Cleanliness–Maximize Your Productivity and Protect Your Investment, by P.J.W.

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Your preps are complete, your house is bomb proof, you run on alternative energy, and you are on the top of a mountain surrounded by a moat… Who can defeat you? Yourself! It doesn’t matter how extensively you have prepped, how secure your retreat is, or how well you are prepared for a TEOTWAWKI situation, if you let it all fall apart from the inside! So what are some simple things that you can do to set yourself up for success?

We’ve all heard the proverb “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” and most of us have heard the expression “Don’t poop where you eat!” Well both of those statements couldn’t have more value than in a survival situation. Your health will ultimately determine your survival… weather you can digest certain foods, survive a gunshot wound to the arm, make it through a bout with diarrhea, the list goes on. So why would you invest so much time and consideration into planning and prepping, if you aren’t willing to secure your investment? Now by all means I am not talking about the sterility of a neurosurgery room, or to live in a “bubble”, but there are a few simple steps to take, things that we do every day (or at least should) that will set us up for success.

Basic sanitation.
Showers, baths, and hand-washing is extremely important when dealing with field situations. You have heard it your whole life, from your mother, to the school nurse, to the signs at your place of business saying to wash hands before returning to work. Washing your hands is possibly the single most important thing to preventing the spread of common illnesses. Rinse, lather (with anti-bacterial soap) rinse. It’s really that simple. Plus, nobody feels like using their valuable medical supplies to treat a cold that could have been prevented (and that’s what this is… preventative medicine!) Showers and bathing are also important. You need to keep your body clean, and your pores open and breathing. You don’t want to get fungal or bacterial infections growing. Those are a nightmare and can easily spread.

Food sanitation and preparation.
Obviously water needs to be sterilized, and there are a billion ways to do it, so I’m not going in to that… But let’s talk about food sanitation. How many people do you see on family holidays, or large gatherings that have a meat thermometer checking temperatures? That’s what I thought. A simple two dollar tool can save you a ton of time battling food poisoning, which can be fatal if you don’t have the right resources to deal with it. Buy a food thermometer. Additionally, ensure your foods are protected from disease transferring creatures such as roaches, mice, rats, etc. Keep your food surfaces clean and sanitary. You probably have bleach stored for various things, well this is one you will want it for. Dilute it into a spray bottle, and use it to clean your kitchen area. Once again, food poisoning, salmonella, e-coli, etc can be awfully hard to treat without proper medical facilities.

Living areas.
Ever wonder why your mother said your room looked like a landfill? Because it is so dirty, things can grow, rodents can hide, and it can become a potential trip/fall hazard. Simple organization and cleanliness will save you some headaches. Plus, designate a place for meals, and do not have the “bag of Cheetos in the bed syndrome.” You are just asking for rodents to come in. Additionally, clean your living areas with cleaning solution, and keep the dust to a minimum to combat allergens. Have dust masks handy. Also, keep outlets clear and clean, and power cords untangled and organized. You don’t want to create a fire hazard and burn down all of your precious resources! Air filters for your air conditioning systems (if running alternate energy) or replacement screen material for your windows to ensure that bugs don’t fly in during those warmer summer months are a necessity to keep your air flow clean.

Latrines.
This is where we refer to the quote above. Keep your bathroom sanitary! If using an interior bathroom, ensure it is cleaned thoroughly, and stocked with anti-bacterial soap. Wash your hands after using it, and for the men out there, watch your aim! Do your part to help keep the area clean. Use an appropriate amount of toiletries to get the job done. Avoid clogging the toilet, and forcing interaction with bodily waste. If using an outdoor latrine, ensure steps are taken to keep the odor down, and to keep flies to a minimum. Ensure there are chemicals in the tank, or you have the facility far enough away so as not to contaminate a water supply. If you are using a composting toilet (indoors or out) ensure you are using personal protective equipment (PPE) when you move the waste to a garden. Fecal matter has long been used as a lethal poison for a reason. It is deadly.

Medical waste and sterilization.
Obviously, your tools and equipment when it comes to medical matters need to be sterile. That is a point that doesn’t need stating. But what to do after you use it, and what do you do about where you use it? Whether it is a common cold, an accidental knife or axe wound, or a carefully placed gunshot wound, you need to sterilize the environment you work in, not just for the patient, but for everyone else as well.  Nobody wants to treat a patient only to find out that they got everyone else sick by not practicing good hygiene. Obviously wash hands before and after contact with a patient. A patient recovering from an injury already has a weakened immune system from treating its own wound. You do not want to contaminate someone with additional impurities that the body will have to fight off. Also, clean up medical waste after treatment, and dispose of it separately from other garbage. Ensure gloves are worn and a mask is worn if contagious material is around. Then take the waste to a remote location and incineration is generally your best bet. You don’t want to let the medical waste sit and fester in a garbage can.

Rodent Control.
Rodents carry diseases, and diseases kill people! Don’t let rodents ruin your storage and cause problems! First, store your foods in airtight containers, and keep them above the floor. Ensure they are in containers that mice can’t freely chew through. If a rodent finds that it can eat something, it will continue to come back. If it starves, it will look elsewhere… Ants, roaches, mice, rats, raccoons, and opossums all pose potential problems. The best defense is a good offense when it comes to rodents. Place traps, keep areas clean, and keep them from getting what they want!

Refuse.
In a TEOTWAWKI scenario, the lovely neighborhood Friday trash pick-up isn’t going to happen. You will still accumulate garbage, and you need somewhere to put it. So a couple questions will come to mind at first… Did I stock up on trash bags? Do I have appropriately sealed containers so as not to let rodents in, or worse, bears! But seriously, no one thinks about garbage when they are putting their preps together. Another thing that comes to mind is security. Can you safely burn your refuse without putting a signal out to the world that your area is inhabited? If you can, great, but if not, you may have to consider other means. For natural, organic material, composting will undoubtedly be your best bet. It will fertilize your garden, and limit refuse piling up in your castle. Another idea may be to burn cardboard and paper in a woodstove. Smaller, and less of a signal, the woodstove will burn cardboard and paper, and give your home a byproduct in heat. Plastic bottles and metal cans can be sterilized and reused. in-house recycling is always a good option.

In summary, keep your work areas neat and orderly, clean up as you go. Don’t create any unnecessary risks by leaving trash and clutter around. Keep your areas free of rodents, and ensure you sterilize what you can when you can. There is no need to combat half of the illnesses you face every year if you can prevent it. Also, when you practice these simple cleanliness steps in good times, it will be a lot easier to implement them when SHTF. And cleanliness is everyone’ responsibility! It’s simple to teach kids common steps to clean living, plus they will have fun when they see something they do contribute to the success of the household. Remember that this is Preventative medicine! You do these things to prevent something bad from happening. A couple good references are the Army FM 21-10 (Field Sanitation), the Center For Disease Control, and the American Red Cross. Good luck, stay clean, and happy hunting!

Guest Article: Future Chaos: There Is No “Plan B”, by Chris Martenson

Note: This article builds on my recent report, Prediction: Things Will Unravel Faster Than You Think. It explores the coming energy crunch in more detail by looking at existing government planning and awareness, and the implications of what international recognition of Peak Oil as early as 2012 might mean.

The hard news is that there is no “Plan B.” The future is likely to be more chaotic than you probably think. This was the primary conclusion that I came to after attending the most recent Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) in Washington, DC in October, 2010.

The impact of Peak Oil on markets, lifestyles, and even national solvency deserves our very highest attention – but, it turns out, some important players seem to be paying no attention at all.

ASPO conferences tend to start early, end late, and be packed with more data and information than should be consumed in one sitting. Despite all this, I was riveted to my seat. This year’s usual constellation of excellent region-by-region analyses confirmed what past participants already knew: Peak Conventional Oil arrived a few years ago, and new fields, enhanced recovery techniques, and unconventional oil plays are barely going to keep up with demand over the next few years.

But there were two reports that really stood out for me. The first was given by Rear Admiral Lawrence Rice, who presented the findings of the 2010 Joint Operating Environment (a forward-looking document examining the trends, contexts, and implications for future joint force commanders in the US military), which spends 76 pages summarizing the key trends and threats of the world. “Energy” occupies six of those pages, and Peak Oil dominates the discussion. Among the conclusions (on page 29), we find this hidden gem, which uses numbers and timing that are eerily similar to those that I put forth in my April 2009 report, Oil – The Coming Supply Crunch:

By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million bareels per day (MBD).

(Source)

While there are two “coulds” in that statement, the mere possibility that such an imminent arrival and massive shortfall could be true should give every prudent adult a few second thoughts about what the future may hold. If surplus production capacity disappears in just a couple of years, there is an entire world of planning that should take place beforehand at the international, national, community, and personal levels.

More on the JOE report in a minute. Next I want to turn to a presentation given by Rick Munroe, who did his best to discover where within the civilian governmental departments lie the plans for what to do in a liquid-fuel-starved future.

To cut to the chase, it turns out that virtually every department that he contacted in both the US and Canada denied having any such reports. In one humorous exchange by email, Natural Resources Canada stated two things in the same email:

“At this time the Department has no views on [Peak Oil]. “There is no imminent Peak Oil challenge….” It will be interesting to see how NRCan words their e-mails once they do develop a point of view.

The main conclusion from Rick’s presentation was that Peak Oil is being examined closely and taken seriously by military analysts, but not civilian authorities. The few plans that do exist on the civilian side are decades old.

The implications of this are that North America “remains highly vulnerable to a liquid fuel emergency disruption” and, since because there are only a few dusty plans lying around, there will be greater chaos than necessary.

Now back to the JOE report.

OPEC: To meet climbing global requirements, OPEC will have to increase its output from 30 MBD to at least 50 MBD. Significantly, no OPEC nation, except perhaps Saudi Arabia, is investing sufficient sums in new technologies and recovery methods to achieve such growth. Some, like Venezuela and Russia, are actually exhausting their fields to cash in on the bonanza created by rapidly rising oil prices.

A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. (p. 28)

Well, the amounts needed from OPEC are quite, shall we say, ‘ambitious,’ as they amount to an additional two Saudia Arabias coming on line in order to make up the shortfall. A massive crunch is not otherwise avoidable. Let’s be honest; there are no more Saudia Arabias to be found. Perhaps we could cobble one together out of thousands of smaller, less productive fields, but the likelihood of a few massive fields waiting to be found 1,100 feet underground is extremely remote. People in the business of actually producing oil know that producing from smaller wells takes more time, equipment, and manpower.

Meanwhile, I also happen to agree with their assessment that the details of the effects are difficult to predict but that the general theme will be one of reduced growth, and that’s under the best of circumstances. More likely we’ll have to figure out how to operate on zero or even negative growth.

So I came away from the ASPO conference pondering two completely polar trends that combine to create lasting discomfort. On the one hand, we have more and more private and military organizations coming to the conclusion that Peak Oil is imminent and will change everything, possibly disruptively. On the other hand, there appear to be no plans within the civilian government to deal with a liquid fuels emergency.

While we can expect that such plans will be tossed together when necessary, I would hope that Katrina taught us a few lessons about developing plans on the fly after the disaster has already arrived. Sure, things got done, but they were certainly suboptimal and led to more confusion and more chaos than if they had been carefully developed, practiced, and debugged.

The way that I understand the lack of planning on the part of the civilian side is that Peak Oil does not present any easy political wins, if any at all. Given the two-year planning cycle in DC, it’s never a good time to bring up such an unpleasant subject. Politics trump necessity.

What can be rather easily predicted here is that when the next fuel crisis arrives, there will be more chaos than necessary. Some areas will get completely stiffed on their fuel allotments, while other areas will be reasonably well supplied. The reason that this can be easily predicted is because it more or less already happened in Europe during a protest by French fishermen inspired by high fuel prices. They blockaded ports in late May of 2008, and by early June, the action had spread across Europe. Shelves were quickly stripped bare of essential goods, tensions mounted, and petrol stations ran dry in a hurry.

And these were just the effects of a port blockade and tanker truck strike. What would happen with a real and persistent shortage of fuel? Well, if it were perceived to be due to a structural and permanent inability of the global oil market to meet demand, prices would rise stratospherically until demand was cut off. The only problem is, letting prices determine which industries idle back may not be the best plan.

Consider the case of agriculture. If full ‘pass-through pricing’ is the mechanism of rationing, which it currently is, then less food will be grown. With world grain stocks at historic lows, this is one area where we might not want to let Mr. Market dictate the activities of farmers based on fuel price. To do otherwise would require a plan of some sort, and none appear to be in effect.

That’s the source of my discomfort. It’s not necessarily that large organizations are beginning to share my sense of timing and impact of Peak Oil, although that will hasten the tipping point of awareness. It’s that somehow I always thought that because Admiral Hyman Rickover knew well that this day would come (in the 1950s!), 60 years would have been sufficient lead time to assemble some credible plans.

No plans = unnecessary chaos.

The lack of planning also betrays a very common attitude, which might be summarized as, “We’ll deal with that when we get there.” I detect this attitude in a wide range of individuals and market participants, so it’s not at all uncommon. However, I think it’s a mistake to hold this view. When (not if, but when) full awareness of Peak Oil arrives on the international stock, bond, and commodity markets we will discover just how narrow the doorways really are. Only a few will manage to preserve their wealth by squeezing through the doorway early; most will not make it through. As mentioned frequently on this site, our What Should I Do? guide for developing personal resiliency against a Post-Peak future offers a valuable resource for those just getting started in their preparations.

This thinking is explored in greater depth in Part 2 of this report (enrollment required), in which I discuss strategies to fill the official vacuum by developing our own plans for what we should do in response. – Chris Martenson, author of the widely read Crash Course

Three Letters Re: Keeping Secrets in Suburbia–Constructing Our Hidden Basement Room

James Wesley:
In the article “Keeping Secrets in Surburbia–Constructing Our Hidden Basement Room, the author describes the difficulty they had removing hard-packed dirt with the consistency of dried concrete, and using an air chisel to break it up for removal and excavation. I’ve faced a similar problem with an underground excavation of a basement and egress tunnel in the granite and sandstone beneath the foundation of my own retreat home in the Western US.

My answer came in the form of a good deal on a slightly used Bosch #11304 “Brute” breaker hammer electric jackhammer, suitable for use either with 115-volt/15 Amp household current or a 1,500 kilowatt electric generator. Though I picked mine up used for a bit under $1,000 [less than an ounce of gold, and well worth it!] they’re available from such internet retailers as ToolBarn for $1,389 plus shipping or can often be found as rental equipment at industrial tool rental outlets for around $50-to-$75 a day.

The advantage for me in owning one rather than renting is that this allows me to minimize my use of my own tool to an hour or less a day, then moving on to other projects so as to minimize exposure to noise, jackhammer vibration and dust. I also found it much easier to remove the broken stone from my workface in two-gallon metal pails rather than the more common 5 or 6-gallon plastic pails around the place; these were both easier to maneuver in the close confines and, of course, lighter in weight. – George S.

 

Jim:
I loved the fact that everyone pitched in on this [excavation project]. My wife puts up with my tin foil expenditures, and would help if I asked but it is reluctant help at best. My basement is a full basement and wide open and unfinished, on purpose. While we do tons of Martial Arts and I store foodstuffs downstairs, I don’t really want it to be a hang out place. I wish I could fashion a “cave” in the fashion that Andrea did, the layout of the land just wouldn’t allow it. I did however use some carpentry 101, and created a false room in the basement where I keep all of my tactical gear (four load bearing vests, shotgun bandoleers, et cetera), ammo, etc. Basically there is always space under the steps and since I have 10 ft ceilings in the basement that can add up. Basically I enclosed the walls of the steps with drywall, and cut out a non-load bearing stud and dropped in a doorway. Under the highest part of the steps I built shelves on the inside to hold ammo cans. On the outside of the doorway I built a closet space to hang all of my hunting camouflage coveralls, cold weather gear etc. On the inside of the closet it looks like an unfinished wall with plywood on the wall but there is a hidden pull string that opens a section of the plywood allowing access. Inside I have a string of Christmas LED lights to see. This cleared up a lot of space in the basement shelves for more food and provides more OPSEC for those things that people shouldn’t “run” across.

Thanks for all you do Mr. Rawles. Your words and blog site influence a lot of sheep to become sheepdogs and I for one appreciate it. I have listened to the unabridged “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” audio book three times now and it is worth every penny. I have it in my personal library, but I have more time to listen than to read. Thanks again. – A.J.K.

Hi Jim,
As a general contractor, one important item which was not discussed in the construction of the hidden basement is the subject of drainage.

I hope the author will have no problems with this, but given the clues regarding snow and clay I personally would be concerned. Perhaps drainage is already taken care of in some fashion with the already existing basement…I don’t know details…but anyone considering such construction needs to give serious thought to how they will handle moisture. Groundwater has a remarkable knack for finding its way in. I would include a perimeter drain and a sump pump (assuming there is no way to [gravity] drain to daylight (i.e. a hillside slope)) in my plans if considering such a project.

Many thanks for the blog. – Tom in Southern California

Economics and Investing:

J.B.G. sent this: Officials hint Fed on the verge of more easing.

Thanks to S.M. for sending this bit of confirmation to an earlier report: China Said to Widen Its Embargo of [Rare Earth] Minerals

Sue C. sent: 11 state pension funds that may run of out money

Items from The Economatrix:

Gerald Celente: “We Are Living On Borrowed Time”

Reaching For Yield In The Bond Market (The Mogambo Guru)

Dollar Declines for Fifth Straight Week on Prospects of More Monetary Easing By Fed

Say Good-bye To Traditional Free Checking

Silver On The Move

Silver Shipments From China, Biggest Exporter, May Plunge By 40% This Year

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"When young men seek to be like you, when lazy men resent you, when powerful men look over their shoulder at you, when cowardly men plot behind your back, when corrupt men wish you were gone and evil men want you dead … Only then will you have done your share." – Song lyrics by Phil Messina

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry 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 between $500 and $600, 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.

Keeping Secrets in Suburbia–Constructing Our Hidden Basement Room, by A.

A year ago our preparations had grown to a point where it was becoming noticeable to the guests who visited our home. Our ability to keep our tin foil hat craziness under raps was becoming increasingly difficult. Aside from the fact that we have teenage boys and a daughter and all of their friends regularly tromping through our house, for security reasons alone, all of our assets were virtually displayed in our basement and needed to be hidden. Yes, our guns are in safes, but the last thing we need is some parent freaking about ammo cans, reloading equipment or even food storage. It is none of their business and keeping our prepping secrets was nearly impossible and privacy was becoming a high priority.

So the discussion became focused on hiding all of our stuff. Our house is of a modest size for a family of five. There is only so many places you can put things. The one thing we do have though is a sort of mish mashed house. The original house was built in 1949. It has a partial basement and a crawl space under one room. Then an addition was added during the 1970s. The addition has a large crawl space. So, we have a basement and two crawl spaces. We thought about simply putting our storage in the larger, newer crawl space, but rotating food would be extremely difficult and the door to the crawl space is obvious and ultimately we want our stuff hidden.

However, the other crawl space had an entrance from under the clothes dryer. Nobody would ever know or suspect that another crawl space was there. We are unsure why this space was never dug out during the original construction and made part of the basement. The only problem with this space was access – under the dryer is a fine entrance to a hiding place we never need access too, but that was not what we were looking for.

So, I basically resolved myself to organizing our existing small spaces and freaking out when the kids had friends over. My husband, Dan, would just have to deal with reloading in a tiny area and our guests would just magically not notice all the tactical gear, and TEOTWAWKI supplies, etc.

Then one day last September my husband said “Lets just dig out the older crawl space and make a hidden room of it.”

“Yeah, whatever” I thought.

But not long after that I came home to a 1’ x 3’ hole in the cinder block which was at chest level, right through the basement wall and just above the poured concrete foundation wall. I peaked in the dark hole with a flashlight to find a creepy, cobwebby, cold crawl space. The earth was about chest high and there was maybe 3 feet of space between the dirt and the ceiling.

Dan and I have taken on many projects together. We enjoy working side by side and since I am young and able I never like to see him do a project alone. But this time I looked at him and said “I want nothing to do with this!”

Over the next month he peeked daily into the hole, trying to figure out the best way of tackling this. He estimated there to be about 42 cubic yards of packed dirt. But, he figured with our boys’ help, they could fill up the other crawl space and that would just about empty the room.

He found a concrete guy on Craigslist to open up a small doorway. Dan first had to make his hole a little bigger, climb in and dig out the area behind the foundation wall where the door would be cut. The concrete guy needed space on both sides of the wall to get his cutter in so he could cut all the way to the ground level.

This gave my husband a taste of what the project would be like. The dirt was packed. Packed hard like concrete. You couldn’t just shovel it into a bucket. No, no. The top foot and a half was like hardened cement and below that was densely packed clay. He had to use his air chisel to break apart the top 18” of dirt. It was unbelievably difficult to dig out – especially while crawling and lying on his stomach – just trying to make space behind where the door would be. But he managed to get it done and the concrete guy was happy to work efficiently for cash. No questions asked.

Once the doorway was cleared of the neatly cut concrete wall, the real digging could begin. Dan and our boys set up an assembly line with Christmas lights for light and sleds to pull the buckets to dump in the far reaches of the large crawl space. My boys, crawling, could empty about 20 buckets in 3 hours working together. They could barely walk afterward from being so contorted in such a small space maneuvering extremely heavy buckets. 20 buckets doesn’t make a dent in the amount of earth needed to be moved. Not a dent! And my husband could only dig for 2 to 3 hours before being completely exhausted. They did this maybe four times before we had to rethink the whole project. Besides, it became clear that there was no way that e other crawl space could hold even a quarter of the dirt from the space he was digging. Not a chance. We didn’t consider how packed dirt takes up so much more area when dug and loosened.

So, a couple of months passed and the potential hidden room sat neglected. The kids were all very busy with school and our business was still in its’ busy season, so the secret room went on the back burner.

But, then the New Year came. Our business comes to a screeching halt in January for about three months. So it was decided that the room must be completed.

Because we were wanting to keep this whole thing obscure – we had a major dilemma now with what to do with 42 cubic yards of packed earth. We are friendly and chatty with everyone on our block, so there was absolutely no way we could have an ever growing pile of dirt in our yard without every neighbor wanting to know and see what we were doing. Not to mention that we were not getting the proper permission (permits) from our local government, so we had to keep this covert. Thankfully, the block tends to somewhat hibernate during the winter. The neighbors aren’t out in their yards as much, so we thought a small pile might go unnoticed. But, we would need to get rid of it frequently and discreetly.

Dan dug, filled buckets and carried them out and made a small pile of maybe 2 cubic yards of dirt. We put an ad on Craigslist for free dirt. Within a few days a couple people had come by and shoveled a few buckets worth full of dirt – but not even enough was taken to remove our small pile. At this rate we would never get rid of it. It took people too long to shovel it up into their truck beds and anyone needing a large amount would never come and remove our small piles one at a time. This process would take forever.

But then Dan had the genius idea of putting an ad on Craigslist saying “Free dirt, you bring your trailer, we’ll fill it, you haul it away.” Within a couple of days we received a call from a lady not too far away who needed fill dirt to raise up an area around her garage because her home was in a flood plain. She would take as much as she could get. So we got started – she brought a small trailer over, never asked us what we were doing and we told her we would call her when it was full.

I decided I couldn’t watch my husband dig alone, so during the days while our children were in school we dedicated two hours to digging, each and every day. At first we could only handle doing 40 buckets in about two hours time. The work area was so small at this point we would have to take turns axing the big chunks off the hard top and then I would fill the buckets and he would haul them through the basement, up the stairs, out of the garage where he would dump them into the trailer. Yes, the dust and dirt was excessive which helped motivate us to get the job done. On snowy days, there would be a mud trail through the basement to the trailer. Thankfully our basement has hard floors and not carpet. What a mess.

At first we were completely exhausted after 40 buckets, sweating profusely and totally worn out. But within a couple of weeks we were marveling at how our stamina had increased. At the start I was having trouble heaving the buckets out of the doorway for Dan to take, and his legs were exhausted from going up the stairs with a minimum of 50 lbs in each bucket, a bucket in each hand. But, our strength was growing by leaps and bounds and by dedicating two hours a day we were making incredible progress. It wasn’t long and we could do 60 buckets in two hours and that filled the small trailer. The trailer lady was great at first about coming daily and getting the trailer emptied and back the same day. But, soon we could do 60 buckets in 1 hour 15 minutes and we wanted to keep going. Her daily pickup slowly became every other day, then every 3rd day. This was not moving fast enough for us. We were starting to see a room emerge which made us want to dig all the more.

We also were getting really good at digging. We joked about how we should be miners since we had been digging in near darkness by the light of two corded mechanics trouble lights in what became known as “The Cave“. Soon I could wield the big mattock and fill buckets faster than any girl and Dan was virtually running up the stairs with buckets in each hand. We were having fun.

One day we decided after filling the trailer to go ahead and start making a pile behind a hedge in the rocks next to the driveway. That day we moved 120 buckets. We spent every day after that doing as much as we could – both filling her trailer and adding to the pile. When the pile was around 8 cubic yards big, we decided we had to get rid of it immediately. We found a guy offering Bobcat services on Craigslist for removal of dirt, concrete, rock and such. Due to the economy and his willingness to work, he gave us a very fair deal on the removal of the dirt. And because he could dump it on the Trailer Lady’s land he didn’t have to pay for disposal of the dirt. We were all happy.

We had our Bobcat guy come two more times all the while continuing to fill the trailer again and again. The last day of digging we squared the 2’ thick earthen ledges and leveled the floor. That day we moved more than 200 buckets.

Due to the fact the two most outer walls did not go down to the floor level, we had to leave an earthen ledge. In researching, we found a 2’ thick earth ledge could keep the walls from shifting, especially since the earth was so hard. So, now we had a level dirt floor, squared ledges and it looked like a room.

The digging was complete! Now it was time for real lighting so we put in 10 recessed can lights between the floor joists above our heads and electrical outlets on the walls. Ahhh, let there be light!

Okay, now we had to decide how to get concrete into this room. We have a lean to structure designed to house our trash cans. This sits on the exterior wall of The Cave. We opened up the trash house, pulled out the cans and cut a 2’ x 2’ hole in the outer wall at ground level. Because we have a raised ranch home, he was able to do this. Dan installed a fire-rated panel access door for commercial buildings he found on Craigslist for $20. The hole, not only was a secondary egress, but also a way to bring in the concrete.

The hole was just big enough to get the concrete chute through it. We called back the same concrete guy who cut the door through the foundation wall. We set up the concrete delivery, and he and his son poured and leveled 6” of concrete on the floor and up and over the earthen ledges. The room – for our purposes – was done.

After the concrete dried we spent several days moving all of our preparations into our new 12’ x 24’ room. One half of the room is dedicated to food storage, canning supplies, distilling equipment, barterable items, etc. The other half is for firearms and tactical equipment, including a reloading area, large safe and ammo storage. The temperature remains almost constant because there is no heat coming in and it is mostly underground. It is cool, dry and perfect for storage.

The room is concealed in the following ways. The opening under the clothes dryer has been sealed off. The exterior hatch in the trash house cannot be opened from the outside and is concealed behind a door and trash cans. The interior opening (the main door going into The Cave) has a heavy 5’ x 3’ steel door with a commercial non electric push code lock. Right now we have a large wardrobe/armoire in front of it which has been discretely bolted into place to conceal The Cave entrance. The armoire houses various jackets and coats which hides the false back which can be slid over easily to reveal the steel door entrance. Just picture The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, from The Chronicles of Narnia.

The room is perfectly hidden. Nobody would suspect it is even there. Our assets and preparations are finally out of sight. We go “shopping” in our Cave about once a week to bring up food that needs to rotate and Dan spends quite a bit of time in there reloading ammunition. It is spacious and organized. We have built shelves and it is the perfect way to keep this stuff secret while living in the crowded suburbs. Ironically, our neighbors never inquired about the dirt pile or the concrete truck and I imagine they have long forgotten.

We wanted this project to be as minimal in cost as possible. It was a large undertaking for us in terms of labor, but to add almost 300 square feet, the $2,000 we spent (for concrete work and lighting, etc.) was really quite worth it. We are not engineers, but due to common sense and research [and concrete], we knew what we needed to do to keep our house from falling in on us. We were confident in our abilities and judgment to not need to involve the local building authorities to give us permission to do this. But, this is a decision that needs to be taken seriously because one can destroy the foundation of their home if they dig improperly, not to mention get themselves in a lot of trouble, both with the law and financially.

But, you never know, you might have lurking in your suburban home quite a few extra square feet to hide the things you want out of sight. Think creatively, and don’t be scared of hard work. It gets easier every day. And ladies, don’t make your husbands do all the physical work. We can do far more than just the food-related preps. Build the chicken coop with him, learn to shoot, dig out a cellar with him. It will build your marriage and you’ll get stuff done twice as fast.

Letter Re: Evacuating Wisely — With Livestock

James,
Growing up and living on the Gulf Coast, for about 50 years, has given a lot of evacuation experiences to me. The most educational evacuation for us was Hurricane Rita.

We thought Rita was coming inland way south of us. A family had evacuated to our house. Got a early morning call, that Rita had grown and was heading right at us. Visitors were sent on their way and we began loading up. Now loading up is a major logistics operation, as we have a farm. We successfully evacuated 4 equines, 3 dogs, 3 people and 3 vehicles. 7 goats, 2 horses and 2 cats didn’t get to leave. The cats couldn’t be found. We labeled the staying horse’s halters with names and cell phone numbers. Our farm wouldn’t flood, but wind would be a problem. Luckily our neighbor, a National Guard member would be staying home and guarding the neighborhood.

The word was that most fair grounds had been rented by large horse farms to house their evacuating horses and their friends horses. So I began making calls. Had a lead in San Antonio. But surprise, the highways were already controlled by the police. We couldn’t even head west. We couldn’t even get out of our neighborhood and head north. The roads were already parking lots. More phone calls. We got a connection in a small town, north of us a couple of hours. Okay, off we go, south to a back road, only locals know. We took it and saved more than 3 hours, in just 20 minutes.

What did we learn? Most important possession is a State Atlas, with all those tiny back roads drawn in. This saved our necks. Think outside the box. Going South sometimes is a better short cut.

Each driver should have a walkie-talkie, cell phone and car charger. Carry lots of drinking water, and snacks All fuel tanks full. Chances are you will not find any fuel, or else you can’t get into the station. A bucket for a toilet. Each vehicle have good quality flashlights and extra batteries water bowl with water for each dog leash kept on each dog Dramamine in case pet gets sick. Yeah, my border collie had problems. Most of the time we were stopped and would let the dogs out for a few minutes Any horse trailer, should be kept totally opened, all vents and even the back door. A cow panel, cut to fit, will be a fine door for the back of a horse trailer. Attached to the trailer securely, of course. Remember, the heat build up in a non-moving trailer is atrocious. Keep water buckets full and in front of each horse. Keep electrolytes nearby and in use. Hose down all horses at every opportunity. (For example gas stations, friends’ homes, and kindly people’s homes.) This saved our 40 year-old pony.

We crossed lots of gridlocked highways to continue on our gravelly back roads. When we came to and needed to cross these parking lots, we would assure the drivers we wanted to cross, not to join them. Every-time, they made room for our entourage to cross and continue on. The typical travel time to our destination was 2-1/2 hours. Our back roads trip, took 12 hours. We had to pass through a few little towns and they were gridlocked, also. The typical driver, on the designated hurricane evac route to this same destination would have arrived after 24 hours or more. We pulled into our unknown, wonderful, future friends’ farm, at midnight. We unloaded by flashlight and set up a small corral-panel pen by feel. We all made it safe and sound. God blessed and kept us safe. Oh yes, all our animals that we left at the farm were safe. There was lots of property damage, but that is another story. A quick thank you to all those wonderful people who gave out water, to the evacuating masses. Many of you sat in the back of pickup trucks with water containers and would bring water to the cars, as they crept by your drive-ways. God bless you. – Horsewoman

Economics and Investing:

KAF flagged this: Pimco sells US Treasuries ahead of QE2

Siggy sent this: Fed Needs to Pump Trillions More Into Economy: Analyst

Foreclosure Mess: The Price Tag for Big Banks

Banks listing foreclosures at 30 percent off peak prices. From a $1.5 million home to $630,000.

Items from The Economatrix:

Not So Golden Years: Rise In Capital Gains And Dividends Would Hit Seniors Hard

Martin Weiss: Gutting The Dollar Is Now Official

Money Printing Set To Devalue Every Dollar You Own

Martin Weiss: Two Game-Changing Decisions

Bank Stocks Push Market Broadly Higher; Dow Up 81

Industrial Production Falls 0.2% In September

“The Great Dollar Devaluation Disaster” Is Only Just Beginning…And The Intended Victim Is YOU!

Odds ‘n Sods:

The Food Crisis of 2010. (Thanks to F.J. for the link.)

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Also from F.J.: Coleman Quad Lantern. [JWR Notes: I suspect that these are made in Mainland China, so buyer beware!)

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Dave B. mentioned another good reason to store extra fuel: Fuel imports into France surge as protests imperil transportation.

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SurvivalBlog’s correspondent David in Israel mentioned: “A good link for everyone is SpaceWeather.com. It is a good way to get your radio prop reports and also track flares which might damage satellites or power grids. There is a new solar flare coming, it will probably just make HF carry better via ionospheric skip. Get out your 10 meter band sets and see what you can do.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Didn’t seem to me that Owen Chantry was taking any chances, though. When he put his pants on in the morning he also put on his gun belt and his gun. Most men put their hat on first. He put on that gun belt ‘fore he drew on his boots. ‘You figurin’ on trouble?’ I asked him once. He threw me a hard look. ‘Boy,’ he said, ‘when a man comes at me shooting I figure he wants a fight. I surely wouldn’t want him to go away disappointed. I don’t want trouble or expect trouble, but I don’t want to be found dead because I was optimistic. I’ll wear the gun, use my own good judgment, be careful of what I say, and perhaps there won’t be trouble.’ ” – Louis L’Amour in “Over on the Dry Side“

Note from JWR:

Today we present 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 between $500 and $600, 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.

Tactical Training for the Modern Family, by Jeff F.

In discussions with other members of the preparedness world one thing becomes abundantly clear. Training is secondary to supplies and generally is handled exclusively by the head of the household. I have found that being a former Marine, and a gun enthusiast, as well as the director of my family’s survival plan that many conversations with others all end up at the same spot on the map. The question I pose to the other males leading the charge is, “what happens when the SHTF and you go down early by brick/bullet or from a tap on the shoulder from Murphy?” The response tends to be a collection of, “well I know how not to get hurt”, or “I am aware and well planned” or any other combination of how well trained they are. But at the end of the day, we are all subject to failure at the worst possible moment.

Often neglected in home or family survival is a combination of simple military training tools combined with civilian business training. In the military, in day one small unit tactics, there is the responsibility to learn your assigned task then teach it to others in the unit. Each person has a task, radioman or medic or team leader etc. Once you have your area down you teach others. The theory behind is simple; as someone gets hurt or killed the next person can step up and know what to do to continue the mission. In the world of survival if the train stops due to one person being down or out then the chance increases that everybody could soon follow and that is unacceptable. This is mandatory for anyone in the group that takes the time to learn something or attend a class. Knowledge confined to one person, that is so rampant in the civilian business community, is the exact polar opposite of what is needed by any group working to function as a team.

When tactical training practice is overlooked, as being standard procedure, we become a Murphy beacon. Military and survivalist alike need to understand Immediate Action (IA) drills. It is imperative to understand how and why rally points and action plans need to be set up and practiced before, during and after an event. This concept seems easy if you have been trained or are dealing with others that have been similarly trained, but for a vast majority of people in the affected group, to include family of all ages, this is an area where nobody would expect an issue to arise until the trouble starts – and at that point, it’s too late.

The modern family unit, or first group to have to move or connect with other groups, is of the utmost importance to conduct both mind and body drills. With this in mind I would like to introduce business-training techniques into the busy modern family to accomplish this goal. Businesses are always dynamic creatures, growing and changing, always striving to be better.  Changes in procedure are always communicated to the affected group, followed by mandatory training and finally the change is implemented.  All of these steps are handled by those that have a full understanding of the current mission before it starts. If you view children and spouses as employees, they have little time or desire for long boring and dry training sessions. Getting everyone involved and on track is tantamount to a successful completion of assigned tasks.

As a leader, one goal you should have when dealing with a varied audience is to develop your own creativity. You must find a way to take complex tasks and break them down into simple steps for all concerned. The worst thing you can do is stand in front of a group and read from a book. Some may learn effectively in this manner, but when in times of stress, nobody is going to remember what they heard or read unless it is reinforced with hands-on practical training. I have a young son, as I have been explain to him throughout the years, that tactical awareness and knowing what and who is around him is one of the most important things he can learn and accomplish. He loves video games, especially first person shooters, this works well in teaching him small unit tactics, over watch and ambush drills in the safety of our home. I then couple this with walk and talk at the local park as we “play” and practice the same activity to increase muscle memory so at a time of high stress he reacts like he was trained.  I create these small sessions to get him learning and doing so it becomes second nature.

Is this foolproof? No, of course not, but we live in a fast paced society with busy jobs and lives. Carving out time each week to maintain the skills we have learned is difficult, let alone incorporating and teaching new practices. My wife is different then my son in her likes and dislikes but her love of our family and her natural desire to survive gives great strength to our training and practice sessions. Even with her, I find myself spending a lot of time focusing on “What If…” scenarios. I meld this way of thinking into our daily lives, while we are driving, sitting at dinner waiting for food, or in any other situation where we find ourselves with a few extra minutes. By doing this, I am effectively crafting activities and practices that my wife can put in place during times of struggle. For years I have been training her on being aware and using cover and concealment, which thankfully, she knows the difference, because when a real life situation happened her training kicked in.

Late at night, at a deserted gas station, my wife was approached by a drunken stranger who had an agenda of malice. My wife was able to keep focus on the situation at hand. She maintained eye contact on the stranger; she actively kept a safe distance and kept the car between herself and the larger male. During the brief interaction with the stranger, she quickly assessed the situation and developed a mental plan of action in case things got out of hand. This is a prime example of how the “What If” training kicked in, followed up by the “if this then that” forward thinking mindset. During this event my son was in the car. He immediately locked all of the doors, removed his seatbelt and placed himself in the middle of the car incase he had to escape the vehicle on either side. He immediately began to scan the area, watching for others that might be approaching and watching mom when she was had to leave the vehicle, touch base with the scared gas attendant, and contact the authorities.  While my son was giving the arriving officer a detailed description of the stranger, he observed the very same stranger appear from a wooded area and reenter the gas station behind the officer. My wife was able to handle the situation staying aware, and like a trained soldier, give an after action report to me so we could then dissect the positive and negatives to shape our future training sessions. It was after this event my wife finally relented and got her concealed weapon permit.

Tactics and “what to do if you are in charge” concepts are a necessity for everybody on the team. My family does not always see the big picture on why I may focus on one training concept more than the next or how individual training sessions can be combined into series of tactical approaches to a situation. Having been in the Marines, I understand that ideas without actions and goals without training will lead to failure. This is true in business and life. If you have all the jobs and responsibility during a crisis there will be a point where you either need sleep or perhaps receive a minor injury and you will need to rely on others to pick up the slack. Does your team, or family, know how to set up an Observation Post (OP)? If there was an attack in the immediate area, or they got lost or ambushed, do they know where to rally?  Do they know how to treat or care for wounds? At the very least, do they know why we don’t use the bathroom in the same vicinity as the water supply? If the answer to all of the above is no, then there is a good chance that you will fail. Why not plan a camping trip or a few nature walks with your family and start your own progression of training evolutions?

My wife and I have practice driving techniques while on long family vacations, both talking about what to do and what jobs are whose and what happens if someone goes down. We have done multi car driving adventures to test the skills as well as communication gear and GPS and map reading skills. We as a family have used crowed malls and sports events to practice movement in crowds and hands on direction and movement drills. My son knows without a doubt when I grab his shoulder and start to move him it’s because I see a threat and he is to comply, to the point that if my wife or I take it to the ground that he goes down and makes himself small, allowing us to cover him while making ready with our firearm for defense. It is little moments and opportunities in our normal fast paced life that we can take advantage of and use for training.

The business world and major world events are ever changing, having all the ability and knowledge locked into one person’s head is practicing for disaster. I end all of our training events with the question to my wife, if I go down what is your job?  I then follow it up with the same question to my son, if Mom goes down, what is your new job? We are always prayerful that we never need what we practice, but we plan for the worst. I buy important items in threes. That includes fire starters, water purifiers, maps, etc.  If I go down or my cargo is lost or destroyed, I need to know that the others have when they need to keep going. The last thing I want is to my son to end up lugging three packs with him because his mother and I fell out. If I take a class on firearms that I can’t take with others in my family then my job is to spread the wealth. If my wife learns how to can foods or dress a deer what good does it do if she is the only one with that knowledge? Taking tactical training and making it applicable for others and breaking it down to teachable chunks, that all can understand, and finding ways to make it fun is the challenge, but so is the heart of why we do it. Survival – it’s pure and simple.