Grow Your Own Nutrient-Dense Fruits and Vegetables, by C.F.B.

Let’s face it.  When we get to point that you can’t call out, use a computer, or find a stop light that is working, our stash of stored food will eventually become depleted.  We will all become more and more dependent on local produce.  Even if food is available for purchase, many people will want to grow some of their own.  For most of us, growing our own fruits and vegetables in an efficient manner will be a challenge.  How successful we are in gardening will very much depend on our individual knowledge and skills.  If you have never gardened, be aware that there is lot more to it than just planting seeds and harvesting. 

Basically, all of our gardening goals will be much the same —  to grow large quantities of fruits and vegetables that are packed with minerals for good nutrition.  When fruits and vegetables are high in minerals, we call it “nutrient-dense.”  Depending on the way a fruit or vegetable is grown, its mineral content can easily vary as much as 100 percent.   It’s the minerals we are after.   In fact, we don’t need to eat as much food if it is nutrient-dense to get the same benefit.  Gardening in ways to get nutrient-dense food is therefore a move to greater efficiency.  This is especially critical when gardening in restricted spaces.

This article is about the concepts and techniques for growing nutrient-dense produce.  It’s for beginning and experienced gardeners.   After more than 50 years of gardening experience and extensive training, I offer what I know to be the critical factors for growing nutrient-dense produce in an efficient manner.

If at all possible, I urge you to get started now with growing your own food.  Don’t wait until there is an emergency at hand.  Start small, develop a gardening community, make it an adventure, and enjoy it.  Bonding with Mother Nature serves us all well. 

Choosing the Fruits and Vegetables you will Grow 

We know that there are differences in nutritional value among the many fruit and vegetable choices that we have available to grow and consume.   That is simply the nature of the individual species.  Beans, corn, melons, broccoli, etc. are not alike in nutritional value.  It’s important that we eat a variety of foods to get a full complement of minerals.

Before you begin learning and using techniques for growing nutrient-dense produce, recognize that your selection of what you can grow is dependent on your geographic location.   Summer and winter temperatures,  length of growing season, winter chilling requirements, basic soil types,  and other factors, all influence what you can grow.  Especially if you are new at gardening, it is wise to see what is available at local Farmer’s Markets and visit with long-time local gardeners and farmers before deciding what to grow and when to plant.

The aim of this article is to help you get the most minerals/nutrients possible into whatever crops you are growing.  The more nutrients you get in all your produce, the more efficient is your gardening effort.  Besides the efficiency issue, we need to understand that the more nutrition we have in our produce, the healthier will be all the consumers.  This concept applies to your livestock and pets, as well as to people. 

Basic  Gardening Considerations

First, plan and grow mainly the amount of produce that you will actually eat fresh and store.  The exception to this is growing crops that you are using for sale, sharing, and/or for bartering.  Under “survival” conditions, produce will be in short supply, at premium prices, and a tradable commodity.  Many people will have limited gardening space, so plan, plan, plan.  Although garlic is a wonderful, easy-to-grow crop in many ways, it’s not likely you will eat several pounds of garlic each day.   On the other hand, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash might very well be a main-stay item that is eaten several times a week.  They are relatively easy to grow and can be stored for many months.  Deciding how much of each to grow will become easier, as you get gardening experience. 

For health reasons you will want to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, but be a bit cautious of trying to grow too many things.  Each crop has unique germination, transplanting, watering, and other maintenance requirements, and until you are experienced, management of a garden with 30 to 40 varieties can seem overwhelming.   Start small and grow into the more complex garden.

Everyone will not have a site for growing a garden.  If you have an big area that requires more work than you can do by yourself, consider asking others to join you in the endeavor.  Choose carefully, only those who are willing to do hard physical work under all kinds of conditions and throughout the year.  Everyone involved needs to feel “full ownership” in the project.  Work together from the beginning in planning, and in defining individual work and financial responsibilities.

Second, grow crops that store well.  Some fruits and vegetables will store fresh under the correct conditions.  Many crops can be canned, frozen, dried, or fermented and will safely last at least a year.  In areas where you can grow a spring, summer, and fall garden, it is not difficult to have a supply of produce that will last for a year or more.  Weather disasters may severely limit what you can produce in any single year.  Put considerable emphasis on drying your fruits and vegetables.  When done properly most dried produce will last for several years.  Excellent home-size, fruit and vegetable driers are available.  Under certain climatic conditions, sun drying can be used and is advised.

If you don’t know the nutritional value of the different fruits and vegetables, your best choice is to grow and eat a big variety.  Think in terms of growing and eating leafy greens (like kale, spinach, and lettuce); common vegetables (like peas, beans, tomatoes, and okra); root crops (like potatoes, beets, carrots, and turnips), and dried seeds (like the beans and grains) — perhaps some of each every day.  A wide variety of  crops will help you in getting a broader array of minerals/nutrients.  Of course fresh produce is best, but it may not always be available.

Third, plan for year-around gardening.  While year-around gardening is relatively simple in the south, as you move north, it requires different season-extension techniques.  These techniques are available, and it is wise to become familiar with them, and be prepared to implement them when needed. Under severe “survival” conditions, growing your own vegetables may be a necessity.  Eliot Coleman’s book, Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Garden All Year Long, offers excellent advise on this topic for backyard gardeners.

Techniques for Growing Nutrient-Dense Produce 

The bottom line — it is the soil that primarily determines the nutrient-density of fruits and vegetables.  Weather, including rainfall, is important, but the soil must be healthy if it is to perform its primary functions.   A healthy soil functions effectively in water infiltration and storage, digestion of organic matter, recycling of nutrients, and feeding the plants the needed water and nutrients.  Healthy soils must also contain major and trace minerals at the proper levels.  The techniques that help the soil fulfill these functions are explained in the 7 steps listed below.   John Jeavon’s book, How To Grow More Vegetables, is an excellent source for details on gardening (growing soil) in a sustainable manner.

If you follow these 7 steps, you will be on your way to more successful gardening.  You will be able to measure your success by growing produce with improved, intense flavors.  If you grow nutrient-dense produce, you will taste the difference.  Some folks say, “It’s like I remember vegetables tasting from my grandmother’s garden.”  I actually use a refractometer to get an index of sugar/mineral content of my fruits and vegetables, so I can monitor progress, and adjust fertilization of the garden accordingly.   The refractometer reading is called the Brix value.  Ideal Brix values vary with the individual fruit or vegetable.  See www.highbrixgardens.com for information on helping to improve your health by growing high quality produce.

1.  Select the Best Garden Site Possible.   Most people won’t have a lot of options on this, but as a rule, go with the area with the most sun.  Stay back away from the drip line of trees and find the area with the deepest top soil and fewest stones.  If the site is entirely shaded, you might have to sacrifice some trees for the sake of food production.  Ideally, you also want an area that has not had pesticides and chemical fertilizers applied in the past.

Use non-contiguous areas.  The garden can be a single plot or many small plots.  Produce can be grown right up next to buildings.   Consider replacing shrubbery with annuals and/or perennials that provide a source of food.   Some berries and vegetables, figs, and many herbs will do just fine around the periphery of buildings.

Everyone will not start out with high quality soil.  In some cases, you may need to bring in  topsoil to build up the garden.  Try to get the best topsoil possible.   While  this may seem like a very work-intensive or expensive approach, if you really have to grow most of your own food, it could turn out to be a real life-saver activity.  

2.  Use a No-Till or Minimum-Till Approach to Produce a Living Soil.   No-till makes sense from the viewpoint of reducing energy costs, but more importantly,  no-till is best for improving the soil and increasing productivity.   As a general guideline, apply the concept that all gardening activities should result in protecting and improving the soil.  Soil quality determines the productivity and nutritional quality of your produce.

Tilling can reduce the biological activity in the soil.  Soil quality depends on many factors, but on the top of the list is the soil biological activity.  Beneficial bacteria, fungi, earthworms, etc. are the organisms that are continuously digesting and relocating organic matter.  Without this workforce of micro-organisms, the soil becomes dead.  Dead soils are the result of applying toxins (chemical fertilizers and pesticides), but can be converted to healthy soils over time.   Though expediency often drives gardeners to adopt the chemical approach, it should be avoided at all cost.   Stay with the organic approach for the sake of the soil and your health. 

Tilling can negatively impact the physical properties of the soil by destroying the soil structure.   Good soil structure implies individual soil components of sand, silt and clay are held together with the natural glues secreted by soil microbes.  These soils are not subject to erosion and they have good tilth, meaning they are easily worked, and have the capacity to hold water.   

3.  Grow Diverse Crops.   Growing many different species of plants, over time and space, increases the number and varieties of soil microbial populations and is an insurance program against disease and pest problems.   Sugars, made from the diversity of plants, are released from plant roots into the soil.  In the soil, the sugars serve as food for soil microbes, which in turn decompose organic matter into nutrients that support plant growth.  It is the way the natural soil development process works. 

As part of this practice, try to rotate crops as much as possible.  Although there are crop rotation patterns in commercial agriculture, just think in terms of not growing the same vegetable in the same place year after year.  Depending on your geographic location, you may have 4 different crops on the same bed within a year. That may include a cover crop (generally a non-vegetable)designed only for improving the soil.  Cover crops (e.g. oats, Austrian winter peas, buckwheat, clover, and rye) should be an essential part of the rotation system.   The cover crops that are classified as legumes have the ability to “fix” nitrogen on the plant roots in the soil.  This can be sufficient nitrogen for the year.  Always keep a cover crop on the garden over the winter. 

4.  Grow Crops Throughout the Year.   For a healthy soil you need to be continuously feeding the soil microbes, primarily by growing plants that are providing live roots that freely exude sugars.  Providing plenty of sugars means easily accessible food for soil microbes and a plethora of benefits for plant growth.  Maintaining a suitable habitat for the myriad of soil food web creatures (the microbes) is the key in suitable soil development.  One teaspoon of healthy soil can easily contain more individual microbes than there are people on earth.  It is so clear: we need to be gentle and kind to the soil, and the soil will be good to us.  

5.  Keep the Soil Covered.  I like to tell visitors to my garden that what they can not see, is the most important aspect of my garden.  It’s my precious soil.  A garden where the soil is covered by growing plants and/or their residues is very likely a garden as nature intended.   Soil covers protect the soil aggregates from beatings by the rain, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and moist, and promote soil microbial activity.  How can it get any better than that?

The five practices listed above are aimed at maximizing the physical and biological activity in the soil.  In essence, they are speeding up the natural soil development processes and will lead to  healthy soils, healthy plants, healthy produce and healthy consumers.   These are steps that take little or no input from outside the garden area.  While not entirely free, they are low-cost gardening techniques, that move us in the direction of being sustainable gardeners.  

6.  Mineral and Nutrient management.   Beyond the five steps described above, one major topic in gardening remains.  It’s that of adding supplements to the garden.  The kind and amount of supplements to add will depend primarily on the original rock material (e.g. sandstone, limestone, etc) and past uses.  

The degree to which you address this topic will depend on resources available.  Here are a list of things to do, all which will likely lead to improved nutrient density in your produce. 

**  Make and use compost.   Collect organic matter from the kitchen vegetable refuse, garden area, and other sites and make compost for use on the garden.  Use the compost sparingly and wisely.  Don’t use excessive amounts of compost.  Too much compost can lead to higher than needed nitrogen levels in the soil, excess nitrates in the produce, and encouragement of insects.  It’s not likely that the compost will increase minerals to the point of being in excess.  Four to five percent organic matter in the soil is sufficient.  Once at that level, and assuming you are following the five steps above, 20 to 40 gallons of compost per hundred square feet per year may be sufficient to maintain the desired nutrient level.   Bear in mind that compost derived from garden plants will be similar in nutrients to what is in the soil.

**  Increase the diversity of bacteria and fungi in your garden.  If you have some adjacent prairie and/or woodlands, collect some soil/humus from it and add it to your compost pile and/or sprinkle it directly on your garden.  This is simply an insurance program to add microbial diversity to your garden.  Natural environments will likely have new, desirable microbial species that will be helpful in the garden.   You can also find bacterial and fungal inoculants available for sale from many sources.

**  Add mined and minimally processed rock and organic minerals.  Determining what to add, and how much, goes beyond what we can specify here.  In short, this is the place for contacting a laboratory that specializes in making recommendations for organic gardeners.  There is some room for your own garden diagnostics, but only if you know the plant symptoms for deficiencies for the various nutrients.   Materials like alfalfa meal, soft rock phosphate, lime, kelp, wood ashes, epsom salts, borax, and many others may help to correct mineral shortages, but do not add them until you have some indication they are needed.  It is possible to have excess minerals in the soil system. 

Some other options can also be helpful. 

**  Raised beds are an optional, but very useful technique.  In essence, it means developing beds that are 8 to 12 inches higher than the adjacent walkway.  I use four-foot beds and two-foot walkways.  I recommend that you do not use any sideboards.  Unless you use treated material or expensive redwood, wood sideboards will rot or succumb to termites in a few years.  One exception  — if you have a garden plot on a steep slope, sideboards on the downhill side might be needed to prevent erosion.

Raised beds have several advantages.  They drain more quickly after heavy rains and they warm up faster in the spring.  Early and more timely plantings are critical to maximizing production and nutritional quality.   As a rule, raised beds have better aeration, which promotes better microbial acuity and increased growth. 

**  Double-digging is the process of loosening the soil to a depth of 16 to 24 inches, depending on specific soil conditions.   In short, the top layer of soil is removed, a little compost is added, the lower layer is then loosened, and finally the top layer is replaced.  The top layer of the pathway is then added to the bed.  This process creates raised beds.

Double-dug beds are better aerated, more biologically active, and promote deeper plant root penetration.  All this translates into increased production and better nutritional quality. 

**  Use heirloom seeds and save seeds.  Heirloom seeds exist for all of the major garden crops.  Once you have them, take the extra effort to save seeds or vegetative starts for subsequent years.  The fruits and vegetables from the heirlooms will generally be more nutrient dense.   Work with neighbors and friends and plan for sharing seeds.  Also, consider a more general cooperative garden sharing plan.   Use the knowledge of all involved.  

Summary   

If you read this article and have the impression that all gardening techniques and processes are interrelated, then you have it read it correctly.  Everything you do in the garden and all the growing processes are all tied together.  It is the way nature has designed the system.  That may be disconcerting to you as you try to understand what is happening in your garden.  Or it may be troubling as you try to  prioritize your gardening activities.  Do not become overwhelmed with understanding all the interconnections.  Just remember that the interconnections serve as a safety or buffering system or insurance program for how your plants grow and survive.  Nature’s system is designed so that life might continue.  

When we use techniques to protect and promote that natural system, we are harmony with nature and more closely within reach of our objective of producing nutrient-dense produce.  That goal is good for us as individuals and good for us a world full of people, everyone looking or sadly  hoping for three meals a day.   Following the 7 techniques above is a good place for all of us to begin.   Work diligently, maintain patience, share with others, keep an open/positive mind and you will be blessed.  

The Complete Cycle Of Life, by Terry I.

Imagine a market place in your back yard for fresh homegrown fish, herbs, fruits and vegetables.  Best part of this is that you grew it and know what’s in it.  No pesticides or unwanted hormones and additives.  Plus the market is open 24/7.

My Hawaii Experience 
Living on an island  and having everything shipped into it makes for the worst case disaster when mother nature or human nature turns bad.  From total communications failure to coastal ports devastation, Hawaii would suffer the worst of all the states in the shortest amount of time.  A large population on island Oahu would mean all meaningful supplies would be consumed in two weeks.  If nothing else the multi-cultural mix of the islands make-up may prolong the inhumanity a month. After no resupply of goods and fuel, then the insanity begins.  But when it comes down to family needs, your best friend may become your competitor for what you may have.

Water is not far away, but clean water can still be a problem.  I have water filters for the times when questionable sources are the only available supply.  Drought in Hawaii, you betcha.  Clean water source can at time be hard to find.  Water storage is a must, but to be prepared to find renewable resources will be very challenging.  Would  be great to have a miniature desalinization plant in a box for these times.  The only alternatives will be the tried and proven, moisture capture, filters and sterilization tablets.
Climate is predictable.  Constant 80 degrees, plus or minus 10 degrees throughout the year and depending on your island location.
Aquaponics, Barrelponics, etc. by any other name is an easy low cost way to supplement your survival box of tools.
Simply put, fish excrements gets pumped out to the grow beds to fertilize the plants.  The plants convert the waste to nutrients and  the water is returned to the fish tank cleaned of the toxins.
The Aquaponics ebb and flow or constant flow systems (NFT) provide more nutrients and water to the plants than if the plants were in the ground.  But then again, you have to have a “usable” water supply.  Rain barrel collection probably the only alternative.
Ground pest are minimized.
Normal maintenance if you had an aquarium and an in-ground garden.  Feed the fish and watch for abnormal conditions to the fish and the water (pH, ammonia,etc.).  Keep the grow beds clean (no weeds in this system), remove algae build-up, pest removal and elimination with non-lethal methods (vinegar/water solution) minimally sprayed under leaves.

My Systems 1:
1 – 110 gallon tank for fish ( 20 Tilapias – Blue and Red)
4 – Grow beds 2’x3’x8” on plastic tables and PVC piping
1 – 150 gal/hr water pump
1 – Fluval 60 air pump single with 4 way gang-valve
My System 2: (under construction – 70% complete)
2 – 55 gallon barrels for fish, on concrete molded stands
4 – halved barrels for grow beds, wood stand and PVC piping
1 – Stellar 60 dual outlet
I covered the fish tank to reduce sunlight to energize algae growth.
Know your fish and plantings, expand your knowledge on fish and plant life cycles, nutrients and pest.
Disadvantages are growth time and clean water availability.  Also when it gets time to cull the fish, don’t  names them.  You can get so familiar with the fishes that killing them to eat can be hard to do.  Reproduction is the real issue, do you have the know-how to create generations.
But great a hobby turn necessity, and a good stress release when tending the fish and garden.  Makes you appreciate all the farmers out there making a living.
I have planted tomatoes (roma and beef), egg plant, green onions, basil, taro, Stevia (Sweet Herb), zucchini, lettuce, bok-choy, and oregano.
 
Fish food – Silver Cup pellets, green leaves from the garden, duckweed
 
So start now, grow in stages for continuous supply. 
Organize a group to share knowledge and food.  Like minds breed success.
Knowledge can go a very long way.  So boot up your computer and start your searching through all the great web sites that offer information on everything Survival. 
Books are great, but I prefer scanning all the things of interest specific to what I need to know and cut out as much wording as possible.  Start now and don’t stop looking up things of interest on a continuing basis.  Print all interesting pages for later referral.  Once the Internet is gone and the grid goes down, it’s too late.  Your specific library of knowledge will serve you right until the world gets back to order.
Other must additions to your survival box of tools:
Heating sources are definitely a must.  Strike and chemical fires starters, like matches and lighter have a finite life, so I like lenses and a hand or bow drill.
Parabolic metal pots and mirrors.  This is a great idea, buy mosaic mirror tiles (or if you are not superstitious, break a mirror) and glue the pieces to a Wok pot.  You can focus the suns rays to heat pots of anything.
Add live protein sources to your backyard of ducks, chickens and rabbits.  Work on this one.  You got to deal with the neighbors, predators and city ordinates for this one to work.
Add Rain barrels to your water supply (don’t forget filters and screens).  Run-off from the roof sounds good, beware contamination hazards from bird poop and just stuff landing on it. 
Jack of All Trades should be you mantra from now on.  Be a general knowledge sponge on all things.  If you know of or come upon someone that is a specialist, stop to watch what they do.  You never will know when a situation will arise and you’ll recall how you can apply what you saw.
Alcohol is a great item to have for sterilizing, medicating and trading.  Stock up and don’t drink it.
Buy a generator to meet your needs and store gas in containers (rotate them).
I have a motorcycle.  You may want to have a small one, 175cc.  Getting around quickly and in all terrains will save time and help carrying items long distances.  Unless you can get animal of burden.  But as the gas supplies dwindles, there may be items from the bike that you can use.
Stock up on canned goods and rotate there use.  Remember when the electrical grid goes out and then your generator, you’ll have to eat everything in the freezer and refrigerator first.  Cook as much as you can to prolong the ability to eat them.
Get a good book on natural ways to deal with medical emergencies.  Local plants and common man-made products can substitute for the usual meds.  Unfortunately, if you have a need for prescription drugs, then stock up knowing there is a shelf-life.  I’m sorry if you are dependent on them for you life.
Solar panels that you own or others may have on their roofs, can benefit your needs for renewable energy.  Read and learn how to utilize this option.
Abandoned cars and trucks have unlimited uses.  From gas, batteries, glass, bendable metals and tires.  Be inventive and anything can be used.
Add a Worm bin to compost all you vegetable waste.  The worm liquid and casing are great fertilizers.  I guess if it gets really lean, you could eat them, but the fish would appreciate them more.

Get a weapon.  It’ll serve you well.  Home and personal defense and hunting.  Gun(s), knives bow and arrows.  Gun – at least a handgun (I like a revolver), shotgun and rifle.  I prefer reloading and some bought ammo.  But any tool or household implement has a dual purpose. 
Get to know your neighborhood.  Walk around during the day and the night.  Get to know where the watch dogs live, which homes have fences and security.  Look for fruit trees.  Wave to all the people you meet,  a familiar face is more excepting than a stranger when you need help or advise. Become a scavenger and walk around your neighborhood.  Look for sites that you might use to replenish usable resources (water, food, energy).  It may be sad and depressing to watch your neighbors and friends died, but the opportunity for you to live on on their leftovers can not be overly emphasized.  Realize that your compassion will have a limit.  Discuss this with you love ones.
Get a loyal friend, guard and a weapon, get and dog.  Worth its weight in food and your servicing.  When you can stock up extra bags of kibble, do it and rotate them as you use them.  Secure you home.  Realize that this is your castle, work towards making it so.
My wife and friends thinks I’m nuts.  But better safe than sorry.  If the worst happens, I’m ready.  If it doesn’t happen, then we have a great supplement to the grocery list.
Bottom line, be creative and use your common sense, sounds a lot like Survival 101. 

Letter Re: Fabric Choices in Survival Clothing

I wanted to make a couple of clarifications to Emma C.’s article on fabric choices in survival clothing, specifically with regards to wool. As a full-time Shepherdess of more than 100 heritage breed sheep, my experience in handling and processing wool runs deep. 

It was written that (with regard to socks), Wool does take more care than other fabrics in that it should be washed in cold water and lay flat to dry. While that statement is mostly accurate in general fabric care, there are primarily two things that can permanently change (i.e. shrinkage or felting) wool fabrics: agitation (washing/scrubbing) and temperature.

Washing of traditional woolen items must utilize as little agitation as possible while cleansing. Intense scrubbing will simply cause your wool item to felt.  The soaking method is preferred whenever possible using a mild, easy rinsing type soap. Gently squeezing out excess water by folding the item in half is ideal. Larger items such as pants or sweaters can be folded multiple times, pressing firmly to release the water. Never wring or twist wet wool as you may end up with a hopelessly misshapen garment. When you wash wool, it is the temperature of the water for BOTH wash and rinse that affects wool.  You can wash your wool in hot water, if so desired, but you must also rinse the item in hot water to avoid shrinkage. It is in the variation of the water temperature that causes your wool treasures to shrink so drastically. If you wash in hot, rinse in hot; wash in warm, rinse in warm and so forth. Consistency throughout the cleansing process is key.

While cold wash/cold rinse is generally deemed the rule of choice when washing wool but it is not something set in stone. I personally prefer the hot water method, especially when cleaning my wool. Hot water kills germs and is much safer on the fibers themselves than using chemical disinfectants. Most smartwool blends have already been ‘pre-shrunk’ and are much less likely to be affected by water temperature or agitation. I have multiple pairs of these socks that go into the washer and dryer routinely with no effect on the end product. I could go on about the many benefits and uses of wool, perhaps another time. God certainly knew what He was doing when creating the sheep!

Thank you for such an informative blog. Blessings! – C.A.T.

Letter Re: Advice on Handgun Selection

Hello there!
I stumbled upon your writing on the Internet, and would like to ask for your advice.
 
I am looking for a handgun for my girlfriend. Primarily for self defense. She wants one, but has never fired a weapon. My main concern is recoil. I was infantry in the Army for six years and have hunted for most of my life, so I have quite a bit of experience with weapons. I do admit that I am not that familiar with civilian models, so if you could recommend some or have any suggestions it would be appreciated. 
 
Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a good day. – J.P.R.

JWR Replies: See SurvivalBlog’s archives. They are fully searchable.  For example, you can search on “handgun and selection” in the search box.

In my opinion, the best thing to do is first teach her the firearms safety rules and gently instruct her with with a .22 autopistol. Once she has mastered the basics like sight picture and trigger control, then take your girlfriend to an indoor range that rents handguns and have her try out several models. See what feels comfortable to her.  Get the most powerful caliber that she can handle in rapid, aimed fire. Depending on her tolerance for recoil and her upper body strength, that will likely be a 9mm, a .40 S&W or a .45 ACP. Buy the gun of her choice, and then get her lots of training.

The newer “SF” (small frame) Glocks are quite comfortable.  (The grips are less bulky that on the pre-SF models.) The .40 S&W Glock Model 22-SF or Model 23-SF are a good compromise for those who are too recoil shy to enjoy shooting .45 ACP. The Springfield Armory XD40 would be a comparable choice.

Economics and Investing:

Eric Sprott talks precious metals on Squawk Box. Toward the end, he is asked about physical preparedness. Eric says: “Prudence is very much warranted.” (Thanks to SurvivalBlog’s G.G. for the link.)

Faber Warns “Everything Will Collapse”

G.G. sent this: USPS Prepares for Second Default in Two Months

Bram suggested some good monetary analysis by Charles Hugh Smith: Why QE Won’t Create Inflation Quite as Expected

Items from The Economatrix:

The Truth About The Fiscal Cliff

New Home Sales Dip, But Prices Hit 5-Year High

Dr. Gary North:  Five Mainstream Economists Sound A Warning

Europe Is Now In A Completely Unmanageable Situation

Odds ‘n Sods:

Download, print, fire: gun rights initiative harnesses 3D technology

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Alternatives To A Bugout Location – What You Should Consider

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The Most Often Forgotten Survival Preparations

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G.K. in western Washington mentioned yet another reason to avoid social media sites.

   o o o

Here are links to a couple of my recent radio interviews: EMPAct Radio and Time Monk Radio. (The latter is more than two hours long.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and know my [sheep], and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” – John 10:11-18 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

This is the birthday of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881 – 1973.) The many resources at the Ludwig von Mises Institute web site are worth exploring.

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Today we present another entry for Round 42 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, 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), F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) 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. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) 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, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 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.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

The queue for Round 42 is full but Round 43 begins on October 1st, so please start 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.

Update on the Release of “Founders”






This is for those who have asked for more details on the release of my latest novel “Founders”, particularly about the audio book and ebook:

The audio book edition of “Founders” was narrated by Phil Gigante. He is a former Shakespearean actor and an Audie award-winner with a great voice.

The cover artwork for Founders was done by Tony Mauro Jr., who is best known for his movie posters. He did a fantastic job of capturing the atmosphere of Ken & Terry Layton’s trek.

 


Sources for “Founders” – Hardback, eBook and Audio Book Formats

Hardcover Book Sellers:
Amazon.com
BAMM
Barnes & Noble
Indie Bound
Powell’s
 Safecastle
Boomerang (Australia)
Amazon.de (Germany)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)

eBook Sellers:
Kindle (Amazon)
Nook
iBook (iPods and iPhones)
Sony Reader Store (ePub)

Audio Book Sellers:
Amazon.com
Audible.com
AudioEditions.com
IndieBound
iTunes Store
Amazon.de (Germany)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)


 

The Likelihood of Man-Made Disaster, by William Crosby Prentice

Introduction, Scale

I think you will agree that you will get the highest returns from your preparation investments when you make those decisions based on the relative likelihood of a range of SHTF scenarios.  Unfortunately, the probability of many SHTF situations is very hard to determine, and will end up being a judgment call.  However, there is some information out there on the likelihood of certain events that qualify as SHTF.  This information allows us to at least calibrate our judgment calls on the likelihood of certain events, enabling us to refine our gut feelings. In doing so, we will look at a wide range of potential events, which would run the gamut of being the victim of a crime to the potential for a worldwide astrophysical cataclysm.  The scale of a potential SHTF event obviously has an impact on the probability, and in ways that might not be intuitively obvious, but will at least give us some sort of basis for a planning-level judgment. 

Personal SHTF Events
As shown in Table 1, based on crime statistics from calendar 2010, the probability of your being the victim of any crime is about 3.3%, and the probability of becoming a victim of a violent crime is about 0.4%.  On average, in the USA, your chances of being murdered is less than 5 thousandths of a percent.

Table 1 – US Crime Rates – 2010

 

Per 100,000

Percent

Total Crime

3,345.5

3.3%

Violent Crime

403.6

0.4%

Property Crime

2,941.9

2.9%

Murder

4.8

0.005%

Rape

27.5

0.03%

Robbery

119.1

0.1%

Assault

252.3

0.3%

Burglary

699.6

0.7%

Larceny-Theft

2,003.5

2.0%

Vehicle Theft

238.8

0.2%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compare this to other personal SHTF events, shown in Table 2.  Note you are a little over four times more likely to become a crime victim than you are to die from any cause in any given year.  You are more likely to die of an accident than you are to be raped and/or murdered.   If you go to Yellowstone, you are five times more likely to be attacked by a bear than you are to be hit by lightning while you are there.

Table 2 – Estimated Rates of Other Personal SHTF Events

 

Per 100,000

Percent

US Deaths, all Causes – CDC

798.7

0.8%

Heart Disease – CDC

192.9

0.2%

Accidental Death – CDC

38.2

0.04%

Being in Car Accident

1,948.1

1.9%

Struck by Lightning

0.10

0.0001%

Yellowstone Bear Attack

0.52

0.0005%

Police Misconduct – Total Pop

2.22

0.002%

Police Misconduct – Adult Pop

2.92

0.003%

Incidence per 100K LEO

978

0.9%

Active Shooter

0.01

0%

Military Action, Iraq  KIA

416.0

0.04%

 

 

 

 

I took some flak for my last essay in SurvivalBlog for suggesting that Unlawful LEO Activity, or Police Misconduct, was something to actively consider as a threat.  First of all, I am biased in favor of law enforcement in nearly all respects – I have nothing to prove to anyone in that regard.  That said, the probability of your being involved in an event in which you become an alleged victim of police misconduct is about one-half of the probability of your being murdered, based on statistics compiled by the Cato Institute.  If you are a law enforcement officer, the probability of your being involved in an incident in which police misconduct is alleged against you is a less than one percent.

Keep in mind that these are averages and for the USA only, and rates will vary dramatically by geographic locations, and would also be highly dependent upon behavior and the situations in effect at the time.  Even though overall crimes rates have been falling, and fell in 2010 as compared to 2009, the crime rates, including violent crime, in those cities with the highest rates, actually increased, resulting in a substantial and increasing variability by location. For instance, it was reported this summer that the murder rate in Chicago – at about 19 per 100,000 population (or 15/100,000 depending on the source) – is presently four times that of New York City and twice that of Los Angeles.  Depending on where you are, what time it is, and what you are doing, the probability of your becoming a murder victim in Chicago might even be higher than that.

Local variations are significant.  In 2010, the average murder rate in Los Angeles County was 6.28 per 100,000 population, about 30% more than the average for the nation as a whole.  Within Los Angeles County, the murder rate for Compton was 25.92, and the murder rate in Inglewood was 18.24.  By contrast, the murder rate in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, was 1.4, and that for the New Orleans area was 20.

That might seem pretty high, but the murder rate in Caracas, Venezuela recently was reported to be as high as 200 per 100,000 population, and apparently 90 percent of those murders go unsolved.  The murder rate in Honduras is over 90, and that of Mexico overall is only 22.  However, the murder rate in the Mexican state of Chihuahua is 111, and that of Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua across the Rio Grande from El Paso, was reported to be over 220 in 2010.

Black Swan Natural Disasters
In a very useful 2011 document, the firm of Ernst & Young defined a Black Swan Event as being one that occurs unexpectedly and unpredictably, develops rapidly and lasts for a period of up to several months, are catastrophic in scale and broad in scope, present hazards beyond immediate financial risks (loss of life, health, environmental damage), involve significant asset damage/losses, and require corporate/government resources to resolve.  The document lists 21 such events that have happened in the past 40 years, including such events as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Andrew, the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, the Earthquakes in Haiti and Sichuan, China, and the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.  In going through the literature, I believe that I can come up with another 20+ instances of similar magnitude during the same period, which means that a Black Swan Event is likely to occur somewhere in the world at least once a year. 

The question from your perspective is how likely such an event is to strike in your area, such that it effects you.  That is a question that the insurance industry has been attempting to resolve for many years.  We know that hurricanes like to hang out in the Caribbean, the Southeast United States and along Atlantic Coast.  We know we are overdue for a large earthquake in California.  The chances of the Big One happening in any given year is above 0% but less than 100%, and depending on what you read the probability is either increasing or decreasing every year that it does not happen.

For planning purposes, maybe we should assign a probability of 3% to such an event.  That would be about the same probability as your becoming the victim of a crime of any sort in any given year.  Or would you judge that the likelihood of a Black Swan Natural Disaster that impacts you would be less than 1%, or about the same as the probability of dying from any cause according to the CDC?  Or is it in between, at about 2%, which is the approximate the probability of your being in a traffic accident during any year?

Other Black Swans
Black Swan events can include things such as the “financial meltdown” in 2009.  There are many people who predict that the fiscal and monetary policies being followed by the Federal Reserve, the US Government, and many state governments, made a further and more serious financial crisis a virtual certainty within the next five years. 

I have read some reports that state that the past four years have actually been worse, by certain measures, than the Great Depression.  What if it got worse suddenly?  That could certainly happen, with the wrong combination of tax, fiscal and monetary policy being imposed on our economy.  Would the resulting economic and societal stress, combined with gradual breakdown of infrastructure and government services (roads, signals, water/sewer, police, fire, schools) result in our gradual slide into failed state status?  Would that result in the environment becoming as dangerous to us as Mexico is now, or Chihuahua State, or Ciudad Juarez?  This seems more likely to me than the comet strike, Planet X or zombie epidemic scenario. 

A Wedge of Swans
Black Swans, at least by the Ernst & Young definition, are not TEOTWAWKI events, since we have had them before, and the world still exists, in almost the way we knew it.  However, swans are gregarious birds, and a group of swans can be called a flock, a bevy, a wedge or a team.  I believe that a wedge of Black Swan Events could amount to a TEOTWAWKI event, and that such a combination of blows could be a more likely scenario than some of the others we hear discussed. 

One scenario that I don’t like thinking about would begin with a financially weakened and war-weary United States teetering on the brink of a further financial disaster that had been building for years.  We are then suddenly hit with one or more of the following: a 9/11 scale terrorist attack, a major epidemic, and/or several natural disasters.  If you then throw in a dramatic increase in civil unrest bordering on insurgency, which in turn leads to US Government actions that are seen as unlawful by a significant portion of the population, you have a believable, non-sci-fi, TEOTWAWKI scenario. 

What is the probability of such a combination of events?  In rooting around on the Internet, I find that there is a fairly narrow range of personal predictions from various sources of this type of scenario happening: from 1% to 20% within three to five years.  If this is true, at even the low end of the range of predictions, then we should be just as worried about this as we are about being in a traffic accident, being a victim of a crime, or dying from heart disease.

I should add that I recently had a discussion with someone that I respect who argued that there might be several unique Swan Wedge Combos that have an overall beneficial impact on at least part of the population.  For instance, what if the US was teetering on the brink of a financial disaster, and was suddenly faced with a substantial part of the country that wanted to go its own way – secession – and a war-weary population prevented a Civil War type re-conquest of the seceding states or regions?  It is possible that the seceding areas would be established as lightly governed havens for business and technological innovation, a Libertarian utopia.  Where can we sign up for that?

Black Swan Impacts on the Rates
If we slide into failed state status because of renewed financial crises, or we suffer a Swan Wedge Combo, the way that affects our survivability will manifest itself through dramatic increases in the probabilities of various items shown in Tables 1 and 2 above (even bear attacks).  It is useful to think in terms of everything breaking down to where we are suddenly shoved into Caracas-level risks.

If the murder rate is, on average, increased to about 200 from about 5 (40 times), you might also expect that your chances of dying, from any cause, to increase from about 800 to about 32,000.  In other words, your probability of dying in any given year from any cause would go from less than one percent to about 32 percent – the odds are one in three that you would die. If that were to be the average probability – the middle of the bell curve – think what the ends of the curve would look like: on the one end you would have conditions that are much closer to what we know as normal, on the other you would have absolute slaughter house conditions.

The job of those who are preparing is to push their own situation, and that of their loved ones, towards the “more normal” side of the curve.  If you are preparing yourself physically and financially, then you have a much better chance.

Cataclysms, TEOTWAWKI
The scenarios that are the subject of major motion picture franchises, and memorable novels, belong in this category.  Red Dawn foreign invasions, Terminator singularity and machine-attacks-mankind events, epidemic aftermaths such as The Omega Man and I Am Legend, and others.  The scenarios would include asteroid or comet strikes, diseases, apocalyptic wars, electro-magnetic pulse events (natural or manmade), and other disasters.  In 1984 and Atlas Shrugged, both the movies and the books, the villain is the slow relentless grind of totalitarian government.  What are the odds?  I don’t know, but they are certainly greater than 0% – for one example you can check out NASA’s risk assessments for potential Earth impact events.

Who Cares About the Odds?
Life is full of peril, and it is essential that persons committed to individual responsibility and self-reliance be prepared.  It begins with the things that are most likely to happen to you and your loved ones, and grows out from there. 

If you have made the commitment to defend yourself and your family from crime and possible civil unrest, if you alter your lifestyle to avoid the most common objective hazards such as disease and geographically-focused dangers/crimes, if you take measures to ensure you can survive for a substantial period of time during the most likely Black Swan Events (hurricane, floods, earthquakes), then you are already better prepared than the vast majority of people. 

Progressing from that state of readiness to being able to handle various conceivable Swan Wedge Combos is probably just a matter of scale, and of organization into a community of like-minded souls.  If you have done that, and are lucky, then you will be a survivor if this happens. 

Moving from that stage to a stage of being able to handle a true global cataclysm is probably not a very useful planning task.  If you are lucky enough to survive whatever the opening disaster is in the TEOTWAWKI scenario, and you are already pretty well prepared for a potential Swan Wedge Combo, then you are also probably as well of as you could be for the aftermath.  Good luck to you.

The Author
Despite the state’s appalling politics, the author lives peacefully in California.  He is engaged in the business of financing energy and technology firms, and is the acting CEO of a private military contracting firm.  He is also devoted to the personal pursuits of rock climbing, martial arts, and hunting.  Prentice is also the author of Feral, a novel with significant Libertarian overtones, and the short story Purgatory.

References and Suggested Further Reading:

Disaster Center, US Crime Rates 1960 – 2010 (http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm)

Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_04.pdf)

http://www.goinsurancerates.com/auto-insurance/11-statistics-and-facts-thatll-stop-you-from-driving-uninsured

National Weather Service (http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medical.htm)

“Yellowstone Bear Attack: What Are The Odds?” by David Knowles

Statistics from Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, 2010 Annual Report (http://www.policemisconduct.net/statistics/2010-annual-report/), adjusted to show the “rate” per 100,000 population using 308mm total population and 234mm adult population.  Note that the Cato report shows a total of 4,861 reports of police misconduct, involving 6,613 sworn police officers, and a total of 6,826 alleged victims, out of which there were only 247 fatalities.  The rate of misconduct of 978 is per 100,000 police officers, whereas the two figures above that are the incidence for the population as a whole, in the first case for the average 2010 US population of 308mm, and the second figure for the adult population only.

Used data from NYPD Analysis of active shooters from 1966 through 2010, total of 202 cases in the 44 year period, averaging 3.0 dead and 3.6 wounded per instance, for total casualties to active shooters of 1,333 over the period, during which there was an average population of 252.3mm.

Based on battlefield casualties in Iraq through January, 2007 (http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA518921), based on per 100,000 man-years of battlefield exposure; compares to a KIA rate of 2,231 per 100,000 for Vietnam.

Huffington Post, 16-Jun-12, updated 16-Aug-12 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/chicago-homicide-rate-wor_n_1602692.html)

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-Deadliest-Global-City-163874546.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate

https://www.policymap.com/city-crime-rates/los-angeles-crime-statistics/index.html

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/table-6

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23venez.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

http://www.citymayors.com/security/latin-american-murder-cities.html

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2FPublication%2FvwLUAssets%2FPrinciples_and_protocols_for_responding_to_unexpected_catastrophic-events%2F%24FILE%2FBlack%2520swan_FINAL.pdf&ei=z2NaUOCpIYfm2QXQ04H4Ag&usg=AFQjCNFuTasXVKu0w95aB_dlWFFM8Tj5jg

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/

Letter Re: You Don’t Need To Be A Conservative To Be Prepared

Sir:
Anyone who spends any amount of time on survivalist and preparedness oriented forums knows that a certain political worldview is the most commonly encountered perspective, particularly with respect to economic concerns. Particularly in the literary niche that is survivalist/preparedness fiction, the protagonist is often identified as a conservative critic of Keynesian economic thought and favors the gold standard. Very often the plot presupposes a very right-wing political orientation. Matthew Bracken (Enemies Foreign and Domestic), Thomas Sherry (Deep Winter, Shatter), Glen Tate (299 Days), and even James Wesley Rawles (Patriots) all share to some degree this worldview. Some authors even make efforts to settle scores with Democrats and liberals. I enjoyed all those books, and authors certainly have the right to write whatever they want. However, fiction serves a valuable role in outreach and education (not to mention entertainment!), and I think that it may useful to remember that being a card carrying member of the political right is not a requirement to be a survivalist. There is nothing inherently political about wanting to guarantee the health and safety of your family. You don’t need to be a conservative in the Austrian school of economics to want to be prepared.

Government Might Not Help You

Both the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party protest movements share a common jaundiced eye toward the motives of government. Whether the criticism comes from the right or the left, it is not unreasonable to worry that the most powerful people in this country, or the world, don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind.

There seems to be a perception that rich bankers and the political elite all seem to eventually hold some fraction of their wealth in precious minerals and mountain retreats. Perhaps they have peeled back the curtain and have seen the fragility of modern civilization. Or perhaps it is just prudent for the super wealthy to take some small percent of their vast wealth and put it to work as a hedge against the most extreme of dangers. After all, gold is pretty and so are the mountains of Montana and New Zealand. Either way, whether through special insight or just good planning, many powerful people are preparing for something. That just makes it all the more likely that if a true danger does appear, they have the ability to escape. That mere possibility of escape means that if comes time to navigate through rough seas, the normal captains at the helm may already be lowering their private life rafts.

Even If “They” Have Every Intention Of Preventing Collapse, They May Miscalculate

You don’t even need to be a cynic about government to want to prepare for trouble. Maybe the power brokers and elites that run the country do have the best interest of you in mind. After all, collapse and disorder are not the ideal methods to accumulating wealth and power. It would be far better to own a small slice of an enormous pie than control a larger slice of a shrinking post-collapse society. Even if the people who man the levers of the economy really are evil geniuses, it is probably in their best interest to keep the entire system perpetuating. But even evil geniuses are people, and people make mistakes.

Many survivalists and authors of survivalists worry about the fiat money system and favor the gold or silver standard. It is entirely plausible that the economic growth and innovation of the last 75 years is attributable to having abandoned the gold standard to the dustbin of history. Maybe fiat money and central banking is a bit like what Churchill said about democracy, it could be the worst form of economic underpinnings except for all those others that have been tried. Certainly inflation, disinflation, and jolting business cycles were well known when the world ran on specie.

The 2008/2009 banking crisis and resulting government intervention was a scary event. Yet some thousand plus days later the wheels of trade are again more or less functional. Nobody should ever wish for a collapse, even if it like the grasshopper, you may think eventually those unprepared are due a comeuppance. If Bernanke was able to patch things together and pull off a last second save of modern civilization, he should be hailed as a hero, not pilloried. However, the fact that a last second save was even necessary should give you pause.

Even if you favor central banking, government backing of the savings and loans industry, and quantitative easement, the fact that it is a human at the lever that makes sure these functions help the economy should give you pause. The most powerful could be evil geniuses plotting every move, or perhaps even scarier, they are just people. Keynes – whose economic ideas are so often the target of the right and many survivalists – was fearful of the impact that “animal spirits” could have on the economy. The spontaneous urge to action unchecked by quantitative benefits or probabilities will always be a core potential risk in society. Even those who politically view government as having an important role in curbing the animal spirits should not ignore the very threats that modern Keynesians argue justify the Federal Reserve.

Other Concerns

Certainly the left offers other justifications for preparedness. Many on the left are concerned about the environment and sustainable ecology. And of course, plagues, nuclear terrorism, meteors, super volcanoes, various peak theories, earthquakes, and weather crises are all apolitical. – Anonymous

Economics and Investing:

Deleveraging from one bubble to another – Since the peak in 2008 $1.3 trillion in US household debt is gone but another bubble is brewing hidden under the rubble of the busted housing market.

Precious metals market analyst Ted Butler: Transparency

Impending Catastrophe: Spain Has Entered A Full-Scale Collapse And Created A Tremendous Amount of Instability Which Could Trigger An Imminent Lehman-Like Event And A Rerun of The Great Panic of 2008

B.B. sent this: Estimate of California’s real debt upped from $28 billion to… $335 billion

In Forbes: Run On The Banks Would Make Fiscal Cliff Look Like A Speed Bump

Items from The Economatrix:

US Bank Run Imminent As FDIC Expanded Deposit Insurance Ends December 31st

Spain Recoils As Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins For Food

Fed Virtually Funding The Entire US Deficit

Greece Is About To Default Again

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large Michael Z. Williamson spotted this: Mapping the World’s Population by Latitude, Longitude. Mike’s comment: “An interesting pair of charts, but it is skewed a bit by China and India.”

   o o o

Reader R.B.S. sent us this: San Francisco considers 220-square-foot micro-apartments

   o o o

Reader W.C.P. forwarded a link to a diatribe by the West Point Academy’s Director of Terrorism Studies (an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences) in which he parrots the SPLC‘s Party Line and tars survivalists with a very broad brush, equating us with skinheads, the KKK, and neo-Nazis: Identifying Three Trends in Far Right Violence in the United States. He claims that right-wing extremism is in part characterized by “ideological associations promoting anti-taxation, gun rights, and a ‘survivalist’ lifestyle…”  and “strong convictions regarding the corrupted and tyrannical nature of the federal government and its related natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civilian lives and constitutional rights…” [JWR’s Comment: <Sarcasm On>Those radical Americans who talk about Constitutional rights. They must all be subversives. <Sarcasm Off>]

   o o o

I noticed that the second episode of the post-power grid collapse drama television series Revolution is now available at the NBC web site, and on Hulu.com. In just the first 15 minutes of it there was a bushel basket full of familiar memes from The Postman and The Hunger Games. In the second episode the plot has thickened, but I still consider the show sub-par, at least alongside a show like Jericho.

   o o o

F.G. sent word of a bad legal precedent: Florida: Court Approves Detaining Motorists at Toll Booth for “large bills”

   o o o

The folks at Safecastle are wrapping up their last maximum Mountain House sale of the year. They are offering 33% discounts on many of the most popular #10-can entrees through September 30 only, and 25% discounts on everything else. Then, after September 30th, they will still offer 25%-off all the Mountain House can varieties through October 7th. They also offer additional member incentives to Safecastle Royal club members.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the LORD his God:
Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein [is]: which keepeth truth for ever:
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
The LORD openeth [the eyes of] the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
The LORD shall reign for ever, [even] thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD. – Psalm 146 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

A reminder that there will be a Sustainable Preparedness Expo this Sunday in Spokane, Washington (September 30, 2012), from 10 AM to 6 PM. The keynote speaker will be Congressman Bartlett, Ph.D., talking about EMP. Bartlett is the only outspokenly survivalist member of congress and is a strong proponent of EMP preparedness. One of our advertisers (Pantry Paratus) will have a booth there as will one of our writing contest sponsors, Naturally Cozy. The latter will have a few autographed copies of my latest novel (“Founders”) available for sale. I included some very special bookmarks as well as some SurvivalBlog magnets for each, as bonuses. If you attend, please stop by and say hello at both of these booths.

—

Today we present another two entries for Round 42 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, 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), F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) 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. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) 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, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 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.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

The queue for Round 42 is full but Round 43 begins on October 1st, so please start 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.