Letter Re: Let’s Talk About Trapping: North American Furbearers

Letter Re: Let’s Talk About Trapping: North American Furbearer

As a fellow trapper I enthusiastically read the article on trapping and although I have never eaten Raccoon. I can vouch that beaver and muskrat are good meat sources. Muskrat, I do not eat regularly, but beaver is more substantial and I do regularly take the meat and the skin is durable enough to be used for hats, mittens, coats, etc. When skinning beaver take care not to cut the castor glands, first these smell awful and would taint the meat, second you can sell them, and third you can use these to make your own lure for predators. Here is a link to a nice diagram showing where the castor glands are I often harvest part of the beaver for cooking, the skin for tanning and use the remaining parts for bait for predators. It seems to be a universal bait good for lynx, fox, wolves and wolverines.

For a novice trapper, there are three basic ways to trap critters two of which are lethal and the third is not. First there are snares, which can be made with a variety of gauges of wire and can catch anything from squirrels to wolves, well, bears actually, but I haven’t had the pleasure of that, yet. Then there are lethal traps such as the connibear that was mentioned in the article, and finally foot holds which leave you with a live critter, meaning, you have to dispatch it, you have to check your foot hold traps more frequently and the area disturbed by the animal once it is caught is going to probably be a bigger area. There are countless pros and cons to each method. Snares can be made in quantity and are relatively cheap, but often can not be reused. Traps are more expensive up front, but can be reused with minimal repairs for many years. I would recommend for preparedness sake to put in a stock of each of these three types in a variety of sizes.  

As far as trapping for food I would recommend snares and lots of them, they are small, inexpensive, easier to transport and can be used in quantity. In my area rabbits are easy to snare, but if you do not check them frequently you lose your catch to predators such as fox. Squirrels can also be caught in quantity with snares and bait such as peanut butter, the military teaches the making of squirrel poles for survival situations. These are poles (trees leaning at a 45 degree angle. You place bait at the top, or middle and then snares on the top and sides up and down the pole. I haven’t tried this but am sure it would work and is somewhat similar to bait poles used for martin.   

My personal preference for muskrats are fish traps (Dyke traps), these can be made of netting material or chicken wire. I would recommend having some of these for catching fish, muskrats, and other small critters, here are some examples.

Anyway, this is a topic near and dear to me and an often neglected area for preparedness minded individuals. There is too much to put in a short note, but please do post more on this topic.

Mr. Rawles, it goes without saying I love your site, I check it daily as does most of my family. Thank you for all you do. – Alaska Country Girl

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 34 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 34 ends on May 31st, 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.

Getting Your Kids Ready for TEOTWAWKI, by D.M.

My wife and I are both in our late 30s and have just started living a life of preparedness.  Unfortunately, we started this journey just after building a new house on 15 acres in Northeastern Minnesota.  We wish we had a few years back to build over with a different frame of mind, but we count our blessings and enjoy our rural location.  We live on my single income (about $70,000) and have four beautiful children, ages 4 through 9.

While having four children makes life a little more interesting financially, by being frugal, we have still been able to prepare with our limited disposable income.  In the past three years we have:

  • Installed a wood stove to heat the house
  • Installed a hand pump on the well along side the electric pump
  • Put away over 65 buckets of food in Mylar bags and 5-gallon buckets.
  • Built a small inventory of ammo for hunting and defense
  • Bought numerous back-up items like: medical supplies, ordered a Big Berkey, a pressure canner, a grain mill, and put together a large pantry that would feed us for about a year.
  • Purchased the building materials to build an underground root cellar with a small cabin (16’ x 10’) over the top of it.

How did we do all this?  We quit eating out as a family once every week or two.  Now, if we go out for a burger or pizza, it is once a month or once every two months.  We cancelled our cell phone coverage and bought a TracFone.  We stripped down our land line to the bare necessity, and then we shut off our television service.  In addition, we changed investment strategies to give us more money for practical goods.  We bargain shop and buy online a lot through eBay and other such sites (like Lulu.com to get Mr. Rawles’ the SurvivalBlog Archive CD-ROM).

Preparedness with Kids
Having supplies is great, but a true plan must have the full family accounted for.  If it were just my wife and I, it would be much easier to prepare, not only financially, but logistically.  With kids involved, there is much more to think about.  The first step in preparedness with kids is in really getting to know them.  This may sound like a dumb statement, but it is vitally important to know each of you kids’ strengths and weaknesses.  I will come back to this in numerous parts of this entry.

A Firm Foundation
It is our firm belief that a plan made without a grounded faith in the Lord will only be as strong as the individual making the preparations. We believe preparing for all possible scenarios goes beyond that.  Our children have a short devotional time each morning during breakfast where they learn biblical truths through Children’s Bible stories.  We are preparing to not just survive, but to have the ability to help others.

What…No Television?
Last year we decided to shut off the television.  We really only watched football on Sunday afternoons in the fall, but in our opinion, every commercial our kids were viewing was the worldly culture trying to get a foothold on our kids.  We shut off the television and this one single act has paid more dividends than you could possibly imagine.  If the power goes out (which it has) our kids are not glooming over their loss of electronic gadgets, but instead we light a candle and get out a board game, a deck of cards, or we each grab a good book.  It is business as usual for us in that regard.

Investing in Education and Book Reading
We believe strongly in education and want to give our kids the best chances to succeed in school (maybe college one day?).  We recently pulled out all four of our kids’ college funds from the bank that were started by my wife and I and largely funded by their grandparents.  We took that money and invested all of it into gold and silver.  It is our kids’ money of course, but it does give the family a sense of financial security.  We also love to read at the house with our kids and have slowly started to incorporate more and more wilderness adventure stories.  Some of our favorites our:

Gardening and Cooking
Our small garden of a few raised beds has grown into many raised beds, a raspberry patch, blueberries, a couple of apple trees, a pumpkin patch, rows of sweet corn, and an array of garden veggies and herbs.  Our kids take part in picking berries, pulling the carrots, and even pollinating the pumpkins.  In addition, my wife has each kid plan a meal once a month.  They can choose the menu items and then they must help cook the meal.  This is where getting to know our kids comes in handy.  Knowing what our children like to eat helps my wife and me when we are deciding what to stock up on.  In addition to using our traditional kitchen, we cook on a propane stove, over our outdoor fire-pit, using a charcoal grill, and on our wood stove.  We now also make our own bread.  We include our kids in this process as one can pour the wheat berries into the hopper and then we will let the oldest try his hand at cranking out some flour.  It is usually too tough for him at this point, but our children being able to do everything isn’t the point.  Including them in the process is what we are striving to do.

Firewood
When we installed our wood stove, we were looking to minimize the use of the electric boiler that our in-floor heat runs on.  We instantly fell in love with our stove, but wood heat isn’t easy….in fact, it is a lot of work.  When it is time to go out and fill our ½ cord wood bin outside the basement door, we include all of the kids, even our four year old daughter.  We trek out and carry in wood from about 40 yards away.  It is not back-breaking, but in a small path surrounded by four feet of snow, it can be quite laborious.  Each of the kids carries what they can physically handle, with our four year-old carrying mostly kindling-sized pieces.  I also have each kid watch me making the fires and controlling the damper of the woodstove.  While I don’t let the young ones work the damper, etc. while the stove is hot, I do give each one a shot at starting their own fire.  I believe each of the three boys could start a fire on their own if they had to.

Emergency Ready 
We live in a two story home with the second story sitting on top of a walk-out basement.  We want our kids to be ready for anything, so each spring we have a fire drill.  Two brothers share bunk beds in one room while because of their young age, our oldest boy shares a bedroom with his younger sister.  In our fire drill, both sets of kids must hit the floor and crawl to the window.  Then, the oldest boy in each room, opens the window, pops off the outside screens and helps his younger sibling out the window.  Then they exit the house and meet in our garden shed.  They must do this entire drill in one minute or less.  At first, the kids could not make the time that we had set.  With practice, however, they could do it in one full minute.  Once in a while we will throw in small obstacles to make them “think on their feet” so that they are conscious of what they are doing.  This summer, phase two of the drill will be going over to Grandpa and Grandma’s house (they have the neighboring 15 acres) through the woods on their own with a time requirement.   We also will have future drills that will have us meeting at a small cabin that we are building on a secluded part of our property this year.  Our kids enjoy these drills and really feel good about themselves when they can make the time that we have set for them.  

Smart in the Woods
We have never wanted our kids to fear playing in the woods and exploring all that nature has for them to see.  However, with more and more signs of aggressive and even mangy wolves in our area, and even the rare sighting of a mountain lion, we have had to be smart in this regard.  We are not paranoid, but we don’t need to be the first family in this area to lose their kid to an animal.  The kids can go anywhere they want on our property under the following conditions:

  • They are with a sibling, friend, or adult
  • Wear blaze orange of some kind
  • They carry one of our Motorola handhelds with them, and have the household handheld on and assigned to either myself or my wife.
  • They know where all the deer stands/shelters are on the property and how to get into each of them. (they must pass a test I give them)

Birthday and Christmas Gifts have Changed
Kids love presents and despite what we have tried, they are still in that naïve stage where while they understand the meaning of Christmas, they still look under the tree to find gifts with their names on it.  In a coordinated effort with their grandparents, we have tried to minimize electronic gifts and get them items of “substance.”  For example, our eight year old wanted binoculars like his dad.  This past Christmas, his grandparents got him camouflaged Bushnell binoculars. (They are better than mine!).  They also got our youngest boy the BB Gun he wanted.  When all of our children got new camouflaged pajamas from Santa, they wouldn’t take them off on the weekends!  Gifts now have more of a practical goal in mind.  Yes, they still have normal toys, but our kids are buying into a way of life that is centered around outdoor living.

Hunting and Fishing
While my boys all like hunting, my middle son loves it.  He will sit in the deer stand with me for hours without making a sound or movement. When one of his birthday gifts was a blaze orange vest and hat combo, he was in heaven.  I let all of the boys take turns sitting in the deer stand with me.  When my dad or I get a deer, we bring the boys so that they can see the deer and watch us gut it.  My oldest (Mr. sensitive) watches from about 25 feet away, while my middle son gets right into it and asks more questions than one could possibly answer.  In addition to hunting, my dad has a small 16 foot boat that we take out fishing.  I take two boys at a time and they rotate so they all get to go the same amount of times over the course of the summer.  While we all have busy summers, we decided to “schedule in” two fishing nights each week for the duration of the summer.  This forces us to go and gives our kids great experiences. 

Conclusion
We have much to learn about preparedness, and our family learns more and more each day.  My preparedness plan has my kids joining my wife and I in this adventure.  From canning raspberry jam and green beans to learning how to start a fire to learning how to set the hook for their first fish, we just want our kids to learn more skills that will lead to a life of self-sufficiency.  The more we do now, the better prepared they will be in the future.  If  TEOTWAWKI happens sooner than we want, we hope our simple household preparedness steps will help us serve the Lord in a time period where people will need it the most.

Coffee in a Post-Collapse Society, by T.R.

I have read many articles stating that if you have any addictions to nicotine, caffeine or alcohol that now is the time to change your habits so that your dependency on them in their absence are easier to tolerate. My coffee habit is less a habit-at least that’s what I tell myself-and more of an enjoyment of life. That being said, in moderation coffee actually has an anti-oxidant property- justification is always a sign of a habit I know – not to mention the benefit of assisting in staying alert during a night watch task.

As a previous specialty coffee shop owner-prior to the commercialization of the industry by Starbucks –no I am not bitter– the storage of “freshly” roasted coffee has always been an issue. In fact, there is really only one method for long term storage of coffee since once the bean is roasted the oils and converted sugars begin to deteriorate and go rancid very quickly. Most off the shelf coffees that you buy in vacuum sealed containers or bags are actually made stale so that they can be vacuum sealed. Otherwise the bag would burst from the off gassing of the beans. Vacuum sealed freshness is a marketing term that actually means vacuum sealed staleness. I would always tell my customers you would never buy stale bread, why do you insist on paying a premium for stale coffee?

As I said there is a method for long term storage, unless you plan on rotating your roasted/ground coffee on a regular basis-eventually the coffee you have stored will become undrinkable. Or unless you live in the very narrow band of coffee producing countries that are 20 degrees on each side of the equator and 3,000 feet above sea level- coffee in a post-collapse society will disappear quickly. The answer is to purchase green coffee beans. These are the natural unroasted beans. There are many sites available on the internet where you can purchase anywhere from one pound to fifty pound bags. One advantage is that you will save 50% on your coffee budget paying anywhere from $5-7 per pound by purchasing green coffee beans. The prices of coffee have been escalating just as other commodities and the anticipation of future inflation on coffee is expected to continue. If ordering by the internet and paying shipping costs are to be avoided then you could also check your local coffee roaster in the yellow pages and inquire, they may sell you coffee thus avoiding the shipping costs. Most however will make you pay a small fee above their costs to account for their lost profit, it never hurts to ask though.

Now that you have purchased a twenty five pound bag of beans it will arrive in a burlap bag, long term storage in a five gallon bucket and Mylar should follow your preferred method. You may want to store in multiple smaller Mylar bags for extended storage times. At this point the beans are not off gassing so vacuum sealing with oxygen absorbers is possible. Stored in this method your beans will stay fresh from 2-5 years until you decide to roast them. Some Columbian Estate coffees are actually aged prior to roasting and command premium prices.

The fear of roasting your green beans is not scary at all. In fact, I would expect readers of SurvivalBlog to see it as a challenge to learn how to and master it. It should not take any longer than fifteen minutes on the stovetop or in a Dutch oven over a fire if necessary to roast enough beans for a week. I roasted our coffee for the week this Sunday in a Panini Pan (a pan with ridges on the bottom to help distribute the beans and heat) but any pan will work. To roast coffee, start by placing a layer of beans on the bottom of the pan with medium-high heat. As the pan begins to roast your beans, continue to stir your beans slowly, your technique will develop over time, just don’t leave the beans unattended, continue to stir or move the beans around or you wont get an even roast. You may need to decrease or increase the setting on your stove accordingly, but you will start to get the feel of the right setting after your second roast of beans. The oils in the bean will begin to heat up and caramelize, as they do you will hear them begin to crack open, this is the first of two pops you will hear during the roast.

The color will change from green to yellow to a light caramel and finally to a dark brown to black depending on how dark a roast you like. Also, the chaff from the beans outer coating will start to smoke, if you are inside on the stovetop, turn on the exhaust fan-trust me. About ten minutes into your roast and continual stirring you will have a mix of color ranging from light brown to dark brown and the second crack will begin. The last five minutes the colors change over very quickly to dark brown to black and you will need to monitor the color. Unless you like an espresso roast where you have now burnt the sugars and oils you will need to stop the roasting process just prior to the desired roast or color. As the second crack subsides remove the pan from the heat store and continue to stir. There will be a lot of chaff, you do not want this in your beans so I put mine in a colander and toss them out side and either let the breeze remove the chaff or blow across the beans to remove as much chaff as possible. Let the beans cool before grinding. Once you grind your first truly freshly roasted coffee you will be amazed at the depth of flavors. In some coffees you will not have to add milk or sugar. Bitterness that is in brewed coffee comes from staleness not the true nature of brewed coffee. In a post-collapse society a hand operated coffee grinder will be necessary and can be found online as well.

As for brewing your coffee in the absence of an electric coffee brewer, the Cowboy coffee and French press coffee methods work great and both make a great cup of coffee.

Cowboy Coffee
Over a campfire
Fill coffee pot with cold water.
Add one rounded tablespoon of ground coffee for each two cups of water.  (Add the coffee directly to the water.)
Bring the water just to a rolling boil.  Take off heat.  
Add a splash (a couple of tablespoons) of cold water.  This is to settle the coffee grounds.  Allow the coffee to set for a couple of minutes for the settling to take place.

French Press Coffee
Over a campfire
Heat water in a container
Place ground coffee in French Press, about 1tbs per cup
Pour hot (almost to a boil) over coffee
Put lid back on the press, leave in the up position
Steep for about four minutes
Slowly press down plunger after four minutes
Pour coffee to strain grounds v

Post-Collapse Coffee Equipment and Costs

I always appreciate sources for procurement so I will make mine that seem to be the most affordable. Some items-camp coffee pot, heavy bottomed pan, Dutch oven, and coffee press-you can locate at your local big box store. I would still recommend doing your research for the best product for the best price.

My last thoughts concern bartering coffee. During the Civil War the Northern states had coffee for their soldiers in the field because of their ability to import from coffee producing countries. The South was not as fortunate and had to rely on Chicory as a substitute–a poor one at that. Southern troops however had an abundance of tobacco, which the Northern Troops lacked. And through barter each side would arrange for a truce to trade, in fact there are many stories of agreements being yelled across the lines- where soldiers much to their officers disapproval would make unapproved but look the other way arrangements of tobacco for coffee. I can envision trading some scarce freshly roasted coffee for rice/beans or bullets. As a bartering item that contains one of those things that can be habit forming, in the grand scheme of things, coffee is less destructive than alcohol or tobacco.

Having coffee in your provisions could be a very valuable commodity from enjoyment, staying alert and to use as a barter item for other needed provisions.

Letter Re: Maps of Caves and Mining Districts

Mr. Editor:

I was wondering if you could tell us a resource online where to find the locations of caves/mine shafts, or other underground shelters around the country.  I have tried to do this unsuccessfully, maybe a reader knows?  Thanks. – Robert R.

JWR Replies: That goes a bit outside my expertise. I’m not a spelunker. Perhaps some SurvivalBlog readers have bookmarked some good web sites or could recommend a few books.

Letter Re: A Review of Inmarsat’s IsatPhone Pro

Jim,
I recently bought an Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro satellite telephone. I had set some requirements for a satellite phone (“satphone”) , including true worldwide operation, good reliability, and reasonable price, and the IsatPhone Pro (introduced in 2010) was not just the best deal, but the only phone that met all my my requirements. I shopped around for a few months and eventually bought the IsatPhone Pro Emergency Kit from GMPCS, a Florida-based retailer.

This kit is priced at $821. It includes the phone (normally around $600 from online sellers), one year of “Emergency” service priced at $150/year with 60 minutes of airtime, an extra battery, AC and DC chargers, a Pelican flashlight, and an orange Pelican 1200 case. (I swapped out the Pelican flashlight for a smaller and much brighter Fenix light instead.)

This represents a good price for the phone and accessories, but the service is actually the best part of the deal since there are few if any other ways to get satellite phone service for such a low annual price. Globalstar’s minimum plan is $360/year and Iridium starts at $225/year; both of these rates include no airtime.

Additional airtime for all satphone services usually runs around a dollar a minute. It costs less if you have a high-priced plan and more for the cheaper plans ($1.39 for extra minutes on Inmarsat’s emergency plan, for example). That’s just for the airtime; customers pay separately for outbound calls, and callers pay hefty long-distance fees for calls to the satphone. If you think you may end up using a satphone regularly (for example, if you expect to use it from a retreat home where cell phone service isn’t available), you’d better make sure you can afford it.

(By comparison, though, the cost for the kit plus a second year of service is about $600 less than the minimum cost of an iPhone 4 with a two-year AT&T service contract, so it isn’t totally outrageous.)

Physically, the IsatPhone Pro is much larger than any current cell phone, about 6.7″ long by 2.1″ wide and 1.5″ thick. Even so, it’s smaller than many older satphones. This size is due in part to the large antenna, which pivots out from the side of the phone and must be aimed roughly at the satellite.

This brings us to the other big difference between Inmarsat and the other two satphone services available in the US (Iridium and Globalstar). Inmarsat’s satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, their positions fixed for any location on the ground. Generally speaking, if you can see the sky, you can communicate. Only three satellites are required for global coverage, at least roughly between the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. Those living in Alaska, Greenland, and extreme northern Russia should review the coverage maps.

The Iridium and Globalstar networks have many more satellites, but they’re in low Earth orbit. Those networks can be unavailable from time to time because the satellites are out of view, and even if you’re able to establish a call, it may be cut off because each satellite is only visible for 10-15 minutes at a time.

The IsatPhone Pro requires a GPS fix in order to operate, but the GPS receiver seems to be reasonably sensitive; whenever the phone could see the Inmarsat satellite, it could see the GPS satellites too. The phone has a convenient “send GPS location” feature that creates a text or e-mail message with your coordinates.

I have spent a lot of time fiddling with my IsatPhone Pro, but not a lot of time making calls. I have found that it always gets a reliable signal from here in California, which is what I expected given that the northern portion of the satellite’s coverage area is pretty much centered on North America.

Although Inmarsat states quite clearly that the IsatPhone Pro will not work indoors, I actually found that my phone can get a usable signal right through the roof of my timber-framed, asphalt-shingled house, though some places in the house seem to work much better than others for no obvious reason. This suggests that it may sometimes work even under tree cover, but it definitely won’t work through the metal roof of a car.

Outdoors, I’ve had no trouble making or receiving calls to land line and cellular phones, and call quality is very good. Because the phone has a speakerphone capability built in as well as Bluetooth headset support, it’s easy to leave the phone in a fixed position (ideally, resting on its side with the folding antenna aimed at the satellite) during the call.

The e-mail service built into the phone, though limited, also works well. Messages go through quickly, but the key limitation is that e-mails sent directly to the phone (87077xxxxxxx@message.inmarsat.com) are limited to 160 characters. e-mails sent from the phone can be up to 1,600 characters.

Interestingly, text (SMS) messages can be 1,600 characters both ways, but Inmarsat does not have SMS service agreements in place with all US cell phone carriers. The result is a confusing patchwork of interoperability. The IsatPhone Pro can send text messages to AT&T cell phones, but an AT&T cell phone can’t send texts to the IsatPhone Pro. T-Mobile phones work normally in both directions. I haven’t tested a Sprint PCS phone.

These limits on e-mail and text operation are weird, but not a problem for the way I intend to use the phone, which will be limited to those hopefully nonexistent emergency situations when my cell phone isn’t working and I can’t raise anyone on my amateur radio. I figure it’ll be enough to place a call to a friend or relative as needed, perhaps augmented by a text or e-mail message with my coordinates. Emergency services are another option; Inmarsat says it supports calls to 911 and 112 (the European equivalent of 911), though I don’t know exactly where such calls go.

The final feature worth noting here is that the IsatPhone Pro can be connected to a computer via USB and act as a data modem to access Internet services. The speed is very low (2,400 bits per second uncompressed, up to 20 kbps compressed) and data transfers cost $6.50 per megabyte (after compression, if any), but this option allows normal e-mail and Web access when necessary. Windows, Mac, and Linux systems are supported.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with this purchase. The up-front, annual, and per-call costs are significant, but the IsatPhone Pro provides a capability that can’t be matched by any other communication method. I recommend it for those who have the rest of their preps in order.

Economics and Investing:

Ponder the implications: Iceland voters reject plan to repay bank debt. (Thanks to Pierre M. for the link.)

Loyal content contributor C.D.V. sent this: IMF Cuts U.S. Growth Forecast on Oil, ‘Lackluster’ Jobs Pace

Over at Fierce Finance: MERS stokes local controversies.

Some interesting observation on global currency moves, over at Malthus University: Update from INET. Reading back through the thread of of posts makes it clear that The Powers That Be (led by George Soros) may have plans for a new global currency. Meanwhile, over at The Daily Bell, we read: IMF Plots Role as World’s Central Bank?

Items from The Economatrix:

Drivers Start to Cut Back on Gas as Prices Rise

Paul Drockton:  Sell SILV Stock and Buy Physical Silver NOW!

Pre-Market Summary:  Inflationary Hysteria

Gold and Oil Will Soar When the Saudi Monarchy Falls

Near-term Economic Outlook for a Troubled World

Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) accurately predicted this recent Doublethink news from England in his first novel: Extinguishers banned as a fire safety hazard.

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Speaking of Michael Z. Williamson’s novels, Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore is starting the advance order for “Rogue.”  Please note that Mike’s novels contain adult situations, language and violence, so they are not suitable for juveniles. “Rogue ” is a sequel to “The Weapon“, but can be read as a stand-alone work. This is the first hardcover edition, and comes with a tipped in (glued) sheet printed by Baen, and autographed by Mike.  These will be cover price of $24, plus any shipping.  Mike will donate $1 to the Memsahib Memorial Fund for the first 250 orders placed if you mention that you are a “SurvivalBlog reader” in the order instructions. (Benefiting the Anchor of Hope mission school in rural Zambia.)

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After several frantic weeks of filling orders, the folks at Camping Survival (one of our loyal advertisers), now has the following back in stock: Medical Corps brand Potassium Iodate – 60 Count, Medical Corps brand Potassium Iodate – 90 Count, Iosat brand Potassium Iodide-14 Count, and Nukalert personal radiation monitors. 

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Yummy escargot! Preparing & Cooking Garden Snails. (Thanks to reader Jason R. for sending this piece from the California Prepper’s Network.)

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Mike the M.D. send a link to the latest edition of the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. It has a couple of interesting articles on radiation injuries following nuclear detonations. This is useful information, and also provides a needed sense of scale regarding the miniscule amounts of radiation that have made it all the way across the wide Pacific Ocean since the 11-3-11 disasters.

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Mike H. mentioned a “maplet” web app from Carlos Labs that shows the extent of damage from various atomic weapons if they’d been dropped on places we know.

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Ham: US May Consider Sending Troops to Libya. (A beret tip to John B. for the link,)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 34 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 34 ends on May 31st, 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.

Preventing Grain Spoilage by Insects, by Jim in New Hampshire

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I’m big on food storage and my hobby is finding and photographing beetles. These two interests converge when grain beetles start reproducing in my stored grain products.   I had bought some 50-lb. bags of corn and oats at the Tractor Supply Company store, intending to treat them for insects and put them up in 5-gallon buckets. I never got around to it and eventually noticed tiny grain weevils showing up around the house. The grain had not only become infested with Rice Weevils but their droppings had produced a lot of ammonia that turned the oak flooring dark beneath the most infested bag. I dumped 200 pounds of grain out on the compost pile, a free feed for birds, mice, and squirrels. Rice weevils are hardly the only grain beetle to worry about.

Here are some of the others, belonging to eight additional beetle families, with links courtesy of the Bug Guide web site:  

In addition there are moths, flies, and small wasps that lay their eggs in grain products, all of which can ruin your stored food supply if precautions aren’t taken.   Here are three common alternatives for killing off any grain pests that happen to arrive in bulk grains:  

1. Purge the oxygen with another gas. Buy some dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) or a tank of CO2. Put a few ounces of dry ice in a container of grain. Cover with lid but wait several hours before sealing. The CO2 is a heavy gas and will slowly fill the airspace from the bottom up, pushing out the ambient air containing oxygen. A faster method is to slowly fill the bucket by inserting a hose from a CO2 tank into the bottom of a filled container and cracking open the valve. Then the container can be sealed right away.  

2. Absorb all the oxygen with O2 absorber packets. (You can also use hand-warmer packets [, although they are much more expensive].) This method is best used with a Mylar liner inside the storage container ([food grade HDPE] plastic bucket, etc.). Once the O2 absorber packet is added, heat-seal the Mylar bag with a clothes iron against a broomstick or other straight stick or rod, then seal the container.  

3. Add a safe-to-eat physical insecticide, food-grade diatomaceous earth, mixing thoroughly with the grain. I use one cup per 100 pounds of grain. This substance is composed largely of the silaceous exoskeletons of diatoms, tiny unicellular aquatic organisms that died over eons and accumulated in deep deposits of ancient lakes and sea beds long since exposed on dry land. Their exoskeletons have sharp edges that scrape off the protective waxy coating on the exoskeleton of grain pests that permits them to survive in dry conditions. They lose moisture too rapidly to replace and they perish, never being able to multiply. A side benefit to this method is that it abrades the protective coating of intestinal roundworms as well — good survival medicine.

JWR Adds: All three of those methods have proven efficacy. Needless to say, do not be tempted to use any chemical insecticides, since they can be toxic to humans and would also horribly taint the taste of foods. Also, don’t think that by merely sealing newly-bought grains or legumes in airtight containers that you will will protect them from infestation. The chances are quite high that they already have insect eggs larvae present.

Some Investment Options for the Prepper, by K.P.

My wife and I have been preparing for any probable event for the past five years.  I will start by stating the investments that we started with followed by an overview of various investment vehicles and their pros and cons.

Five years ago my wife and I were your average middle class couple with two kids, a decent paying job, and a lot to look forward to.  We owned a car with no loan and we had an SUV with a loan.  We bought into the 2006 housing bubble not knowing how deep the corruption was.

We discovered SurvivalBlog.com only months after buying into a new and expensive home.  That was when we hit the brick wall and came to the realization that we have been living in a fantasy world.  We were unable to rewind the mortgage because of early payment penalties and ended up getting stuck with it, for a while.

After we were able to balance our checkbooks and other accounts properly we started to concentrate on preparations.  We first started by purchasing extra food like rice and cans that we consumed often.  We bought a Berkey water filter and started filtering our water rather than paying for bottled water.  This resulted in massive savings every month with a rather small $200 up-front investment.

After squaring away the food and water problem we then looked into protection and self-defense.  At this time we were living in one of the People’s Republic states and had to take training courses and wait a week before we could ever bring home a firearm.  The firearm addiction soon turned into a burden until we put the brakes on it and only kept to the necessities (a couple of pistols, a riot shotgun, and a few different kinds of rifles).

Having squared away our food, water, and self-defensive items we then started to use our extra [Medical] Flexible Spending Account money to stock up on first-aid equipment.  After getting a few hundred dollars in first-aid supplies we worked on getting our emergency reserve fund back in order.  Most personal finance advisors recommend 3-6 months of reserve funds in a money market or savings type account.  This is useful in case you lose your job or you become temporarily impaired.

I would call all of the investments above “insurance”.  This is insurance against many of the foreseeable or probable dangers that anyone or any family may face.  Now let us look at investments…

Orthodox Investment Methods for Preppers
There are tons of investments out there, some orthodox, most not.  Let us first consider the orthodox ones before we tackle into the infinite realm of unorthodox investments.

Cash – “Cash is King” or so the saying goes, but I would ask someone from Zimbabwe if cash was still king.  While we use cash in everyday transactions, it does depreciate overtime due to deficit spending of the government.  Inflation is yet another form of taxation, albeit “hidden” taxation.  You could and should invest in cash and leave one month’s supply in your bolted-down safe or somewhere close at hand.  You never know when the banks may go on a little holiday and you will not have instant access to cash.

Savings Accounts – Low-yielding but they are FDIC insured which is the same as saying that they will never lose face value unless something with the government goes terribly wrong.  The yields are generally lower than inflation and I would only recommend this investment vehicle for your emergency reserve fund in case you lose your job or become ill.

Certificates of Deposit (CDs) – Low-yielding but also FDIC insured.  These are very similar to savings accounts except that you cannot withdraw money from them without paying penalties.  This would be good for the last three months or so of your emergency fund but I wouldn’t put them in anything longer than one year CDs.  If you really need the money you can always pay the penalty.  Inflation will eat this investment up as well.

Money Market – Similar to Savings Accounts but they are generally not FDIC insured and some places require a minimum balance of $10,000.  I would also recommend these for the emergency fund.

Stock Market – The stock market is a place where people buy and sell ownership certificates in various companies.  It is a place where people smarter than you convince you to spend your money with them.  Most people believe that they are in fact buying stocks but it is really the brokerage houses that buy the stocks and then put them in your name.  Be sure that your brokerage firm is well-insured and of good quality.  For the small time investors a site like sharebuilder.com is great because there really is no minimum quantity of stock that you must buy.  Most shares are traded in lots of 100, so if MSFT (Microsoft) is selling for $32.25 per share you would have to pay $3,225 plus transaction costs.  The best way to invest in the stock market is to buy good companies when they go on sale.  If you would like to purchase MSFT then think of it as a 2-liter bottle of soda or chicken breasts or whatever at the store.  If the chicken breasts doubled in price compared to last year would it be a good time to buy it now?  How about if the chicken breasts were selling for $0.50 per pound?  Buying stock is like buying chicken breasts at the store, do not overpay for them.  Be smart when it comes to buying stock and those smarter people will not necessarily be able to take advantage of you.  Note that the stock market has been a loser for the past 10 years when adjusted for inflation.  This will probably be the case for the next 5-10 years.  If you need the income then dividend paying stocks are great or you may want to utilize the bond market.

Bond Market – Bonds are nothing more than debt instruments.  They signify a set amount of money that must be paid when the bond comes due.  Attached to the bond is an interest rate and the bond holder will receive that rate until the bond expires at which time the bond holder will receive the full value of the bond.  The market is heavily dictated by the current interest rate.  When rates go up, bonds prices go down.  When rates go down, bond prices go up.  This happens so that the payment closely reflects the prevalent market interest rate.  With current interest rates at all time lows, the bond market is at an all-time high and it would be best to get out of this market unless you really need the monthly income (but don’t discount good paying dividend stocks, you could replace your bonds with stocks that pay decent dividends to their shareholders).

Mutual Funds – Mutual funds and exchange traded funds are where unsophisticated investors flock to.  This is the investment for most retirement accounts and people who want to diversify for the sake of diversifying.  If you are unable to monitor your investments then this may be the place for you, but keep in mind that mutual funds, on average, perform worse than the markets themselves.  Mutual funds also tend to cost you more in fees and taxes.  Read the prospectus or you may regret ever buying one.

Precious Metals – Gold and silver used to be real money, today they are nothing more than a commodity.  Gold is predominantly used in jewelry and silver is mostly used in electronics, antibiotics, jewelry, and photography.  They do not generate cash flow and they cost money to store and protect.  They are, however, a good hedge against inflation.  With interest rates so low and the Federal Reserve printing money to fund the government with no end in site, gold and silver seem to be the investments of choice at this particular moment.  In a societal collapse they would be used in barter.  Keep in mind the price of chicken breasts, once they reach a level that you feel is too high then it would be time to bail out and to move your money into a different asset class.  I feel the next investment class after gold and silver will be the unorthodox methods.

Unorthodox Investment Methods for Preppers
Here are a few unorthodox or unconventional ones that most people do not think about:

Real Estate Rentals – Buying real estate now?  Are you crazy?  No, not at all.  You make your money when you buy not when you sell.  If you buy real estate now you will be looking at the potential for the property to generate cash flow and huge tax write-offs.  People always need a place to sleep and as long as society doesn’t completely collapse (which it generally does not) then real estate rentals are a good investment option.  If the currency devalues then you can raise rents or you can modify the contract and demand payment in specie (gold or silver).

Home-Based Business – Your home-based business could be anything from mowing lawns, making and delivering food, or preparing books for businesses (record keeping / accounting if you are an accountant).  Whatever your idea is, there is generally room for it in nearly any economy.  For the prepper you would be best off engaging in a business that you could continue in a soft societal collapse.  Everyone should have a side business, it gives you the potential for great rewards and tax write-offs.

Buy by the Acre, Sell by the Square Foot – While this generally applies to real estate it applies to anything that one can buy in bulk and resell in smaller quantities at generally much higher prices.  In real estate many developers will buy hundreds of acres and will then divide them into lots, run utilities up to each lot, and then piece out each lot while making about 10 times as much money as they paid.  You could also buy materials / items in bulk online and then sell them locally for a bit more, but you need to determine the need in your area and whether or not you have enough buyers.  I generally do not buy stuff in bulk unless I have buyers willing to pay me more than what I paid.

Sell Information – Whether coming over the Internet, through television, over the radio, or through print, information is bought and sold more than most other commodities.  Think of survivalblog.com, James provides information for free while collecting money to pay for the bills from the advertisers and donations.  Magazines subsidize most of their costs from advertisers as well (trust me, I have seen the price sheets from agents to see their profits and they are huge, some pay nothing on a subscription but yet charge you $11.95 per year).  There is also the option of writing a book and publishing it yourself; places like amazon.com help to support this model.  This extra revenue would also fall under the home-based business section.

Look Through Junk to Find Gems –

Another way of finding gems is to go to your local bank and request that they order you boxes of nickels, dimes, or halves. Spend some time with the kids going through the boxes looking for silver. You can expect about two 35% silver War Nickels per box. They [generally] appear darker than regular nickel and are dated from 1942-1945 with a big mint mark above the Monticello. You can expect about two silver dimes per box (they appear bright or highlighted from the edge of the coin and are dated 1964 or before). You can expect about 1-2 silver half dollars per box. They also appear brighter on the edge. Those that are dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver, and those date 1965-1969 are 40% silver. Most people overlook the circulating 40% half dollars [, not recognizing their value]. Do not waste your time looking for silver quarters, since nearly all of them have already been removed from circulation. (I have looked through about $800 worth of quarters and have yet to find a single silver quarter). [JWR Adds: I recommend keeping all of the nickels you acquire. Eventually sorting out any silver War Nickels is simply a bonus. This is explained in my article: Mass Inflation Ahead — Save Your Nickels!]

There are many things that a prepper must do and these things I labeled as “insurance”: food, water, protection, first-aid, and an emergency fund.  There are many things that preppers can do and these are labeled as “investments”: cash, bank accounts, market accounts, metals, real-estate, businesses, information, and finding gems in junk. 

In case you are wondering, we have left the People’s Republic and now live in a state for free thinking people.  We have had personal experience with nearly every investment stated above.

Letter Re: Observations During a Group Nature Hike

Hello James,
I wanted to pass along an observation from this weekend that I thought everyone could appreciate. This gave me some good insight into what it would be like to travel by foot with a large diverse group of people.

Our local nature center had a nature walk through a historic woodland valley down to the river. The total walk was 3 miles down and back. The beginning of the walk was through pastureland and the second half followed an old road grade through the woods. There were five naturalists assisting on the hike and about 30 guests. The ages of the group ranged from 10 to 80. There were about 10 children with their parents in the group.

My first observation was the way many of them were dressed for the hike. It was a damp weekend and we had rain the day before. Several of the folks only had on sneakers and others had muck boots. Most of the others had more appropriate hiking shoes with trail worthy treads and ankle support.  My only mistake was not wearing a windbreaker or layered clothing. The walk through the pasture was windy and cool, but the walk through the woods was damp and chilly.

As we started out I noticed how the group would string out and we had to wait at certain points for the stragglers to catch up. This made for slow progress and we going about 1 mile an hour. I was amused to think of this group as a herd where the younger “calves” were running around with the energy of youth and the older members would hold everyone back. We also came across several choke points on the walk that everyone struggled to get through. For the most part it was orderly but several times they rushed to get through or took longer than necessary. Often branches or briars would whip back on the person behind if they were not watching. My wife and I have been on many hikes and have learned to watch where we step to avoid slipping or kicking up branches along the trail. On this walk we had to keep our spacing such that we had to let the ones in front tear up the trail before it was safe to follow.

This was a nature walk so there was plenty of discussion about the flora and fauna but also many discussions that made it difficult to enjoy the day. The volume of group chased away any chance of observing wildlife. In a SHTF scenario we would have been discovered with ease. Another observation was how poorly the parents would watch their children. There were many dangerous creek banks and stone ruins that could have been catastrophic if someone would fall over the edge. Those running the group would often warn the children and parents to stay back. But in many cases the adults were just as bad. One child in particular was in need of serious attention. The worst was when he threw a rock at a metal culvert. The bang echoed through the valley and startled everyone. It also kicked up a herd of deer. We did see them but off in the distance with no hope of taking any if we needed to hunt.

Even though we had naturalist who had been in this area before, we did get off the trail once. I had noticed the road grade off to our left and was able to get back on track without too much difficulty. Many of the others had to scramble up a hillside. Even experts can get off track.

The trip back up the valley took about the same time. We didn’t stop to look at every plant and fungus as before but we did have to wait for the slower members of the group. I did notice that our walk down had left a lot of impact on the trail and a blind man could have tracked us in the dark. The leaves were disturbed and branches were broken.

During this hike I was wishing our group was smaller. I was looking for defendable positions, access to water and food or places to set up campsite. I was also playing out scenarios in my mind. What if someone got hurt, we were approached but MZBs, or we got lost. Most importantly I was evaluating our group. I wanted to gauge who could be relied upon to support in an emergency.

It was an interesting experiment in social interaction in a natural environment. I know I would not want to be in a SHTF situation with many of those folks. A smaller, physically-fit, and prepared group is more desirable than a large diverse group of varied abilities. It also drove home the point that that [in a worst-case situation] not everyone will survive. Thanks, – John G.

Economics and Investing:

The “D” (Default) word: Reader Wade C. wrote to mention that both the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal have started talking a about a U.S. Treasury default on debt obligations.

Scott M. mentioned: PIMCO goes short US government debt, raises cash holdings

David R. mentioned this press release: Suburban Family Files Constitutional Challenge to City’s Ban on Front-Yard Cookie Stands

Gas Prices Climbing Toward $5 Per Gallon.

Items from The Economatrix:

Sales of Wholesale Goods Slip in February

Paul Drockton, M.A. on Silver

Perfect Storm for Gold and Silver

Silver’s Performance to Treble that of Gold Over 3-5 Years

Odds ‘n Sods:

“T.” wrote to mention a useful article at Lifehacker: Make a Map Book Using Google Maps

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Reader F.G. sent a news article about the new British Army issue: ‘Stunglasses’ that can resist a shotgun blast from 16ft to be issued to 92,000 UK troops

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Bob Mc.C. recommended this thread over at M4Carbine.net: Some thoughts about defending your retreat. (Six myths of retreat security.)

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C.D.V. spotted this: Stranded Japanese farmer, 75, found alone in Minami Soma, city rocked by tsunami, earthquake

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News from Nanny State Illinois: Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home.