Letter Re: Earthquake Retrofit an Old House

Hi Jim,
Living in an area that’s earthquake prone and overdue for a large one, I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching ways to limit any damage that we might experience in our home.  In 1994 the Northridge earthquake and the resulting fires were the cause for the creation of a device that, I feel, is instrumental to possibly saving any home with a gas-line.  It’s commonly referred to as a Northridge valve. 
 
Simply, it’s a seismic device that stops the flow of gas at the house meter should there be any seismic event over 5.2 on the Richter scale.  I got one and installed it myself for less than $150.  To anyone concerned about preparing for an earthquake, this would be cheap insurance.
Thanks for all you do, – John T.

Economics and Investing:

Charley S. pointed out this interesting essay: Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence. And a related article, courtesy of Patrick S.: Can a monkey pick a hedge fund?

Merkel wants ‘permanent’ supervision of Greece, warns of war. (Thanks to Pierre M. for the link.)

John S. flagged this: Yuan Gold Contracts a Step toward Reserve Currency

‘Unknown territory’ for Europe if summit fails: France. ( A hat tip to John R. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

FedEx Sees E-Commerce Driving Record Holiday Volume

Just In Time For The Holidays: A Bad Economic Mood

Gas Price Could Slide Another 20 Cents By Year-end

London Trader:  Sovereign Silver Buying, Middle-East Shortages

Odds ‘n Sods:

David N. in Tennessee mentioned: 154 free military medical course downloads.

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There is a lesson in OPSEC here: Five Criminals Who Got Caught Because of Facebook. If you must use social networking to promote a business, then avoid mentioning anything controversial. But the best choice is never sign up at all!

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“Apartment Dweller” sent this: First Google.Org-funded geothermal mapping report confirms vast coast-to-coast clean energy source

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The latest Orwellian news: Intelligent Street Lamps To Debut Friday. Does anyone honestly believe that the guys that deal drugs on street corners won’t figure out that these are being used for surveillance and sabotage these lights? We’re talking about the Detroit area, where they have trouble keeping even standard street lights operational, and the city is having trouble paying its electric bill.

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A little Yankee Iowan Ingenuity: Iowa National Guard uses movie to inspire ammunition creation. (Thanks to Gary U. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Specie [gold and silver coin] is the most perfect medium because it will preserve its own level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war." – Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Wayles Eppes, 1813

Survivors Sample Chapter Excerpt — Chapter 5: Hornet’s Nest

“The only purpose of a government is to protect a man’s rights, which means: To protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, an agent of man’s self defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper function s of a government are: The police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud from others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective laws. – John Galt in Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged

Houston, Texas – October, the First Year

Growing up on the streets of Houston had made Ignacio Garcia both wary and smart. He never used any drugs other than some occasional marijuana. And he never sold drugs. He realized that was sure to get him arrested, eventually, because customers always talked. His only contacts with heavy drug users were some that he hired, to work his burglaries. Garcia developed a reputation as a clever burglar who never got caught. His modus operandi was exacting: Hit between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays, when nobody was home.  Avoid lower class neighborhoods, where the pickings weren’t worth bothering, and avoid the wealthy neighborhoods where they all had burglar alarms. Instead, he hit middle class neighborhoods, where there were still things worth stealing, but where they didn’t have their guard up.

Garcia started out by doing burglaries himself, but soon moved on to organizing and equipping teams to do the work for him. To approach middle class houses surreptitiously, he outfitted his teams to look like plumbers, carpet cleaners, or gardeners.  Their vehicles looked very convincing.  Garcia then fenced his goods though a network of pawn shops, flea market dealers, and coin dealers who could keep their mouths shut.  He had his teams concentrate on jewelry, guns, coin collections, cash, and high-end digital cameras. He made a point of never keeping any stolen merchandise at home.  He paid several little old ladies to rent storage spaces for him. Eventually, he had almost a dozen places to hide his stolen goods.

Garcia was never associated with any of the big gangs, although he did recruit a few members of MS-13. He kept his own gang—“the gang with no name” as quiet as possible, and discouraged them from antagonizing any other gangs.  Garcia often said, “Let them bicker and kill each other, while we hang back and just make lots of money.”

The stoners that worked for Garcia sometimes did stupid crack head stuff.  Even though he gave them explicit directions, they’d ignore him and bring back things like big screen HD televisions, bottles of various prescription medicines, and kitchen appliances.  One time, one of his men brought back plastic bags of live koi carp that they had stolen from a pond. This pond was in the backyard of a house that they had trouble entering. Some of the items had to be discarded, or took weeks to fence.

Three years before the Crunch, Ignacio realized that some upper-middle class people rarely let their guard down. For these targets, Garcia started to train and equip his home invasion team.  He selected his most ruthless yet most level-headed men.  He gave them some of his best guns, and carefully selected targets –mostly ones that he’d previously had to pass up.  He called this team “La Fuerza”—The Force.  Most of their home invasions took place at mid-day, when there would likely be just one adult at home.

The home invasions went remarkably well.  Because Garcia insisted on a strict six minute time limit inside a target house, La Fuerza never met the police face to face.  Eventually, he split La Fuerza into two teams of six men each.  Their take was so lucrative that he eventually stopped using his traditional burglary teams altogether.  He gave control and ownership of that whole operation to his cousin Simon.

Garcia grew up in Houston’s Second Ward, but after he built up capital from his burglaries, he bought a house in Greenspoint, on the north side.  This was a nice suburban neighborhood that was roughly half Hispanic.  He did his best to blend in. Ignacio told his neighbors that he was in the import/export business.  In a way, he was right.  He just exported things from people’s houses, and imported them into his own.

When the Crunch started, there were 16 full members of Garcia’s gang. As the economy cratered, Garcia realized that he had to switch gears quickly.  Previously, his goal had been converting stolen goods into cash.  But now cash was perishable and even undesirable.  The goods themselves were more valuable.  He also realized that once Houston became the target of rioting, that the whole city would be locked down, and he’d be just as at risk from burglary or robbery as anyone else.

Anahuac, Texas – October, the First Year

Garcia leased a large warehouse in Anahuac, a white bread community on the east side of Trinity Bay, in Chambers County, east of Houston. He rented a nearby apartment and moved his wife and children there. The warehouse had 35,000 square feet, and a pair of large roll-up doors in the back. He set all of his men to work, ferrying the best of his accumulated loot from his various storage spaces to the warehouse.  Then he had them start stealing late-model cargo vans and pickup trucks with camper shells. He didn’t ask them to stop until he had 17 of them parked in the warehouse.

Using his gang members as agents, Garcia scrambled to convert as much of his cash as possible into practical tangibles.  He had them buy 10 jerry cans for each van and truck, and set each vehicle up with roof racks.  They each also got water jugs, canned goods, camp stoves, sleeping bags, ammunition, tools, and freeze-dried foods. They bought or stole four spare tires mounted on rims for each vehicle, and strapped them down on the roof racks. After just three days at the warehouse, he asked his cousin Simon to join him, and to bring along his eight toughest men who were bachelors.

Garcia spent many hours, talking what ifs with Tony, his most trusted lieutenant.  Tony had three years of artillery experience in the army, with a tour in Iraq.  That was before his Article 15s and dishonorable discharge.  It was Tony who suggested putting CB radios in every vehicle.  It was also Tony who recommended buying up as many cans of flat tan and flat brown spray paint as they could find.  Tony was good at planning ahead.

They had everything almost ready at the warehouse by the time that the riots started in earnest.  He ordered the men and their families to get used to sleeping hard– essentially camping, inside of their vehicles in the warehouse.  There were some complaints at first, but then once Houston started to burn, they thanked Ignacio for rescuing them from the chaos, and for getting them ready.

The entire gang eventually adopted the name La Fuerza.  Ignacio set them on a well-calculated campaign of night-time robberies of sporting goods stores, department stores, and recreational equipment stores. They were cautious though, so none of these stores were located in Chambers County. 

Once the gang was equipped for traveling and living independently, La Fuerza started stealing armored vehicles.  Their first targets were members of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA), a group that Garcia’s wife found with an Internet search. The MVPA members meticulously restored jeeps, trucks, and armored vehicles. Their roster—complete with the addresses of members–was there for the taking on the Internet. The gang’s goal was acquiring wheeled armored personnel carriers.  Their vehicles of choice were the Cadillac Gage V100 Commando—a four-wheeled APC, and the Alvis Saracen, a British 6-wheeled APC. Garcia sent out four-man teams in stolen cars to as far away as Oklahoma and Louisiana to steal them.

His men would arrive after midnight, batter down house doors, and force people from their beds at gunpoint. They marched them to their garages to show the gang members how to start and operate their vehicles. To give them more time to get away before an alarm was raised, the gang members killed the homeowners and their families. Over the course of three nights, they drove back to Anahuac with three Saracens and two V-100s.

Garcia was disappointed to find that most of the MVPA members had only non-firing dummy weapons mounted on their vehicles. Only one of the vehicles had a live gun. This was a semi-automatic-only Browning Model 1919. So their next targets were belt-fed machineguns, taken in storefront or home invasion robberies of Class 3 licensed full auto weapons dealers. These robberies netted six .30 caliber belt-feds, two Browning .50s, and 15 submachineguns of various types. They were surprised at the quantity of ammunition and extra magazines that the dealers had.  In all, there were 232 cans of ammunition, much of it already on linked belts. 

It was not until after they had the guns and Tony started reading their manuals that they realized they needed belt-linking machines to assemble belts of ammunition.  They then brazenly went back to a store that they had robbed just two days before, and took both .30 and .50 caliber hand-lever linking machines, and several 20mm ammo cams containing thousands of used links.

Letter Re: One Strategy for Bugout Bag Foods

Sir:
I would like to follow up on my recent article, Some Thoughts of How to Live in Times of Hunger, with a few actionable implications that might make a difference to my fellow preppers. As always, I eagerly look forward to the contributions of the worldwide prepper community to add to or correct my conclusions.
           
If I ever have to bug-out on foot it will be under dangerous circumstances, and I will need to move quickly and cover at least several miles. This on-foot bugout is my truly worst-case scenario: minimum supplies, emergency escape. If I can plan for this scenario then all other scenarios should be simpler. It is my fail-safe.

However, right now I’m having a terrible time keeping my Bug Out Bag weight low. I can carry it out to my truck. I might even be able to wear my pack and hike a mile. But I sure won’t be moving fast and I won’t get much beyond a mile, if that, in rough terrain. I’m not particularly young, I’m not athletic, I have a sedentary job – I might even represent the “average” American prepper.

Some of the weight in my pack is food, several pounds worth. I’ve researched ideal foods that combine calories, nutrients, and protein in a robust ready-to-eat package for meals on the move. But I’ve been thinking about the whole hunger thing in a different light.

If I escape by the “skin of my teeth” into the wilderness and have enough food to sustain me for two or three days it will only prolong my death if I do not also have the equipment to obtain food once I am in the field. Just as I cannot carry enough water to last me through even two days, I may not be able to both carry enough food and have the equipment to obtain enough food long term by hunting, trapping, or fishing

Based on my hunger research, I know I can perform at near-peak levels for a couple of days with a minimum of food, after which point my performance will begin to taper off as hunger sets in. I won’t be happy about it, but I will survive the experience of “going hungry.”

If I’m not mistaken, the name of the food game, at least for the first several days of a bugout, is sheer calories. But what if I only carry (1) quick-energy carbohydrates to fire my muscles during hunts and escape, and (2) slow-energy calorie-dense foods like fat (or mostly-fat foods) for the sheer caloric-content of it?

Here’s my logic:

Glucose is my body’s primary energy source that it stores in my liver for emergency energy. Sports gels contain mostly glucose/dextrose (or maltodextrose) because it hits the bloodstream quickly and doesn’t require much digestion. These might very well be the best quick-energy option because some gels also contain electrolytes (mentioned in the Hunger article) and caffeine. What’s not to like?

The caloric content of gels is around three calories per gram, while solid glucose/dextrose candy should come in closer to four. Candy made from sucrose (table sugar) has the same caloric content. Werther’s Original Creamy Caramel Filled hard candies candy (which I happen to have on hand), for example, is mostly glucose (and you really have to love that caramel filling!). If you can’t afford the more than $1 per pack for the energy gels you could still do pretty well with hard candy for a shot of energy once it dissolved in your mouth.

Yes, there is an energy crash following the “sugar high” (less with sports gels) but the important thing to note is that the sugar (or sugar and caffeine) does indeed provide the energy burst to hunt or escape, and do it with an effectiveness and with a speed unmatched by any other food source. That’s important.

High-sugar foods like hard candies and energy gels aren’t the highest calorie content foods, though. The highest concentrated calories come from fat. Pure, solid glucose is something like four calories per gram (the same as protein). Fat contains around nine calories [per gram], that’s 225% more energy per gram! However, fat takes longer to metabolize. For a quick burst of energy during a hunt or escape you certainly would not eat fats. It’s no substitute for sugar.

Imagine that you can barely carry your BOB even with NO food in it. You have the equipment you must have to hunt/fish/trap, but NO food. Zero food.

You work out at the gym and finally have the additional strength to add a bit of food to your pack. What do you add? Sugar. Why? Because it will at least give you the short-term bursts of energy to do the two most essential things you must do: hunt/fish/trap and escape should that be an issue. It won’t fill you up, it won’t stop you from feeling hunger, but it will work for what you need it for.
 
Back at the gym you’ve been hard at work and you finally can add a little more weight to your BOB, in addition to the sugars you figure you’ll need.

You know your body isn’t going to need a lot of vitamin and protein replacement right away (electrolytes maybe, yes). You know you won’t starve for nearly a month. You know that you can function on “empty,” if you have to. You know if you leave on foot you could end up in an unfamiliar location and it could take you days, or even weeks, to begin hunting/fishing/trapping well enough to begin meeting your daily caloric needs [and then transition to gardening and raising livestock once your reach your retreat, where you presumably will have a deep larder]. You may not be able to carry all of the calories you would like, but you would like to minimize the depletion of your body’s energy reserves (fat, sugar, muscles).

If you packed sesame snaps (one of my personal favorites with sugar, fat, protein, and fiber, 186 calories/35 gr package) you’d need 21.5 packages (1.7 pounds) of snaps per day for 4,000 calories. In two week’s time you would need nearly 24 pounds of snaps!

But what food has more caloric energy than any other food on earth? Fat. What food, coincidentally, burns reasonably slowly? Pure fat. Nine calories per gram. It doesn’t get any better than that. You need calories, it has calories. (Hey, it’s good enough for the Inuit! Can you say muktuk!)

If you packed fat instead of sesame snacks you would only need to carry 14 pounds, SEVEN fewer pounds than sesame snaps. Or, to look at it another way, if you were able to add an extra 24 pounds of weight, the snaps would last two weeks (@4K cal/day), but the fat (453.6gr/lb x 9 cal/gr x 24 / 4000) would last ten more days. (Turkey chili, one of my favorite all-around-nutritional foods, contains 460 calories in a 15 ounce (420 gram) can, works out to 1.1 calories per gram – 800% fewer calories-per-gram than fat. Bad choice as your second tier food!)
           
Your stomach does flips at the thought of just eating Crisco plain but you realize that coconut oil has a lot of other benefits besides its incredible caloric density. It’s solid at room temperature (liquid in desert temps!), doesn’t burn at high temperatures (like cooking over a campfire), and is very easily digested by the body. And if you get the really good virgin coconut oil from a health food/supplements store it will even smell great!

Coconut oil has antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties – all things we’d like to have in an emergency situation. And its medium-chain triglycerides require less work from your liver to convert it into usable energy (which is why it’s used in sports nutrition, hospital feeding formulas, and foods for people with digestive disorders). Have a look at the amazing properties of coconut oil and its digestibility.

With the weight savings of not having to carry as much food weight (only energy gel for quick bursts) and carrying food with the maximum energy density (fat), I can afford to carry more of what I will need in the long run: equipment to help me hunt, fish, and trap. (Equipment first!)

It does me no good to have a lot of food if my BOB is too heavy to make a quick getaway – the getaway is the thing. And it also does me no good to have a lot of food in my pack if I can’t subsequently secure an adequate supply once in the field. The most important reason for carrying the BOB is to get out with the tools and supplies I need to survive long-term.

Eating just sugar and fat while you orient yourself to your surroundings and start to put wild foods on the table is not the final word! There are a lot of variables. You will be able to add the occasional fish, handful of berries, bird, or edible tuber and give yourself some variety while extending your food reserves. You may want to add to your BOB a little of the tastier foods (MREs, freeze-dried meal, canned turkey chili, or sesame snaps) just to keep your sanity…

But do it with the realization that any food that is not pure fat is trading off taste for calories (i.e., raw “body fuel”). You can stretch your body’s energy reserves further with foods that have a high caloric density, and the very highest of these is fat.  Then make an educated choice about the foods you pack!

And if you can’t carry as much food as you’d like, at least be sure you have the equipment you need to obtain food once you’re in the wild! You don’t need to be full of food each and every day – you know that can safely survive on “empty” for quite a while!

I’m going to continue to work on my walking and climbing fitness so that I can carry the maximum amount of gear during a critical escape situation. But in the mean time, this weight tradeoff based on an understanding of how hunger actually works might help make my long-term survival a more sure thing. And that’s what it’s all about.

Be Prepared. Trust God. We can do both. – ShepherdFarmerGeek, in Spokane

JWR Replies: My general advice for anyone that cannot live at their intended retreat year-round is to cache nutritious food at several places along your intended route, in buried plastic cache containers. (Like the four liter containers made by Nalgene, triple-bagged in heavy plastic bags.) It is best to cache in rocky soil, to reduce the chance of burrowing rodents finding it. Check your caches annually.

Hiking long distances at a deep caloric deficit is dangerous. If nothing else, hunger is distracting, so your personal security awareness and sleep will both suffer. Hunger can also encourage you to make bad decisions. Longer-term hunger can also degrade your night vision. (See Nick Rowe’s POW narrative, Five Years to Freedom.) Further, dependence on refined sugars for your primary source of energy is inadvisable. First, it causes sugar rush-then-crash cycles that are debilitating. Second, depending on your particular physiology, sugar crashes might even cause fainting. Lastly, overloading on sweets can even trigger a diabetic reaction. (Wouldn’t that be ironic, to survive on mostly sugar for a week and make it to your retreat, only discover that you’ve become an insulin-dependent diabetic?)

For ultra-compact food for a lightweight bugout bag, I would advise making powdered blue-green algae (also known as Spirulina) your core food. Ounce-for-ounce it is the ultimate trekking food for humans. The freeze-dried algae powder could be supplemented by whey-based protein powder (like those used by bodybuilders), powdered milk, jerky, peanut butter, ghee (storable clarified butter), coconut oil and perhaps a few sweets like Clif bars and Larabars. This approach has been discussed at length in backpacking magazines, backpacking discussion forums, and blogs. By the way, I’ve read that you can even make your own energy bars with blue-green algae. (Although I haven’t tried this myself, so no guarantees.)

Be advised that for anything more than a four day trek, constipation might become an issue with a protein dense diet like I’ve described. The importance of storing gentle bulk laxatives (such as Metamucil) has been discussed previously in the blog. Even after you have arrived at your retreat, keeping regular will become very important if you have a diet with a preponderance of meat from wild game. So don’t overlook getting a supply of bulk laxatives. Even if you don’t end up needing them personally, they will be useful for barter or charity.

Lastly, be cautious about packing too much caffeine (as found in coffee, tea, and sports gels) or other stimulants like chocolate in your bugout bag. Odds are that you will already be feeling very tense in a true Get Out of Dodge situation, so don’t add the risk of a panic attack.

Economics and Investing:

Commentary from George Maniere: Silver Waits to Begin Breakout

G.G. sent this: Expect more QE from the Bank of England

Also from G.G.: US States are Facing Total Debt of Over $4 Trillion. Get ready for higher taxes and creative “fees”.

And from B.B.: Rustling costs ranchers millions in poor economy

Erik B. mentioned that Glenn Beck has been trumpeting the derivatives time bomb. (Much like I have, since the early days of SurvivalBlog.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Mixed On Stronger Earnings, Europe Reports

Help for Underwater Homeowners Unveiled

Merrill Lynch Warns of Another US Debt Downgrade

Wal-Mart Offers Price Guarantee to Lure Shoppers

Survey:  Home Prices Up in Half of Major US Cities

Odds ‘n Sods:

Salina Journal News: Preppers a diverse group. (Thanks to Jeff H. for the link.)

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Is nothing sacred? Thieves steal 2-ton bell from St. Mary’s garden

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Jeff R. spotted this: Ancient South American volcano Mount Uturucu blowing up like a balloon.

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Some good news from Canada: Conservative Party introduce bill to abolish long gun registry

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My recent interview on Frank Wuco’s show is now available as an archived podcast. My interview begins about 11 minutes into the hour, but please don’t miss the moving tribute in the first couple of minutes.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“You don’t know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.” – Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, Firefly

Notes from JWR:

It’s nice to see that we’ve zoomed past the threshold of 35 million unique visits. We are now averaging more than 271,000 unique visits per week. Please keep spreading the word about SurvivalBlog. Thanks!

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Today we present another entry for Round 37 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $300 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo, and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) 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, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) 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.) 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 37 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Earthquake Retrofit an Old House, by Greg E.

2011 was a year of deadly and devastating tornados, and an earthquake that shook the east coast.  One of the largest tornados hit a suburb in my county in the Birmingham Alabama area. We are also only one state over from the New Madrid earthquake zone that starts in the Memphis area.  After taking several closer looks at the foundation and basement of our 50 year old house, I realized we were living with a false sense of security.

After researching online, I learned that in certain large events, mainly earthquake, but also from high winds, if the house gets shaken, the metal [pier] poles holding up the center of the house in the basement may or may not move in unison with the rest of the house above them that they are supporting.   Our house [has a conventional perimeter foundation and aside from the perimeter it] is simply sitting on those poles, and that is it. In large earthquakes, houses with basements can simply fall into the basement below them, if the support poles [or posts and piers] do not stay intact. I set out looking for an easy fix, and discovered nothing readily available on the market for this situation.   Maybe in frequent earthquake territory like California, there might be something on the market, but I did not find anything at the big box hardware stores or online. 

It appeared it was time to get creative. I am not in the construction business, but I’m guessing I do have a few more tools than the average household. My small shop has a miter-saw, table saw, drill press, chop-saw, and a small, bottom of line wire-welder. There are lots of people with way more tools than this, but this is a modest amount and I’m comfortable using them.   I spent a much of my time staring at the rafters and those metal poles, knowing there had to be way to tie them together.
  
The goal is not to keep the house from swaying, but rather, if the house is swaying, the poles sway in unison with the house. This way, when the house stops swaying, the metal poles are still in position as there were intended, holding up the center of the house.   The metal poles of our old house are 4-1/2 inches in diameter.  A double row of 2”x10” rafters run lengthways of the house, with 2”x10” rafters attached perpendicular to them.   These perpendicular rafters run from the center of the house out to the foundation. I would like to have been able to tell you that all of the rafters are evenly spaced, but they are not. Wiring and plumbing run along the bottom of the rafters, and it appears that plumbing had a major say-so in what rafters went where.   Sure, there are a few rafters that are evenly spaced, but quite a few that were placed very close to another rafter to accommodate the plumbing.

So, in staring at the poles and rafters, I obviously needed something to attach to the pole, and something that could be attached to the rafters, and each of these had to be able to be attached to each other.   Oh, and in my case, cost was an issue. To explain: most of those tools were bought before we had kids. Now my paycheck is spent before it gets home. And in this economy, it’s not getting any better either. I wanted to make the house a little bit safer than it was before I started, and yet still not break the bank. Besides being on a tight budget, time is precious these days too, and I can only work on this project on the occasional, rare, weekend free from other events begging for priority on the calendar.   

I knew I could drill holes in the wood, even if I have to use a right-angle attachment to do so, to mount some type of brace. As is ‘just my luck’, some of the closest together rafters were the ones near the poles I was going to be working on. But, what kind of bracing to use?   Flat aluminum or steel [stock] is readily available at the hardware stores, but in an earthquake, you never know for sure what direction the house is going to be shaking in. Nature has a tendency to keep that thing called the ‘epicenter’ to herself and let the scientist figure that one out later. Angle iron has support both vertically and horizontally. Luckily, and beloved neighbor, ‘Joe’ had given me some scrap angle iron before he passed away a couple of years ago. I still had the rusty angle iron in the shop, and I would need to clean it up with a portable electric grinder and a wire wheel attachment on a drill, but it was free, and I had plenty of it to do the job. I love to recycle, and re-using this free angle iron for my project is better than it getting sold for scrap.  I wanted to clean up the surface rust and paint it to roughly match the gray color of the poles. The drill press would eventually come in handy for the angle iron too. 
 
I did some research on eBay, and found that the do make U-Bolts in the needed size, but due to the size and weight, the shipping and handling were going to cost more than the U-Bolt. I discovered that one of the auto parts chain stores carried the 4-1/2” U-Bolt on their web site. The highway nearby has just about a half dozen auto parts stores within a 15 minute drive.  The auto part store that had the U-Bolts had them at a very attractive price, and they would ship them to your local store for free.  Bingo. This way I could get the U-Bolts at basically the same price as I’d seen on ebay, but without the shipping and handling costs.   The auto parts store only needed a couple of days to get them to the store.  This worked out great for me, because I ordered them early in the week, and wouldn’t be using them until the weekend anyway.  

The large 4-1/2” U-Bolts are made out of steel that is 3/8” diameter. I could drill 3/8” inch holes in the angle iron, to attach it to the U-Bolt, and additional holes to attach it to the rafters.  I wanted angle iron on each side of the pole, where-ever possible, for the push-pull effect that an earthquake might cause.   I also wanted to put two holes in each piece of angle iron where it attached to rafters, so that it would be rigid enough to move the poles with the house.   If I were to only put one hole in each piece of angle iron where it attaches to the rafter, it would like just be a pivot point and the angle iron could easily let the pole shift away from the center of the house.  

I wanted to paint the U-Bolt, and angle iron pieces, because they would be in contact not only with each other, but also with the metal pole. Although in this particular instance they are all steel, I’m not sure what kinds of steel they are.   I’ve learned that dissimilar metals that are in contact with each other can vastly increase the oxidation (rust) rate of the metal. As a side note, always be aware if you are using aluminum, steel, and any alloys, that are touching or are bolted to each other, as this can oxidation can become a real issue.   Don’t think that aluminum oxidizes?  Next time you are in a salvage yard, look at the chalky white powder on some of the aluminum parts you see is oxidation. It just doesn’t turn dark like steel does when it rusts (oxidizes).  

I made a dry fit of the U-bolt to near the top of the pole, about 3-4 inches from the top. I wanted to keep it near the top for leveraged strength, but not so near the top that if it did attempt to sway in an earthquake that it would try to jump over the top of the pole. Measured the lengths I needed for the angle iron to have a piece on each side, and cut them with the chop saw.  Drilled them on the drill press, then painted all of the pieces and let them dry completely. In keeping with the recycling theme, I was able to use up some old cans of [rust preventive] ‘primer gray’ color that matched the existing gray color of the metal poles well.   

The U-Bolts come with a bracket that fills in the gap of the opening at the open end of the ‘U’, and with the two nuts needed to hold it all together.   When measuring for bolts to use on the rafter, take into account not only the thickness of the rafter, but the thickness of your angle iron, the nut, and washers.   I recommend using washers on sides of the rafter, where the bolt head is and on the other side where the nut meets the angle iron. I even painted the washers, in case they are a different metal from the angle iron.   Who knows, a few seconds of extra painting could add years to the project and protect the old house for the next generation.  

Are there better ways to do this project?  Sure.  Are there more expensive ways to do this project?  Sure.   This just happened to be the best fit for my situation, of wanting to build a little more safety into a 50 year-old house, without having to take out a loan to do it. Maybe you can adapt some of these ideas into your next project.

Three Letters Re: A Single Mom’s Desire to Relocate

Dear Mr. Rawles,

I love your blog and visit it daily. You recently recommended a lady consider North Dakota (in Letter Re: A Single Mom’s Desire to Relocate), saying “You might also consider the Oil Patch of North Dakota, which is presently booming and has a considerable surplus of bachelors.”

My wife and I have been considering going there only because we’ve been out of work for quite some time and things are looking bleak. Researching the area we found at least one negative: there is some significant concern that a highly toxic material called Erionite has been used as road material in parts of the state. Just doing a search on Erionite, possibly also Mesothelioma, and the like, should give you enough of a start to make an informed decision. Here’s one article to get you started. – Clementius

James:
On Monday, Oct. 24, “Single Mom” wrote to ask for advice on finding rural land to “get herself and her son out of harms way”. JWR replied (in part):
 
“I recommend that you proceed with prayer. Pray that you find the right community in a safe region with a good church, and if it in God’s plan, a Godly husband.
For some general guidance, see my American Redoubt page and my Retreat Area Recommendations page.”
 
Good advice, James. I would also suggest that “Single Mom” consider posting on your “Finding Other Preppers” static page, which is linked on SurvivalBlog’s left sidebar. And “Mom” might additionally consider posting on www.ic.org. It’s a well know web site for folks looking to start or join an intentional community and for already existing communities to find new members. Good Luck, – Jim, in Ohio

 

Dear Mr. Rawles:
Regarding “Single Mom’s” letter, I enclose the “Careers” link to Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
They’re always looking for RNs and since the market is down here, real estate is more available close by. I don’t claim Northern Idaho is the answer to her prayers but it’s better than a lot of places out there. At least it sure was when we relocated from Southern California.

Just trying to help someone that’s asking for some. Take care and keep up the good work that you do. – Brian W

Economics and Investing:

Some recent data on the income decline in America illustrates that we are indeed in the early stages of an economic depression. There is an ocean of red ink that needs to dry out. And that might take two or three decades, folks.

Diana was the first of several readers to mention this: Vatican urges economic reforms, condemns collective greed

Mark L. pointed me to a new piece by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard that has some positive comments on investing in America. Yes, Things are so fouled up in European financial circles that they even make the U.S. look relatively safe and strong!

FedEx Sees E-Commerce Driving Record Holiday Volume

German officials: Bailout fund will top $1.4 Trillion (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)

Days Of Reckoning: Mark Your Calendar for Two Historic Days that Could Shake Wall Street

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Fall as Hopes for Europe Deal Falter

The IPO Market, an Engine of Growth, Stalls

US Stock Futures Up After Solid Corporate Earnings

Survey:  Economists Bleak About US Economy

Odds ‘n Sods:

A recently-released map showing gang presence in the United States adds further credence to the American Redoubt concept. (Thanks to Karl K. for the link.)

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C.J. Chivers, one of the few mainstream newspapermen that really understands small arms had some great commentary on modified and re-purposed guns in the hands of guerillas: Afghan Gun Locker: Battlefield Ingenuity, and a Weapon’s Longevity

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F.J. suggested this over at LifeHacker: How to Make an Improvised Backpack

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$1 Billion of your tax dollars at work: Libya’s liberation: interim ruler unveils more radical than expected plans for Islamic law.

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Chicken Coops Growing in Popularity in American Backyards. (Thanks to K.A.F. for the link.)