Notes from JWR:

I’m scheduled for a two hour interview with call-in questions from listeners November 24th on EMPact Radio.

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Today we present another two entries for Round 31 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will 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 $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) 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 $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 31 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.

From Beginning Prepper, to Fully-Stocked Retreat: What to Buy, and When, by Scott in Wisconsin

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It’s easy to see that the world may be heading for more trouble, and we need to prepare for hard times ahead.  But it can be daunting to decide what to do, what to stock, and when to get it.
I’ve been working at this a while, and I’ve figured out a simple balance in what to buy, and when to buy it, that I think will help other Preppers move ahead with confidence.
You could call it my 100/1,000/10,000 system, and I hope it helps you get going, and get to a place where you feel more prepared for the tough times ahead.

Step One
Step one is to become a “100 level” Prepper.  If you’re not there, you’re helpless in the event of even a minor disruption.  Luckily, you can get to the 100 level fast, and inexpensively.
At the 100 level,  you’re prepared for a brief disaster.  You have some food and water, you can keep warm, travel, and protect yourself in the very short term.  It’s a start.  The bare minimum.
Here’s what you need:  100 cans of food, 100 bottles of water, 100 lbs of fuel, 100 rounds of ammunition, 100 silver dimes, 100 dollar bills.

Food:  Buy 100 cans of foods that are easy to eat, even right out of the can.  Baked beans, Dinty Moore Stew, Corned Beef Hash, Spaghetti-os.  Canned Spam will do the job, and lasts for 3-5 years.  (Generic brands can cost half the price, so shop around.)
Throw in some cans of veggies that you like too. In a crunch, this 100 cans should feed you for over a month.  Don’t forget a can opener!
Water:  Store 100 of those little pint (.5 liter) bottles of water.  That gets you about 12-13 gallons, instantly available.  If things fall apart, you’ll want instant availability.  This should get you almost a month in a pinch, when added to other liquids you have in the fridge and on the shelf.
Fuel:  Liquid fuels weigh about 6.5 lbs per gallon, so we’re talking about 15 gallons here.  I recommend 5 gallons of gasoline, and 10 gallons of Kerosene (in 2 of those blue 5-gallon containers).
Get Sta-bil for the gas, and once a year dump that 5 gallons in your car gas tank, and refill the container with new gas.  The kerosene will store for a decade or more, especially if you add PRI-D.  Buy a little 10,000 BTU kerosene heater on Amazon, Craig’s List, or eBay, and you’ll stay “warm enough” if the power is out for a few nights in the winter.
Ammo:  Buy a pistol, and practice with it regularly.  Be sure to use a common caliber.  I don’t recommend 9mm, for lack of stopping power.
I bought a Hi-Point S&W40 semi-automatic pistol for $175, and with 100 rounds of Ammo you have the beginnings of home protection.   It’s the cheapest gun on the market, but it puts big holes in things I  point at.  Remember to replace your ammo when you practice!  Wal-Mart has cheap ammo.
Silver:  Depending on your finances, either think 100 Junk Silver dimes, or 100 Oz. of silver coins.  At today’s market price of $24 per oz for silver, you’re either looking at $180, or $2500.  Your goal should be to move as much of your liquid assets as you can into silver.
I like junk silver dimes because they are instantly seen as genuine.  No one is counterfeiting old Roosevelt or Mercury silver dimes.  Plus, they are small, light, and even if silver explodes in value, they are very spendable for small items.  (You won’t want to buy a loaf of bread with a 1 oz gold coin, that may well be worth as much as a car.)  And the premium on junk silver is small, compared to the true silver value in the coins.
Silver 1 oz coins are also great, and the ones from the U.S. Mint are very popular and available.  There shouldn’t be any question about their genuine value either.  They do sell at a hefty premium at times, though.  (Avoid silver bars, as people will assume they are fake, and they are too cumbersome.)
Cash:  If the ATM is down, and your credit cards don’t work because the power or the internet is out, you’ll want $100 cash on hand to get over a brief crisis.  Small denominations allow for all kinds of transactions, with little need for change back.

Okay, the first important step is behind you.  You are set for a weekend power outage.  A winter ice storm.  A weekend of civil unrest.  Congratulations.  It’s an important start.

Step Two
Now, it’s time to strive for the 1,000 level Preparation.  This is the point where you and a couple loved-ones can handle a significant breakdown of civil society.  9-12 months without our accustomed infrastructure will be survivable at the 1,000 level Preparation.

Here’s what you need:  1,000 pounds of food, 1,000 gallons of filtered water, 1,000 lbs of fuel, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, 1,000 silver dimes, 1,000 dollar bills.

Food:  Now you need to get serious about food storage.  Balancing your diet, and expense, really come into play here.  And remember, you need to stock up on things you will eat, and that you can prepare easily.
Double your 100 cans of food, and continue rotating your stock.  Eat your oldest can of baked beans, and replace it.  Canned foods are actually fine for several years after their Best By dates, and bad smell will usually warn you something has gone bad, but rotation just makes sense.  Add more canned veggies, as nutrition is now more important if this disaster lasts longer than just a few weeks.
Now add bulk rice.  You can buy white rice in 50 lb bags at Sam’s Club for $14 today.  Rice is the right choice at this level, because it’s so quick and easy to prepare.  White rice stores better.
Buy 400 lbs of rice, and store it in 6-gallon food-grade buckets.  Figure about 40 lbs of rice per bucket.  People often sell the food-grade buckets on Craig’s list used, for $1-$2.  Stock some spices and plenty of soy sauce to make eating all that rice more pleasant.
Bags of Pasta are great, and easy to prepare and eat.  Think about boxes of oatmeal, and bags of mashed potatoes.   You can also store flour, if you use it regularly, and can rotate it.  Flour only stores for a few years, because the wheat “berries” have been broken open and exposed by the milling.
Powdered milk, baking powder and baking soda are important for food preparation, as are oils, salt and sugar.  Oil has a 1-2 year shelf life, but Crisco lasts a long time, and salt and sugar are forever.  Throw in 20-30 pounds of honey as well.  Honey adds nice variety, and never spoils.  It’s very quick calories with no preparation, in an emergency.  ( And you can slather it on cuts and other wounds as a disinfectant, in a pinch.)  I also have lots of brown sugar, to go with all the oatmeal I’ve stored.

Water:  Add to your 100 bottles of water.  It’s not that expensive, and if things are suddenly falling apart, you want the ease of grabbing a quick bottle of water.  (My rule of thumb is, never pay more than $1 per gallon of bottled water – roughly 13 cents each for the little .5 liter bottles.)  When you get to at least 50 gallons, or around 400 pint size bottles, you can relax.  There is also water in your water heater, and if you see trouble coming, you can fill up the bath tubs in the house.
But for longer term quantity, you need a good water filter.  One to consider is the Lifesaver Bottle 4000 Ultra Filtration Water Bottle.  Priced at $149 at Amazon, it will filter over 1,000 gallons of water.  If you figure a gallon per day for three people, that gets you a year of safe drinking water. [JWR Adds: Lifesaver bottles are also available from several SurvivalBlog advertisers. Please check their prices, and when you do order, please mention where you saw their ad.]
With fancy water filters, the cleaner the water you put in them, the less the filter has to do, and the longer it will last.  So I have stored 1,000 coffee filters as well.  Pass any water thru several of those first, to extend the life of your filter.  They do sell replacement/spare inserts for the bottles as well.

Fuel:  Now get serious about fuel.  1000 pounds of fuel means roughly 170 gallons, and I suggest you break it down as follows:  110 gallons Kerosene, 60 gallons of Gasoline.
For the Kerosene, I bought 2 of the 55-gallon plastic barrels, for $10 each.  For fuel storage, get the kind of blue barrel with 2 small bung holes on top, and get a Buddy Bung Wrench at Amazon to open and close the openings securely.  $10.
I buried the barrels 2 ft deep under my deck, so just 1 foot is sticking up above the ground.  They are out of the sun, and the ground will keep the temperature of the Kerosene relatively cool and constant, which fuel prefers.  I added PRI-D so it will last 10+ years, and filled them up 10 gallons at a time, using my 5 gallon blue cans for transport.  Find PRI-D on line at Wisementrading.com, among other sites.  (The D is for Diesel, but it preserves Kerosene just as well.)
Don’t forget to buy a hand-crank pump to get the Kerosene out of the barrels, when you need it.  You can’t siphon up hill, remember!  I bought a nice rotary hand crank barrel pump on Amazon, with an attachment to fit the bung hole of the drums, for about $40.
You still have your 2 original small containers full of Kerosene as well, so that actually gives you 120 gallons.  That’s just enough to keep you cold but alive from a few winter months in Wisconsin.  Your pipes won’t freeze.  Even with no power, you won’t have to abandon your home.
For the gasoline, I purchased 12 of the 5 gallon plastic gas cans.  I filled one each month for a year, adding Sta-bil, and labeling the can with the month it was filled.  After 12 months, I began to rotate, by dumping the oldest 5 gallons in my car, and filling the can back up with fresh gas.  So I always have 60 gallons of stabilized gas on hand.  In a real crunch that would get me close to 1500 miles.  And I have plenty of gas for my chain saw – don’t go into the Apocalypse without a chain saw!  (In place of Sta-bil, you can also use PRI-G, and the gas will last almost forever.)
Ammo:  Now you need a long rifle, and a lot more bullets.  I bought an AR-15, for $700.  It’s a semi-automatic, holds 30 rounds in the magazine, and I bought 10 extra magazines.  (If things get crazy, you don’t want to be reloading magazines in a fire-fight.)  Buy another 100 rounds for your pistol, and 800 rounds for your rifle.  And keep practicing regularly, and replace the ammo you use for practice. 
You can get good police surplus body armor for around $250, if you are so inclined.  I used BulletProofMe.com.  Remember, it can stop a pistol round, but rifle rounds are tougher to stop.  FYI.
Silver:  Now get serious about turning more of your assets into real money.  It’s something the government can’t print more of.  So now reach 1000 silver dimes ($1800), or 1,000 oz of silver coins ($25,000).  If we have a hyper-inflationary depression, none of your cash will be worth the paper it’s printed on.  Put whatever you can spare into precious metals, and sleep better at night.
Regarding Platinum and Palladium, I just don’t recommend them.  They are too industrial, so if the economy crashes, so will their demand.  Most people don’t know about them, or understand their value.  Finally, when it comes time to convince someone that your Platinum 1 oz coin, which they’ve never seen before, is really worth 10 head of cattle –  well, good luck with that.
Cash:  Now move towards having $1,000 cash in hand.  It’s always spendable, and if the banks are closed for a week, or a month, you’ll be glad you have something people recognize.  It may be worthless eventually, but it may not, so have some on hand.  If not all $1s, have some $5 bills too.

Congratulations, you have reached a big milestone.  The 1,000 level of Preparation is quite an accomplishment, and you are certainly in the upper few percent of  Preppers.  You and a spouse and child could hunker down for a year, and survive without begging others for help.

Now, are you ready to prepare for the complete breakdown of civil society, and the End Of The World As We Know It?  Good.  Me too.

Step Three
This is the 10,000 level preparation, and it will enable you to keep a dozen adults safe and healthy for 2+ years.  How cool is that?
Why a dozen adults?  If things really fall apart, you’ll find friends and family at your door, asking to be taken in.  You can either plan on sending them away, or you can plan on taking care of them.  I suggest you plan on taking care of them.
Besides, you’ll need a dozen adults to protect your retreat/home.  You can’t stay awake 24 hours a day guarding your stash.  You can’t be watching in all directions.  There will be troublemakers to deal with.  You need time to sleep, regroup, cook, wash, garden, play.  That means you’ll need help.  Stock enough food for them, and they will come.
Why 2 years?  Because it may take that long for things to settle out.  It may take that much time for you and your friends and family to learn to grow food, and hunt and trap successfully.  There’s a lot to learn, and you don’t want your first crop to be a matter of life & death.

Here’s what you’ll need:  10,000 pounds of food, 10,000 gallons of drinkable water, 10,000 pounds of fuel, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, 10,000 silver dimes, 10,000 dollar bills.

Don’t panic!  It’s not as difficult or expensive as you might think.

Food:  When you begin to really stock up on food, in this kind of quantity, the game changes.  What you buy, how you buy it, and how you store it, are the keys to your success.
In addition to the 1,000 pounds of food you already have, now you need to seriously stock up with food that will last, and not leave you broke.  We need 55 gallon plastic barrels, and 20+ of them.  Happily, they don’t take up all that much room, with just a 2ft diameter footprint.  35” tall.
Buy the blue plastic barrels with the full open top, and big steel bands that seal the tops air tight.  Used, I can find them on Craig’s List for $15 each.  Get food-grade, but to be safe, splurge on 55 gallon food-grade drum liners.  This food will be good for 30 years if you store it right, so don’t skimp here.  I bought 25 of the 55 gallon LDPE Drum Liners from U.S. Plastics, for less than $3 each.
Start with more rice.  Buy 800 pounds more white rice, and fill 2 of your 55 gallon barrels.  The best price I found was Sam’s Club, in 50 pound bags, at around $14 each.  But if you have a Restaurant Depot near you, find a way to join and check there too.  Figure $350 total for all your rice.
Now buy Hard Red Wheat.  Purchase it by the 60 lb. bushel, in SEED grade, from a farmer’s co-op or seed distributor.  That’s the key to Bulk Wheat.  (If they ask, you intend to plant it!)
First, seed grade wheat is EXTRA clean.  It’s not treated with chemicals.  Just wheat berries, no field crap or bugs.  So you get just Wheat Berries, ready to grind up into flour.
But it’s also perfect for planting, having been guaranteed for 90% germination.  It’s alive.  Someday, you may want to plant some of your wheat yourself, to restock your supplies.  Or you might trade a bushel of seed to a farmer, in return for 5-10 bushels of grain come harvest time.  So buy Hard Red Wheat Seed – it’s just really clean wheat.  (Winter & Spring refer to when it can be planted.)
I paid $13 per 60lb bushel for seed, when I might have found regular wheat for $8.  But Seed wheat is actually easier for the public to locate, and that $13 per bushel is much cheaper than the price “by the bucket” folks charge on line for plain wheat.  Less than 25% of the price.
I bought 4,000 pounds of Hard Red Wheat, or 67 bushels.  That filled 10 more of my barrels.  Another $850.  (Half Winter, half Spring wheat.) But I wasn’t done with the grains just yet.
I also bought 1,200 pounds of Rye (21 bushels weighing 56 pounds each), and 800 pounds of Triticale (16 bushels weighing 50 pounds each).  $12 per bushel for rye, $15 for Trit.
 Rye is a great compliment to your wheat.  You can add 25% rye to your wheat when milling it with your hand grinder, and get a more balanced set of nutrients in your bread.  Or you can grind and bake with the rye alone.  The rye filled 3 more barrels and cost me $250.
Triticale is a hybrid of Wheat and Rye, and a hardy plant for growing.  It has a nutrient balance   similar to Wheat and Rye, and looks like both of them.  The “Trit” filled 2 more barrels, for $250.
The Rye cost a little less than the wheat, per bushel, and the Triticale cost a little more.  Is it necessary to have these other grains?  No.  Could you store just Hard Red Wheat?  Sure.  But variety is good for flavor, nutrition, baking choices and growing options, so I splurged a little on the Trit.
The grains have an incomplete set of proteins for people to digest, and if you only eat wheat, you’ll eventually starve to death.  Your body would stop digesting and metabolizing it.  What you need to round it out is beans!  If you mix 1 part beans with 4 parts wheat, you have a good balance of proteins in your diet, and your body will be happy.
So now add 1600 pounds of Beans.  I went with mostly Pinto beans.  They are common, tasty, and simple to work with.  Most Mexican dishes sold in America use Pinto beans.  But you can also  store Navy beans, and Kidney beans, as well as others.  (Avoid soybeans, as they aren’t right for your home survival meal preparation.)
The best source I found for beans was Restaurant Depot, paying about $31 for 100 pound sacks of pinto beans.  So I spent about $500 more on beans.  (I also have plenty of canned baked beans.)
Fill up 4 more drums with the beans, and you have roughly your 10,000 pounds of food, most of it ready to store for 20-30 years.  (Put extras that don’t fill a complete barrel, in 6 gallon pails)
Storage:  Now, it’s time to finish putting all this great food away for a rainy day.  You’ve got your barrels, and your food-grade liners.  Now you dump in the grains and beans, shaking the barrels to help the food settle.  Don’t mix foods.  Fill each barrel with one specific item.  And label the barrels!  (Wear a mask when dumping the bushel bags, or you’ll cough for days from the fine dust.)
These barrels will weigh 400 pounds when full, so they need to be in the right place when you fill them.  Moving them after that will be difficult.  Put a piece of cardboard or wood under each barrel, if you put them on a concrete floor.  Plastic likes to draw in chemicals from concrete, and you don’t need that, even with your drum liners.  Do the same under your 6 gallon pails.
 Try to store them in a cool dark place.  Basements are great.  A garage, where the temperature gets up to 110 degrees every summer, is bad.  Stable, cool temperature extends shelf life.
Fill the barrels almost to the top, and then hollow out a little dip in the middle of the grain.  This is where you will put your one pound chunk of Dry Ice.  Put down a paper plate, some paper towels on top of that, then your dry ice on top.  Put the lid on the barrel, loosely fitting – as there must be room for the air to escape, for safety!  Never let the dry ice touch your skin – you’ll have instant burn-like injuries.
As the dry ice “sublimates”  the gas will settle to the bottom of the barrel, because CO2 is heavier than the oxygen in the drum.  Over the next few hours, the dry ice will “melt” and drive out the oxygen.  A low oxygen level stops any critters from living in the barrels.
Immediately after the dry ice is gone, remove the paper, with the moisture and ice crystals drawn out of the air.  Put in 10+ of those little desiccant packs, to reduce moisture still more.  I bought hundreds on e-Bay, but you can get them at hobby shops, for drying flowers, very inexpensively.  It’s silica gel.
Now snug down the lid, and tighten the metal band that seals it closed, and you’re set for 30 years.  If you seal several barrels at a time, you won’t have to make as many runs for dry ice.  I got my dry ice from a dairy company, for $1.25 per pound.  Check the phone book under Dry Ice.

Preparation tools:  Don’t forget to have the proper tools to process all this grain.  Have a good hand crank mill, so you can mill wheat into flour with the power out.  Having two mills may be smart, so you have a spare – you have a lot of grain.  Amazon sells some simple ones for around $75.  (Rice won’t need grinding, which is a plus.)  Buy the book “How to Live on Wheat ” for your library.
Beans should be soaked in water for hours, then cooked well to destroy the natural toxins in them.  (Refried beans actually means “Well-fried” beans.)  But after years of storage, if they just get too dry, they can still be milled into a powder, and mixed in with wheat in small quantities, for baking
Many other items you purchase also store well in barrels.  It protects them from light, moisture and critters.  I have all my oatmeal, still in the boxes, in barrels, along with pasta noodles, sugars, mashed potatoes, powdered milk, etc.  Barrels are just handy for all my non-canned foods.  I stack these barrels on top of the Wheat and Rice barrels, and then slowly fill them up with perishables.

So, what did I spend on my bulk food?  $350 for the rice.  $850 for the Hard Red Wheat.  $250 for the rye and $250 for the Trit.  Another $500 for beans.  That’s a total of $,2200 for the bulk food.  Figure in the cost of drums and liners, dry ice and desiccants, and call it an even $2,500.
To feed 12 people for 2+ years.  (Eating almost 2,000 calories per day)  That’s $100 per person per year.  When they show up at your door, ask them each for a couple oz of silver, and call it even.

Water:  Now, you’re wondering how we’re going to have 10,000 gallons of safe, drinkable water, aren’t you?  Actually, it’s cheap and easy.  We don’t try to store it, we make it.
First, you buy a 16 oz bag of Pool Shock at Inyopools.com.  It is 100% Calcium Hypochlorite with 65% available chlorine.  Cost, about $4.  You can find this same formula elsewhere as well. 
With this pound of Pool Shock, you can now make 1,000 bottles of chlorine bleach.  Each time you drink one of your pint bottles of water from the 100 level preparation, save it.  When you refill that little bottle with filtered water, and add pool shock, you have a bottle of great disinfecting bleach.
Each one of those 1,000 pint bottles of chlorine bleach can be added to 12 gallons of filtered water.  Let it sit 30 minutes, and you have 12 gallons of safe drinkable water.
So your one pound of Pool Shock will disinfect 12,000 gallons of water.
I actually have 7 pounds of Pool Shock set aside.  If things really fall apart, I plan to sell/barter pint bottles of bleach to others who are less prepared for long-term troubles.  Since I have enough Shock set aside for 7,000 bottles of bleach, I should have a nice little business, and I’ll save lives at the same time.  (I’ll never run out of bottles to put the bleach in, because the “price” of a new bottle of bleach will include the customer trading in an old empty bottle.)

Fuel:  Now we’re talking about 10,000 pounds of fuel for your retreat.  No problem.  You have enough gasoline – you’re not bugging out, you’re bugging in.  That just leaves more Kerosene.
Another 9,000 pounds of Kerosene means almost 1,400 gallons.  How did I manage that?
First, I went on Craig’s List, and found a guy selling 330 gallon used pallet box totes.  These are big, square plastic barrels, inside steel cages.  They are super tough and stack-able.  Their footprint is the size of a pallet – 47 inches by 39 inches, and they are 54 inches tall.  I bought four for just $75 each, delivered.
Then along my back lot line, along a woods, I built a big stack of fire wood.  5 ft high and 20 ft long.  Behind it, I dug a trench long enough and wide enough for the 4 totes, 2.5 feet deep.
I dropped in the totes, leaving 2 ft above ground.  I ordered bulk Kerosene from a fuel oil dealer, after shopping for price.  I paid $3 per gallon, for the 1,325 gallons the totes hold.  $4,000.
I covered them with a camo tarp, down below the ground level, and covered the edges with 2 feet of dirt.  Just in case, I bought a second hand crank pump, to get the Kerosene back out.  $40.
I also bought another 10,000 BTU Kerosene heater on eBay, and a 22,000 BTU heater off Craig’s List for $50.  Small one for the basement, big one for the ground floor, small one for upstairs.
These modern Kerosene heaters burn very clean, but you still need some ventilation when they are used indoors, so don’t seal the place up tight.  And get several battery powered Carbon Monoxide detectors, to be sure.  Be safe, people!
I can either keep the retreat nice and warm for 2 Winters with the 1450 gallons of Kerosene I’ve stored, or I can stretch it out for 3-4 years, and shiver thru winters here in Wisconsin.   (I may also want to trade some Kerosene, if the price is right.)  12 adults will give off plenty of body heat, so that will help stretch the Kerosene.  Also note, Kerosene, plus 2 cycle oil at a 100/1 ratio, will run a diesel engine or generator.  That may come in very handy.  Put some 2 cycle oil aside as well.
Ammo:  Okay, now get serious about protecting the retreat from bad guys.  10,000 rounds of ammunition should be your goal.  If you know who you expect to join you, be sure to suggest what caliber weapons they should buy now, and urge them to stock up on the same type ammo as well.
I suggest at least 1,000 rounds for your pistols.  That’s right, pistols.  Buy at least one more pistol, which fires the same ammunition.  I added a Taurus 24/7 for about $375.  15 rounds in the magazine, it’s a nice little gun.  Any “guests” who arrive unarmed can use the 10 round Hi-Point pistol.
Now work toward at least 4,000 rounds of ammo for your rifle.  For me that was 4,000 rounds of .223 ammo.  My AR-15 from Olympic Arms also fires the popular police and military 5.56 NATO rounds, so it’s more versatile when it comes time to scavenge for extra ammo.  I can use either one.
I also added an M1 rifle that I inherited, which fires large .30-06 rounds.  It’s my backup rifle, for “guests” who show up unarmed.  1,000 rounds will have to do.  $300.
And it’s time to get a .22 rimfire rifle, for small game hunting.  I bought one with a scope at Dunham’s for $125.  Then I added 4,400 rounds of ammo at Wal-Mart, for around $160.
I don’t have a shotgun.  Too few rounds on board, too bulky for close combat, too short a range. Too much time between shots.  But if you do, be sure to have plenty of ammo for it as well.
Silver:  Now you have to get serious about TEOTWAWKI.  Converting $18,000 into 10,000 silver dimes is a great stash if you can afford it.  Start to work your way there.  I like Gainsville Coins for my metal purchases.  Very safe and reliable.  Best prices I’ve found.  It comes in the mail.
If you’re in even better financial shape, and want to protect serious wealth, then it’s time to have $250,000 in the form of 10,000 silver 1 oz coins.  Even if things really fall apart for a while, you should survive the collapse with real money to invest in seriously depressed assets.
Cash:  The final step is $10,000 in $1, $5, and $10 bills.  You’re not giving up any real interest income by holding cash these day, and if your bank doesn’t open one day, you’ll be glad you hold some currency.  Be sure it is well hidden, and a fire-proof box or safe is a good idea.  And tell no one outside your immediate family! 

All the stages in between
Now you’ve seen the path from bare minimum survival, the 100 level, to a fully-stocked retreat.  The key is to keep these six ingredients roughly in their proper proportion.  Keep things balanced.
The guy with all food and no bullets is waiting to be robbed.  The guy with all silver and no food will not like the price a starving man has to pay for a loaf of bread.  The guy with all wheat and no beans will struggle with malnutrition.
I hope it’s clear that there are many small steps between each of these three main levels.  You can be a 300 level Prepper, or a 2,000 level Prepper.  Each step is an important achievement, and gets you closer to true security.  You don’t have to reach the 10,000 level of Preparation to sleep better.
In addition, there are lots of other smaller things you’ll certainly want to buy along the way.  I have 200+ Votive candles, each good for 15 hours of light. (Ebay)  Boxes of rechargeable batteries and a solar charger, and LED lamps.  4,000 strike anywhere matches. Crank-able portable radios.  Lots of toilet paper.  Boxes of vitamins C, D and Multiple.  A big stash of fish antibiotics.  Walkie Talkies. Paracord.  Nails, thread and needle.  Seeds for a garden.  Rolls of razor wire. 200 bottles of bug spray.  Fish hooks.  Night vision goggles.  Lots of books on survival skills.  And chocolate syrup!

So don’t ignore those details that all the Survival books and web sites cover so well.  Start your own list, and when you think of something you don’t want to live without, add it to your list.  Then buy it, and put it away.  Someday soon you’ll be glad you did.

Your life, and the lives of your family and friends, may well depend on your level of Preparation.  It’s quick and easy to get started, and there’s no reason to not be at the 100 level of Preparation.  But once you start, tell only your most trusted future allies.  Tell no one else, ever.
From the 100 level, keep adding to your stores in the proper proportion, level by level, as you can afford it.  But tough times are coming, so skip that vacation, or nice dinner out, and put that money into reaching your next level of Preparation.  You’ll sleep better.  Good luck.

Lessons for the Christian Prepper, by Dallas in Iraq

Seven hundred years before the birth of the Christ, a man named Hezekiah ascended to the throne in Jerusalem. Looking around, Hezekiah saw a nation divided and in spiritual decay. Bold action was needed to set the nation back on track.

Though we may not be kings with the power to lead our country off of a path of destruction, I believe that there are several valuable lessons that can be taken from the experiences of Hezekiah and applied to the life of a Christian prepper. When we look around, we see a nation on the brink of disaster, just like Hezekiah. The question is, what will we do about it? Here are nine things that Hezekiah did:

1. Hezekiah put God back at the center of worship. (2 Chronicles 29:3-19)
Before we launch into our preps, we must be sure that Christ is at the center of our lives. Without his help, any plans we design on our own are destined to fall short or fail all together. Just like Hezekiah worked to put God back into the center of his nation, we must examine our lives and be sure that God is at the center of all we do.

2. Hezekiah restored the tithe. (2 Chronicles 31:4)
When our eyes are first opened to the dangers that are routinely discussed here on Survivalblog, it is tempting to give up on the tithe and use that money to lay up more preps. However, it’s important to remember that the tithe is a form of worship that keeps us from putting ourselves at the center of our lives. That position belongs to God. Giving 10% back to God is a way of acknowledging that all we have is His and thanking Him for intrusting us with it as a steward. While I can’t explain how, I can only say that I live better on the 90% after the tithe than I have ever lived on the 100% without the tithe. In 2 Chronicles 31:20 we see this spiritual principle play out in Hezekiah’s life. “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.” (NKJV)

3. Hezekiah identified the threats to his nation and made preparations accordingly. (2 Chronicles 32:1-6)
When Hezekiah surveyed his kingdom, he saw Sennacherib, king of Assyria, preparing for war. Just as Hezekiah identified the Assyrian king as a threat to his people, so too we must identify the hazards that threaten our families. Financial collapse, job loss, hurricane, flood… some threats are held in common by all Americans while others are specific to certain regions. Identify the threats and make preparations in accordance with their probability and severity.
As an emergency management student and a member of the National Guard who has responded to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf, tornados in Tennessee, and deployed to Iraq twice, I know how fragile the thin veneer of civilization is. Our nation is dependant on many things but I’d put cheap oil and the steady flow of electricity at the top of that list. If one of these two things falter, our way of life will change dramatically. As has been clearly articulated many times before on this site, the systems that ensure the distribution of cheap oil and reliable electricity are vulnerable. Therefore, it only makes sense that we prepare for life without them.

4. Hezekiah sought the counsel of wise individuals. (2 Chronicles 32:3)
We weren’t designed to live this life alone. Find godly people that you can trust and seek their counsel. Proverbs 15:22 is one of my favorite verses on this matter. “Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” (NKJV)

5. Hezekiah made preparations for hard times. (2 Chronicles 32:4-6)
In his preparations against Sennacherib, Hezekiah repaired the walls around Jerusalem, built weapons, organized the civilian population under military leadership, and redirected springs to flow inside the walls of Jerusalem. In fact, you can still wade through the water in Hezekiah’s tunnel to this day. The preparations that you choose to make will rely heavily on the threats that you identify. Having said that, food, water, and the means to defend your family make sense in just about any disaster mitigation plan.

6. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord in spite of the danger that faced him. He didn’t let fear paralyze him. (2 Chronicles 32:7-8)
In Hezekiah’s day, the nation of Israel was divided. Hezekiah ruled a small portion of it called Judah with Jerusalem as its capital. The rest of the nation had long since fallen into spiritual decay and had been dragged into captivity by invading armies. By all rights, Hezekiah could have given into the fear that the same fate would find him and his people. Instead, Hezekiah called on the people to be “strong and courageous” and to not be afraid. (2 Chronicles 32:7 NKJV).
The shadow of economic collapse hangs heavy over America. We cannot allow ourselves to get lost in fear. Fear paralyzes and robs us of the strength and presence of mind needed for prudent action. We must be strong and courageous for the sake of our family, friends, and community. The majority of our nation is living in denial. They need us to stand up and lead like Hezekiah. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (NKJV) If you’re living in fear, you didn’t get that from your Father in heaven.

7. Hezekiah prayed. (2 Chronicles 32:20)
Hezekiah prayed for help. We too must pray for God’s help. I pray that our nation would be spared the collapse that we see on the horizon. If it can’t be stopped, I pray for more time to prepare. I pray that God would help me to open the eyes of my friends and family members. I pray that God would help me to find trustworthy people to work with in my preparations. When Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed, God sent an angel that struck down the leaders of Sennacherib’s army. Sennacherib fled and was later struck down by one of his sons while in worship in the temple of his god.

8. Hezekiah let pride set in. (2 Chronicles 32:22-25)
The Bible is great at reminding us that no man is perfect. After the victory over Assyria, Hezekiah’s stature grew. For a while, Hezekiah lost sight of the fact that it was God that had pulled them through when Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem. Once all our preps are laid in and we build up our skills, it’s easy to trust in those preps instead of God. When you feel you are ready for the worst, remember that God is still the only one that can pull you through. Trust in Him and not your preps.

9. Hezekiah failed to practice good OPSEC and it cost his nation dearly. (2 Kings 20:1-6, 12-18)
Hezekiah failed to point to God as the true source of the nation’s victory. So, in the face of Hezekiah’s pride, God allowed sickness to bring Hezekiah low. In fact, the prophet Isaiah even came to Hezekiah and told him to prepare for death. At this news Hezekiah wept bitterly and prayed. God heard this prayer and healed him. The news of this miraculous recovery went far and wide. Several nations sent envoys with gifts to Hezekiah. One of these nations was Babylon. Hezekiah hid nothing from the Babylonian envoys. He showed them his treasury and armory.

Revealing your preps to the wrong people can put you and your family at risk. Many years after Hezekiah’s death, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, laid siege to Jerusalem. He stripped the city of everything valuable and carried the people off into captivity. This wasn’t a coincidence. Isaiah the prophet had confronted Hezekiah about his OPSEC breach shortly after the Babylonians left. He told Hezekiah that the Babylonians would carry off everything that they had stored up.
The story of Hezekiah is a story of a God fearing man preparing for disaster. If it teaches us anything, it’s that making preparations for disaster is not a failure to trust in the Lord’s ability to provide. He has given us the wisdom to see the world as it is and to take action accordingly. May we all take the threats seriously and store up a little extra for those who don’t.

God bless this community and may God lift up more leaders who can see the threats and take action against them.

Economics and Investing:

P.D. flagged this one: Right Now, a Complete Collapse of the Financial System is Not Out of the Question

Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) recommended this article: Bernanke soft-pedals QE2 risks.

The age of the dollar is drawing to a close. (Thanks to H.W. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Stiglitz:  We Have to Throw the Bankers in Jail or the Economy Won’t Recover

Largest 15 States are Spending Over 220% of their Tax Revenue

Microsoft CEO Sells $1.3 Billion of Shares

World Blasts Deranged Madman’s Uncheckable Insanity

German Minister Renews Fed Criticism

Inflation Watch:

Chris Mayer: Inflation is Already Here with Lots More to Come

US Dollar Printing Huge Risk to World: China Banking Adviser

Quentin wrote: I have been using the “Big Rolls” (1,000 sheet roll) of toilet paper from Walgreen’s Pharmacy for years. Whenever they are on sale we buy. I knew the price had gone up but didn’t know “the rest of the story”. The oldest roll in our stock was priced at 79 cents each or 3/$1.99 and weighed 9.4 oz. The sheets were 4.5”x 4.4”and totaled 137.5 sq. ft. The next oldest roll in our stock was priced at 89 cents each or 4/$3.00 and weighed 7.8 oz. The sheets were 4.25”x 4.0”and totaled 118.05 sq. ft. The ones I bought yesterday were priced the same at 89 cents each or 4/$3.00. The sheets were 4.25”x 4.0”and totaled 118.05 sq. ft. But the rolls only weighed 7.4 ounces!”

Cotton Clothing Price Tags to Rise.

As Fed Policy Sinks the Dollar, Prices of Essentials Soar

Odds ‘n Sods:

There is an interesting new forum called Every Day Carry Central. It is essentially a forum for gear junkies with a focus on personal protection, security, preparedness and self defense related gear. They post opinions and gear reviews from people who really know what they are talking about. It is free to register on it and there are no annual membership fees, unless you want access to the buy/sell/trade forum. For an initial membership drive, on November 24th they are doing a giveaway drawing for more than $200 worth of gear just for registering on the site. If the winner is from the USA they will get the gear with the knives, but because of Customs restrictions if the winner lives overseas they will get the gear sans the knives. (OBTW, I’ve volunteered to send the equivalent value in books, in that event.)

   o o o

Pastor Chuck Baldwin (who recently relocated from Florida to near Kalispell, Montana) has updated his survival recommendations. It is noteworthy that Baldwin is just one of dozens of people I’ve encountered who have mentioned that they felt a strong conviction to move to the Inland Northwest. When you ask them why they moved, they almost invariably give a one word answer: “God”. Like Baldwin, I predict that Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah will be bastions of liberty in the years come. These states will also be relatively safe places to live, as the U.S. economy continues its death spiral. Oh, and speaking of Montana, Steve Kendley’s recent bid for Sheriff was unsuccessful. Running as an independent, he was edged out by the Republican candidate by only about 300 votes. But the really noteworthy aspect of the recent race is that Kendley’s campaign web site attracted over 180,000 visits nationwide. This is indicative that there is a move afoot!

   o o o

Reader E.H. wrote: “For anyone having a hard time finding boots to fit oddly shaped feet, then I would suggest that they look into White’s Boots. White’s offers many styles including Boots made specifically to your measurements for an individuals Right & Left feet. A comprehensive measuring chart illustrates the technique. Boots are then built to fit if I understand correctly. Warrant and return are explained on the web site. Their boots are rebuildable and repairable. Since I am aging and have trouble finding Boots to fit satisfactorily, I am going to order from White’s. A little pricey but if they fit properly, then I’ll buy happily.” [JWR Adds: A key advantage of White’s is that unlike most mass-produced boots, these can be re-soled. Most other boots must be discarded once the sole is worn out.]

   o o o

G.B. mentioned that the full text of The Federalist Papers are available online.

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 31 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will 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 $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) 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 $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 31 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.

Retreating: A Minority Perspective, by Alex B.

There are all the “normal” things a person who has decided that a TSHTF or even a TEOTWAWKI event is possible in the near future thinks about, and then there is the fact that  some of us are ethnic minorities and our current plans may be to retreat to areas that are overwhelmingly Americans of European descent.  The reality is that many of these areas are also the best suited to survive a TSHTF event or the (hopefully) unlikely TEOTWAWKI.  Thus the quandary: retreat to areas that are highly ethnically diverse, but less prepared, or retreat to areas that are less ethnically diverse, but much better prepared.  If one chooses to retreat to an area that is not ethnically diverse, I believe it is prudent to plan that some of your co-retreaters, who may or may not be your close neighbors, may take that opportunity to attempt to impose their racist views on you – either violently or non-violently — during a time when law breaks down and you are located in a fairly remote location.  Thus being a prepared citizen that is also a minority may introduce additional challenges.  

When you think of attractive retreat areas like Northern Idaho, and you read about the annoyance that idiots like the Aryan Nations can pose, it gives you pause. Logically, I realize that these mostly carpetbaggers are a statistical minority (many of whom have been chased out by other concerned Americans of European descent) and anomalous to the local people of these various regions. [JWR Adds: Butler and the “Idaho Nazis” are a tiny group, and it is noteworthy that in 2001 they lost their “compound” in a civil lawsuit. To call them a marginal group is an overstatement.] But emotionally it is still something that weighs on you when you think of migrating your family to face a TEOTWAWKI-like event in a isolated, remote location.  Will you have to defend yourself against people who know the area very well and know exactly where you live?  The reality is that many well intentioned people do not realize how significantly challenging it can be to live life as a minority.   Let me just say, without making any excuses, that it weighs on you and your children constantly. Now, imagine you are in a TEOTWAWKI event, in a remote locale, and you are the only person of your ethnicity in that area.  How do you prepare?
Unless your head is in the sand, these additional concerns certainly add to your preparedness worries.  In the area I am retreating too, my family will double the number of ethnic minorities reported in the 2000 Federal census.  To prepare my family first I take a deep breath, pray, and realize that we can do this.  I’ve lived all over the globe with the military and thus living in my own country, with fellow Americans, has to be achievable.   I’ve also learned numerous processes from my time in the military to help families that must reallocate often.  We can make this work.

Disclosure
I and my family live and work in the “low lands” far away from our retreat area, right smack in the middle of what will become the Golden Horde in a Blue State.  We have a complete understanding of the dangers of long travel and being separated from our secure location and prepare as best we can.  For many reasons we have decided that simply building a retreat in and around the South Western Blue States is unacceptable.  Fundamentally, I am using the additional earning power of “the big city” to complete our retreat, before inflation and job loss really destroy us.  Neither my family nor I were raised with any real “rural” skills, so we are also busy adding those and learning “survivalist” skills as we work to finish our retreat.  We do not have a retreat group, but continue to work on some long time family friends.  

Reasons I Don’t Prepare
I do not think we will have we will have a TEOTWAWKI event in the near future.  I really do not.  Why?

Self-Correcting Internal Systems.  First I believe in general the American political and economic systems are the best man has ever created, and they are largely “correctable” by citizens in peaceful ways.  I expect we will all see evidence of this in the very different voting patterns of November 2010 to the response to the shocking recent political lurch towards the “redistribution of wealth” concept that many logical people believe has its roots in socialism. 

Well Supplied Legions Protecting the Borders. Second, I have worked in and around the “military-industrial-complex” for most of my life with the required security clearances.  From everything I know I simply do not see anything on the horizon that indicates a TEOTWAWKI event in our immediate future.  Our military still holds global dominance on Land, Air and Sea.  China’s military is nowhere near being on par no matter what pundits may say.  Just remember: the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (which no one else in the world can make, and China almost certainly can’t see) was designed in 1979 and first displayed publicly in 1988. What do you think the American “military-industrial-complex” has been doing for the last 30 years?  Remember as well:  we have not truly waged full war since 1945.  Our American Legions are truly a scary thing.  Certainly there are non-Nation threats, mostly centered on the Muslim terrorist with biological or nuclear materials (and they try, boy they try), but these most likely would result in a more localized TSHTF event.  To have a true military related “TEOTWAWKI” event that goes “through” our Legions will most likely take time.

Economic Meltdown Will Take Time. Third, not to disagree with JWR and others, but most peoples’ theories of economic collapse make some large leaps that are largely unsupported by past experience.  America is the only Western nation that has survived essentially a complete economic meltdown without having a violent political change in the 20th century.  Some argue that Japan’s recent “lost decade” is the other.  For example the derivative time bomb article talks about potential economic disruption – which I agree is certainly possible, maybe even likely — but the follow on jumps from disruption to an “Armageddon” like outcome, where all markets stop functioning, no gas, no power is in many ways like leaping from the steam engine to landing on the moon.  I will give a concrete example.  Does anyone realize that most inner-city folks (black and Hispanics) are only two generations removed from the farm?  If “TSHTF” many people still know some basic skills and would almost certainly be heading to their Aunts’ or their Cousins’ places, or back to the pueblo or the Deep South wherever their extended family still lives.  In my opinion, a mass exodus to the South, and/or massive reverse migration is much more likely than formation of a giant roving cannibal army.   It is possible over time, but seems fairly way out there from where we sit today.   

Reasons I Do Prepare
Localized Bad Events. Even though I do not think, there is a high probability of a countrywide (or worldwide) TEOTWAWKI in the near future, I do believe there is a much higher chance that we may experience multiple TSHTF events, most likely localized.  My primary evidence to support this is both the numerous local TSHTF events of the recent past, and the many near misses that we don’t know about, so it is completely logical to assume these events will continue to occur in the future.  A compendium of many localized TSHTF events can be found in The Pessimist’s Guide to History, by Doris Flexner and Stuart Berg Flexner, ISBN 978-0-06-143101-2.  Whether it is a terrorist dirty bomb, a sustained power outage, massive earthquakes, tsunamis, or plagues like the Swine Flu which could move quickly, localized TSHTF events are possible – and in my opinion likely within my planning horizon.

Jobs.  I also believe in my heart-of-hearts that the American economic system cannot continue indefinitely, without change, as it is.  It is structurally flawed.  We cannot continue to have unlimited illegal immigration impacting primarily blue collar jobs, and unlimited off-shoring of American jobs primarily impacting white collar jobs, without ultimately becoming a nation that produces nothing locally. To me, this combination means we will continue to see “record profits” on Wall Street as companies keep seeking the “lowest cost” way to make junk globally, while on Main Street the unemployment (and underemployment) rate remain unsustainably high. In the end, we will be able to buy less as we continue to become a nation of middlemen who shuffle paper, but otherwise produce nothing of substance.  Absent a serious change in political direction, this process which has been enabled by both Republicans and Democrats, will continue until our economy is a wreck and the problem is too obvious for people to ignore.
Side note: One thing I admire about the primarily Mexican illegal aliens is they are at their core a traditional, family-oriented people who most mostly come here to work and make a better life for themselves and their children.  These folks are not trying to blow up airplanes, or install some foreign form of law.  Also to be completely honest, they are doing pretty much what I would do if I were stuck in Mexico in 2010:  Get out any way I could.  However as I tell my friends from Mexico “…if everyone where you are from, moved to where we live now, then where we live now will look like where you are from…”       

Inflation.  Economically, again, while I do not believe in massive hyperinflation in the near future that leads to “societal meltdown,” I do believe that more inflation in coming, maybe even a return to the kinds of rates we saw in the late 1970’s – and everybody should be taking reasonable financial steps to prepare for that eventuality. I expect my earnings will continue to be depressed due to off-shoring of jobs, illegal immigration, inflation and a growing tax burden.  When will I get sick of working for the Federal government?  When it hits 30%, 40% perhaps 50% of my income?  I do not know when other people will hit their personal breaking point, but I can tell you that most productive people I know are well on their way to getting sick of it. If and when this happens, having food-producing, independently-powered land may become a very attractive alternative to working and be taxed at a 50% rate.
The most important reason I prepare, is that I MIGHT BE WRONG! 

As many know, preparing is different than retreating.  I will not specifically dive into “why” to retreat rather than shelter in place, but if you are curious about the philosophical and practical differences please read the enormous amount of writing on the subject here.  In addition to the general challenges involved with retreating, the specific challenges I believe that a racial minority needs to logically prepare for when retreating to a remote, ethnically monolithic location are:

  1. Being mistaken for a non-local resident in a potentially highly volatile situation.
  2. Dealing with aggressive and / or violent racial supremacist / separatist.
  3. Making it much harder to “blend in” to your surroundings.
  4. The additional emotional isolation you and your family may feel.

Here are some of the methods I am choosing to use to address these issues.

As local as you can be.  First, I visit the area I am looking to move to as often as time and money allows.  I try to move around the area and meet as many local people as possible.  I pay attention to the local norms and try to conform to them as much as I can at a basic daily living level, from where we eat to what we wear.  I get drunk (or appear to be) in the local bar. I attend Church whenever I am there (I know that drinking followed by Church make for an interesting juxtaposition, but it works for me), and I enjoy attending the the local town halls.  I want to interact in the retreat area to the maximum extent possible.  I want the locals to know that I exist while maintaining OPSEC which can be challenging, and I want to learn as much about the local area as possible. One of the communities I absolutely leverage is our church.  I decided early in the process that I would not move our family to any area that did not have at least one existing religious community that my family prescribes too.   I actually used a map to look through various counties that had people with a similar religious background.  There is an excellent map here to find a religious community you feel comfortable with: http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/geo/courses/geo200/religion.html

Next we go out of our way to see how welcoming the area is.  This required me to take time off work to drive around the area. After I close on my raw acreage, I plan regular trips during all four seasons to hike and hunt in the local area.  Once again, the point is to move around your retreat community as much as your “urban” job allows.  Use the fact that you are the one of the few minorities roaming around these hills to your advantage.  People will remember you, and thus you have an excellent opportunity to make a memorable positive impression every time. 

Racists. The reason I am retreating from my urban center to one of the Free States is to be safer, not to place my family in greater risk.  I am moving to find security and stability for my family, not to worry whether some pickup truck full of drunken racists is going to harass or otherwise interfere with my wife or children.  In good times, violence of this type often leads to some people ending up dead, and others ending up with an extended stay in Club Fed.  In lawless times the encounter may be even more extreme.  While often it is simply more efficient to avoid violent confrontation, I believe one must be prepared to effectively deal with rabid animals when you have too. When I was in the Navy, a good friend was a Marine officer (European descent if it matters).  He explained to me that one day a new Marine family came over for a visit and were very up front in explaining their very supremacist views.  My buddy, looked this guy in the eye and let him know that neither he, nor his family wanted anything to do with him or his family, and in case his new neighbor “took issue” with that he wanted to be clear “…I just want to let you know that my family is heavily armed and highly trained…”  I have taken that example into my life when dealing with all forms of violent, virulent racists.   

Once you come to terms with what your family must ultimately be prepared to do to protect yourself from racial violence, you must also realize that you cannot defend yourself against an entire community.  This is one of the primary reasons to retreat from the “big city” in the first place!  You may already have problems with elements of the Golden Horde, a roving band of biker zombies and / or the “normal” TEOTWAWKI threats like trying not to starve or freeze to death with minimal skills.  Adding on that some of your neighbors may choose to take this opportunity to implement their view of the world may just be too much.  Just as “sheltering in the city” raises issues with your neighbors becoming a mob threat, having too many people in an area who feel they have the right to ethnically cleanse you from your land can be a similar level of threat.  Add into the fact that your minority “JWR prepared non-local” family may be one of the better prepared in the area and you have the potential for additional hostility.  While not a complete solution, I also try to find out about any known active racist groups in our retreat area.  One useful online resource is the Southern Poverty Law Center’s map which shows what it considers to be hate groups and their known locations.  I certainly do not agree with all of their classifications, and this is only one data source, but the point is to realize who lives at your retreat area.  Work with your small, but hopefully growing, network of friends to better understand both who to keep your eyes on, as well as who you might depend, on in a crisis.  It will be more difficult since most likely your property is on the outskirts of town, but if you have been reading the various JWR gospels, you know that gathering as much information as possible, including as to people who may be hostile to your being there at all, could one day save your life.  Ultimately, while the reality is that I’ve found most people I’ve met in rural life are decent, common sense Americans who respect privacy, that’s no good reason not to keep your eyes open for potential trouble spots.

Blending In.  I work hard to prepare my family to succeed in a different cultural environment by focusing not only presenting ourselves as locals, but also on developing skills that may be useful where we are going and that the family can participate in together, here and now.  For me this means being more active at our private school, our local Church, active in Boy Scouts for my son, Girl Scouts for my daughters.  We are looking at the local 4-H Youth Development Program (pure gold) in our local area to help the entire family understand what we are getting ourselves into.  In addition we are also approaching various NRA Youth Programs.   I spend time ensuring my children (and therefore my wife and I) are learning the common sports of the “target area” which are primarily skiing, snowmobile riding, skating, hiking and hunting (and drinking).  Between school, Scouts, 4-H, NRA Youth, skiing, hiking with friends, my family is getting good exposure and since we my wife and I remain active in our children’s activities we are getting TSHTF skills as well as building a tighter family unit.  Preparedness can really be a strategic philosophy that supports the principles of bringing your family together.  In addition now that you have acquired some of the hobbies and skills of the retreat area you can more easily participate in the community. 
Finally, in addition to understanding general local social norms, I also think it’s important to learn as much as possible about the “local” property norms as well.  In the “free states” in general they are highly respectful of property rights.  Hang your “no trespassing” signs and in general most “normal” folks in most places will leave you and your family alone.  That said, in my retreat area homesteaders tend to fence their land, but do not hang out “Private Property” signs and are generally of the mentality that “animals stay out, but people can move through.”  If a person paints his fence posts orange, it means “do not hunt on my land.”  “Private Property” and “No Trespassing” signs mean just that, go around.  Learning local signs and “acceptable norms” help avoid misunderstanding and the potential of putting yourself at undo risk.  Once you learn these norms, use them to increase your own security. 

Stay as connected as possible. Since I do not live at my retreat year-around I use 21st century technology to bridge the distances.  If you have reliable power to your retreat, then web-enabled cameras are an increasingly inexpensive option for remotely monitoring your property and can add an additional level of security so long as the grid is up.  Recently a couple was able to call the local police department to report a break in from another state. Anyway, when I am stuck at my desk job in one of the most liberal states in the Union, the ability to sneak peeks at my retreat should help me remain sane and focused on the long-term “big picture.”

How else to I stay connected with my retreat area? I spend some time in my normal day listening to local radio stations that broadcast from my retreat area over the Internet, and I am a subscriber to the local paper.  I called my satellite television provider and added local channels from as close as possible to my retreat (which required me to tell them I had “moved” to my retreat address).  I now get my physically local channels over the air with a digital antenna.  In addition, I regularly read the minutes of governmental meetings posted on the County’s web site.  I now know who the major political figures are, including the new “out-of-town” local sheriff and his new push on people putting gates across open county roads.   Now and in the future, when I move through town, I can more easily participate in discussion about or respond more appropriately to local events.

Isolation.  This is hard because it deals with the emotional stability of my wife, which is in the best of times a challenge.  First, I try and encourage my family and friends to plan on retreating with us.  This is the best option and is in general a requirement for improved security, in any case.    I also try to make our family as independent of their local surroundings and as mobile as possible. To me, this means primarily getting our television and radio from the Internet or satellite which can move anywhere in North America (at least while the grid is up).  We also make reading a major part of our lives and are learning to use ham radio.  We also ensure that to the extent possible the children look to each other as primary playmates.  Homeschooling is a great option if you can do it, further making the family more of an independent mobile unit.  We personally cannot make that work today, but we stretch to keep them in Catholic private schools which are similar any where you go.  We do a lot or our purchasing over the Internet which again remains the same no matter where we live, as long as the grid is up.  The military always recommended to create family traditions and then hold too them.  If Dad gets up on Saturday and cooks breakfast, then ensure you try to do it every Saturday, no matter what comes. Kids will complain, but in truth, those traditions can create and maintain stability, even in the worst of times.  This stability may really help as you finally make the transition to your retreat area, whether willingly or unwillingly. 

To conclude, I find that being a racial minority brings with it additional challenges to retreating to a remote area, but those challenges can be successfully overcome with some modes, proactive and smart effort.   Again, most of the people I’ve run into are hardworking, peaceful, respectful individuals who are willing give everyone a fair shake, regardless of color or creed. As a by the way, I have also found this to be largely true in the many other countries I have visited.  Most people are good people.  Stick to the basics:  be as local as you can be, stay as connected as you can, find ways to adapt to the local culture in ways that are consistent with your beliefs, and honestly face the potential challenges that may come your way.  Keep a focus on how you plan on dealing with these issues as they arise, and the Lord willing, you too can make the move successfully.

My Deuce and a Half–The Ultimate TEOTWAWKI Bug Out Vehicle, by Tom E.

I have been an avid follower of SurvivalBlog for several years now and you and I want to thank JWR and my fellow readers for helping me to get prepared.  I am not nearly where I want to be yet, but thanks to your books and your blog, I am leaps and bounds better prepared than I was even two years ago. I am writing this article to help others discover what took me some time and research to figure out – what would be the ideal kind of vehicle in a TEOTWAWKI bug out situation?  You’re ready.  You have done your homework.  You have at least a years’ worth (or more) of food preps done.  Check.  You have your water and filtration/purification systems.  Check.  You have your medical supplies.  Check.  You have your defensive arms and armaments.  Check.  You are all set if you bug in. 

But what if something upsets your plans?  What if you have to bug out?  Do you have a vehicle that can get you through the worst conditions?  I am not just talking about bad weather.  What if the roads are blocked or damaged and you need to go off-road?  What if some bridges are blown and you need to cross streams?  Now, how close do you live to that nuclear plant downwind of you?  Less than 100 miles?  Less than 50 miles?  Oh, that’s bad for you.  If the grid goes down, either through a solar storm or a cyber attack, that’s not good.  If there is a high altitude EMP attack, that is probably the worst case scenario.  You see, those nuclear plants have about a week’s worth of diesel fuel to power their cooling pumps.  After that, bad things happen.  You remember Chernobyl, don’t you?  Guess what – Chernobyl is coming to your town if the grid goes down and they can’t get extra diesel fuel to those nuclear power plants before the cores melt and the spent fuel pools catch fire and disperse radioactive death for thousands of square miles.  The NRC has known about this issue for years, but has taken no action.  (Why don’t you write your Congressman and complain?) 

So what do you do now?  You were all prepared to bug in.  But now, you need to leave.  If you already have a place to go, you’re already one very large step ahead of the Golden Horde.  But what about your vehicle?  That late model fancy 4×4 SUV isn’t going to even be able to leave your driveway if there is an EMP attack. Walking is going to take a long time and how are you going to carry all that food and water and guns and ammo that you acquired?  Bicycling is faster, but you still can’t carry much.  Maybe you have an old late 60’s muscle car that is EMP-proof.  Or perhaps you were smart and have one of those ’68 Broncos or other EMP resistant 4x4s; they still aren’t going to carry all of your gear.  Think about that – if you only have a few days to pack (or a few hours) and you know that you can never come back to your home or your town because it will be radioactive for 300+ years – how much will you need to take with you?  What about tools?   Extra clothes?  Blankets? How about those bicycles?  What about all those survival books that you have accumulated?  How about all of your gardening tools?  A years’ worth of food takes up a LOT of space and weighs many hundreds of pounds, even if it is freeze-dried!  You need something that can carry all of that weight and bulk.  Why, all those things must weigh thousands of pounds and certainly they won’t all fit in a Jeep or a Bronco or that old 1960s muscle car. Remember, you won’t be able to come back to your home – at least not to live there again in your lifetime if you want to survive.  And even if you decide to come back to get something that you really wanted but forgot – well, it’s going to be contaminated – so you really can’t come back to take it with you anyway.  It’s coming.  We can’t stop it. This is TEOTWAWKI.  Most people will not be prepared.  People are going to starve.  People will riot.  There will be chaos.  You need to get out – now.  With the grid down, fuel will not pump from gas stations, no matter what you might have that will still drive.  You have already spent a good deal of money on all of those other items that you needed.  How are you going to possibly be able to carry all of those things that you want to take from your home? 

Some roads may be impassible – you may need to go off-road to reach your destination.  I have heard that in some places, people are even prepared to blow up bridges to stop the Golden Horde from reaching them.  What if you need to cross a stream or creek?      Your bug out vehicle needs to be EMP proof – otherwise, don’t even bother – it will just be an expensive lawn ornament.  It needs to be easy to work on – no complex diagnostic computers – they won’t work after an EMP attack any way.  You want it to go wherever a Jeep can go – so it needs to be a 4×4 (at least).  You want it to be inexpensive.  You don’t have $50,000 or more to buy a used Hummer H1 (and they can’t carry that much anyway).  You have to be able to buy it and insure it (at least until the EMP comes) for not too much money.  Let’s say your budget is $5K to $6K (it is even hard to buy a decent used 1968 Bronco for that much money, and I have seen old Toyota Land Cruisers go for over $12,000).  You don’t want it to be a huge vehicle or semi-truck, since you don’t have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to drive something like that any way.  You want it to be fairly easy to drive and park and maneuver. Wouldn’t it be great if it had its  own built-in air compressor, so that you could air your tires up and down as needed?  Wouldn’t it be great if it could run on almost any fuel?  Diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil, kerosene, biodiesel or gasoline?  In that case, you could siphon fuel out of almost any vehicle that was stranded or abandoned on the road and use it. 

What then, is the ultimate bug out vehicle that can solve all of these problems?  Is there such a vehicle? Yes!  It’s called the M35A2.  It’s a surplus U.S. Army truck!  What?  An army truck?  Yes!  Popularly known as the Army’s 2-½ ton truck or “Deuce and a half,” these trucks were designed and first built in the late 1940s, and manufactured from the early 1950s all the way through the late 1980s. The government literally bought tens of thousands of these trucks.  They are now (and have been for the last several decades) being sold as government surplus to American citizens from every state.  They have three axles and in stock form have ten tires.  The front axle drive can be engaged or disengaged at will simply by flicking a lever in the cab (no need to get out of the cab to lock hubs).  That makes them literally a 6×6.  They can go through mud, sand, snow – you name it.  They can get across that stream if the bridge is out because they can ford over 30 inches of water (with a snorkel, some Deuces have even run completely under water!).  They have no on-board computers.  They have virtually no electronics on  them.  The engines have no ignition system (since they are primarily diesel engines).  The engines are multi-fuel, designed to run on anything that might be found on the battlefield.  If gasoline is used, just mix about 1 quart of motor oil for every 15 gallons of gasoline (hey, if you find an abandoned car with gasoline, just drain out the engine oil as well and mix the two and you are good to go!).  They are designed to carry as much as 10,000 pounds on the road and up to 5,000 pounds off-road and can literally go almost anywhere that a Jeep can go.  Plus they can tow up to 10,000 pounds.  The rear bed is 8’x12′, so you can stack quite a bit of heavy gear in the back.  There are even troop seats that fold down if you need to carry a lot of passengers.  Empty, the truck weighs over 13,000 pounds and is built on a very stout frame, so it makes a good battering ram if you ever need to push a vehicle off the road or out of the way (or recover them from  off the road) if needed. 

There is a scene in the movie “First Blood” where Sylvester Stallone (as “John Rambo”) is seen busting through a road block of police cars at nearly full speed in a Deuce and a half, so you could argue that it makes a good tactical vehicle as well (who knows what you might encounter in a TEOTWAWKI situation?).  And in most states (except a few like California), you don’t need a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to drive one.  Most people pay less than $300 a year for insurance on a Deuce as well.  And since most of these vehicles are over 30 years old, they also qualify for antique or historical vehicle status in many states (also saving on insurance and registration costs).  You can find these trucks almost everywhere if you look.  Look locally in Craigslist or on eBay.  You can spend $2,000 and get a fixer upper, or you can spend $5,000 to $6,000 and get one that is well sorted out with good rubber and good mechanicals.  These trucks were designed to be driven and worked on by 18 to 20 year olds in the motor pool, so they had to be simple and robust (though some of the parts are large and you will need some larger tools, plus you may need a buddy to help with some of the maintenance tasks). 

These are bare bones trucks mind you – no creature comforts at all.  Forget about a radio – the exhaust noise is too loud to be able to hear one anyway.  Forget about A/C or heat (although a few have heaters), or even power steering.  Not even carpeting on the floor.  You need to roll your windows up or down the old-fashioned way – by hand.  Some of the few options that you might find are a “springer” seat (a seat with springs and a shock absorber – more comfortable than a solid mounted seat) and perhaps a front mounted winch.  It’s no hot rod sports car either.  Top speed is governor limited to 56 mph.  Realistically, expect about 45 to 50mph cruising speed if it’s loaded up.  It does, however, have a 5-speed transmission that is practically bulletproof, and a two speed transfer case with ultra low gearing for off-roading.  And they are surprisingly easy to drive.  No need to double clutch, and shifting is quite smooth once you get used to the odd gear shift layout (it doesn’t follow the usual H-pattern). 

Driving range is actually quite good considering that it can get 8-11 miles per gallon and it has a 50 gallon tank (that’s as good or better than some large gasoline pickup trucks).  They can also be driven in “blackout” mode, so that you could, in a tactical emergency, even drive with night vision goggles and just a hint of light from the special headlights and tail lights, or totally blacked out with no lights at all (not even brake lights).  The brakes are air over  hydraulic, so the M35A2s come with their own on board air compressor.  This can also be used to air up tires or even power air tools.  With no electronic nanny systems and no ignition system, they can even be roll started or bump started in the case of a dead battery.  Spare parts are readily available and also quite cheap, and many NAPA auto parts stores (as well as others) carry the more common maintenance parts like belts, hoses, oil and fuel filters and light bulbs. 

Note that these trucks run on a 24-volt electrical system and requires two 12-volt batteries, so if you want to run 12-volt accessories, you need either a 24-volt to 12-volt DC-to-DC converter or else run wiring to a single battery.  There is even an online forum for military vehicle owners called www.steelsoldiers.com that can help you with anything and everything about these trucks.  Complete manuals for every aspect of the truck can be downloaded for free from the internet. In summation, the M35A2 “Deuce and a half” army truck is a go anywhere, carry anything, run on anything, cheap, EMP-proof, easy to drive, easy to maintain vehicle, and that makes it worthy of consideration as the ultimate TEOTWAWKI bug out vehicle.

David In Israel on Secure Personal Computers

The recent article: “Built-in Obsolescence, by Margaret G.” prompted me to comment on personal computers. I am a die-hard anti-Windows guy. The troubles caused by the easy subversion of your own computer by bad people combined with terrible permissions allowing user space programs to affect and jump to your whole network makes it a no-go operating system for people wanting reasonable network security unless you are a computer scientist working for the NSA or other governmental agency with a contract which allows you to review and customize the actual source code. While most windows boxes die a slow slide to uselessness caused by inadvertently or surreptitiously installed spyware, malware, and junkware running in the background you you can often revive it by wiping the hard disk and reinstalling windows if your manufacturer is one of the few that gives an install disc or avoid the entire problem by never allowing MS Windows computers to connect to the Internet or allow any outside disks to be inserted or connected for any reason.

Breaking through the new OS Unix/Linux learning curve no matter how shallow is an investment in time, install on at least one computer so you can get familiar with it while you have access to Internet help forums. Just so you know I have my best responses from people who are power Unix users and from people who only know how to surf the web and I install Ubuntu so they can use a morally clean install disk.

For most people I suggest Ubuntu Linux because most functions work automagically such as Wi-fi, 3G phone modems, and many advanced video cards. Not everything works perfectly with all hardware since the manufacturers worry most about the large MS Windows market, but the beauty is you can order or burn a free Ubuntu Linux CD and test it out without even doing an install. If you need MS Windows for special software there is an option during install to dual boot at startup into Linux or an existing Windows partition. The good news is almost all Linux software is free and there is no moral or ethical questions in borrowing or burning the install disk since the writers are bound by contract law to release all distributed updates to GPL software for free. If the computer runs too slow you can always use IceWM window manager and lightweight apps such as AbiWord as opposed to richer ones such as OpenOffice.org office suite.

For really old hardware DSL Linux is a good choice. Although you need some more command line Linux knowledge to run DSL on some computers it includes drivers for older hardware and uses a simpler interface suited to slower machines all the way down to 20 year old hardware in the 486 class.

The main concern is hardware failure in computer moving parts and in the power supply. Having spares for hard disks, optical drives, and cooling fans are top priority as are protecting the screen hinge joints and hinge connection cables on laptops. Knowing how to improvise and repair a DC power supply and connector jack or better yet having one on hand will make the eventual connector failure not such a big deal. High voltage systems like the cold cathode fluorescent tube inside a laptop are occasional failure points although you can improvise with a few white LEDs in a pinch; even worse is the fragile power hog vacuum display tube in non-flat screen monitors.

If all else fails having an Live CD type install CD or USB drive means you can still boot and use your computer as a Linux machine even if the hard disk is destroyed.

My best luck has been with used business grade computers. Business grade mostly computers have better components since they don’t want to send out a same day service tech that often, they also tend to have well supported hardware when using Linux.

As an aside I find Wikipedia is a very useful basic reference, I keep an offline copy of a recent snapshot of Wikipedia on most of my machines. MS Windows users can grab a local copy using WikiTaxi. Most Linux users can install Wikipedia Dump Reader from KDE.

I have the KDE Wikipedia reader installed on my Eee-901 and it takes up about 6GB of flash disk space, this combined with a 25w solar panel, DC charge controller cable, an external disk drive, a radio terminal node controller, and a 3g modem and I can be truly wireless. Shalom, – David in Israel

Letter Re: Built-in Obsolescence

JWR;
This week I bought at a charity resale shop some silk and Merino wool sweaters, as recommended by a contributor. I also bought a La Crueset pan for a buck, blankets and a backpacking frame. Every single piece of my quality camping equipment came from garage sales. Americans buy a lot of stuff and just don’t use it and dump it at garage sales or charity resale shops. Debt-addled Americans so over-bought clothes that they are so cheap at resale shops and garage sales (as low as 25-to-50 cents apiece) that you could buy a lifetime of outfits for next to nothing. Just buy and package good clothes and store in a cool, dry, non-dusty, non-buggy place. I’ve found so many low priced items, such as quality American-made kitchenware, that I am storing some for my kids for when they start up housekeeping in several years.

My dad talks about when he was a boy in the Great Depression, of traveling down from Chicago to rural Tennessee to visit his “poor relations.” He recalls the soles on their shoes were gone and they used rags to wrap together what was left of their shoe. I mention this as I was at a church garage sale the other day. Good boots (Cabela’s, L.L. Bean) were selling for a dollar which I bought and disinfected. You could stock up on a lifetime supply of boots for the cost of a restaurant dinner! Take advantage of Americans’ wastefulness. – McB.

Economics and Investing:

Thanks to B.B. for this link: Dollar at Risk of Crashing, Triggering Inflation

G.G. spotted this recent post over at Zero Hedge: David Stockman Says The Fed is Injecting High Grade Monetary Heroin into the Financial System

Susan H. flagged this: Citi: Central Banks Are Going to Start Dumping Dollars in the Coming Weeks

Doubts grow over wisdom of Ben Bernanke ‘super-put’. The last line in the article is chilling: “If they start to act on this suspicion, they could push rates higher instead of lower, and overwhelm the Bernanke stimulus. That would precipitate an ugly chain of events for the US.” JWR Adds: Be sure to watch the US Dollar Index closely in the next few months. Anywhere below 72, all bets are off.

Gerald Celente: Does The Federal Reserve Know What It Is Doing? 

Items from The Economatrix:

The Silver Alpha

When the Price of Silver Doubles in a Month

Quantitative Easing is Just Devaluation

Gold Bottomed, Dollar Index Headed to 56

Hiring Spurt in October Eases Jobs Crisis a Bit

Stocks Post Meager Gains Despite Strong Jobs News

Pending Home Sales Drop 1.8% in September

Fannie Mae Asks for $2.5 Billion in New US Aid

Consumer Borrowing Posts Rare Gain in September

Odds ‘n Sods:

NASA is Building a ‘Solar Shield’ to Protect Power Grids from Space Weather. (Thanks to J.V.M. for the link.)

   o o o

Via Reason magazine: “Researchers at Purdue University have updated their popular Impact Earth! online calculating tool. If you’ve a morbid interest in just how big an asteroid it would take to end civilization (and who doesn’t?), click on over and type in size, density, angle of impact data to find out.”

   o o o

Brian spotted this over at the SHTFPlan blog: Homeland Security To “Regionalize” Emergency Supplies Over Next 90 Days

   o o o

Do you enjoy Michael Bane’s television shows, like I do? You have the chance to vote for him for “Fan Favorite—Host/Personality.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." – C.S. Lewis

Notes from JWR:

Friday’s closing prices for spot gold and spot silver might seem astounding, but just wait a few months. You will probably wish that you had bought more silver at today’s prices.

—

Today we present two more entries for Round 31 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will 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 $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) 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 $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 31 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.