Odds ‘n Sods:

I deliberately held off on mentioning anything about the “FBI pressures the LDS cannery for lists of customers” brouhaha that was created by Alex Jones, even though I had more than 150 e-mails from readers in the past four days urging me to cover the story. Something about the incident just sounded fishy to me. So now the truth comes out, in SouthernBellePrepper’s video blog: Answers on Mormon cannery controversy. (Credit to M.D.C. for the link.)

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Life imitates art: Police to test laser that ‘blinds rioters’. (Thanks to Morris for the link.)

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I read that Pantry Paratus is currently running special for free shipping on any order over $100.

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Alaska Governor Sean Parnell Proposes $4.9 Million For Emergency Food Caches. (A hat tip to Jason W. for the link.)

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Speaking of Alaska, several readers sent this: Frozen beer helped man trapped in snow drift survive. (Driving anywhere outside of city limits in Alaska without carrying a sleeping bag and other key survival gear is foolhardy! Ditto for the Lower 48, in winter driving conditions.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Because all of the large nations in the Eurozone are still suffering from deficits above the supposedly required debt-to-GDP limit of 3%, none of them is in a position to bail out the PIIGS without borrowing even more. The PIIGS’ solution — which is nothing but a stopgap measure — is for the semi-profligate governments in the North to co-sign on the bank’s loans for the totally profligate PIIGS. The banks will lend to the North, and the North will then buy Eurobonds, which do not yet exist and are unconstitutional. The semi-solvent North can delay immediate default by PIIGS by lending them money to pay the banks interest on their
existing debt. No one will pay down principal. Every nation will steadily borrow more. This is Ponzi-scheme finance, and everyone knows it.

The debate is over which profligate nation’s signature on the debt will persuade lenders to buy the new debt at low interest rates. The lenders know that these loans will not be repaid. All investors in sovereign debt, from the Great Depression until today, have assumed this. Liquidity is provided by other buyers. If anyone wants to sell his bonds, there supposedly will be buyers. The sellers assume that they will be able pass on the Old Maid: the IOU-fiat-money certificates issued by fiscally profligate, deficit-running governments.” – Dr. Gary North

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 38 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

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

Round 38 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Save Them!, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Spokane was sparkling with light and still bustling when I looked out at it from a downtown building last night. So beautiful in the darkness. My thoughts went out to the hundreds of thousands of little children, women, grandmothers, grandfathers, boys, girls, and men those lights represented. Not just people – persons, each one unique, each with God’s calling on their lives for His purposes. Yet most of them are lost: hopelessly adrift in an empty, frantic, stupid, shallow culture of blindness and conformity and entertainment. Like the people of Jonah’s time they metaphorically don’t know their right hand from their left hand. They’re not so much like sheep anymore these days (I have sheep and know their nature), they’re more like stereotypical lemmings rushing to their mass suicide, in a million different ways.

My heart goes out to them – there, but for the grace of God, go I. There are so many of them. Thankfully, interspersed among them are those who are good, who are strong, who are aware and informed, who can be counted on to rise to the occasion in a crisis. Many of these are already prepared for the spectrum of nation-destroying crises which loom ahead in the mist of time: EMP, pandemic, a New Madrid earthquake, mini-ice age, drought, nuclear terror, persecution and tyranny. And still more – you know the list…

They – like my wife and I – have worked, studied, sacrificed, and planned so that their families will be shielded from the brunt of whatever comes that our sovereign God permits in these last days. Together we preppers are “brothers in arms” as it were, in this exceptional pre-crisis mobilization.
I’ve long pondered what my purpose in these days might be. And I’ve concluded that it’s not enough – for me, at least – to survive merely in order to survive another day. There must be a greater purpose. And so there is.

A few weeks ago our pastor shared this passage that held a vital insight for me: A person once asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘… you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” – Mark 12:29-31 (NLT)

Much to my surprise, no matter how preoccupied I become with the many concerns and issues and problems of our day, my heart always comes back to my Creator. I may wander, but He guides me back. I’m drawn irresistibly to him, as the Sun’s gravity holds the earth to its course in space. I may not always show it – how I WISH I did – but Jesus has become the center of my existence. And in Him is great strength, and the peace I so desperately need. Most of you know of what I speak. It’s certainly not about what great followers “we” are. It’s about how great HE is and how he captivates our hearts. And in this way we begin to fulfill the “most important” purpose of our lives.

But there is a fundamental second goal – a deep purpose worth living – and dying – for: to “love our neighbors.” Unfortunately, the task of preparing for an End-of-The-World-As-We-Know-It catastrophe is well nigh overwhelming, particularly at the beginning. Prepping can easily become so intensely focused on studying/training/purchasing for self- and family-preservation, and it’s so intrinsically defensive, that we lose all perspective. And as “survival” becomes everything, so we slowly begin to forget that the path of satisfaction and joy, healing of our own hearts’ wounds and an enriching sense of purpose – those things we long for and work so hard for – is found in serving others.

And, yes, it’s just hard to think charitably about the very ones who might become in desperation the dreaded Golden Horde and prey on those we love. “It’s their own fault, they could have gotten informed, they do not deserve our help, they played while we prepared, they are fools…” – it’s all, tragically, true. But this is what the virtues of mercy and pity and compassion are all about! Tragedy and calamity and danger do not negate the simple truth of this second “most important commandment.”

This is easier to consider if our preps are well along. But even if we are in the “panic phase,” realizing we’ve begun “too late” to prep, we can still do something now. We need not wait until all of our own plans are totally complete before we consider others. It’s true, that we cannot save them all. We just can’t. But can we really just do nothing and hunker down while the world goes mad around us? We turn our backs on them today only at our own peril and loss. Yes, certainly, our families come first, then the local survival community – our team, our friends. Yes, we must avoid giving potential adversaries information about our capabilities and resources that they might take advantage of (i.e., OPSEC), and plan for a strong defense if and when that time comes, and all those other wise things.

OPSEC is an important principle, but it cannot be the most important factor. There is always risk (sometimes unforeseen risk), in everything we do and not do. I dare say there are ways to help others that would not risk OPSEC at all. It’s really a continuum, from zero risk right up to sacrificing oneself for a reasonable, worthy cause. Some risks are worth taking.
Even while we work to protect our own we can be reaching out to make a difference. If we don’t, who will? You know that answer.

This calls for bold and daring action. We can prepare and teach and warn and equip in a hundred creative, savvy ways. Photocopy articles to share, “jump start” the widow’s preps with rice and beans and wheat (don’t forget the diatomaceous earth!), and make plans with other preppers how we might work together to feed and rescue our unprepared neighbors.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” – Matthew 9:36 (NLT)

Like the four intrepid Bielski brothers in WWII Poland who saved 1,236 Jews from death at Hitler’s hand, our call, our purpose in this regard, is to “save as many as we can.” And the strategy and scope of that will be different for each of us! Never forget that God has given us each unique skills and resources and station in life for a purpose.
Pray about it, and watch for the opportunities. Find a way. Save as many as you can.

“Once there was a great storm that washed thousands of starfish up onshore. As an old man walked the beach he saw a young boy picking up stranded starfish and quickly returning them to the sea.
The man approached the boy and said, “What are you doing? The sun is rising. What difference does it make? They’re all going to die anyway.” As the boy rose from gently tossing back yet another starfish he said, “I made a difference to THAT one…”

Letter Re: Base Metal Coins as an Inflation and Currency Revaluation Hedge

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have read your five page article Mass Inflation Ahead – – Save Your Nickels.  You stated that: “…should Uncle Sam decide to devaluate our present fiat currency, holders of piles of nickels will typically make them unexpected beneficiaries of a 10X, 100X or even 1,000X gain of the purchasing power of their coins.”  You went further to say that “Governments just assume that most citizens just have a couple of pocketfuls of coins at any given time.  So if a currency swap were to happen while you are sitting on a big pile of nickels, then you would make a handsome profit.   To ‘cash in’, one could merely spend his saved nickels in the new currency regime.”
 
I happen to be sitting on a bunch of brilliant circulated post-1964 quarters and new dollars (Sacagawea and Presidential) purchased directly from the U.S. Mint for numismatic investing purposes.  Will I equally benefit from a currency swap as well or that just applies to nickels or other coins whose base metal contents make it worth more than its face value?   Would my survival techniques and instincts be better served  if I convert these coin holdings and buy nickels or 90% silver coins?  Thank you! – Nestor

JWR Replies: You only have two ways to gain with your quarters and “Golden Dollars”: numismatically (which is marginal, unless they are Mint State 69+ uncirculated) and in the event of a formal currency swap. (Dropping one or two zeroes from the dollar.)

The problem is that the base metal value of most post-1964 coinage other than pennies and nickels is pitiful.  According to Coinflation.com, a quarter’s base metal is worth 19.84% of its face value while a “Golden Dollar” is only worth 6.12% of its face value. But nickels are already worth more than their face value (presently 105.34%), so you stand to gain even if there isn’t a currency revaluation. Inflation–whether gradual or sharp–in the long term will make the currently-circulating nickels worth multiples of their face value. So nickels have three different avenues for appreciating value.

I do indeed recommend trading in your post-1964 quarters and dollar coins for boxes of nickels or for a smaller quantity of pre-1965 silver quarters. Ideally, you should have some of both.

Note that because of the laborious sorting required, I do not recommend stockpiling pre-1982 pennies. That, to my mind, is an exercise suitable only for retirees that have a lot of time on their hands, strong backs, and lots of secure storage space. (Pennies are much more bulky than nickels, per dollar invested.)

FWIW, I predict that a newspaper headline in 2013 or 2014 will read: “Where Have All The Nickels Gone?” Once a substantial portion of our populace realizes their relative value, nickels will be swept out of circulation in just a few months. It takes the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) to catch on to these changes. But Gresham’s Law is inescapable. Get your nickels now, before the inevitable Greshamization occurs. I don’t casually throw around terms like “inescapable”, “inevitable”, and “inexorable”. With Federal indebtedness spiking, and expected to continue to spike, mass inflation cannot be avoided. (They certainly can’t tax their way out of the debt. The National Debt is now $15.1 trillion, and your family’s share is about $659,000.)

Letter Re: How to Drain an Abscess

Dear Mr. Rawles:
A few comments, in no particular order, regarding the recent article “How to Drain an Abscess, by Lonestar Doc”.
 
Lonestar Doc is absolutely correct that an incision and drainage (I&D) should be handled by someone with the appropriate training and experience to perform the procedure.  However if you are in a situation where you as a non-medical person need to drain an abscess, such as described by Lonestar Doc, it is important to proceed with the I&D whether you have Lidocaine for anesthesia or not.  The pain of an I&D without anesthesia does not outweigh the need to drain the infection, which in the most extreme circumstance could be life-threatening. 
 
If you do have Lidocaine on hand, look to see if you have Lidocaine with epinephrine or plain Lidocaine (no epinephrine).  The bottle will be clearly labeled as “with epinephrine” and the label will usually be red.  Lidocaine with epinephrine must not be used on small digits and body parts, usually taught to medical students as the rhyme “fingers, toes; ears and nose”.  The epinephrine constricts the small arterial blood vessels and decreases bleeding but in these small areas it can decrease blood supply enough that the area dies. 
 
If an abscess is larger in diameter than 5 cm (about 2-½ inches) my surgeons and wound care consultants will still leave a loose packing of gauze, changing it every 1-2 days.  Leave a small amount of the gauze sticking up out of the incision so you can grab it for removal.  Use smaller amounts of gauze every time the packing is changed to allow for healing from the inside out.  Packing the site too tightly causes pressure on the underlying tissues which may cause it to die. [Necrosis.] Use loose packing. 
 
If an abscess has already started to drain but still feels fluctuant or “squishy” you may need to make an incision to provide better drainage of the pus.  The process is the same; just incorporate the draining site in the incision since that’s where the pus is already concentrated. 
 
When making the incision, you don’t have to bury to entire scalpel blade and handle in the abscess.  A small stab and then draw the blade through the skin to make the cut will help to keep the blade out of deeper tissues.  Make the incision long enough to allow good drainage from the abscess without leaving a hole the size of the Grand Canyon.  If you have an abscess 4 cm in diameter, a tiny puncture wound the size of a pencil lead isn’t going to give you enough drainage.  If you make the incision too big you will get into normal tissue and have a lot of unnecessary bleeding and tissue damage.  Try to make the incision along the skin lines to help with healing of the incision site.  To find the skin lines, gently pinch up about 1-2 inches of skin.  Whichever way the skin makes folds is the way the skin lines run. 

If you don’t have a scalpel, then a #11 X-Acto knife with a clean blade will work.  The blade doesn’t need to be perfectly sterile (you are cutting into a pocket of pus after all) but it should be as clean as you can make it. 
 
Lastly, as with most medical problems, prevention is more desirable than treatment.  Good hand washing, don’t pick your nose and wash your body regularly with soap are all important strategies in avoiding abscesses. – Ladydoc

Letter Re: Gentian Blue — An Old School Antibiotic

JWR:
Another great use for Gentian Violet is non-surgical treatment of onychocryptosis, the twenty-five cent word for ingrown toenails. I discovered this old treatment one bored night on Emergency Room call at an Indian reservation hospital, flipping through some hundred year old surgical textbook.

Just paint the nail folds and nail liberally. If antibiotics available, and they weren’t when the book was written, I usually use some erythromycin.

The Gentian Violet desiccates the nail fold and toughens it, treating the ingrown nail. While it’s not a 100% cure, it works well enough I still use it in my practice. I tell the patient to return when the Gentian Violet has worn off. Rarely do they need further treatment. – Dr. John in Arizona

Economics and Investing:

G.G. flagged this: Eurozone banking system on the edge of collapse

C.D.V. spotted this: Beware of More “Hopium” from the Crucial European Summit

Bob G. suggested this one: Buying Silver Is Like Buying Gold At $554 Today

Items from The Economatrix:

US Household Wealth Takes Biggest Hit Since 2008

Corporate America Sitting On Jobs Crisis Solution

Gold Tsunami: On the Cusp of $3,000?

Eight Charts From a Brave New Banking and Economic System

Odds ‘n Sods:

F.J. suggested this: How To Make A Minnow Trap Out Of Soda Bottles

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Yishai sent this news from England: Thousands of homes without power on coldest day of winter

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Important safety tip: Keep shooting until your opponent is no longer a threat! Chilling 911 tapes illustrate woman shooting home invasion suspect

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Iran Releases Video of Captured US Drone Plane. (BTW, you gotta love their 1980s-style trucker’s hats. They look like something out of Smokey and the Bandits Revolutionary Guards.)

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Federal judge decides who is an ‘authorized journalist’—and who is not. This case sets a bad precedent on the legitimacy of bloggers and other journalists that aren’t mainstream.

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Declan McCullagh reports: DHS abruptly abandons copyright seizure of hip-hop blog. The implications of these government policies go far beyond music.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 38 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

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

Round 38 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Practical Preparedness Perceptions, by Charles S.

In the past Americans expected to be prepared.  Whether it was helping to raise a barn, saving seed for the next spring planting, or being part of the local militia, it was expected that you would be ready.  Today we have become increasingly more dependant on others to do such things for us.  Many people wonder if we need to know how to save food, cut wood or light an oil lamp.

If you are reading this you are probably fully aware of the value of preparedness, but maybe someone among your friends, family or neighbors needs convincing.  And convincing these folks is important because they are the ones who will show up at your door when things go wrong. While preparedness has gained vastly more acceptance than it had twenty years ago, some audiences will still be resistant to simple ideas that seem like common sense to most of us. Why the resistance?  Why is it so hard for some to see that it’s a good idea to be prepared?  It’s all in the perception.

WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY
If you are reading this, sitting in your bunker while thumbing rounds into AK mags, you probably need to get out more, and more importantly you are part of the problem rather than the solution.  The common perception of the “survivalist” is of the local nut case hoarding guns, ammo and food.  The guy is probably out of shape and doesn’t have much of a plan beyond hoarding guns, ammo and food.  He just sits there fantasizing about the day when those sneaky Russians finally push the button, or the rascally Chinese parachute onto the streets of Hometown USA.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for bunkers, for topping off the AK mags, for managing food stocks and ammunition stores and really a few extra pounds won’t hurt if you maintain some type of fitness.  So what is wrong with the image as often perceived?

First off, if you are living in a bunker mentality, get out of it.  It’s not good for you or anyone around you.  Life is short and it can happen without you.  As crazy as the world is today, if you don’t get out and enjoy what you can while you can, you may be depriving your family and yourself of healthy and enriching experiences.

The other common misperception is that we are all doing this just for a The End Of The World As We Know Ia (TEOTWAWKI) event.  "Tea-ought-wah-ki" has kind of a Native American sound to its.  It is that cataclysmic event that sends people spinning into the bunker mentality, and it is the least likely thing to happen.           

The fact is that preparedness should cover a vast spectrum of eventualities.  From the weekend power failure to the local tornado to the post apocalyptic.  If all we ever talk about is a Mad Max existence, we will be marginalized and discounted by the very people we may be trying to reach, and rightly so.

We are missing out on the opportunity to point out that preparedness is for that winter storm that paralyzes the city.  Preparedness is for that unexpected job loss.  You have a year supply of food and some cash saved up, you can get through until you get back on track.  Preparedness should simply make life’s little hiccups more palatable, make regional disasters endurable and make cataclysm survivable.

Coming on too strong is a common mistake in trying to convince people to prepare.  Showing them what preparedness is good for is more convincing; let the state of the world do the rest of your talking.  

Politics can be a part of coming on too strong.  I find it easy to get worked up into a rabid frothing frenzy regarding today’s political environment.  It doesn’t help your position to do this and frankly, it is largely irrelevant.  Left or Right of the political spectrum has nothing to do with being prepared.  Being prepared and self-sufficient can, and should be apolitical.  Being prepared is about what is within your realm of control.

YOUR IMAGE

Look in the mirror.  Are you wearing an ACU boonie cap, 5.11 vest and woodland BDU pants?  Aside from the fashion faux pas of mixing camo patterns, what’s wrong with this picture?  Save the camo for your time in the woods, or don’t buy it at all, that stuff can be expensive and over rated.  If you are having a discussion with a relative that just doesn’t quite get it yet the camo/military/contractor clothing puts up a wall between you and a potentially receptive audience.   I’m not saying you need to go tie-dyed and dreadlocks to get through to people, I’m just saying that some people pay a lot of attention to what you are wearing and what you are wearing may influence how you are perceived and even how you portray yourself.  Relax.  Go with the casual regional norm.  Go gray, as that is an important survival skill too.

Physical Fitness

Let me step back a bit about the earlier overweight remark.  Having a few extra pounds may be of some benefit in a survival event.  Being too obese to get out of your own way, never will.  Physical fitness may be one of the most easily overlooked elements of preparation.  Again, this runs the full spectrum.  From being fit enough to take a chainsaw to that tree that is blocking the driveway after the storm to being able walk several miles at a time with a pack because that is suddenly your world.

Physical fitness pays off in how you present preparedness. You don’t need to be a svelte triathlete for me to listen to you about preparedness. If, however, you are sitting there guzzling beer and eating pizza out of the box propped up on your gut telling me what you’re going to do during the apocalypse, yeah, I’ll probably discount whatever you have to say, even if its valid.  Is that right? Is that fair?  Nope, that’s life.  I’m not as good a person as I would like to be, the world’s not as good a place as I would like it to be either.  Another overlooked element to preparedness is accepting the world for what it is rather than what we want it to be.

OPSEC

Operational Security (OPSEC) while perhaps being overused in preparedness circles, is important.  It means keeping information about your preparations and plans closely guarded.  OPSEC is a term better suited to our military brethren, discretion is all we need.  Be careful who you tell what, and don’t tell anyone everything.  The point of this piece is that we need to get the word out on preparedness, and we need to do that in a way that gets people interested and engaged.  We don’t want to go around spilling our guts to everyone, that puts up that wall too.  The benefits of getting people interested in being prepared is that if everyone is striving for a level of self sufficiency then there are fewer we have to look out for or worry about when things get worse.  Some people will always look for the path of least resistance and that will mean instead of prepping, their only plan is to show up on your doorstep.  So don’t detail any of your plans or preps with anyone outside your most immediate circle of trust.  It has been my experience that there are some men you can trust with your money, some men you can trust with your wife and some you can trust with your life, but it is rare that you can trust one man with all three.  If you can, he is in your immediate circle of trust.  (I find I have a very small circle.)

Publicly Using Term Like OPSEC
As I said, OPSEC is a term probably best left to our esteemed military brethren.  Another quick way to put that wall up when trying to get the word out about preparedness is to try to sound too “tactical”.  Leave the military jargon to the military, even if you were in the military.  Most often, by trying to sound like a “Tier 1 Operator” you just wind up sounding a lot like a moron.  Most “Tier 1 Operators” I know don’t even sound like that (for some reason they tend to talk more like laid back surfers).  Throwing a bunch of military terminology into a conversation can have the same effect on the perception as throwing a bunch of Spanish words in when you don’t speak Spanish. 

Your language, your appearance and your knowledge all contribute to your legitimacy on any topic and preparedness is no different.  To get the word out on practical preparedness, you have to come across as a legitimate authority on the subject, not a bunker dwelling moron.

Preparedness isn’t a military or political endeavor.  Preparedness is a patriotic and moral obligation.  Preparedness is the embodiment of the rugged individualism that has always made America great and it is becoming a lost art.  We have to save it and the only way to save it is to spread the word effectively.  Remember that the reality is that what you are saying is only important if you can get yourself heard convincingly.  Doing our part to promote preparedness is doing our part to help bolster our family, to help steady our community and help save our country. 

Maintaining Good Morale in a Survival Situation, by Lisa F.

While much has been written about the essentials of survival (emergency shelter, fire-making, water purification, defense, hunting, bug-out-bags, etc.), few survival experts have focused on ideas and tactics for maintaining morale and good mental health in a stressful and possibly sustained emergency situation.  This essay is intended to arm the reader, figuratively speaking, with some tools for helping people stay positive and energized while under stress.  These tips and ideas will be useful for any group, whether or not it includes children, or an individual.  The games are not my inventions; rather, I’ve picked them up over the years from work at camps and with team building groups.

For your kit:           

  • Consider including a travel chess set; you can make or purchase an inexpensive vinyl roll-up chess board and plastic pieces that add negligible weight or bulk to your bug-out-bag but can provide endless hours of mentally stimulating and fun activity, at the same time developing and honing strategic thinking skills.
  • A deck of cards with instruction sheet for different games.
  • A simple rubber ball (remember those solid pink ones from when you were a kid?)  The repetitive motion of rhythmic bouncing against a wall can be meditative; a ball is all you need to play a competitive game of handball with a friend.  This item may have other survival uses as well (to get a line up into a tree, perhaps?)\
  • A compact book of stories that can be read and re-read.  Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books is delightful for adults and for kids and makes for a great read-aloud; readers can create fun voices for the different animal characters or put on short plays to tell the stories.

Games for when you have room to run around and can make noise:

  • Everybody’s It – in this energizing tag game that gets everybody laughing, simply determine boundaries and start playing!  Every person is “it” and can tag anyone else; once tagged, a player is out and must sit or crouch where they are.  A fun twist is to let out players continue in the game; they can tag others, as long as they don’t move from their position.  The last person standing is the winner.
  • Elbow Tag – everyone finds a partner and they stand together with elbows linked. Each pair spreads out throughout the playing area. The leader picks one pair to be the first players involved in the chase; one is the runner and the other is the chaser. If the chaser catches the runner, they switch roles. If the runner chooses, they can hook elbows on any end of the any pairs standing in the playing area. When this happens, the person in the pair who has not been hooked onto must run and become the new runner. Play this game until people get tired or bored; there is no winner or losers.
  • Snake Tag – start out with three to four in a group. Try to get as many groups as possible and leave a person as “it”. Have the members of each group attach together by holding onto the waist of the person in front of them to form a snake. The person in front is the head and the person in back is the tail. To start, the person that is “it” must catch the tail of one of the snakes and attached to it. If he is successful, the head must come off and he is now “it”. You are to twist and turn your snake to keep from losing your head.
  • Eye Contact Partner Tag (Good for indoors) – pair up players. During the game the only person that you can tag is your partner.  For the tag, you must make eye contact with your partner.  All players must keep their eyes open (except for the occasional blink) and at shoulder-head level during play (so no looking up in the sky or down at the ground). Most non-“it” players will make eye contact with other non-“it” players as to avoid looking at their partner. For a better tag ratio, limit eye contact with any other player to 5 seconds.  Before starting make sure everyone understands the boundary area – the smaller the better (keep it safe). Then ask each pair to decide who will be “it” first. All the “it”s gather in the middle of the playing area. (At this time the non-“it”  players are looking for some sort of hiding advantage within the playing area.) When the facilitator says “go”, the “it”s go off to find and make eye contact with their partners. Once the tag is made the new “it” must turn around three times before going after his or her partner for the tag-back.

Games that don’t involve running around:

  • Common Links – divide the players into 3 or 4 groups. Each group has to come up with 5-10 facts that are common to everyone in the group (and write them down?). After about 5 minutes, gather all the groups together and share the 5-10 facts. For each fact that the group has that no other group has, they get a point. So if two groups had “have a dog” they wouldn’t get a point for that. The team with the most points wins.
  • Sing Down – split group into teams of 3-5 (they’ll need pen and paper) and direct them to list as many songs that include a given word (e.g. “blue”) in the title or lyrics.  After about 5 minutes, call time; they may not add any more songs to their lists.  In turn, each team must sing part of one of their songs.  Teams may not repeat songs that have already been sung; if they do so, they are out.  The winning team is the last to have a song remaining on their list.
  • Graveyard – One person is chosen to be the gatekeeper. Everyone else lies down on the ground; after the countdown from 10, no one can move. The gatekeeper has to catch people moving to get them out. Once a person is out they can help the gatekeeper try to get other people out. The gatekeeper cannot touch anyone but can say funny things to get people to move or laugh.
  • Rhythm Maker – the group should sit down cross-legged on the floor in a large circle; the rhythm maker’s job is to change the rhythm of the group. A volunteer leaves the room and later comes back into the middle of the circle to guess who the rhythm maker is. Make sure the group understands that they do not want to be obvious about who the rhythm maker is. The person guessing gets three chances to guess whom the one changing the group’s rhythm is. If she guesses correctly, she gets to choose who the next rhythm maker is after the previous rhythm maker leaves the room to get ready to guess. Therefore, rhythm maker becomes the one who guesses, the one who guessed becomes the one who chooses the next rhythm maker unless they could not guess correctly, then they have to be the security guard. (The one who makes sure the person who is going to guess does not peek).

Ongoing games:

  • Stinky fish – the group has a clothesline or other clip, which becomes the undesirable “stinky fish.”  The object is to attach the “stinky fish” to a player’s person (not their pack or any item they are carrying) without them noticing.  Now they are “it” or the “stinky fish” and have to find an unwitting player to which they can attach the clip.  This game can go on until the “stinky fish” is lost; you’d be surprised how long a group might keep it going.
  • Who’s Got the Fruit? – each player chooses the name of a fruit; each fruit may be claimed by only one player.  This is a virtual tag game; whoever has “got the fruit” is “it.”  The way that the person starting the game (or whoever is “it” at any point during the game) passes off the fruit is by saying the name of a player’s fruit three times in succession without being blocked; a targeted player blocks an attack by interrupting the sequence of 3 by saying the name of the fruit him or herself.  For example, if I have “got the fruit” and want to get rid of it, and one of my fellow players is “apple”, I might say “apple apple apple”, or I might more casually work the word into conversation:  “I sure miss apple pie…apple apple!”

Other ideas and resources:

A quick internet search using the terms “minute mysteries” or “brain teasers”  will find countless activities you can add to your repertoire.  Crossword puzzle or Sudoku books would also be welcome in many a survival camp.  You could plan calisthenics or stretching as a group, using yoga cards or your own memories, to get people together and focused on feeling good.  Most activities can be made into games or friendly competitions with the right attitude; it goes without saying that a positive attitude and orientation towards collaboration may be the most crucial tools in your survival toolkit.  The best thing about these activities is that you don’t have to wait for a survival situation to use them!

Letter Re: Gentian Blue — An Old School Antibiotic

James Wesley:

At a slide show about extreme trekking in the tropics, I asked the speaker what they used as a topical antibiotic and antifungal medicine while on the expedition.  The speaker said they relied on Gentian Blue, an antibiotic that was used in World War I and II.

Gentian Blue (or Crystal Violet) is used as a clothing dye.  The early chemical industry put a big emphasis on the development of dyes. In the race to discover the first antibiotics, every chemical on the shelf was tested, and Gentian Blue was found to have powerful antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitical properties. 

Gentian Blue is still used to treat bacterial and fungal skin infections and thrush (yeast) infections of the mouth. It might be useful for the treatment of drug resistant Staph infections.  It is not used for the treatment of deep wounds because it can permanently tattoo the tissue, but in a survival situation this might not be an issue. It will also indelibly stain cloth, so it should be handled with care. Gentian Blue is considered nontoxic enough for oral use (and it has been used to treat VD). It is not approved for internal  use because of possible cancer risks, but if I were suffering from gangrene, I would not let that worry me.

Gentian Blue used to be available on the pharmacy shelf back with the bottles of iodine. 2% Gentian Violet Solution can also be ordered from Amazon.com. – Greg S.

Letter Re: Why are Preppers So Hatefully Persecuted?

Hello,
I am writing about a topic that has bothered me for some time: Why are preppers so hatefully persecuted? We know from the Bible that this is not a new phenomenon, as Noah was severely persecuted for the preparations God ordered him to make. Could you please put it out to your readers?

Thank you very much for your time, – Drew in Idaho

JWR Replies: Envy is a sin that is all too common. That is just part of living in a sinful, fallen world. Those who are unprepared often feel both envy and guilt for not providing for their own families. Instead of correcting this fault in themselves, they instead lash out at those that have prepared. This is one reason why the details of our preparations should be kept private. If you aren’t circumspect, then you might become the target of an angry mob, in a disaster.