year old sister pit bulls are great.  I love them so much and they love me so I have them for protection as well.  My dogs love to carry there doggie back packs when we go for their walks.  They look pretty proud with their back packs on and their heads high in the air.  So to be able to store extra stuff you need for your bug out bags, you can now put in your doggie bug out bags or you can simply fill it with their stuff that they will need such as their first aid kit, water food toys, doggy wipes and treats.  I can also make an extra handle for on their pooper scoopers with paracord and attach it to the outside of their packs.  I even have two little plastic poop bag holders with a roll of baggies in each that have clips attached to the.  I can clip that to their packs as well.  Don’t fill it too heavy because if your dog is not used to carrying one, it may be quite awkward or too heavy for them.  I suggest that when you go for regular walks with them, you can get them used to their Doggie Bug out Bag little by little by first starting them off by putting two bottles of water, one on either side of the pack to distribute the weight evenly through.  After a few walks with two bottles, add a few more and so on. If and when the time comes that they will really need to carry these bags, they will have no problem.   It won’t take them long to get used to them and they will feel so good about helping you, believe me or not.

Budgets: How does a person budget for this stuff when their paychecks don’t even cover the bills they have to begin with?  Go to flea markets, yard sales, dollar stores, even trade with other people.  If you see a good deal or a sale, stock up then.  You can make a lot of these things. If the time comes that you are in need of these things, you are going to wish you had them.

So people may be wondering why this chick is only bothering to prepare herself when the scare is over.  I feel that the world we live in can be very unpredictable, as we found out the last week of December, 2012.  People predicted that something would happen and nothing did, but that doesn’t mean that things won’t happen in the future.  I don’t want to feel the awful queasy, uneasy feeling of being totally helpless in the event that something where to happen.  After all, I am a women alone in this world when it comes to preparing.  I expect that I wouldn’t be alone if something was to happen, I would have some people that I would have to lead and take care of.  I don’t mind but I would never want to let them down.  If I am to be a leader, I want to be the best leader I can be.  Until that time comes, every day or every other day, I will be filling my head with all the knowledge that I can.  If that time is just around the corner, the way I see it is that I know a lot more information then I knew a few weeks ago.  I’ll be that much more ahead. 

One last thing I would like to add.  When I see a person in need, I will still be the first one to give aid.  No matter what, I will not be stripped of my humanity.  If a person is starving, I will feed them.  If a person is dying of thirst, I will give them a drink of water.  If they need medical attention, I will do what I can to help them medically.  My heart couldn’t take not giving and helping someone in need, especially children and animals.  Make no mistake though, I will proceed with much caution.  Being a push over has no place in that kind of world.

Good luck to all, and to all the other newbie preppers out there.  God bless.

Letter Re: LEPCs Show That Help Won’t Be Coming

JWR,
Just a few notes about RC’s article about ARES/RACES and becoming the EC.   I’ve been an emergency services volunteer since 1986 and a ham since 2003.

Actually, Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) is under the control of the ARRL.   RACES is the ham radio group that is activated by a government emergency person, usually the state’s governor.   In many small areas they are combined, but ARES can operate in an emergency without specific government authority.   RACES only acts in time of war or officially declared emergencies.  Unless a war is declared or martial law declared, you can help others using the radio all you want as a Ham.  Just don’t cause interference with any emergency traffic.

In most counties, the county/parish sheriff is the highest law enforcement official in that county and in my state is responsible for Search and Rescue also.  I suspect that Federal money is what keeps RC’s sheriff in a “Hands-off” position with the FEMA personnel.  I’ve served as AEC for my counties ARES/RACES team and we take the on-line course’s plus the NIMS 18 hour classes held at our local fire departments.

Long before I joined our local ARES/RACES team, it had been pushed into being part of the county SAR teams.    When I asked why asked ARES members who only operated the radios had to take ALL of the SAR classes (many weekends), I was ignored or told, “That’s the way it’s done here.”   I now volunteer with an adjoining counties ARES team and help folks by keeping my radio on at all hours (like the old REACT Channel 9 CB’ers did). – H.B.