Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Despite the miracles of capitalism, it doesn’t do well in popularity polls. One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the non-existent, non-realizable utopias of socialism or communism. Any earthly system, when compared to a Utopia will pale in comparison. But for the ordinary person, capitalism, with all of its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.” – Dr. Walter E. Williams

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 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 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 32 ends on January 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.

Rain Water Collecting and Storage, by Tom C.

Water, gotta have it.  In a world that has become limited or shut down completely there will never end the need for water on a daily basis.  Disruption to the supply from the local water company will wreck havoc on every single person and family within hours.

The immediate need will be toilets:  You come home from work, the kids from school and everyone heads to the same place after the car ride home.  Waters out.
Did you remember to pay the bill?  Pipe bust?  Water Company going maintenance?  Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter/ Can’t flush but that one last time with the water still in the tank, after that tank water is gone, the toilet just becomes a chair.   The waste piles up, what are you going to do? Well, with a little thinking ahead and having installed a rain collecting cistern, or by today’s more common name “rain barrel” that situation might not be anything more troubling than filling a container with water from the barrel and bringing it to the toilets reservoir tank.  After that it just becomes another chore. Beyond toilets staying flushed how many other functions in the daily human lifestyle require water?  Nearly everything.   

Now many people have a get-out-of-town mentality in the event of a major crisis no matter what the cause, be it an approaching hurricane, heavy storms, earthquake or even depending on where you live man made events such as riots, some kind of nuclear, chemical or biological attack.  It might work for a person to have “I’m outta here” such plan, I hope so if that is the course of action to be taken, but every time I have seen it, whether in real life or in a movie, everyone just gets stuck in one long traffic jam.  Look at most highways during a holiday weekend, and that is just the people that went away for a couple days.  Being stuck on a highway ramp with my family, as a horde of enraged rioters makes their way through the jammed up cars is not where I would want to be sitting. So, maybe you stayed home to hunker down, or maybe you turned back after attempting to leave, or maybe you made it to your hide out until whatever happened passes.  Now the water is off, or if at that undisclosed secret location there was never piped in water to begin with.  Now what?

Every single situation is possible; look at Haiti right now even over a year after their big earthquake, for instance.  An island with constant rainfalls and tropical.  Collecting water falling free and clear from the sky for use in human waste sanitation, cooking, drinking and cleaning should be a no-brainer.  Yet filthy water illnesses are popping up all over the place.  Why?  Because the people in Haiti are not taking responsibility for themselves or showing an ability to put in effect a practice that has been with human civilization since the beginning: Collecting and storing water for use later along with basic sanitation practices.  Bathing and drinking from waterways that have open sewage running off into them is not the best means for staying healthy or even alive.

If our forefathers, dating back to the first time a hoe stuck dirt could figure out how to do it, there should be no reason why we cannot.  Back before there was a city Department of Water people had to collect the rain in containers.  A home container could be just a couple hundred gallons, while a municipal cistern could be an underground cavern holding thousands of gallons of water.

Anything watertight and bowl shaped can become a cistern: a bucket, large basin, and those plastic storage bins that are available at nearly all the big box stores. But for easy of modification, durability, and storage capacity, I’m going to use the 55-gallon food grade plastic barrel, commonly blue in color.  These can be found at many reclamation/recycling plants.  I found a great source in my area just by web searching “plastic drums” with my county’s name.  Also you can check on Craigslist, I’ve bought several from there, but for my purpose of making rain barrels to sell, the Craigslist ones were to beat up, customers don’t like that.  But for someone making them for their own use they would be fine. The best place for water collecting is at the gutters of your home, or lacking gutters where the water runs off the roof the heaviest.

With an average size house, just one rainfall of merely 1/4-inch is plenty enough to fill your barrel. A 1 inch rainfall on a rooftop of 1,000 square feet will shed over 600 gallons of water.  So even if your home or safe house is smaller, you’re most likely going to be able to fill several rain barrels in one rainfall. Several barrels can be linked together beginning from the one that does the initial rain water collecting with readily available PVC fitting parts which are extremely inexpensive; giving each point of collection a vast reservoir potential of hundreds of gallons.  This may be exactly the storage ability you will need in the most extreme cases and may have to garden and raise your own crops. 

Barrel position ideas:
At a gutter downspout
Where water freely falls from an overhang
At a position under the gutter where a hole has been cut in the gutters span
In the open collecting free falling rain, perhaps with something like a funnel on the top to expand the collection area

Shower:
     Another good use would be as a small scale water tower for use in outdoor shower stalls and as water with pressure to an outdoor sink maybe used for cleaning game, vegetables, or washing dishes and cookware.
     All that would have to be done is build a platform high enough to produce some pressure and hold over 400 pounds of full barrel weight without falling over or collapsing. 
     Paint the barrel black if you’re able to help the water warm up in the sun, the water will get warm anyway but black doesn’t reflect the sun’s rays back as much as other colors.
     Run a hose adapted with a shower head and there you go, impromptu shower to keep you and yours feeling human.
     There really are so many ways and situations, every use will have to depend on location, situation, blending in with the surroundings, and in some cases secrecy.

Most common uses:
Filling buckets for car washing
Keep plants alive during an extended period without rain
Save your yard and garden green during water restriction Ordinances
during droughts
Soaker hose for garden watering
Fill water pails
Emergency water for toilets during an outage
Just to use less treated water, save money while saving a limited resource.*

Drinking:    
     Now for use as drinking water there have to be precautions made.  Drinking straight from a barrel may or may not be a risk.  Each person will have to assess the situation.  Risks include poisoning yourself, waterborne bacteria, and dissolved pollutants that entered the barrel while flowing to the barrel.  
     At the very least run water through a clean cloth. 
     Have some kind of water tester, a filter system that can function with limited water pressure. 
     A means to kill what’s in the water that can kill you such as: plain chlorine bleach, iodine, boiling, etc.
     That is a completely different article and should be researched by the user to fit their individual needs.
     Anyone drinking water untreated from a rain collection barrel assumes all risks themselves.

What do you need? Materials list:
A food grade 55 gallon plastic barrel (Avoid clear or translucent barrels if possible, as they promote algae growth when used in direct sunlight.)
1 – ¾ copper no kink spigot
1 – ¾ watertight metal connecter (used in electrical conduit).  Don’t even try the plastic version; spend the extra maybe only 50 cents.  Threads on the plastic one will not even survive the installation process.
Silicone
Teflon tape
1-1½ PVC elbow -threaded
1-1½ conduit locknut
Some means to screen out leaves, other debris and insects, namely mosquitoes.

     That is the minimum needed to create a single standalone rain barrel.
Compete step by step plans are available on Amazon.com and at Scribd.com.

     There are many plans out there on the internet; I experimented with several before deciding they were all garbage that wouldn’t last any real length of time during real world usage.  So with that I created my own plans from scratch.
     American ingenuity is not dead.

What makes my plans different is:
An all metal spigot, inside and out even with a closed top barrel
And when built is ready to use immediately in a multi barrel system using a connecting section of PVC as short as 4”.  

Make a small business by making these:
     I used these plans as a means to create a garage business, and so could any other industrious survival/preparedness minded person.
     Also by doing so you’re helping your neighbors get ready “just in case” without them even knowing it if they are of the –that will never happen to me- crowd.  You can label it “going green” or “conservation” and “plants like rain water better than tap water” as selling points, it doesn’t matter as long as people feel good about it and the side affect is of having that much needed resource available at a time of need.  And of course conservation is always important, no one will argue against that.

Supplementing a Survival Larder with Fresh Seafood, by Randall S.

I grew up in South Louisiana, so seafood was a staple of the family diet. Shrimp, Crabs, Fish, and Oysters were easy to come by, or at least it seemed that way as a kid because we ate seafood two or three times a week. Fried Shrimp and Oysters, Crab Stew, Shrimp Gumbo, baked Flounder or grilled Redfish, it was all good and those meals made for many a great family memory. However, as much fun as we had watching our mothers and fathers and grandparents cooking those great Cajun dinners, as kids we had infinitely more fun catching as opposed to cooking the seafood. Those lessons are just a part of this brief tip sheet, which hopefully will enable some of you and your family to enjoy fresh filets of fish roasted over a campfire when you are ready for a change from MREs and beans.

Times have certainly changed over the past 40 years. One thing that has changed greatly is the legal means of harvesting seafood. As a kid, I helped the grownups run gill nets and drag a 210-foot saltwater seine in the surf. We also set trotlines in freshwater and saltwater, used Oyster Tongs in the bays and estuaries, and set crab traps in shallow brackish water and right off the beach. The old trusty rod and reel was fun, but to make a pure meat haul nothing beat a gill net, seine, crab traps or trotlines. While gill nets and seines are now illegal in many states (with the exception of bait seines), I have still have a functional seine net stowed away in storage for the day that might come when survival trumps game laws. I realize that most people will not have the great fortune to have inherited or otherwise still own a good gill net or seine. If you do, you are extremely lucky – guard them like gold because they are expensive. If not, then you really do need to think about taking one of several possible routes to obtain this material to supplement your family’s survival chances and pleasure quotient if that terrible day ever comes when all you have left is canned beans.

As mentioned previously, a good gill net or seine is expensive. If you afford to buy a 100-foot gill net or 150-foot seine, by all means do so. You will want the net to be made of braided nylon, not monofilament. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is longevity of the net. You will want the mesh to be at least 2 inches stretched for a pure fishing net, or much smaller for a bait seine or shrimp seine, maybe ½ to 3/4 inches stretched. A proper seine or gill net will have lead weights on the bottom rope to which the net is attached, and wooden or Styrofoam floats on the top rope, depending on when the net was made. A gill net is used by fastening both ends of the net to sturdy poles that are anchored in the water. You always want to set a gill net in water that will be near chest-deep at high tide, and always where there will be tidal movement. A great place to set gill nets is near inlets where fresh water meets salt water. A net set overnight can easily yield enough fish to feed a hungry crowd for several days. I remember one early winter morning running a gill net with my grandfather and taking 30 big Flounder out of the net.

As far as being able to really put a mess of good fish in the cooler, nothing beats a large saltwater seine (usually deployed from the beach, as opposed to lakes or bays). It takes 3 or 4 people to manage the net, depending on the surf. You will almost always need at least 2 people on the deep end and sometimes 3 will be necessary. In rough water, it could take 5 people to handle the net, especially if you hit a school of Redfish or a large shark. The way to maximize your catch with a seine is to be methodical. The people dragging the leading (or deep) end should head out from the shore at 90 degrees until the people at the shallow end are in knee-deep water. At that point, the team should begin dragging the net parallel to the shore. The team should drag the net for at least 200 yards before angling back in to the beach, unless you get hit by a school at which point all hell will break loose and you will want to get that net on the beach as fast as you can. A good team should be able to make 3 or 4 drags in about 3 hours. I can tell you that it is possible to catch enough fish in one drag to make you put the net up. I remember many times as a kid where 3 drags yielded over 100 Speckled Trout, several Redfish, and the assorted Shark or Stingray.

Enough on gill nets and fish seines. After you have cleaned your fish, you will always want to use the heads for crab bait. 2 or 3 crab traps properly baited with fish heads and placed in brackish water with moderate tidal movement can easily bring in 2 or 3 dozen crabs per night. That’s enough for a feast, especially when used in a gumbo.

Now for my one of my favorite foods – Oysters. Oysters are a great treat when prepared properly. When eaten fresh, they are hard to beat. When cooked right, they are impossible to beat. They are a great source of protein and vital nutrients. The problem is they are difficult to gather. Oyster Tongs are essential. With a pair of Oyster Tongs and a small boat, it is possible to harvest enough Oysters to feed whole family several times. However, it is difficult work akin to digging post-holes. In fact, Oyster Tongs resemble post-hole diggers. You can gather Oysters by hand, but it is much more difficult and dangerous due to the very sharp edges of the Oyster shells and the fact that some of the best Oyster months (the “R” months) are in the fall and winter when the water will be cold. Like fishing for Crabs, your best results when looking for Oysters will be in salt water that gets influenced by fresh water inflows. Shallow bays near freshwater inlets are usually fertile Oyster grounds. In a good area, you will usually be able to see the Oyster beds at low tide. Mark the spots by throwing old fishing floats with weights attached, and return at high tide when the beds are accessible by boat and load up on Oysters. 

The main point to remember in your quest to prepare for being able to harvest seafood in difficult times is to think creatively. Man has been gathering seafood for as long as we have lived near oceans. Even Gerry-rigged saltwater trotlines fashioned from old nylon rope or clothesline and curtain hooks can be effective if deployed and baited properly.

Lastly, here are a few essential items to add to your stockpile to be able to effectively handle cleaning and preparing your saltwater catch without wasting valuable meat. These items will prove almost irreplaceable, so consider having more than one, especially since they are cheap.

  • Filet Knife – most important knife to own
  • Oyster pry-knife – you can catch all the oysters you want but without this tool, you will be limited to eating them steamed
  • Crab cleaner -especially useful to obtain lump meat when you have many dozens of crabs to clean. This one item can save hours when cleaning crabs. This item can be made from 2×6 boards and flat iron and angle iron attached to heavy duty hinges. Rather than giving a long explanation of how to build one, I will describe the one my grandfather made and that we used often. When laid fully open on a table top, the two boards lay end-to-end, connected by the hinge in the middle which was bolted to the flat iron/angle iron mounted on the end section of each board. On one board, the flat iron piece was mounted to the end section. On the other board, the angle iron was mounted so that one of the 45-degree angles came flush to the flat iron when the board with the angle iron was raised upright from the table. Crabs can be par-boiled, shelled and halved, than placed so that the iron mashes out the meat when compressed.
  • Steel-mesh fish cleaning gloves – a lifesaver, literally. If you happen to take a deep stab from a hardhead catfish barb when heading it for crab bait, you could die from the infection without proper antibiotics. These gloves can save your hands from incredible damage when cleaning or working with fresh seafood like Oysters and Crabs. 
  • Monofilament Cast Net – essential for catching small bait fish, and highly effective for catching shrimp in the right location in the fall.

If you live near saltwater or even if you don’t, consider adding these items to your arsenal of tools so you will be prepared to gather some great seafood to supplement the family diet if times get bad enough to have to rely on your stash of dried and pre-packaged foods. Your health and well-being will be greatly enhanced by being able take advantage of what God put in the oceans for us to eat.

Rep. McCarthy’s Magazine Ban–Worse Than First Imagined

Here is some moron more on Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy’s recently-introduced magazine ban legislation. I studied the bill’s wording and I learned:

  • The bill defines large capacity ammunition feeding devices as “a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition” (This is nearly the same as the now defunct 1994 law, but it does not exempt tubular or otherwise non-detachable magazines.)
  • For Post-Enactment Devices: Prohibits the transfer, possession, or import of a large capacity ammunition feeding device manufactured after the date of enactment of the bill .
  • For Pre-Enactment Devices: Prohibits the transfer or import (but not possession) of large capacity ammunition feeding devices manufactured before the date of enactment of the bill. This is a huge difference from the 1994 ban, which allowed the transfer of any “pre-ban” magazines or belts, under a grandfather clause.
  • As Sebastian at the Snowflakes in H*ll blog pointed out, the ban includes any magazine that holds more than 10 cartridges, even if it is a fixed tubular magazine. (The only exception is for .22 rimfire.) So this effectively bans transfers of even pre-1898 antique Henry, Model 1866, Model 1873, and Model 1892 Winchester rifles (and replicas) with long magazines! Ditto for Colt Lightning rifles and many other pump and lever-action guns. And ditto for Astra Broomhandle Mauser pistols with integral 12 or 20 round magazines. All these guns would be “frozen” from any transfer until the death of their owner, whereupon the guns would become contraband.
  • It also includes fixed tubular magazines on shotguns. It is noteworthy that many shotguns with ostensibly “7 round” or “8 round” tubular magazines actually have 12+ round magazines if you use the stubby Mini 12 gauge shells. (And remember, it will be the notorious “shoelace squad” BATFE that will be enforcing the law, so any guesses on how they will define the magazine capacity of your shotgun?)
  • It includes belts and links as “large capacity ammunition feeding devices”. It also requires that any magazines or links produced after the ban goes into effect must have a serial number marked. (Yes, marked on each magazine, belt, and link.) For disintegrating belt links (those ubiquitous little black steel tabs) this would create a manufacturing nightmare for military contractors! Could you imagine stamping or engraving a unique serial number on each of the hundreds of millions of links that are produced each year? How would you fit that many digits on the curved surface of a 3/4-inch long 5.56mm M249 SAW link? Micro-stamping, perhaps?
  • Unlike the 1994-to-2004 Federal ban, there is no 10-year “sunset” clause. This law will be permanent!
  • The term “Transfer” is not adequately defined. Let’s say you were to allow someone in your family or a friend shoot your rifle or pistol with an 11+ round magazine. Then that could be construed as a felony “transfer”, even if you are present during the target shooting session.
  • The absurdity of this bill can best be seen when you consider that it will also control the magazines, belts, and links used for registered Class 3 full-auto guns. Who would ever want to buy a $7,000+ registered machinegun if the only magazines and belts available for purchase are limited to 10 round capacity? (The guns themselves could still be transferred with a $200 Federal tax, but the magazines, and belts could only be transferred if they held 10 rounds or less. And to be legal, any belts assembled from links after the bill is enacted would be limited to 10-round length. That is absolutely ludicrous.)
  • The “transfer” portion of this law opens up innumerable opportunities for inadvertent law-breaking. What about a soldier who accidentally brings home an M16 magazine in his TA-50 dufflebag? What about someone who bids on buying the entire contents of a storage space with a lapsed contract? If they bring home a box that includes just one 11+ round magazine, then they will have committed a felony with huge fines and a possible 10 year prison sentence.
  • There is no exception in the law for magazines belonging to retiring servicemen or peace officers.
  • There is no exception in the law for sales of replacement parts to keep magazines in repair. So if a magazine gets dented or breaks, then it becomes permanently useless.
  • Most importantly: There is no exception in the law for passing down magazines, belts, or links within a family, as gifts or bequests. Once you die, then your 11+ round magazines will become contraband, and any subsequent possessor could be charged with a felony. Your heirs might as well tuck your magazines in your casket.

Please contact your congresscritters and insist that this ill-conceived bill be vigorously opposed!

Letter Re: A 12-Month Harvest From a Small Garden

Jim –  
I’ve been growing food in the city for over 30 years. I addition to the standard  crops of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans I’ve spent these decades focusing on:

1) What grows well in  my climate?
2) What can I grow/store for the winter? 
3) What will we actually eat? 

I’ve always kept good records of what I grow but I’ve never tracked exactly how my food I pull out of the dirt each year. So in 2009 I bought a commercial hanging scale like those in the supermarkets for my backyard patio to weigh heavy crops like tomatoes and squash and a small kitchen-counter scale to measure things like salad greens, peppers, and broccoli.  

I live outside a big city in the Southwest; my growing areas measure about 1,000 square feet. I have a lot of problems with shade from my 2-story house and neighbor’s trees so my yields are not as good as they could be. The climate is Zone 21 on Sunset Magazine’s chart and gives me favorable growing conditions overall but we are susceptible to frost in December, January, and February. We produce food 12 months of the year even during the colder months. Following is an exact record of what we harvested in 2010:  

  • 88 ears of sweet corn
  • 70 lbs summer squash
  • 28 lbs winter squash
  • 93 cucumbers
  • 50 lbs tomatoes for the table
  • 6 lbs green tomatoes after frost for stir-fry
  • 3 quarts canned tomato sauce from oversupply of table crop
  • 4.75 lbs dried navy beans
  • 1.5 lbs dried lima beans
  • 16 lbs sweet red chili peppers
  • 55 lbs of baby mixed lettuce
  • 61 lbs peaches
  • 8 lbs nectarines
  • 3 lbs pears
  • 6 lbs broccoli
  • 3 lbs garlic
  • Continual harvest of kale throughout the year.
  • Fresh basil from June to December
  • Rosemary, sage, and thyme throughout the year.  

We pick sweet chili peppers, salad greens and kale all year long. The winter squash and dried  beans are stored for winter meals. Our four peach trees are different low-chill varieties that ripen from mid-May to mid-August so we have a steady supply during summer without being inundated. They are still maturing so I expect that yield to increase to about 100 lbs/year. The two pear trees are only three years old and I expect about 10-15 lbs per tree once they are full size. I also have two apple trees that are just starting to bear fruit. I do two plantings of heirloom tomatoes (April and July, both from home-grown seedlings) so we pick from June to December.  

All our food is organically grown and allowed to mature to maximum ripeness before harvesting. This assures not only peak flavor but maximum nutrition as the food grows slowly. Pricing my harvest against what’s charged at local markets requires a bit of estimating but works about to about $1,000 per year. I produce my own compost – a local landscape company supplies me with unlimited grass clippings and dried leaves that they would otherwise have to dump. My soil is very deficient in potassium and has virtually no phosphorus so I spend about $200 per year for bone meal, kelp meal, and other amendments that I order in 50 lb bags from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. I also use one 50 lb bag per year of organic balanced fertilizer from a local farm-supply store to boost nitrogen for the heavy-feeder crops like corn. I don’t save seed  (but I could under survival conditions) so I spend about $50/year on seed, mostly because I’m always ordering new varieties that I want to try. The fruit trees were mail-order from Bay Laurel Nursery which has the best selection of low-chill varieties in the country.   Jim, I hope this helps your readers understand just how much food (and money) can be pulled out of a small backyard garden.   – J.P., a Country Farmer Stuck in the City  

Economics and Investing:

John R. suggested this piece by Marty Weiss about municipal bonds: New Debt Crisis Striking RIGHT NOW!

Dave C. sent us this: Why supermarket stocks are getting squeezed

EMB flagged this: MERS Minus A Few Bricks….

10 American Companies That Will Disappear in 2011

Items from The Economatrix:

The Truth About Money, Silver & Gold  

Will This Be The USA In 2012?  

Doom & Gloom: Food Riots  

2011 Will Top 2010 Record of One Million Foreclosures  

States Eye “Sin” Taxation as Salvation for Budgets

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“There are several methods of conflict resolution. First, there’s the market mechanism — let the highest bidder be the one who owns and decides how the land will be used. Then, there’s government fiat, where the government dictates who gets to use the land for what purpose. Gifts might be the way where an owner arbitrarily chooses a recipient. Finally, violence is a way to resolve the question of who has the use rights to the coastline — let people get weapons and physically fight it out. At this juncture, some might piously say, ‘Violence is no way to resolve conflict!’ The heck it isn’t. The decision of who had the right to use most of the Earth’s surface was settled through violence (wars). Who has the right to the income I earn is partially settled through the threats of violence. In fact, violence is such an effective means of resolving conflict that most governments want a monopoly on its use.” – Dr. Walter E. Williams

Notes from JWR:

Good News! It took many moons, but the archiving project for the early years of SurvivalBlog posts is now complete. You can now use the “Search” box at the top of the right-hand bar to search every SurvivalBlog post, all the way back to the blog’s launch in August, 2005. Thank you for your patience.

—

Today we present another two entries for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 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 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 32 ends on January 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.

Thoughts on 2011 Silver Investing, by Texas Tony

Disclaimer:  This  article represents the opinions of one individual.  Keep in mind my views are more extreme than the mainstream.  For example, I am anticipating significant worldwide financial upheaval in 2011, which could include any combination of collapse and bailout of European economies (Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Greece, or Italy); devaluation or collapse of the Euro; loss of faith in the US Dollar as a worldwide trading tool (note that Russia and China recently agreed to price trade deals in their sovereign currencies, not dollars); further “bailouts” and “Quantitative Easing” in the US Economy;  and widespread municipal bond and municipal pension collapse.  None of this may occur, or only a small and isolated portion; however, all the things listed would further bias silver prices higher.

The successful silver investor in 2011 will need good discernment to separate fact from fiction.  Silver has historically been among the most volatile of investments, and although we sit near $31/oz. today, it could be $8 or $80 in six months.  Silver should be only a small portion of an overall investment strategy.  Having said that, in the last four months of 2010 my stocks returned around 9% and my SLV ETF, which I entered in late August, returned 41%.

Although I am invested in the SLV ETF stock I have stopped adding to that investment and am buying the physical metal instead.  Reasons why are below.

Resources I use, with comments:

  1. The Silver Bear Café:  A good clearinghouse for a variety of (sometimes hilarious) commentary on precious metals investing, Federal Reserve issues, general investing issues, etc.  They also have updated prices and sell silver. 
  2. Zero Hedge Blog:  Another blog which is updated daily with silver and financial articles.  The comments, if you have time, can be enlightening.  These are the folks putting out those funny talking bears videos.
  3. Survival Blog:  Although many articles are geared towards surviving societal and financial collapse, they frequently link to articles on silver investing and appear convinced that silver is headed higher.
  4. KITCO:  I run this in the background when the markets are open:  continually updated quotes, including the gold-silver ratio, charts, etc.  I have not bought silver from them.
  5. APMEX:  I have purchased bullion from APMEX and was very pleased with their service and shipping.  They charge a 3% premium for credit card orders.  Their selection is second to none.  I highly recommend them.
  6. Lear Capital:  they have some of the lowest spreads and cheapest bullion prices on the web; although I haven’t used them, I love their prices on Canadian Maple Leafs.

I also have found pawn shops and antique stores to be sources for economical silver:  some operators appear open to negotiation and/or ignorant of the true value of their wares. (I recently bought 20 2009 BU Silver Eagles for $500 from a pawn shop!)  Remember, though, caveat emptor:  Be ready to walk away from dealers who are unwilling to negotiate.
My main holdings are in one-ounce American Silver Eagles, although I have no bias against generic silver rounds like Engelhard, APMEX, or Sunshine Minting.  Call it a personal bias, but I don’t have much interest in junk silver or mining stocks.

What I’m Anticipating from My Silver Investment:

  1.  I plan to at least double my money from my entry point of $19. on the SLV ETF and $27 (dollar cost averaged) on my physical holdings.
  2. I do not plan to add to my SLV or FGDCX silver and gold funds.
  3. I do plan to continue to purchase physical silver (not gold) as long as the gold-silver ratio stays above 25 and the price per ounce stays below $50.
  4. I would start liquidating my silver purchased at $25 if it breaks above $60 or the ratio drops below 25.
  5. My goal is to own 500 ounces of physical silver.
  6. My best guesses for 2011 target price per ounce are:
    1. Low price (no political and minimal financial upheaval):  $42/oz.
    2. Mid-point price (QE3, failure of one or more European economies, bankruptcy and default of 3-5 midsize American towns): $55/oz.
    3. High-point price (collapse of dollar, collapse of Euro, widespread financial upheaval): no limit to how high it could go, easily over $100/oz.

 

My Opinions on the Various Rumors About Silver:

  1.  The Gold-Silver Ratio has been around 16:1 throughout all of recorded history.  It is out of whack right now, being as high as 60:1 earlier in 2010 and sitting at 46:1 at the end of 2010.  Silver is totally underpriced right now:  if the ratio reverts to its historical norm, with gold at $1,425 per ounce silver should be around $90 an ounce right now.  This is the one paradigm I most believe in.  Given the manifold industrial uses of silver, including applications in medicine, solar power, electronics, and computing, I don’t see how silver’s price will not slowly continue to revert to its historical norm.
  2. A major bank has a tremendous naked short position in silver: buying physical silver will create a short squeeze and cause parabolic, explosive upwards price appreciate in silver:  I rate this a big fat maybe.  It sounds too good to be true and thus doesn’t pass the smell test:  it sounds too conspiratorial.  But, then again, a Major bank just took a position in 80% of the copper reserves in Europe (as a hedge against their silver short??!!) so we’ll need to wait and see.
  3.  The SLV ETF is nothing but a Ponzi scheme; since that “major bank”  is their custodian, and we know “major bank” lies about their naked short position, it stands to reason that the SLV ETF also fudges their numbers and does not have the physical reserves they claim they have.  As such, SLV holders are going to be left holding an empty bag.  Possible, but doubtful.  Although there is historical precedent:  isn’t our $1 deposited into the bank allegedly loaned out to 4 other people who have a claim on it?  Still, I’m not selling my SLV or gold mutual funds over this rumor.
  4. Based on #3 above, you must hold your physical silver in your possession and not take the word of a custodian.  Although I’m not convinced about rumor #3, I do believe in the power of an ounce in my hand.  If we get into a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation, having silver in hand to barter can mean the difference between getting out of trouble or letting trouble get the better of you.  Some of my holdings are in ½ ounce rounds, just in case I need a loaf of bread post-EMP.
  5. Silver and precious metals in general are just the latest bubble.  The bubble will burst soon and silver will go back to $4 and all the silver bugs will be toast.  Although I don’t deny that the price can go down, and that I am psychologically prepared for a 50% correction to $15 an ounce, I just don’t see it.  Go ask 20 of your friends and family if they have bought silver or gold in the past 6 months, and you’ll likely get 19 puzzled looks.  Also, silver is not tulip bulbs or insertdomainnamehere.com:  it has a millennium-spanning role as currency.

SUMMARY:
In closing, although I do not advocate taking a second mortgage or liquidating a 401(k) to bet the farm on silver, I am very bullish for 2011 to replicate the returns of 2010.  I hope these thoughts and opinions can serve as a springboard to further research and success in your silver investing efforts.

One View of The End Of The World As We Know It, by John Y.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is how many viewpoints and perspectives there are out there that can save a person a lot of time trying to articulate his own.  And I found one that suits me and mine.  If you haven’t taken the time to explore the SurvivalBlog.com do it.  I have barely scratched the surface and have found so many interesting things.  I generally download or copy and paste the stuff that I think has value and add it to my growing digital library.  That’s actually another project that I encourage.  I have multiple digital folders divided by topics and some loose files that I have yet to definitively categorize.

At any rate, I read an article submitted by someone discussing as he ponders the need to retreat or not and why or why not.  His main point is that he has faith in the indomitable American spirit and that the apocalyptic TEOTWAWKI event will not be as some expect; rampant cannibalism, mass gang take over, catastrophic disappearance of modern technologies and comforts.  You can read the article on SurvivalBlog.com and decide for yourself. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that The End Of The World As We Know It is upon us.  I just think that because the world we live in changes every day, each day is the beginning of the next World As We Will Come To Know It.  My goal is to be ready to meet that new world and continue to exist through survival practices.  Remember the Rubicon philosophy that survival isn’t as much about staying alive by returning to a primitive life style, but continuing to live comfortably with new (old) learned skills.  Being prepared means not panicking when others do.  Encouraging those we know to be ready (without completely divulging too much information about our prepared status) so that they may “survive” as well.

I am about half way through the novel “Patriots” authored by the same James Rawles, the guy behind the survivalblog.com web site.  In the beginning, as he sets the scene for the impending event, he introduces two individuals that are to explain what happened in their countries in the eighties and nineties when their respective economies experienced rampant triple digit inflation.  One of the characters was from Argentina.  Well, I was in Argentina in ’81 and ’82 and experienced that event.  I mostly talk about being there during the war, Malvinas or Falkland depending on your preference.  When I got in country one U.S. Dollar exchanged for about 1,500 pesos.  When I left it was about 20,000 pesos to the dollar.  Do the math.  They had already devalued their currency by lopping off two zeros.  The confusion was trying to know the difference between goods priced with a difference in value of 10 X.  There were 10,000 pesos worth 10,000 pesos “law” and 10,000 pesos worth 100 pesos “old” and so on.  Coin currency became so worthless that I was able to acquire quite a collection picking up discarded coins thrown into the dirt.  We found them everywhere we walked in the country dirt roads.  Can you imagine using a $100 bill to pay for a $1 item?  (Note: In this case it was pesos)  That’s what was happening before I got there and it continued beyond the year and a half I was there.  By the time I left we were living on less than half of what we started with at about $90 US per month.  I still remember getting $1,000,000 peso bills from the bank.  Yes, one million pesos, about $20 US.  Okay, so now my point. 

That nation weathered the economic storm with a war thrown in.  It was difficult and almost impossible to get goods from other countries for the consumer markets.  (Not such a bad thing if it were to happen to us. It would mean less foreign goods bought and maybe a return to US making products for US.  Hmmm, more local jobs, less unemployment, less dependence on outside countries.)  There was always food.  I guess the food producers who make a living producing food figured out that if they didn’t make food for the rest they wouldn’t survive either.  In more rural areas people who had a little plot of land had gardens, raised a pig, a goat, a cow.  Buses and trains moved, people rode them, cars were used and people drove them.  That means that there was fuel, all of which was produced in country.  We never had a loss of electrical power, water or other utility services.  Restaurants were open and I remember going to the Argentine version of El Polo Loco to get roasted chicken and cold cuts to make sandwiches at the end of a long day.  Merchants plied their wares.  There were no riots, no massive crime waves, and certainly no cannibalism.  The people were and are basically good and no matter how screwed up the government and economy was they persevered.  We will do the same.  I believe we will do better because since the beginning of our history we have been a nation that overcomes adversity, finds a better way, has more resources, and gets things done.

No doubt there will be shortages, crime, and bad people taking advantage of a bad situation, lack of lots of stuff, and even death.  But, we have to remember, the greatest majority of Americans are good, law abiding, somewhat religious, hard working people who will not just roll over and give up.  Those that have no will to work and continue to live outside the norms of society will become the desperate that will go away naturally or with a little help from the majority.  Government may break down but it won’t disappear completely.  Its power will become more localized, not such a bad thing.  Law may get bounced around but I believe it will survive on its own and may get somewhat simplified on the local level.  Hands may get bloodied but eventually they will just get dirty as we learn to do for ourselves and band together with others doing the same.  The important thing to remember is that being prepared so that you don’t have to act or react out of desperation leaves you with many more options than the alternative of doing nothing and becoming a victim.

Being able to exist with your morals and values in place can be most easily accomplished by doing what we are doing.  I am encouraged by how much more mainstream “survival-ism” has become.  Hundreds of web sites, television shows (Apocalypse PA on the History channel, The Colony) radio talk shows hosts, and on and on.  When I talk to people these days, friends and acquaintances, I am less likely to be looked upon as some kind of Ted Kaczynski or a Jeremiah Johnson want-to-be.  Maybe it’s because I don’t have a beard or because more and more people are starting to get it.  And the more and more who do begin to make me think that in the event of a societal meltdown, for whatever reason, there will be more people less likely to panic.

When we talk about TEOTWAWKI it always seems so “end of times” and final.  But just as every day becomes final a new day begins.  Taking on the challenge of getting prepared for that new day has a tendency to be somewhat overwhelming.  Most people will start, do some investigating, buy a few things, and then get disheartened or disinterested and simply stop.  Their day of preparation comes to an end and they go about their merry way never giving thought to the next day that they aren’t prepared for. 

Survivalism is a combination of knowledge, skills, opportunity and desire.  Survivalism is living out of the ordinary and usually in an extreme situation.  Survivalism is like a diet.  A real diet requires changing your life style to accommodate the goal (of weight loss or better health).  Survivalism first requires becoming a “Prepper” with the goal of changing your life style so that surviving in abnormal conditions becomes second nature.  It becomes a mindset that directs you each day to be better prepared than the day before.  It is not a onetime activity that you can say you have completed and now sit back and wait for something to happen. 

I have been at this preparedness thing for more than nine years and have learned that there is no end to being prepared and no final step that says that you have arrived. 
Everyday should have one or two activities that help educate or enlighten you to the possibility of an End Of The World As We Know It event.  Check out a new web site, read and do what others have done or are doing and incorporate that knowledge and experience into your plan.  Learn a new skill; knots, fire starting, marksmanship, cooking outdoors, impromptu shelters, water purification techniques, living without electricity, etc.  It’s really about doing something.  Meeting the challenge of life changing events head on and conquering them.  Not losing to that which would compromise your morals or standards of normal life.

So, lest anyone think that I am truly panicked, I am not.  However, I am more, now than ever, convinced that it is still better to “expect the worst and hope for the best.”  It is always better to be prepared years in advanced than to find yourself unprepared a minute too late.  And never, ever think that you know it all.

I ask you, “What are you doing today to be better prepared?”  Myself, I will be going to Svendsen’s Marine Supply to pick up some PRI-G.  If you are curious to know what it is, do some research on the web.   I will also be adding to my digital library, inventorying my reloading supplies and survival equipment, scheduling some more range time, planning some outdoor activities for practicing, reading the hundreds of downloads and trying some of them out, reprioritizing my needs, and continuing to spread the word.  I hope that you are doing something similar. Spread the word!

Letter Re: Lessons from the Tunisian Revolution

Greetings Mr. Rawles,
In the ongoing chaos of the Tunisia revolution we are able to watch a real life SHTF scenario being played out. Well worth the time to observe and learn from. Even though the head of the government has fled, it’s body is still alive and flailing creating havoc. The resulting chaos has caused breakdowns in food distribution and security as evidenced by the following quotes in the Washington Times. I thought it interesting that how quickly the neighborhoods have formed their own militias to protect themselves.

The following are some quotes from a Washington Times article:

“Ordinary Tunisians concentrated on two key needs Sunday — food and security.”

“Many scoured the capital for food. Most shops remained closed Sunday, others were looted, and bread and milk were running short.”

“Overnight patrols were being organized in both wealthy and working-class neighborhoods.” 

Regards, – Ralph N. from Washington State.

Avalanche Lily’s Bedside Book Pile

Here are the current top-most items on my perpetual bedside pile:

  • I just finished reading the novel Life As We Knew It, a 2006 “young adult” novel by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  It is a survivalist story.  An asteroid strikes the Moon, knocking it out of orbit and closer to the earth.  As a result, the earth’s gravitational forces are changed, causing high tides, tsunamis, earthquakes and major volcanic eruptions.  The coastal cities world-wide are wiped out, weather patterns are completely disrupted, causing floods and droughts, terrible thunderstorms and blizzards and earlier, colder winters.  Food is scarce.  The story is a series of journal entries (along the lines of The Diary of Anne Frank) written by a 16 year old girl (Miranda) chronicling  how she and her family and neighbors experience the first nine months following the asteroid strike.  Miranda explores her many thoughts and feelings of coping with the disaster: lack of abundant food, death of friends, illness, work, personal religious views, her relationships with a very religious and a very secular friend, her brothers and mother. From the first page, this book was a gripping read, and very informative in the areas of stocking up, preparing for winter, and self-rationing of food.  They nearly starved to death.  The story was rather depressing to me.  It makes one examine how prepared they would be physically, emotionally, and spiritually in event of a long term disaster.  Would I survive?  I found myself pausing often and wondering how my beliefs lined up with Miranda’s actions and if I would do the same or differently.   I hope we never have to go through any times such as these of which I’ve read about recently: major natural disasters, economic crash or war. I just hope and pray that God will continue to have mercy on us all. Our nation is overdue for some serious discipline from the Almighty Father.  I’m done with reading survivalist fiction for a while.  I am now more than fully aware of the possible grid-down causing scenarios and their aftermaths.  Its getting a bit heavy for me.  So for the next few weeks I am going to concentrate on becoming more knowledgeable and skilled in practical living. Therefore,  I will be concentrating on non-fiction preparedness and homesteading books, some history, and homeschool topics.
  • Echoing my preceding statement, some of the young’uns and I have started watching Homesteading for Beginners DVD series. These are three excellent educational videos produced by Mark and Erin Harrison, in Wisconsin. This is a young Christian homeschooling family with five children. Their DVD series deals with the basics of Homesteading. Nearly all of the teaching segments includes participation of their children. It is wonderful to see them all working together and sharing in the bounty of their efforts. They cover topics like milking a cow, making home dairy products, raised bed gardening, canning, butchering livestock, meat canning, making homemade noodles, baking bread, sprouting, root cellaring, making homemade vitamins, maple syrup production, and much more. Most segments are accompanied with instrumental Christian music: guitar, banjo and violin. Much of what they know they learned from their Amish neighbors. A trailer of their first DVD is available on YouTube. Their web site is: HomesteadCommunityPost.com. I will have a few more comments after I’ve finished watching all three of their DVDs. So far, I find them to be wonderful and very informative. Our Young’uns are enjoying watching the Harrison’s children doing all of these activities.
  • I just read How to Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier. This is considered a classic book on outdoor survival skills. I highly recommend it. Oh by the way, the edition of this book that Jim bought several years ago has a unique green rubber cover that feels very strange in your hands. (A bit of a novelty, but I suppose it does make the book more durable.) Jim was disappointed that it was printed in China.
  • Jim and I are still watching Northern Exposure episodes on DVD once every few nights. Don’t look for any great outdoor survival lessons in the show, but it can be depended upon for plenty of humor and witty dialogue.

Economics and Investing:

Sue C. suggested this: The Black Swan Events of 2011?

RVL sent: Record $14 trillion-plus debt weighs on Congress. The article begins: “The United States just passed a dubious milestone: Government debt surged to an all-time high, topping $14 trillion — $45,300 for each and everyone in the country.”

Thomas Sowell: Honest Answer to Government Woes is Bankruptcy

Wait for complete package on debt crisis: Merkel

Weak Dollars and Strong Commodities? (Thanks to John R. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Homelessness Increases As Help Decreases  

10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created

Chinese President Hu Disses the Dollar; Says U.S. System is a ‘Product of the Past’