Pat’s Product Review: All American Sun Oven

It goes something like this, “one is none, two is one, and three is two!” No, that’s not new math – although these days, it could be with all the insane things they are now teaching in public schools. What I’m talking about relates to survival. If you have one of “something” and it breaks, you lose it, or whatever happens to it, you have none. If you have two of “something” and one goes south, then you still have one. If you have three of “something” then if one stops working, you still have two to fall back on. Makes a lot of sense if you stop and think about it.
 
I thankfully, don’t have just one firearm, I have several – not nearly as many folks believe I have. I’m not a gun collector, I’m a habitual gun trader. So, if one of my firearms breaks, is stolen, gets lost – whatever – I still have a few to fall back on. If you’re a Prepper, you need to have something to fall back on, be it firearms, extra food, extra water, or just about anything – you need to have a Plan B and a Plan C, if you want to survive. When it comes to cooking, my family and I have several methods with which to cook our foods. We of course, have our electric range in the kitchen. We also have a rocket stove, we have a propane BBQ grill, we have a propane camp stove, and we have some small compact little camp stoves that fit in our backpacks, so we pretty much have things covered when it comes to cooking, one is none, two is one and three is two, right?
 
I received the All-American Sun Oven for testing some months back, and it is a must have as far as I’m concerned if you’re into prepping for the bad times that are coming – the bad times that are already here. Sure, there’s a lot of foods you can eat cold – but not much fun. However, many foods need to be cooked before you can eat them. For many years, I read about home made solar ovens or cookers, and I always meant to get around to building one – never did! Just seemed like a good idea to have the sun do my cooking for me, and it can also help save on your power bills, by allowing the sun to do your cooking – for free!
 
Now, you can not only cook in the Sun Oven, you can also bake, dehydrate, steam foods or boil water – for making it safe to drink – have I caught your attention, yet? Good! The Sun Oven can reach temperatures from between 460 and 500 degrees, without fear of burning your foods, like a conventional oven can. I like the idea of being able to dehydrate foods – without having to plug-in our food dehydrators, they are noisy and take a long time to dehydrate at times, depends on what you are trying to dehydrate.
 
For the past 28-years of so, Sun Ovens have been widely used around the world in more than 126-countries, and have become the world’s most well respected cooking appliance, especially in third world countries, where, well, to put it quite simply, they have no electricity or gas for cooking – they cook over open fires, while not a bad way to cook, it’s not controllable and you are dependent on a fuel source. With the Sun Oven, your fuel is the sun!
 
Now, that’s not say that the Sun Oven if perfect, and you can cook on it 365-days per year, you can’t! You are dependent upon the sun, and in my part of Oregon – the wet side, we have about 8-months of rain and overcast days – that’s not to say, we don’t see the sun for 8-months, we do – but not on a daily basis. So, we come back to one is none, two is one and three is two – when it comes to sources for cooking meals. On days when the sun isn’t out, we can cook on our electric stove, or if the power is out, we can cook on our little propane cook stove – which we do when the power goes out. Or we can cook using our rocket stove, that takes very little fuel – and we have plenty of trees on our homestead to use for fuel. So, we have a back-up plan, to our back-up plan when it comes to having a means to cook our food. In many areas of the country, you might have sunshine 365-days per year, and you can use your Sun Oven for many of your cooking needs.
 
The Sun Oven in American-made weighs about 22 pounds, and is large enough for most of your baking and cooking needs, and it is fairly compact. The E-Z Sun-track indicators – big term for a little device that allows you to set-up the Sun Oven to take advantage of the proper placement and alignment of the sun’s rays. The front cover on the Sun Oven is 25% thicker than the glass on previous models, for increased shatter resistance and it also improves the insulation properties of the oven. The body of the Sun Oven appears to be made out of fiberglass, and it is sturdy, it should give you a lifetime of cooking use, assuming you don’t abuse your oven – as in dropping it on a hard surface, where it might crack. The reflectors, and there are four of them, that surround the over, are designed to direct the sunlight directly into the Sun Oven. There are also wind resistant alignment legs with ground stakes, that allows you to raise or lower the oven’s orientation to meet the sun on the horizon – really, it takes a minute to set it up, easy to do!
 
The model of Sun Oven I received is the basic model, and it only came with a dual purpose leveling rack, which hangs inside the oven and swings freely to prevent spilling food in a pot on the rack. It can also be set on the floor of the oven to increase the usable area inside the Sun Oven – again, easier done than explained.
 
Okay, enough of the “technical” stuff, so how does the Sun Oven work in practice? Well, I’m not a baker, my wife does all the baking around our place, but I am a cook, and a good one, at that. I do a lot of the cooking at our home, I enjoy it! Over the period of several months, we used the Sun Oven for baking breads and pies, and it works just as advertised, and the outside temps do not have to be hot at all – all you need is the sunlight being reflected into the oven to do your cooking. It doesn’t matter if the temps are freezing or super hot – the oven will still cook for you, so long as the sun is able to hit the reflectors. Yes, in cooler temps, your cooking time takes a little bit longer, but not much, and on hotter days, your cooking time is less. We also boiled water – the Sun Oven web site says you can boil water to purify it, but we wanted to test it ourselves, and in short order, a pot of cold water was boiling.
 
I love pizza – it’s my favorite food – followed by a good Chicago-style hot dog, then a good burger. Yeah, my eating needs are rather simple compared to most folks, I guess I’m easy to please. We baked pizzas in our oven, as well as “roasting” hot dogs and “frying” burgers. And, one thing you will notice is that, you foods are much more moist when cooked in the Sun Oven, compared to other cooking methods – especially breads and cakes.
 
There is a wealth of information on the Sun Oven, on their web site, be sure to check it out – you’ll literally spend hours there watching videos and reading all the cool stuff about the oven. What is most amazing is, the simplicity of the Sun Oven, the darn thing works and works and works as advertised – so long as you have sunlight, you can cook. In a SHTF scenario, you have a way of cooking when the power goes down, and one of the nice things about the oven is, with much of the foods you cook inside the oven enclosure, it won’t give away to the neighbors or the bad guys that you are cooking. They aren’t going to smell the burgers cooking on a barbeque – little or no smoke or aroma to drift from your location. And, best of all, you are cooking for free – no other source of fuel is required, only the sun! Right now, we are just getting to the end of a heat wave in our part of Oregon, and we honestly didn’t want to do any cooking or baking inside the house, it was hot enough. So, the wife placed the Sun Oven in the front yard and we did most of our cooking there – keeping the house a little bit cooler.
 
The only drawback I can see is that, as already mentioned, you can’t cook in the Sun Oven all the time – if you don’t have sunny days. That is where we revert back to our one is none, two is one and three is two rule – you have different methods for cooking your meals, just in case the sun isn’t out on a particular day, you can still cook by another means – if you have prepared and have other means available for cooking and baking.  I like the idea of being able to cook and bake in one device. On my little propane camp stove, I can cook – yeah, they make an attachment for baking, but it’s so small, I don’t honestly know what I can bake in it. With the Sun Oven, you can bake and cook.
 
I received the base model Sun Oven, and it only came with the leveling rack – nothing more, and it sells for $349 – a bit steep you might say? No, not if you look at all the benefits you get by using the sun to do your cooking, and in a SHTF scenario, you’d give anything to have a Sun Oven to do you cooking and baking. And, if you stop and think about all the money you’ll save by allowing the sun to do your cooking, you will recoup the investment in the Sun Oven. However, I would pop for the $399 Sun Oven model, as you get an entire host of accessories with it. Yes, you can purchase the accessories separately, but it is a huge savings if you purchase the $399 model over the basic one – well worth the extra $50 if you ask me.
 
If you’re planning on cooking or baking when the power grid goes down – for whatever reason – you absolutely, must get your hands on the Sun Oven. And, as an added benefit, it’s just a lot of plain ol’ fun cooking in the Sun Oven, and it’s fun to experiment – we haven’t gotten around to doing any dehydrating with out Sun Oven, but we will. Honestly, this is a worth while investment to add if you are a Prepper, or just someone who wants to save money by not using your kitchen stove all the time. Simple – get one! – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Embarrassing Truths: An Example of Why You Shouldn’t Trust Wikipedia

As I’ve mentioned before, Wikipedia’s editors have strong leftist and statist biases. This is evidenced by the way that they selectively delete content and gradually push the Point of View (POV) of articles to match their world views.

According a SurvivalBlog reader in Switzerland, the following section was deleted from Wikipedia by members of an anti-gun Wikipedia cabal on August 14, 2013. (It had been part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns article):

Members convicted of illegal activity
 
Some members of MAIG have been convicted of crimes. They include:
 
Baltimore, Maryland – Mayor Sheila Dixon
 
Hartford, Connecticut – Mayor Eddie Perez
 
Racine, Wisconsin – Mayor Gary Becker
 
East Haven, Connecticut – Mayor April Capone Almon

Detroit, Michigan – Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

Guttenberg, New Jersey – Mayor David Delle Donna
 
Jackson, Mississippi – Mayor Frank Melton

Passaic, New Jersey – Mayor Samuel Rivera

Austin, Texas – Mayor Will Wynn
 
Jersey City, New Jersey – Mayor Jerremiah Healy
 
Birmingham, Alabama – Mayor Larry Langford
 
Inglewood, California – Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn
 
White Plains, New York – Mayor Adam Bradley

Port St. Lucie, Florida – Mayor Patricia Christensen

Hamilton, New Jersey – Mayor John Bencivengo

Brownsville, Texas – Mayor Pat Ahumada
 
Monticello, New York – Mayor Gordon Jenkins

JWR Adds: Never mentioned in the Wiki article was the fact that there are charges pending against at least seven other members of their “crime fighting” organization:

Marcus Hook Mayor James ‘Jay’ Schiliro. (The “furnishing alcohol to a minor” charge was just dropped on a technicality, but he still faces misdemeanor charges of official oppression, recklessly endangering another person, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment, in a bizarre incident where he tried to force a young man to have homosexual relations, at gunpoint.)

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack

Spring Valley, New York Mayor Noramie Jasmin

Coaldale Mayor Richard P. Corkery (Still no formal charges, after two years!)

Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe

West New York Mayor Felix Roque

Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins

And a couple more have left office without formal charges:

San Diego Mayor Bob “Filthy” Fillner

Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello

And then there are those who have shamelessly refused to leave office, despite clear proof of criminal and unethical behavior:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Portland Mayor Sam Adams

East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser

…among others. – J.W.R.

Letter Re: Advice on Firearms Caching

Hi James,
After a firearm has been oiled up with RIG grease and vacuum sealed, I want to put it into a rifle length mylar bag as well and then put into a 6″ PVC tube.  Should I simply use a Hot Hands hand warmer inside the mylar bag and then another one inside the PVC tube?  I should not have to worry about moisture if it is vacuum sealed? right?  I do have some silica gel packs but did not know if you can mix the two together.

I tried to do a search on your site but could not find the right information.

Thanks Jim for all your research and God Bless all your efforts. – Mark J.

JWR Replies: DO NOT use hand warmers or oxygen absorbers for storing guns, ammunition, or tools!  Use only silica gel.

Here is quote from the Hot Hands web site:

Q.  What’s in a pack? What makes it work?
A.  Our HeatMax® family of air activated warmers all contain a mixture of natural ingredients that when exposed to air react together to produce heat. This is accomplished through an extremely fast oxidation (or rusting) process. Ingredients include: iron powder, water, salt, activated charcoal and vermiculite. HeatMax® has perfected the process so that our warmers, depending on the individual product, produce heat anywhere from 100°F to 180°F for duration of 1 to 20+ hours.

Putting rust, water, and salt in proximity of your stored guns is a potential disaster. Again, use only silica gel. To be sure that the silica gel has the full desired desiccating effect, dry the packets in an oven overnight on low heat (175 degrees.) That will drive out any accumulated moisture.

Letter Re: Preserving a Digital Library

James,
Concerning the recent posts (all good) about a digital library:

I admit I didn’t read every word, but as a fairly long time (23+ years) IT professional for the same company, I would be remiss to not identify the problems we have had.

First off understand, technology always marches on! And whiles many times I have successfully restored rewritten 20+ year old data, there have been many failures. As densities of storage medium grows the physical size of the actual stored information shrinks! So the actual stored magnetic 1’s and 0’s are written is in smaller and smaller spaces, becoming ever more susceptible to corruption. And this is but one of the dangers of data storage. Technological advances are probably even more troublesome.

During my 23 year tenure we have changed the backup medium at least 4 times and densities at least 3 times. Each requiring a different piece of hardware. Many requiring a re-reading from the old format and re-writing to the new format.  From 1/2″ reel to reel type tape, to 1/4″ cartridge tape, to low density 8 mm VCR type tape, to high density 8 mm tape, and now on to several different densities of the newer LTO format. We literally have several thousand tapes in our digital backups, but currently I can only read the last three generations. If you do not transfer your data to the current medium in a timely manner then your data stands at risk!

Optical technologies are a bit more stable, but I believe the DVD gold standard medium is only good for about 20 years. Assuming you have hardware that can read a DVD 20 years from now! And if the markets decides DVDs  (reference the old VHS or Laser-disc!) are no longer valid, then poof they are gone. These changes don’t happen overnight, but rather in months to a year or so. You need to stay vigilant.

Understand that there is no guarantee that the IDE / USB drive you have backed up onto will be readable in the future. The old (late 1980’s to mid 1990’s) MFM interface (modified frequency modulation) drives are ancient and you would be lucky to find anyone who knows of them or to find a working interface for current PC’s! The USB (2.0) 3.0 interface of today may well fall to the OMLITNNFIITW (Oh my Lord its the next new fastest interface in the world) syndrome. For example, there are few IDE interfaces available on the motherboards of today, most are SATA. Almost no serial ports to be found on the motherboards of today. A parallel port is a dinosaur. And it’s next to impossible to find a floppy interface on today’s motherboards, though you can still find USB floppy drives. For how long? Your guess is as good as mine!

The current SATA drive interface may last for decades, or just until they find something better. And the newer incredibly fast PCI-SATA interface is hitting the market as we speak. How long will either last? After 23 years the only thing I know is, is that change is constant!

In short computers are a dynamic and ever changing medium. As is your backup medium.

See you on the FALFiles, – Joe Ax

Recipe of the Week:

Naomi’s Chili With Fresh Tomatoes

I don’t use tomato products that are in cans because of my concerns about BPA, an endocrine disruptor found in the plasticized lining of canned food cans, which is particularly bad in tomatoes.  However, this poses a problem when making chili, because most recipes call for canned tomatoes or tomato paste.

I developed this recipe to use fresh tomatoes in making chili.  It does involve a jar of salsa (which is in glass) and frozen veggies, but those can easily be substituted for fresh stuff or omitted all together.

Chili from fresh tomatoes

Ingredients
2 onions, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 green bell peppers, diced
2 lbs ground beef/beef chuck
10 big tomatoes, or 20 smaller ones, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
Chicken or beef broth
1 tablespoon molasses (blackstrap is fine)
2 cans beans (or 1 lb dry beans, soaked)  (pinto, black, or kidney)
1 jar salsa (medium jar)
1 can fire roasted green pepper
1 bag frozen southwest veggies
pinch of sea salt to taste

Preparation

1. Brown the meat with onions, pepper & garlic
2. Add spices, pepper, tomatoes, beans, salsa, veggies, and chili. Cover with broth, and simmer. About 4 hours is long enough for the tomatoes to “melt” into the chili, but keep simmering all day long for best flavor. 
Add salt last, about 1/2 hour before serving.

*If using dried and soaked beans, hold the tomatoes while the beans simmer in broth for an hour or two, then add the tomatoes (otherwise the acidity will make the beans stay hard.)

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Food Network’s Chili Recipes

32 Top-Rated Chili 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:

Fed set to unveil tapering of asset purchases next week. [JWR’s Comment: Don’t be surprised if you hear that this decision is quietly rescinded, just a few weeks from now. Free money is more addictive than crack cocaine. And I’m sure that TPTB realize that any substantive “tapering” would throw the credit market into a tailspin. Merely talking about tapering is much more comfortable to the banksters. This is something akin to your local crackhead talking about gradually giving up his addiction–and just as likely.]

G.G. suggested: More Americans Struggle to Afford Food

Reader “Dollardog” recommended this: An empty storefront, and a $32,000 tax bill

Items from The Economatrix:

Labor Participation Lowest Since 1978

Employment Trending Down

Initial Jobless Claims Plunge Due To “Computer Upgrades” And “Faulty Reporting By States”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Pre-1899 and replica gun law tested in Texas.

   o o o

On November 16, 2013, I will be a featured guest speaker (via teleseminar) at the Charlotte, North Carolina Back To The Basics convention. (Formerly known as Charlotte PrepCon.)

   o o o

Some redoubtable folks: Maryland counties join movement to secede from largely Democrat-run state. (Thanks to S.R. for the link.)

   o o o

Killer robots and crippling cyber attacks: How the world is going to end – according to super brains such as Stephen Hawking

   o o o

Robert L. wrote: “I recommend Royal Bag as a source for zip-loc type storage bags in 2-mil, 4-mil and 6-mil bags up to 24” x 24”. These, in my opinion, are much better construction than the [conusumer grade] Ziploc brand.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” – Hebrews 13:5-9 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

Please keep the folks in the flooded valleys in and near Boulder, Colorado in your prayers.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 48 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), F.) A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy. G.) Two BirkSun.com photovoltaic backpacks (one Level, and one Atlas, both black), with a combined value of $275, H.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and I.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

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.) $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P.), E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials F.) A full set of all 22 of the books published by PrepperPress.com. This is more than a $200 value, and G.) 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.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security., E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Getting Real About Bugging Out, by R.G.

Ragnar Benson wrote the book “The Survival Retreat: A Total Plan For Retreat Defense” many years ago, but one of the things he discussed has stayed with me for a long time.  Reading this blog influenced me to read it again recently.  A great many of the things in the book don’t apply to my situation, but his discussion of the insights into the conditions during a disruption of normal society influenced my decision to “bunker in place.”  His descriptions of the situations of refugees especially affected me.  Refugees are basically at the mercy of whichever authority is controlling the area they are moving through, or temporarily residing in, at the time.  More than anything, what I have taken from this section of his book, and I have paraphrased here is, die if you must but never become a refugee.  In the broad sense a refugee is anyone who is not residing in a permanent, sustainable, and defendable location; and has no intention of moving from it in the foreseeable future.  The qualities of your location may be dependent on your means at the time, but they are necessary.  By this definition, if you have to commute to and from work through an area that could become dangerous during any societal disruption, during the time you are moving through this area you are a refugee.  You have limited resources, you have to move through territory that may have unknown dangers from obstructions, you have no fixed defenses, and you may have a limited time to reach your destination.  This is especially true if you are truly “bugging out”, moving you, your family, or your group from an area which is not any of the above requirements for a retreat.    Most probably even though you are a “prepper” and have made many preparations for eventualities you do not live permanently at your retreat location.  Even if you do, most of you have to work somewhere else, and very few of you stay within a few miles away from you retreat every minute of every day.  You take vacations, shopping trips, visits to the relatives, etc.  I don’t think any disruption will be sudden enough that you won’t have 2 or 3 days to get to your retreat, but that doesn’t mean something like a war or major volcanic eruption in Yellowstone can’t happen. Even so, some difficulties will be manifest during a slow slide to oblivion.  Unless you are part of a military armored column with close air support and adequate recon capabilities you are a refugee.  You are vulnerable.  To maximize your chances of reaching your destination safely you have to think and act like a refugee, a smart refugee.

When you are moving you are extremely vulnerable.  Anyone who has hunted knows that the best time to find game such as deer and elk is when they are moving and you can “lieth in wait” as the Bible says.  When they are bedded you have to move to find them, and that gives them the advantage.  Every moment you are on the move or stopped in some questionable camp you are vulnerable to the predators that will be waiting or moving in search of prey, and it won’t take much movement to attract their attention.  In a true “fan” situation, and even in a temporary local disruption if it happens to be your local, every thing beyond your line of sight including intervening obstructions such as gulleys must be considered “Bandit Country.”  If you live in a city this includes down to the corner and around the block.  Any place that could hide a hunter or a group of hunters is suspect.  Your status as a refugee may be extremely temporary, but it can take no time at all to put you in grave peril.  As a refugee you want to be as inconspicuous as possible.  Any attention you attract is probably not good, and in a total meltdown can be deadly.  You need to avoid all contact with anyone outside your trusted group.  This includes the neighbor you’ve known casually for many years.  Trust no one outside your group, and have no one in your group you don’t trust. Everyone must know and act according to plans and instructions.  Bugging out is no place for a debating society.  Since it may not be possible to avoid all contact you want to blend in as much as possible.  Don’t look too rich or too poor.  Most of the people you meet will not be prepared for this and will look rundown, ragged, and discouraged.  If you look too rich by being prepared they will try to latch onto you either to make you responsible for them by association or to steal what they need.  The same goes for looking too weak or too powerful.  The larger the group the more attention it will draw; and the harder it is to stay out of the spotlight as it were.  The individual or single family with a child will be very attractive to just about anyone.  As to the logistics of bugging out there are a number of things which must be considered to maximize your chance of reaching your retreat successfully.  These are based on your having to move after a fan situation, but can be applied any time you are away from your retreat.

If you live east of the Mississippi river your retreat should be on the east side also unless you live somewhere in Minnesota near the headwaters.  It’s a big river and there are a limited number of bridges over it and they are well known to every local.  They make great choke points for movement.  The same goes for any of the major mountain ranges, or other major geographical features which funnel movement through limited avenues.

If you are less than 50 miles away from your permanent retreat, why haven’t you moved there already?  Move now and commute.  Buy a cheap car that gets good gas mileage and never let it get below three quarters full.  Keep good tires on it and keep it in good condition.  It may be a pain to commute, but it is much easier for one person in a small car to negotiate hostile territory than 2 or 3 loaded vehicles to do so.

If you live more than 100 miles from your retreat you should allow for at least one night on the road somewhere.  The reasons for this assumption will be itemized and explained below.  They are based on worst case scenario premises and a realistic assessment of conditions during a total fan situation.

Speed.  

  1. If you are out of fuel you are going nowhere and thence a truly desperate refugee, so saving fuel is a high priority. Drive the optimal speed for fuel economy. (Research this for your particular vehicle.)
  2. Every thing past the end of your block is bandit country even if you were on the same route this morning.  Yesterday was a lifetime ago.  It is a brand new unknown country and you have to treat it that way to survive.  Every blind turn, sharp curve, overpass, underpass, bridge, tunnel, hill, or even stretch of road with dense vegetation close to the edge must be investigated prior to driving through.  Ditty-bopping along at 60 mph and topping an overpass to see a sawtooth log barricade across the road or a massive pileup at the bottom could be very embarrassing.  Might even be deadly.
  3. Any vehicle will be much quieter at 25 or 30 than at 55 or 60.  I live in quiet country away from any major paved road and the whine and roar of a car or truck on a paved road can be heard for quite a few miles.  Remember, you’re a refugee and you don’t want the attention of the hunters.  Also, remember the other really desperate refugees that will also be on the move, going nowhere.  While not that dangerous in themselves, the larger the group the greater the consumption of limited resources and the harder it is to stay out of the spotlight.  Dissension in the ranks can be increased tremendously.
  4. If you have to travel on unpaved roads the dust trail of a vehicle at speed can be quite impressive and highly visible if the weather conditions are right.  If not, say unplowed snow, traveling at speed is dangerous in itself.

Travel time.

  1. You will only be able to travel during daylight hours.  The reasons should be obvious.  If they aren’t you have no business attempting this sort of a bug out.  If you have to travel during the winter you may have only 6 to 8 hours of daylight to travel in.  The following requirements will reduce this to only 4 or so hours of actual time.
  2. Since you will have to spend at least 1 day on the road depending on the distance you have to travel you have to find a safe camp to spend the night in.  Even if you have a number of possible sites picked out which have all the requirements, water-seclusion-defendability-space-accessibility, others may have the same locales in mind.  Desperate refugees hue to the even a blind monkey can occasionally find a banana philosophy.  Local hunters may also know of these locations as good places for harvesting whatever.  You will have to start looking for and find a suitable place long before dark because your camp will have to be set up, members fed, children bedded, defenses and sentries set, and light and noise security established long before full dark, which can be as early as 4:30 in the winter.
  3. In a real TOTWAWKI it will have to be a cold camp.  Cooking food smells can travel for miles and smoke and light from a fire even further.  Even the heat from a furnace in a trailer can be detected, and the noise of a fan can be quite loud if it is the only noise for miles around.
  4. Light and noise security must be maintained until full daylight which is usually 8:30 or 9:00 in the winter depending on the weather.  Patrols must be sent out to determine the operational situation since last patrol the night before.  Only then can the camp be allowed to stir, members fed, and camp packed up for the days travel.  Set up and tear down must be done with the utmost quiet to prevent attracting the oft mentioned attention.

There are many other requirements which could be listed here, where to have the noon meal, how to keep small children quiet, what to do with human waste to prevent propagation of the smells, which roads should be the primary route, when to leave, who and how many to trust, and on and on.  These itemized here should be sufficient to convince anyone intending to travel any distance to a permanent retreat to be “getting real” about “bugging out” before they actually have to.  As for me, I am bunkering in place for as long as I can, and have discussed with my closest neighbor, not too close, how we can support each other.  I may have to die in place also, but I have decided I won’t become a refugee.  My children are all grown, though I don’t think it would change my thinking if I did have small children, or if my grandchildren were living with me.  If you are a Christian death is not the end.  That, and a quick death can be a blessing compared to what some small children have been subjected to.

One other item, and it is off on a tangent towards equipment, but is part of the mindset.  Remember, you are a refugee; if you can hide, hide by all means.  Never initiate contact with anyone you don’t have to.  Especially combat contact.  You will probably be carrying a precious cargo of non-combatants.  If the hunters, or others, are 50 yards away and they haven’t seen you, keep quiet and stay in hiding.  Don’t under any circumstances initiate contact unless you know they have discovered your location and appear to have evil intentions.  You have set up your camp to be as advantageous to you as possible.  You want them as close as possible before initiating an engagement so you can neutralize the threat as quickly as possible with the least amount of damage to your personnel and equipment.  Remember, they have to move to get to you and that makes them vulnerable.  Therefore, the battle rifle in 7.62×51 caliber which can hit a target at 800 yards won’t be of any real advantage.  The 5.56 caliber weapon can be just as effective at 200 yard or less, especially with the XM855 ammo.  You can only carry so much stuff in or on any vehicle and you can carry more rounds of the smaller caliber.  Any engagement will be very short in duration, absolutely terrifying, unbelievably violent, gut-wrenchingly horrifying to your group’s psyche, deadly in effect, and quickly final one way or another.  Number of deadly projectiles downrange per second will be very important and the smaller caliber is easier to fire with combat accuracy by the inexperienced.  Right now you can’t afford to take any casualties since you don’t have a MASH unit traveling with you and you can’t depend on the locals or they wouldn’t be hunting you.  Once you get to your retreat being able to reach out and touch someone or something, like an elk, at long range will be much more important.  I have both for the reasons stated above; and other large bore calibers also. Just because I can I suppose.

Letter Re: The Importance of Food Procurement

 

Captain Rawles,
I just saw a very shocking statistic from the USDA: 50% of the US population resides within two miles of three different grocery stores. There are 150,000,000 people in this country who have never been more than two miles away from three different sources of food.

I have made a career out of the food industry, most recently in the grocery sector. I know first hand how oblivious people are to where food actually comes from, what unsightly things go into the food supply to produce a sufficient volume to keep the shelves of Wal-Mart stocked (think the of horrors of Monsanto, their GMOs and chemicals), and how many resources are actually consumed in getting that carton of strawberries to the shelf of a Whole Foods in New York in the middle of December.

Statistically only 3% of the population works in the farming and agriculture industry, 9 million people grow the food that feeds the other 291 million people (not counting the millions we feed by giving food assistance to other counties). As anyone with the simplest bit of knowledge can deduce, the food supply in this country could very easily be disrupted, and the fallout from a disruption would be disastrous. I feel confident in saying that most of the “prepper” community is aware that when the shelves in the store go bare, many people will starve. I always assumed 30-40% of people would suffer from food shortages, I had no idea that when the shelves go bare HALF of the country would starve to death in month (if they don’t kill each other first to take what’s left of each other’s foodstuffs, but then again the people who are dependent upon a grocery store are the same people who detest firearms, so most likely neighbors will be beating each other to death with tennis rackets and golf clubs, but I digress).

This information from the USDA serves as a sobering reminder of the importance of being able to produce our own food. Wether it be gardening, farming, livestock, hunting, stockpiling, or something else, when the shelves go bare, its going to be an unpleasant time for 150,000,000 people.

My very best regards,

A. CP-FS (Certified Professional in Food Safety)

Letter Re: Microwave Oven Method for Decontaminating N95 Face Masks

Dear JWR:
I had an interesting conversation with a member of the CDC about decontaminating N95 face masks. The study results can be found here.

You’ll notice that the test gives positive results but more research is needed. Here was the conversation I had with Edward Fisher after reading it.

Here are some snippets from our exchange:

Me:
1. Did you remove the metal nosepieces from the masks before sterilization?
2. Any updates to this study?

Edward:
We did not modify any of the tested filtering facepiece respirators
before decontamination. If the masks had metal nosepieces, they were
not removed.
There are no further updates on the study. Currently my lab is
focusing on evaluating the risks associated from handling and/or
reusing previously worn masks.

Me:
OK thanks! I thought perhaps they were removed because of the metal in
a microwave. Did you have metal arcing from the metal nosepieces?

Edward:
We did not experience arcing from the metal nosepieces. The key to
the microwave method is the addition of water. Without water and
steam, the microwave can melt the masks. (See Viscusi et al. Ann.
Occup. Hyg., Vol. 53, No. 8, pp. 815-827, 2009). It should be noted
that the steambags have not been evaluated using Influenza and more
research is required. Currently, decontamination of disposable FFRs
is not recommended. As mentioned previously, we are now trying to
evaluate the hazards associated with handling and reusing contaminated
masks and have moved away from decontamination testing. This
link may be helpful for any information you may be seeking
in regards to respirator research and influenza.

Keep an eye on this topic. If it’s effective it’ll really save on N95 mask costs. I think I’ll chance it if we have a pandemic and I’m wearing a mask but am not around anyone confirmed to be sick. – C.D.V.

Letter Re: Wool Carding Questions

Avalanche Lily & Mr. Rawles –
Just wanted to say that Survival Blog  never ceases to amaze me!  As you may know I’m not a fan of the entire survivalist or “prepper”  craze, but I have to admit the drum carder and angora bunny advice posted today was spot on.  I would not have guessed that SurvivalBlog [readers] would have been as knowledgeable about home textile production. (However I did  take exception to the sheep recommendations.)

You may be interested in my “dish towel” project.  Sometime within the next couple of weeks the flax straw from this summer will be rippled and retted; with scutching, breaking and hackling to follow. Spinning the line should commence by the middle of October with weaving by Thanksgiving.
Again – I’m impressed by SurvivalBlog. All the very best to you and yours, – Granny Miller

Economics and Investing:

CFPB’s data-mining on consumer credit cards challenged in heated House hearing

Gainesville Coins has produced a handy infographic on how to spot circulating silver U.S. coins. (Statistically, your best bet is to search rolls of half dollars. Ask for a few rolls, the next time that you go to your bank.)

Items from The Economatrix:

US Income Gap Soars To Widest Since “Roaring 20s”

August Jobs Report:  Hiring Continues As Unemployment Falls

An Alarming Jump In “Job Losers”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Here at the Rawles Ranch, I use ratchet wire tensioners for building building fence corners and H-braces, as well as for tensioning our solar-charged electric fences. I was recently bemoaning the fact that the only tensioners that I could find at my local feed store and hardware store were made in China, and priced at nearly $4 each. So I did some searching and found a mail order company called Zeitlow Distributing Company in McPherson, Kansas that specializes in electric fence products. They sell the Tru-Test Strainrite tensioners that are made in New Zealand. They had these sale priced at just $2.66 each. They also shipped my order very quickly–apparently shipped the same day. Note that the Strainrite ratchet tensioners (called “cliplock strainers”, in Kiwi parlance) are slightly wider that the typical American ones (such as the old Hayes brand), so you will need a tensioning tool (aka “ratchet handle”) made by Strainrite, or one that is of compatible width.

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Your drone detector? A clever new sonic radar, using a re-purposed woofer speaker and signal processing.

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Pierre M. suggested this: Miller: National gun registry gets head start as Maryland compromises gun owners’ privacy

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Also on the privacy front, Bob J. sent: Your E-ZPass Might Be Tracking You Everywhere, Not Just Tollbooths. And R.B.S. sent: NSA disguised itself as Google to spy, say reports. Ad n G.B. in Texas sent: FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack