Note from JWR:

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

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 45 ends on March 31st, 2013, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Re-Evaluating Priorities: Food vs. Sleep, by Jared S.

I was reviewing some back issues of the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, published by the Wilderness Medical Society, and came across an article that I realized may be of use to preppers.  The article deals with the effects of food deprivation vs. the effect of sleep deprivation, on cognitive ability, decision making, and risk taking behaviors.  Here I will attempt to summarize the relevant findings and examine how these realities might inform our choices in prepping and responding to emergency survival situations. 

We have all been taught the easy to remember device for setting priorities for survival, right? You can’t live more than 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food.  While this list has been examined and tweaked over the years to suit the uses and particulars of various groups, it remains essentially a fair, if imprecise rubric of priorities.  Except the food.  Studies have shown what reality has long known: when things get tough, people do not starve to death; they are killed or injured as a result of poor decision making (often related to trying to obtain food).  From a strictly starvation stand point, it takes far more than 3 weeks to die, but the poor decisions you make, whether in a moment of hunger or a prolonged calorie deficit, are much deadlier much faster.

Hunger isn’t the only stressor facing the would be survivor (doesn’t matter what the disaster–could be TEOTWAWKI, could be a wildfire/hurricane/tornado/ice storm/train derailment/etc.).  Lack of sleep,  whether caused by a need to remain vigilant (security threats, long haul driving) or insomnia related to mental stress or environmental stimuli, is a very real and very common reality in the days and even weeks immediately following disasters.  Back when I was a wild land firefighter, the feds would not let a crew work more than 18 hours in a stretch, no matter what the fire was doing, because after so many hours of constant wakeful work, reaction time was dulled to the point of being legally drunk (so I was told).  A crew must be taken “off the clock” and given a safe place to sleep, even if that place was 3 feet back of the fire line they had just been working on.  Better to let a crew sleep and loose a few steps on the fire, than push a crew past the point of fatigue and have to deal with the inevitable costs and casualties that come with high risk work and dulled perception, reaction time, and impaired decision making.    

Even if zombie squirrels ate every last protein bar and bit of hardtack in your BOB, you will not die of starvation on your 3 day (or 3 week) journey to safe haven.  What is much more likely to get you into trouble is making bad choices.  In light of this fact, the authors of this study wanted to determine which had the greater negative impact on decision making and cognition in civilian survival situations, lack of food, or a lack of sleep.  To do this, they examined the effect of food deprivation for 18, 42, and 66 hours and of sleep deprivation for 26 and 50 hours on blood glucose levels, simple and choice reaction time, memory/recall, risk taking, and navigating a computerized maze. 

Results
The tests found that while food deprivation had the effect of increasing symptoms of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), these symptoms where increased even more when deprived of sleep.  Reaction time was slower for both groups (food deprivation and sleep deprivation) in both simple reaction time (how quick you can perceive a change and react) and in choice reaction, which forces a choice between three actions when prompted.  Sleep deprivation of 26 and 50 hours was found to have a more deleterious effect that either 18, 42, or 66 hours of food deprivation.  Memory and recall tasks were both negatively affected to nearly the same extend for both groups, with the exception of delayed recall, which suffered a much larger (almost 50%) decrease after 50 hours of sleep deprivation.  Visual/spatial learning was also negatively affected by both treatments, again with sleep deprivation causing a more dramatic worsening of ability to navigate a computer generated maze.  Finally risk taking behavior was affected very little by food or sleep deprivation, with the exception that 50 hours of sleep deprivation decreased subjects risk tolerance, and both food and sleep deprivation cause subjects to make risk taking decisions faster. 

Discussion:
So what does all this mean?  Essentially given the choice between expending energy to procure food or toward procuring sleep, we should prioritize the sleep.  This of course is easier said than done.  In fact the authors even acknowledged that even small amounts of food may make sleeping easier.  “Sleep hygiene”, as it is known among those who counsel people with insomnia, includes things like avoiding caffeine after noon, not watching TV while lying in bed, keeping a consistent pre-bedtime routine, having a quiet, dark, cool place to sleep, and going to bed at the same time each night.  Good luck finding any of those things in the hectic days immediately following a major disaster.  So what to do?  For starters, be aware of what environmental factors are affecting our mood and decision making process.  By being aware that perhaps it is not only the stupid knot on your tarp shelter you can’t untie in the freezing rain at night that is causing your disproportionately angry feelings, but also the lack of sleep, you can compartmentalize the things that you can control and the things that you can’t, fix or improve what can be fixed, and prioritize what is important in the long run (sleep!) over the task at hand (untying that knot).  Finally, it may be worth considering some supplements to your emergency sleep hygiene plan.

Pharmacology:
Chamomile has been used for centuries as an herb that calms and promotes sleep, and is available in tea form at the supermarket right now.  Melatonin is also available over the counter, and used on an occasional basis by many night shift ER nurses, among others.  Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is the most common histamine blocker used to treat allergies, but its’ number one side effect is drowsiness.  In fact, the exact same drug in the exact some dose (diphenhydramine 25mg) is sold as an over the counter sleep aid, often cheaper than the same drug in a different bottle sold as an allergy blocker!  A brief warning, there is a very small percentage of people who have an opposite reaction to Benadryl and get a stimulant effect from the drug.  My mother is one such, who refuses to take it because she’ll be up all night cleaning the house and unable to sleep.  Of course there are also prescription drugs available to promote sleep, and while their action is different than those listed above, they share the warning that they are NOT for long term use, as they can cause a dependency that makes is difficult to fall asleep without them.  But as a useful addition to a disaster medical kit, I would certainly give them strong consideration.  Among these, the benzodiazepines such as Ativan, Xanax, and Valium are common, useful, and powerful, and have the added benefit from a survival medicine chest perspective of being anti-seizure and anti-anxiety drugs.  The down side is that they are also commonly abused and are controlled substances, which makes it less likely that even a sympathetic doctor will prescribe them “just in case”.  You may have better luck with the non-benzo hypnotics such as Sonata, Lunesta, and Ambien, which have less potential for abuse and are meant for short term treatment of insomnia.  In any case, never mix these drugs with alcohol (even the over the counter drugs), use the lowest effective dose possible to avoid over sedation and grogginess the next morning, and use only after consultation with a doctor (Disclaimer: nothing in this article should be construed as specific medical advice).

This is not to discount the value of food, as negative effects with food deprivation on performance were noted in the study; it is just that they were not as dramatically negative as the effect of sleep deprivation.  This study also cites other, prior published works that illustrate the negative effects of combined food and sleep deprivation, which of course is a real possibility in a survival situation, This study however was attempting to discern the relative contribution of each to the noted reduction in capability.  The study also cites prior literature dealing with the effect of hypoglycemia on cognition and decision making, and found it to have a greatly deleterious effect.  Even though in this study sleep deprivation was found to increase hypoglycemia symptoms, this study intentionally excluded those with diabetes or other confounding health problems.  For that reason, food would certainly be a bigger priority for those with diabetes, hypoglycemia, or other metabolic conditions.  Finally, the study authors also acknowledged that even small amounts of food may improve endurance and be critically important to preventing hypothermia in cold conditions.  All of these are valuable considerations for preppers.  Better to know why we do the things we do, rather than blindly following by rote the prescriptions of a variety of experts. 

Through better understanding we can be better prepared for unanticipated circumstances.  In particular it is an easy temptation for the strong (well prepared) member of a group to shoulder a bit more of the burden, to take that longer shift on watch, to hike through the night, thinking after all that it is only a little sleep you are missing out on.  But bear in mind it is not just sleep and comfort you sacrifice, but rather it is your keen edge in decision making, reaction time, and spatial reasoning that you give up.  Knowing this, you may be better prepared to appropriately weigh all priorities should you ever be faced with such a situation.

For those with an interest in reading the entire article, it is available to the public in the WEM archive here.  In addition to this article there are a variety of others on all kinds of topics related to emergency, wilderness, remote, expedition, combat, and improvised medicine.  Be aware, the details of some of these articles may be difficult for those who don’t speak “medical”, but the abstracts are generally very comprehensible.   The Wilderness Medical Society also holds several conferences each year, with expert speakers in many disciplines of medicine and hands on workshops on subjects like improvised splinting, litters, and orthopedic care, avalanche awareness and rescue, snow shelters and hypothermia prevention and treatment, and many others.  While these conferences are geared for medical professionals, there is no reason interested lay-persons (preppers) can’t attend and learn alongside the pros. 

Finally, a very reasonable standard of medical training for peppers would be Wilderness First Responder, an approximately 80 hour program that goes much deeper into prevention, assessment, treatment, and ongoing management of the sick and injured with an emphasis on austere environments, limited resources, and improvisation.  Numerous schools with some excellent instructors include Wilderness Medicine Institute, Aerie, SOLO, WMA, and others.  A quick search online will locate a school near you.  Given that fracture/laceration/heart attack type “disasters” are much more common than EMP/hurricane/asteroid type disasters, the wide spread dissemination of a useful level of medical training makes all of us safer. 

Letter Re: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

 

Hi Jim;
I accidentally stumbled into a documentary film on Netflix which I am sure your readers would enjoy. It is titled Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. I’m not sure if it is available anywhere else.

The film critic web site RottenTomatoes.com gives this description:

With Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, Werner Herzog and Russian co-director Dmitry Vasyukov takes viewers on yet another unforgettable journey into remote and extreme natural landscapes. The acclaimed filmmaker presents this visually stunning documentary about indigenous people living in the heart of the Siberian Taiga. Deep in the wilderness, far away from civilization, 300 people inhabit the small village of Bakhtia at the river Yenisei. There are only two ways to reach this outpost: by helicopter or boat. There’s no telephone, running water or medical aid, The locals, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, live according to their own values and cultural traditions. With insightful commentary written and narrated by Herzog, HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA follows one of the Siberian trappers through all four seasons of the year to tell the story of a culture virtually untouched by modernity.

Filled with really interesting survival and self-reliant information (that is not the focus of the movie) but some of the ingenuity is really interesting. Well worth the watch. Thanks, – Jim E.

Economics and Investing:

DIP! Spot silver closed at $29.80 on Friday. It may yet go a bit lower in this swing, but anywhere under $30 per Troy ounce is a bargain.

Former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul was on Bloomberg’s Lunch Money show and was talking war and economic collapse.

Are US Retirement Accounts at Risk?

Items from The Economatrix:

Bond Bubble Expectations

Retail Sales Up Despite Payroll Tax Hike

The Number One Reason To Invest In Gold

The End Of The Current Fiat Monetary System Is Coming, And A Gold-Backed Currency Will Replace It

Odds ‘n Sods:

LDS Church increases some storage food useful shelf life estimates to up to 30 years. (Thanks to J McC. for the link.)

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Andre D. sent: The UN Braces for Stormy Space Weather

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B.B. sent this: Jim Rogers and Glenn Beck comment on the boom in Midwest farmland.

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Reader Chris P. in Colorado wrote to mention: On a family camping trip our camp was hit with a microburst from a storm that trashed our camp and damaged the poles on a couple of our tents. Tentpole Technologies Inc., of Vancouver Washington was able to repair three different types of poles for about one third the cost of replacing the poles, and the turnaround was only three days. Recommended! They have a friendly and helpful staff.” Their e-mail address is: support@tentpoletechnologies.com.

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Frequent content contributor K.A.F. sent: Doctors Struggling to Fight ‘Totally Drug-Resistant’ Tuberculosis in South Africa

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; [and] them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Marriage [is] honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
[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.” – Hebrews 13:1-6 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

The 25% to 35% off sale for Mountain House canned long term storage foods at Ready Made Resources will end at midnight on Monday February 18th. Be sure to place your order before this sale ends!

—

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

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 45 ends on March 31st, 2013, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Living a Double Life, by Sara Sue

1

The biggest threat to this country right now is the Socialist/Progressive movement that includes the belief that we should not be “America the great, the free”; that we must take our appropriate place among the world leaders as equals, and that we must “spread the wealth” to ensure “social justice”.  In the end, this type of thinking leads to a one-world government under the leadership of a “benevolent” governing body who controls our every move.  This belief has undermined the security of this country and exposed us to those who would have us dead – the external threats.  The internal threat is the systematic weakening of our constitutional rights and the socialization of our country.  There is no other modern society on the face of the planet that has enjoyed the prosperity that Americans have enjoyed.  Our success was built upon the Constitution, freedom to prosper, the belief in God-given unalienable rights, and Christian principles.

The conclusion that I have come to, outside of water and food storage, arms, self-sufficient lifestyle, etc., is that we must learn to live a double life.  We must give every appearance of being good little citizens (sheeple), while secretly preparing to go underground, to disappear, and to live invisibly.  Why?  Because we could become targets, be labeled “terrorists”, or deemed a threat to national security, because we disagree with the direction our country is headed, because we speak out against government overreach.

I have spent many years, reading every book/blog/opinion on privacy and security and I am a security professional by trade.  I learned the most from J.J. Luna (his blog and book “How To Be Invisible”.)  The biggest challenge with living under the radar is that we live in an interconnected society, most transactions that we make are electronic, which means there is a paper trail.  We bank electronically, we communicate electronically, we buy and sell electronically (point of sale systems at grocery store, gas station, etc.).  Smartphones and technology services like OnStar (in our cars), make our geographical location “traceable”.  Our personal records including medical, educational, employment, familial, and financial records are all in electronic form and stored in vast databases.  Everything about us is known.  There is no hiding place, unless… we create a separate identity for ourselves.  I am not talking about illegal activities, fake ID’s, or anything of that nature.  I am talking about becoming largely invisible on the one hand, and being totally visible on the other.
Your visible self has a home and an address, is known in the community, works a job (hopefully), participates in community activities, and conducts itself normally.  This is the self that you will maintain.  Your invisible self has no name, no address, is not known outside of the closest family members and trusted individuals, uses cash, not credit, barters for daily needs, and lives as self-sufficiently as possible.  If you had to walk out your front door today, never to return, while making it appear that you are still actively participating in your life, how could you do that?

The process for living a double life is fraught with difficulty because we are upright, law abiding, Christian people.  Nonetheless, we must think about, study, and learn what other peoples in other countries have done to protect their lives and their families under despots, oppressive regimes, and under threat to life and liberty.  Thinking like this is foreign to Americans because we have enjoyed liberty and luxury for generations.

If you are not following me, let me recap the necessity of creating the alternate you.  There is the possibility that our government may become hostile and oppressive, demonstrated by the slow and consistent erosion of our constitutional rights.  There is the possibility that our country could be invaded by hostile forces.  It is also true, that we may, at some point in our lives, need or want to drop out of sight to protect our privacy due to a frivolous lawsuit or due to a stalker or just plain exhaustion from the rat race.  We must acknowledge that our true selves have no place to hide, due for the most part to advanced technology and electronic communications.  Dropping our true selves out of sight is problematic and garners attention.
We must keep our visible self visible, and our invisible self invisible.
The following are steps we can take to create our alternate life, while operating within the law (each step explained further following the list):
1. Create anonymous, cash-based, home based, side businesses (may include bartering).
2. Operate outside the banking system with your new alternate source of income.
3. Pay cash for any purchases relating to prepping, purchase in small, consistent increments.
4. Locate and lease or buy with cash alternate accommodations/housing, private-party, avoiding credit checks/paper trail.
5. Keep a low profile.
6. Register vehicles (must be paid off) in a company name.
7. Prep the alternate location, plan the route out, and practice the plan.

Here they are, in detail:

1. Anonymous, cash based, home based businesses.
Keeping food on the table and a roof over your head is the highest priority, correct?  Like most people, we have to work for a living.  If you have a current job, keep it and do well at it.  In your spare time, you must start several side businesses that operate on a cash basis.  You will report your net income to the IRS because it is the law, but you are not required to divulge what your business does.  For taxation purposes, your business entity is you.  If your business is primarily services related, you do not have to deal with the local sales taxing authorities if services are not taxed in your state.  If you must sell product, it is taxable.  If you are required to register your business in your state, county, city, do so, but do so carefully.  At no point in the process will you reveal your real name, real address, or provide any information that leads back to you.

Frank A. Ahern has written a couple of books (if you can get over the profanity), that reveal how skip tracers (and anyone in law enforcement) track people down.  The information he provides will be invaluable when it is time for you to disappear from your visible life, or how to conduct your invisible life while maintaining your visible life.  Since skip tracing became an unpopular and illegal activity, Frank decided to reengineer himself into a privacy consultant.  His focus is on disinformation and I found the idea very tantalizing.  If I could put enough wrong information about myself “out there” (on the Internet, in the various national databases), I could be quite hard to find if I decided to disappear. 

Another useful book, Hiding from the Internet: Eliminating Personal Online Information by Michael Bazzell, offers step by step instructions to eliminating your personal online information.  A very simple method is to Google yourself, and try various incarnations of your name(s).  For each web site where your personal information appears, follow the instructions for removing your personal information.  Many data aggregators provide a way to do that online and some make it very difficult.  Set up a Google alert on your name, so that each time your name(s) appear online, an email will be sent to you.  In keeping with Ahern’s strategy, rather than remove yourself, request your information be modified to “more accurately reflect your information”.  Get the idea?

It is funny (and sad), but what you will need to do is think like organized crime does, without committing any crime.  Your cash based business will not have a web site, a Facebook page, business cards, a sign on the side of your car, a listing in the phone book, or any other vestiges of marketing.  How do you market it? Word of mouth. (More options, such as Internet Businesses later on). Yes, it is the underground economy that you will be entering. However, you will report your income and pay taxes on it, like a good citizen (sheeple). You will never accept a check – only cash, cold hard cash.

Sit down and do detailed skills assessment. What are you good at? My skillset is in technology, security, and privacy. I am in process of reviving a side business that helps individuals and groups use technology privately and securely. I wish I had skills in many homesteading areas, but I am trying to teach myself. A fair trade in my mind would be to trade my skills for your farm fresh meats and produce, and handyman services. For those who can pay for private security technology services, I would arrange for my services at very reasonable barter prices. After all, I do not expect the top dollar consulting pay I make in the “real world” in exchange for complete privacy and cash. In a bartering economy, the price is determined by the demand. Right now, I see very little concern among individuals as to their online privacy and security. The demand will come when the time is right. Suffice it to say, at some point you will need to communicate using the Internet in a completely anonymous way. You will want to erase your Internet footprints and fingerprints; you will want to request deletion of your information from public and private databases, you will want your home computers safe from prying eyes, and highly sensitive electronic information safe from disclosure or confiscation, and you will want to be able to circumvent government sponsored censorship of Internet resources. Unless you plan on using carrier pigeons, smoke signals, or plan to never again communicate with your family, this is a skill you must have.
Is an Internet business the right thing for you? It is if you can manage the complexity, security, and privacy components of it.

An anonymous Internet business requires a wide variety of skills, mostly related to technology. It is possible to create one in an anonymous and secure fashion, but it is not easy. You will need to consider such things as web hosting offshore, out of U.S. jurisdiction. However, even then, transborder communications are monitored by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, so why make your web site a target of suspicion by offshoring hosting? It would be better to use a local hosting company and retain control over your web site security and data, or host your own equipment (not from your home – yes, it gets complicated). Either way, there is a lot to understand, think about, and pay attention to. If you used PayPal (recommended) for payments via your web site, PayPal will verify you are who you say you are when you open an account. PayPal also requires a verifiable bank account for you to access your cash quickly (instantly via ATM and several business days for bank transfers). In recent times, PayPal has started to insist on social security numbers and date of birth, especially if you try to use a PayPal account sans a bank account. In all cases, it would be very tricky indeed to keep your Internet business from pointing right back to you. You could go the BitCoin route, but I have not tried that yet, so I cannot advise. Unless you have the skills to set up a completely anonymous Internet business, do not do it.

Another option is to begin your new cash business behind the doors of your existing business. Isn’t that what organized crime does? The only legality concern is income and taxes. If you keep it clean, legal, and safe, it shouldn’t be anybody’s business what you do in your own space, owned, or leased.
The goal is to create alternate revenue streams “off the public books” and out of the public eye, so if you have to walk away from your real job, you won’t starve.

2. Operate outside the banking system
Operating outside the banking system is extremely difficult. If you work for a large employer, like I do, paychecks are auto-deposited. Even the Social Security Administration is requiring recipients to provide a bank account for funds deposit. It used to be that SAR (Suspicious Activity Reports) were only created by a bank when a $10,000 or more cash deposit was made, but I heard recently through the law enforcement grapevine, that even $5,000 and as little as $3,000 cash deposits are being tracked and reported by your bank. If you think your bank account is yours, it’s not. It’s the bank’s and they are being called upon to report more and more details about cash transactions (to the FBI). The only solution is to keep your cash “at home”. There is plenty written on survivalblog about how to hide cash. J.J. Luna also offers a book and advice on how to hide cash.

I have tried numerous times to operate on a cash basis and I have found it extremely difficult in our modern society. Take a simple example, like filling your gas tank. I’m used to swiping at the pump and when the weather is cold, I don’t like walking “all the way” over to the main building, going inside, waiting in line, to pay the cashier, walking back to the truck, etc. Wow. We have become so spoiled, and we are accustomed to convenience. I’ve tried to use cash for grocery store runs that include stocking up, and find that I filled my cart with more than I had the cash to pay for, so I swiped the card. Living on a cash basis requires extreme discipline. No more Internet purchasing (my favorite!), no more plastic. The only way to keep your private life private is to live on a cash basis. However, I am not advocating a total cash based life. Your public life needs to remain normal looking and your bank account transactions need to appear normal. Your private (invisible life) needs to utilize cash. Keeping the two separate is where the extreme discipline comes in.

Basically, you will have to earn cash from an alternate cash based business, and you will have to purchase items using cash. This is inconvenient. In order to avoid suspicion, don’t buy bulk all at once. Recall earlier last year when the FBI issued the “ Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities”, part of the “Communities Against Terrorism” program – someone’s really bright (read stupid) idea, that gives the federal government a basis to target ordinary citizens and classify them as terrorists. Google it. You will be aghast at the list of ordinary activities that are being classified as “potential terrorist” activities.

Here’s how I decided to attack this problem of buying bulk, I slowly increased my normal shopping routine to include bulk items, so that over time, my normal purchasing habits have remained consistent. I shop at a Super Wal-Mart (great place for bulk items at low cost). I don’t order emergency supplies over the Internet. I don’t walk in and make a several thousand dollar purchase. I know this sounds really ridiculous, but we are being watched.

Perhaps someone just needs to pay you by check and you agree to accept it (this applies only to low denominations). Don’t think you can go to that person’s bank and cash it at the teller window without some effort. I tried this once and was asked for a fingerprint, ID, and was charged a $5 fee, and the teller stared at me and was rude (the check was for $1,000). Just stick with cash.
If you need to get cash from your checking or savings account in order to have cash on hand, start by making it a habit of withdrawing small amounts of cash at the ATM, slowly, over the course of time – payday would be a good day to target – everyone takes out a little money on payday. Don’t show up at the bank and withdraw thousands of dollars at any one time. Isn’t this ridiculous?

3. Pay cash for any purchases relating to prepping, purchase in small, consistent increments.
I know it feels good to make that bulk food purchase online and have it shipped to your home or alternate address in unmarked boxes, but that purchase is traceable to you and puts you on the “potential terrorist” watch list, right? If you have already done it, don’t worry about it. Moving forward, don’t do it again. You may have to start planning mini vacations to visit suppliers and pay cash for your purchases. Try to purchase in prepper friendly states, such as Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. My tact has been to stock up incrementally during regular purchases. I established a pattern of purchasing over the past two years that allows for stocking up while appearing to be the usual shopping. While some have advised purchasing outside your area where you are known, I prefer shopping at my local Wal-Mart Superstore where the cashiers are friendly local people used to my dragging two full carts through the registers every other week. I don’t call attention to my purchases by doing “extreme couponing”. I make small talk with the cashier and ensure that I mention how relieved I am to be able to do my monthly shopping on one trip, how expensive teenagers are, along with other seemingly useless conversation. It’s a good idea to not be overly friendly, but polite and engaging. Ask the cashier how his or her day is going while your purchases are mindlessly scanned through.

4. Locate and lease or buy with cash alternate accommodations/housing, private-party, avoiding credit checks/paper trail.
This has been the most difficult objective for me personally. I do not have the financial means of buying suitable property outright (cash) in addition to my primary residence. The only option for me is to “lease vacation property” from a private party.  J.J. Luna has excellent advice on how to lease anonymously using cash. He suggests making a larger than normal cash deposit with the private party owner (you will not go through a realtor or property management company) in exchange for anonymity. Use any excuse you want to ensure the landlord understands your need for privacy (abusive ex-spouse, stalker, high pressure/high visibility sensitive position, etc.). You will always pay with a cashier’s check. If the Landlord wants to see your ID, you offer your passport as proof of citizenship, not your driver’s license or other documentation, and you never offer your social security number or consent to a credit check. References are the easy part. The best way to get this accomplished is to take vacation time to explore the various areas of interest and inquire in person at the local establishments (coffee shop, supply store, etc.). You could order the local paper, but make sure you have it sent to your P.O. Box rather than your home address. Little towns are also well known for their enjoyment of gossip. As long as you take care of the property and are seen to be vacationing there frequently, are friendly and helpful to the locals, your intermittent presence should not be a problem.

5. Keep a low profile.
This is more difficult for some than others. I have an introverted personality and I naturally keep a low profile. I’m a geek. My husband, on the other hand, is in Sales and he is extroverted, enthusiastic, popular, active, and involved in the community. Everyone in our community has his personal cell phone number. Coaching him over the last several years to “tone it down” has been difficult. My advice is: dump the expensive watch, fancy car, name brand clothes, and shoes, cool it on the aftershave, and stop making our home the hub of every get together. Hmmm. I sound very bah humbug, but we need to divert the entertaining to some neutral territory, like the local pub or restaurant.  

Get off Social Networking permanently, never to return. Or alternatively, create the “fake you” Facebook page and post inane, funny, silly things, being careful to keep pictures of yourself and family members out of Facebook’s databases, never let anyone in your community know where your retreat property is, don’t post pictures of it on Facebook, comprende?    One of the biggest mistakes we all make in our technologically advanced society, is forget that our technology is our undoing.  Every “word we’ve spoken” (in email, on the web) is recorded somewhere and most likely resides in a database somewhere.  If the government really wanted to hunt you down, it would be easy – you gave them all the information they wanted by emailing a family member, posting on Facebook, or starting a blog.  

At a recent family gathering, we had a huge discussion about how we needed to stop discussing “prepping” on e-mail.  This is so hard to do.  We are geographically dispersed and email is soooo easy to use.  We only see one another a few times a year.  I don’t know the answer.  

We made a huge decision to close our small, local business this year. This will give us the flexibility to leave when we need to. The Pros and Cons were weighed over and over and over. The Cons won. We have cited “health” reasons for closing our business.  We agreed to make the time to take small trips throughout the year to investigate properties we could lease. We will treat our time together as mini-vacation/honeymoon time.

6. Register vehicles (must be paid off) in a company name.
If you ever had to leave Dodge, it would be a very good idea to leave in a nondescript vehicle that was registered in a private company name, not your own name. It is important that the vehicle be in good working order so as not to arouse suspicion or the attention of the highway patrol. Now that the highway patrol makes use (in many states) of hi-tech scanners, they don’t have to pull you over to “run your plates”. It’s done automatically as soon as your vehicle is in range. If, for some reason, you found yourself on an “undesirable prepper” list, it would be wise to ensure that your escape vehicle was not linked to you personally in any way. Now, of course, if you get pulled over, you have to show your driver’s license. Some people are quite stubborn about handing over a driver’s license when being pulled over, but I suggest to you that if you want to be on your way quickly, cooperate with “license and registration please”. It’s easy to explain that the car is a “company car” and you and your family are going on vacation to Whereverville. Always make sure the lights are working all the way around and for gosh sakes, don’t speed, or do anything stupid, like flip off a trucker, to garner attention. J.J. Luna offers help and advice on his blog as to how to register your vehicle in a private LLC.

7. Prep the alternate location, plan the route out, and practice the plan.
No need for any embellishment here – the expert content is on SurvivalBlog. If you really had to leave your home for an extended period of time, make sure your preparations have included securing the home you have left behind. My plan is to change the way we live slowly (but quickly, if that makes sense), to include long “vacation trips”, so that we spend time at our retreat property at least several months out of the year to begin with, and extend that duration over time, so that it seems quite natural to be gone frequently. As far as our friends in the community would know, we decided to take life a bit easier and really enjoy our retirement. Other “excuses” you could propagate are “my husband/wife took a job in Whereverville (not your retreat location please!) and the only way we can make this work for our family is to spend time in both places”. Alternatively, how about, “oh my mom and dad are not well and we committed to spending more time with them”. On the other hand, “life is short, we are out having fun and seeing the world!”.  

A note to those who are averse to telling a lie:  If the Gestapo were banging on your door, asking for the whereabouts of a family member, would you tell a lie to protect their life?  Think about it.  Get in the habit of providing lots of information without providing any information at all. Don’t mention the name of the town where your retreat is, don’t write it down, don’t put it in an email, on Facebook, don’t search the Internet for properties from your home computer, etc. Keep it in your brain and don’t ever keep a paper trail, electronic or otherwise. When you are at your retreat location, you will be using cash not your bank card. Your bank card transactions are perhaps the single most effective way of tracking you down. Don’t use it to fill your tank when you are on the road. Frank A. Ahern shares some interesting stories on this topic in his book. He suggested creating fake paper trails in locations quite far from your retreat location. His suggestions included putting in an application for a rental apartment, replete with credit check (to create a false record), purchasing small items at a local store, signing up for telephone service, and even opening a checking account at the local bank, only to abandon completion of the above tasks. These actions create the illusion that this is where you are going to move to. Meanwhile, you are on the other side of the country, anonymously, prepping your retreat.

In conclusion, my twist to surviving what is coming, is to live a double life, and slip out undetected when the time is right. The detail required to live a double life is overwhelming, but start small and try to work through each major category a little bit at a time.  Keep in mind at all times that we are being watched, Big Brother is here, and you never know when your name will show up on an “undesirable” list.  Be safe and Godspeed.

Letter Re: Legal Research

Jim:

I have some advice for your readers on legal research. While it is not as robust as Lexis or Westlaw, Google Scholar is easier to use and should be more than adequate for people to find and read the cases they are looking for.  In addition to being able to directly access cases by the citations you provided, users may also search databases containing primary authority for both federal and state court opinions in the same manner they would do an internet search on Google or Bing. Another nice feature of internet research, as opposed to using a law library, is that you can access unpublished cases. While unpublished cases are not binding authority, they are often a good indicator of how that particular jurisdiction currently feels about a given issue.- Attorney D.B.

Letter Re: Addictions That Could Be Your Undoing

Mr Rawles,
 I have had to get off of coffee several times for health reasons and have found that a couple of B Complex vitamins or a non-caffeine energy drink like FRS really helps to ease the pain and symptoms of withdrawal … of course I had a five cup a day habit, not a 5 pot a day habit like some of your readers indicated.

I also want to thank you for printing the article several months ago about getting off of anti-depressants. My wife was on Effexor, one of the most notorious ones, and we were able to slowly wean her off of the drug by using some of the supplements and herbs indicated in the article and others I was able to research. Withdrawal symptoms for Effexor can last more than a year, but with a lot of prayer and some good nutrition she was able to get back to normal in a few months. – Ernie M.

Letter Re: A Prepper’s Guide to EMP

Mr. Rawles,
I have to make a comment about information in this article that is just wrong and I have seen others wrongly assume on the internet before.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to keep metal within the cage from touching the conductor that makes up the Faraday Cage. The reason is that the cage (assuming it has been constructed without gaps or holes, as it should be) forms an “INFINITE” barrier between the electric fields inside and outside of the cage. No electric field can go through the cage because they are dispersed across the surface and do not propagate through. The inside and outside are electrically isolated from each other.

As an experiment, take a radio that is receiving and you can hear the music, wrap it in aluminum foil and make sure the antenna is TOUCHING the metal. As soon as you make a completely enclosed cage, the radio will go to static because the waves CANNOT reach the antenna. The charge is only on the outside.

People falsely believe things cannot touch the side because the cage is a conductor. As I have explained, when constructed correctly, the outside and inside are in isolation.

Just to qualify my responses, I am an electrical engineer who studied electromagnetics in school and I work in the power industry. I did not list the equations to prove the material, but I can send detailed information about why electric fields do not go through conductors, only propagate on the outside. Or, you can pickup any introductory electromagnetics textbook and read about Faraday’s experiments and equations and other information for yourself from people who are a lot smarter than us.
Thank you, – Cason R.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Several readers sent this: Washington state bill would make almost all gun owners criminals. Gee, this sounds like a great way to spur all of the Washington counties east of the the Cascades to break off and form a new State of East Washington. There has long been a deep cultural divide between east and west and a formal split was formally considered as recently as 1995. And of course partition of states isn’t unprecedented. (e.g. Maine and West Virginia.) This is spelled out in Article IV, Section. 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution. The eastern counties of Oregon should do likewise, to form a new State of East Oregon. The people in the eastern halves of both states have precious little in common with the soggy, liberal counties to the west. The disparity of population has meant that the eastern counties have long been lorded over by the western counties. In both cases it would be good riddance to bad rubbish. ONTW, it is conceivable that the counties in the eastern halves of both states could unify to become, say… East Cascadia. Of course, I’m on record as being biased.

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Reader R.B. sent this: Thirty-five Water Conservation Methods for Agriculture, Farming, and Gardening. Part 1.

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Bill tweaks law on SC’s ‘unorganized militia’

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Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James illogically spouts statist, quasi-fascist rhetoric.

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Meteor strike injures hundreds in central Russia

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“These six [things] doth the LORD hate: yea, seven [are] an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness [that] speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” – Proverbs 6:16-19 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

The 25% to 35% off sales for Mountain House canned long term storage foods with free shipping and bonuses will end tonight (Friday, February 15, 2013) at Safecastle and on February 18th at Ready Made Resources. Be sure to place your order before these sales end!

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

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 45 ends on March 31st, 2013, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.