Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 29 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

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

Round 29 ends on July 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.

Running on Cooking Oil – Diesel Power on the Road, by DieselDad

Although I live in a rural setting, my current employment depends on being able to reliably commute about 45 minutes each way to the state capital.

Watching the shutdown and gradual restoration of the Colonial pipeline serving the southeast US during Katrina was a sobering experience. Fuel prices spiked to record levels and many stations were not able to re-supply for weeks because of the lack of sufficient movement in the pipeline.

It was at that point several years ago that I began researching alternative methods of driving moderate distances of up to 100 miles a day in the event that conventional methods of fuel supply (i.e., the infrastructure of fill-up stations along with the pipeplines supplying them) should become unreliable.

I wanted to have an alternative method of propelling a vehicle down the road that did not depend so heavily on the oil companies and the conventional petroleum fuel distribution network.

From my educational background as an electrical engineer, electric vehicles were (and are) indeed intriguing. However, the primary issue then (and now) was battery technology. Today’s batteries are still too heavy and expensive to match the energy density of a 5-gallon can of gasoline. That’s not to say that electric vehicles may not be a viable option in the future. Perhaps the Tesla Model S will really live up to its hype someday. But there was no such thing as even a Tesla Roadster at the time I began my research, so I looked elsewhere.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has been further developed and marketed and commercially available vehicles such as the Honda Civic GX have been sold that can run a couple hundred miles on a tank. However, the tanks are very high pressure, and lacking my own NG well, I would still be beholden to an even scantier distribution network.

Distilling my own ethanol for a flex fuel vehicle was another possibility, but that seemed to require large amounts of feedstock such as sugar. Producing ethanol at the required purity appeared to be a complex task requiring significant amounts of energy.

Finally, I stumbled upon the topic of running diesel vehicles on fuel derived from used cooking oil. There are two broad categories here:

(1) Making BioDiesel which has characteristics similar to the #2 diesel sold at the pump. This requires a chemical transformation of the oil. The procedures for accomplishing this reaction involve fairly toxic and explosive substances. Methanol (or racing fuel, itself a petroleum product) is required as part of the reaction. However, the final biodiesel product is relatively non-toxic and non-explosive. It can be burned in many diesel vehicles with varying degrees of success. The main advantage to making biodiesel is that no vehicular modification is normally needed. The disadvantage for me was the need to purchase toxic reagants and dispose of the significant amounts of waste glycerin which is left over at the end.

(2) Modifying a diesel vehicle so that it can burn waste vegetable oil (WVO) directly. WVO has a much higher viscosity than #2 Diesel. It must be heated to somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 degrees before it will spray properly through the nozzles of a diesel motor injector. It is possible to run WVO through a diesel engine at lower temperatures, but the lower the temperature, the more damage is done to the motor. One big advantage to burning WVO is that no additional chemical ingredients must be purchased and there is not any waste product left over from chemical processing. Nearly 100% of the feedstock is used up.

I decided to pursue option #2, burning WVO. Further research showed that the best method for all-climate operation was to install a second tank in the vehicle exclusively for WVO. To heat the WVO, a system of heat exchangers is fed coolant from the vehicle’s radiator, which coincidentally has just about the right amount of heat once the vehicle is warmed up to operating temperature.

The next decision: which vehicle to purchase? I did not want to experiment on a new, expensive car or truck. From reading on the web, I decided on a 1985 Mercedes 300D with about 135,000 miles that I found in the local
paper for $3,000. It ran well and seemed to have good compression. The 1985 300D engine was the last of the Mercedes diesel engine to use a cast iron head. The later aluminum heads were prone to cracking in some
cases. All in all, the consensus on the web considered it a good candidate for a WVO conversion.

After that: should I purchase a kit or try to assemble something myself? Since I wanted to get going relatively quickly, I decided to purchase a kit marketed by Frybrid, a Seattle-based company with a reputation for quality products. The kit contained a second tank with a heated oil pickup, to be mounted in the trunk. Aluminum tube inside 5/8″ heater hose carries the oil up to the engine compartment where it passes through a coolant-heated filter and final heat exchanger. A set of valves controls the switching of supply and return lines between the two fuel systems.

The system operation has manual or auto modes. In auto mode, a temperature sensor closes when the coolant is up to temperature. This switches the supply and return valves and the monitor light changes from red to green,
indicating transition from #2 diesel to WVO power. It was quite a thrill to see that green light go on for the first time! Almost as much fun as the first water pumped from my well with non-grid power!

Over the last couple years, I’ve put well over 2,000 gallons of WVO through the system. There is a small Chinese restaurant near my work which provides me 15 gallons of WVO a week – just about enough for my commuting
needs. The fuel does need to be carefully filtered and any water removed. I use a plastic 55-gal barrel with a couple of holes in the top for blue-jeans filters. A stock tank heater and hand pump complete my fuel processing. This has worked well for me so far. The heater causes water and other impurities to settle to the bottom of the barrel. The pump pickup is above this layer.

Even during the winter, my old 300D is up to 80C in about 3-4 miles of 55mph driving and I can switch over to WVO. What were the costs involved? About $1,800 for the kit, plus I paid a buddy of mine $500 to help install
it. With the amount of driving I do, it paid for itself in about 15 months. When full, my WVO tank is good for over 500 miles in normal conditions. I pay my federal road tax quarterly and my state road tax monthly, so using
WVO costs me about 40 cents/gallon. The Chinese place won’t let me pay for it. The vegoil filter element lasts from 5,000 to 10,000 miles.

Am I still dependent on the oil companies? Yes, but to a much lesser degree. I only need to run on diesel fuel when starting up (while the engine is warming up) and just before shutting down. I can store a couple of 55-gal
drums of diesel fuel which will now take me much further than they would have previously.

Is running WVO for everyone? No. There’s not enough WVO to supply more than a few percent of America’s diesel fuel needs. Even if you do have a reliable WVO source, if your commute is too short for the vehicle to warm up, you won’t really benefit. If you don’t have space or time to devote to properly filtering your WVO, it would be hard.But for those of us with significant commutes, a WVO source and a desire to become less dependent on big oil, it certainly is an option

Some Experience in Storing Items in a Humid Climate, by Michael Z. Williamson

Recently, I had the opportunity to perform a long term test of goods improperly stored. A friend of mine placed his possessions in storage in a hurry in 1999, left the state, and did not arrange for anyone to
maintain them. He returned last year, and we recently opened his storage locker and removed the items.
Items stored in the Midwest, in an outside, sheet metal storage facility with no heat or AC, placed on minimal dunnage and piled in without neat packing or stacking. The interior was dark. Duration was 11 years—1999-2010. The lows near 0 Fahrenheit, highs near 100 Fahrenheit, humidity from 35-100%. The storage facility had a basic sheet metal door and roof with gypsum board walls. Here is how the various items fared:

  • Clothes: a bit musty, undamaged.
  • Books and magazines: Bent unless packed properly. Mostly intact. Pages still glued and turned freely, perfectly readable. Some by the
    door damaged by humidity.
  • Stick matches: Fine after one day of drying.
  • Strike anywhere matches: nonfunctional first day. Fizzled on second day. Fizzled then burned on third day, but would only strike on box. After two weeks, their true “strike-anywhere” function returned.
  • Clear packing tape: Functional.
  • Brown packing tape: some peeling and loss of adhesive, but functional and plenty strong.
  • Fireworks: Functional, but a little weak.
  • VCR tapes: 95% were playable, both factory and home-recorded.
  • Spam Lite: Can still sealed, contents crumbly, but edible. Taste probably normal (I don’t eat this stuff normally). Note: We conducted tests for bacteria and spoilage before attempting to eat.Do not conduct your own experiments without professional assistance. Use at your own risk.)
  • Canned sweet peas: A bit pale, but surprisingly tasty.
  • Vinegar: Stale and tasteless.
  • Cooking wine: moldy.
  • Bottled sauces (Sealed): Edible, not very tasty.
  • Bottled and canned acidic foodstuffs: Eaten through can, evaporated.
  • Aerosol cans: depressurized.
  • Bic brand lighters: Functional.
  • Cardboard boxes: Mostly intact, some un-glued or re-glued due to humidity and pressure.
  • Particle board furniture: Failed. Crumbly and bent.
  • Inexpensive couch and mattress: Intact, slightly musty, springs and foam returned to shape after several hours, despite being weighted down for eleven years. Textiles sturdy, color bright.

Obviously, varying climates and conditions will yield different results, however, minimal protection from the elements seems to be adequate for a great many items. Nutritional value of foodstuffs lacks quite quickly, but protein and calories remain good. Better dunnage and packing, a sealed environment and some careful planning should yield excellent storage of cached supplies. – Michael Z. Williamson, SurvivalBlog Editor at Large

Letter Re: The Versatile Sling Bow

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I would first like to thank you for all the work you do, your ever informative blog, and for opening up my blind eyes to the world or prepping. I’ve made leaps and bounds in the last 2 years, however my preparations are not the topic of this letter. I recently found a youtube channel online called WildernesOutfitters by Mr. Dave Canterbury, who some of you may be familiar with from the Discovery Channel show “Dual Survival”. Mr. Canterbury is located in my back yard of south eastern Ohio and i would recommend everyone to search out his youtube channel. It is filled with a wealth of “how to” videos for survival situations or being out in the bush. One video that caught my eye was his “Sling Bow”. It is a very simple design that takes an ordinary sling shot and turns it into a powerful hunting alternative.

It all begins with acquiring any “wrist rocket” style sling shot which can be purchased at a Wal-Mart or any hunting/sports store for normally around $10. You will also need to have on hand 2 zip-ties, a replacement whisker biscuit insert for a compound bow, and a replacement band for the slingshot (a heavier duty band that is normally black). You begin by placing the whisker biscuit in the center of the forks of the slingshot at the base of the handle and zip-tieing them on. Make sure the type of whisker biscuit you get a hold of has two holes on a base at the bottom of it so you can easily zip-tie it on. From here all you need to do is replace the stock rubber band that comes on it with the stronger one, but before you swap bands cut approximately 2 inches off of each end to provide an even stronger pull on the ling shot.

T he last modification you will need to do is with your arrows. Take any inexpensive carbon fiber arrow (normally no more than $6-7 each) and pull the tapered notch out from the rear of the arrow where you would slip it on to your bow string. Now take any ordinary golf tee and and glue it into the arrow with a strong epoxy (like gorilla glue) to allow you to grip the arrow while pulling it back to shoot. And that’s it! It sounds too simple and ridiculous to actually work, but I assure you that it has enough power to take down big game with and is extremely accurate with practice and within a certain range. Case in point, Mr. Canterbury took his Sling Bow on a big game hunt and took down a ram with it. So if it can take down a ram then it can take down a deer, or dispatch a two legged critter if need be! If any of your readers are interested in making their own sling bow, I would suggest checking out the video before doing so. I tried my best to clearly explain the process, but to see it makes it so much easier. Also, I almost forgot, due to the whisker biscuit being zip-tied on you can push it down and out of the way so you can still utilize the sling shot to shoot traditional ammunition like your ball bearings or anything you have at hand. Again, I strongly urge anyone to check out the WildernesOutfitters YouTube channel for all other “how to” videos…such as making your own arrows and broadhead tips….and making them cheaply too! I would also like to state that I am in no way affiliated with Mr. Canterbury or his survival school and am not trying to endorse him and his endeavors. Thanks and God bless you and all my fellow SurvivalBlog readers! – Tank in Ohio (A Prepper Apprentice)

Letter Re: Creating Secure Perimeter Fencing with Plant Life

Howdy,
When it comes to strong native fencing it hard to beat the Osage Orange [aka Bois D’Arc, Horse-apple, or (Latin) Maclura pomifera]. It was used as cattle fencing in its native east Texas and Oklahoma long before the devil wire was invented. It grows quickly, forms a dense hedge, and has long thorns that no one will try to force through. Its wood is hard and it burns for a long time so it can be harvested for fuel too.

For protecting windows I use the beautiful Knockout Rose. I love its flowers but I hate it when its time to trim it back. Its hard sharp thorns cover every inch of its stems. Trying to climb over it to get into the window will be an exercise in pain. – Ken O.

Odds ‘n Sods:

T.R. flagged this item: Russian drought sends wheat prices soaring. If you haven’t already done so, stock up, immediately!

   o o o

Temporary cap in place — now what for the Gulf? (A hat tip to Barney O. for the link.)

   o o o

A reminder that Everlasting Seeds has a 15% off special in progress, just for SurvivalBlog readers. This special offer ends on July 22nd, so get your order in soon!

   o o o

Reader Eric H. spotted this: Competing currency being accepted across Mid-Michigan

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 29 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

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

Round 29 ends on July 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.

Waking Up and Getting Prepared, by Matthew G.

I live a very average suburban life similar to many people across the country. Commute to work, office job, suburban home with wife and kids. It’s easy to forget how fragile this lifestyle is and how little it takes to remove all the things you come to depend on. Recently I had an afternoon that showed me just how easy these conveniences can go away and the difference a little preparedness can make.

After picking up my daughter from day care I drove home to find myself locked out of the house. We were having new keys made and I intended to go in through the garage. Just hit the automatic garage door opener hanging from the visor and I would be fine just like countless other times. However, when I tried the door opener nothing happened. I fiddled with the button for a while and tried to open it manually from the outside but had no luck.

No big deal, I used my cell phone to call my father-in-law on the other side of town to come over with the spare key and let me in. My 15 month old with a rapidly growing hunger was losing patience in the back but still its not the end of the world. When my father-in-law arrived a half hour later he was in a hurry to get back to cooking and couldn’t stay. After handing me the key I thanked him for his trouble and he was on his way.

When I got into the house I discovered why garage door wouldn’t open. The power was out and it being early afternoon I didn’t notice from outside. It was also about 98 degrees outside that day with humidity that made the climate resemble the inside of a dogs mouth. The air conditioning must have failed some time in the morning so the house felt no better. I opened the windows to let the nonexistent breeze in and went to work on finding something to feed the now very hungry and very uncomfortable toddler.

This was the day before grocery day so my options in the pantry were limited, add in the fact that the microwave and electric stove were inoperative and dinner for the baby became a balanced diet of Cheerios, a banana and luke warm milk.  Doing the best to satisfy the kid with what we had I went about calling the power company to figure out what happened to the power. I quickly realized I dumped the phone book in the recycling bin a long time ago and without the internet I was forced to call information on my cell phone to find the number.

Apparently ‘information’ is a very loosely given title where I live because it took an excruciatingly long time to find the number of the largest power company in the state. I had been on my phone a lot that day with work and the battery was almost dead by that point. By the time I got through to someone at the power company and discovered that they were aware the power was off and were working on the problem my phone had run out of juice.

It was that that point that my hot, cranky and only partially fed toddler fell while running through the kitchen. Instead of springing back up like one of the 100 others times she fell that day she landed on her wrist with a nasty pop and started screaming her head off. Now I’m terrified trying to comfort her and examine her wrist. She is inconsolable, we’re both sweating bullets, and I have no phone to call my wife at work or anyone else for help. Not seeing any bones sticking out of her arm or other clear sings of impending death I ended up loading her in the car rushing across town to the in-laws. About a half hour later we were backing the loving embrace of modern civilization, enjoying air conditioning, cooked food and the comforting advice of her pediatrician.

My daughter was fine after some baby Tylenol and a good nights’ sleep. The power was back by on dusk after a wire that was damaged by some tree trimmers was repaired. We went to the store the next day to get groceries for the next week and all was well. This was by no means a real emergency or crisis, the rest of the city and even most of my neighborhood had a normal night. But what if it wasn’t? What if the rest of the city had lost power also, or what if we weren’t able to drive all over the city to get the help we needed? This experience was very illustrative for me, and I hope it will be for you, as to how fragile our needs are and how much we come to depend on our modern conveniences.

In retrospect I did many things wrong that night. I was counting on having a working garage door to get into my home instead of a key or some other way. Not having an adequate amount of food in the cupboard to get through a night without power was idiotic. A lack of knowledge for basic first aid is the most embarrassing realization I had that night. Without a phone to call a doctor or 911 I was on my own and if it had been a real emergency it could have been a disaster.

So what am I doing to correct this? First, knowledge. I’ve gone to work reading as much as I can about what skills I’ll need should a real disaster situation arise. Resources like this web site and others are a handy place to start getting your head around what a family really needs to be prepared. For the uninitiated this is not as easy as you think. Not everyone grew up on a farm or backpacking in Montana so knowing what to do for food, water, medical aid, personal defense or whatever is not as easy as it sounds.

I’ve put together a list of skills for myself to learn in preparation of disaster so that next time I’ll be ready.

  •  Basic and Advanced First Aid. – The Red Cross or many community centers offer classes and training
  •  Food Storage and Perpetration – Many good books out there, even community center classes.
  •  Water Storage and Purifying – Many good books out there and often stores that sell serious camping equipment will have good information.
  •  Home and Personal Defense – Concealed carry classes and your local shooting range are good places to start.

Learning these introductory skills to the basics of survival will put me on a strong footing the next time I’m in a difficult situation.

Second, supplies. Had I been in a real emergency I could have been stuck with only what was in the house. A two week supply of both nonperishable food and drinking water is the minimum a home needs and ideally I would like to have more. This is not counting things like first aid supplies and other essentials. I realize now that I don’t want to be in need of anything outside my home should a disaster arise. Transportation is another big issue. In a disaster the help that was once a short drive across town could become worlds away. Local means local to you on foot or bike not local by car. 

Think of your situation when making these preparations. Kids, pets, your physical condition and health needs, the climate of your area and likely disasters you’ll face should all be factored in. Make preparations for you and what your family needs not what others have done. There is no one size fits all plan!

Third, have a game plan. Being unable to contact the outside world or my wife or family during my mini-crisis made it that much harder. Have a back up plan in order so if things really do hit the fan you know where to meet and what to do. The help of your community can play a role in this also. When I later told a good neighbor this story he offered to help if I ever find myself in this situation again. I offered the same and it became the start of a larger discussion about what to do if something serious happens.

A plan will put you at ease and give you something productive to do. If you’re loved ones are on the same page you will have less to fear when they are out in the world. Even from my very mild experience I can understand how panic can take hold or how fear of the unknown can make a situation worse. Don’t let that helpless feeling get you, a little knowledge and a plan will make everything better.

I was recently bothered by a power outage. It had the bad luck to happen at a time when I was the most unprepared for the event and it coincided with child’s simple accident. However, I saw a glimpse of how much worse it could have been and how my lack of preparation and knowledge put me at a disadvantage. We all see hurricanes and floods on television and say maybe I should start planning ahead. If your like me you got distracted or put it off. I’m thankful for this little scare because I got a glimpse into a bad situation and it’s prompted me to do something about it. If you’re new to preparedness I hope you will do the same.

Letter Re: Low Cost Firearms Training

I am a new prepper.  Luckily I live on a five-acre piece of land on the outskirts of a small town.  I have an irrigation well, and have been looking at deep well hand pumps as a way to get water under TEOTWAWKI.  Any advice that someone could give me on that would be much appreciated.  At approximately $1,500, the hand pump would be a major purchase.

I have been using the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, the free LDS Preparedness Manual, and SurvivalBlog as my main guides so far.  As I read SurvivalBlog, I wonder what I could contribute, since I rely so much on what others have generously offered up.

The only somewhat unique thing that I have to offer is my perspective after having attended Front Sight Firearms Training Institute about 20 times.  Just type “Front Sight” in the Blog search box and you will find rave reviews about Front Sight from other members that have attended.  I also think Front Sight is awesome.  If someone would have told me a few years ago that I could put five shots in the same ragged hole with a handgun or consistently make hits on a man=sized target out to 900 yards with a scoped rifle and ammunition that I handloaded, I would have laughed at them.  Front Sight training has made that and more a reality for me.

I do not work for Front Sight and I will not profit in any way by endorsing them.  What I would like to do is explain what I have learned that will help you attend Front Sight as inexpensively as possible.  For anyone planning to attend Front Sight for the first time, look for certificates on eBay.  If you paid more than $200 tuition for your first class, then you paid more than you needed to.  Front Sight operates by selling lifetime memberships.  For those of you that have been to Front Sight, you know that during lunch on the second day of the course, they try and sell you a lifetime membership.  In the 3-½ years that I have been attending, they have offered the Legacy Membership for $2.500 to $3.000.  For those who have not attended Front Sight, do not worry about getting and “high pressure” sales tactics.  They offer the memberships during a lunch break, and if you do not eat your lunch in the classroom that day, then you do not even have to listen to the presentation.  The whole thing is very low key.

What Front Sight does not explain well is that once you are a lifetime member, then they send you membership offers at extreme discounts.  One example is Front Sight offered the 9/12 Membership, which is essentially the same as the Legacy Membership mentioned above, for $912.  If you purchase an upgraded membership from Front Sight, then you can give your old membership to a friend or family member.  What happens is people buy the upgraded memberships at discounted prices, and then they try to sell their old memberships if they do not have anyone to give it to.  Front Sight does not allow you to advertise these extra lifetime memberships in any public media (Internet, newspaper, etc.).  That is why you never see them offered for sale.  There is a private forum for lifetime members where you can ask for these “extra” memberships from other members that have them.  At the advice of a friend, this is how I became a lifetime member.  I bought a Self Reliance Membership for $600 from another member, then I got an insider offer for an all inclusive Diamond Membership for $2,000.  I bought the Diamond membership and gave the Self Reliance membership to my wife.  As an aside, I about had to drag my wife to her first class.  She decided that since we have guns in the home, she should get some training on their safe use.  Now she loves Front Sight, has been there several times, and even plans our trips there.

It is my personal belief that Front Sight will not be in business for too many more years.  (Though this past Spring, they have added several new ranges that are impressive.)  The reason I say that is because they have made commitments to train thousands of people for life, and those people will not be bringing any new money into the place.  My brother is a lawyer, and did a bunch of research, but still bought a “used” membership for under $500.  The advice I give people is to buy a membership that you think you can get the value out of within the next year.  That way if Front Sight goes out of business, you will really not lose anything.  For the least expensive firearms training out there, you will pay about $100 per day tuition.  For places like Gunsite and Thunder Ranch, you will pay $300 – $500 per day in tuition.  It does not take long to get your money’s worth at Front Sight.

Front Sight is a great place to train.  The staff is excellent.  My favorite instructor is a retired Special Forces master sergeant.  Another of my favorites was a Marine Corps. force recon scout/sniper.  Most of the instructors have a military and/or law enforcement background and bring a lot of real world experience to the table.  I would encourage everyone that owns a gun to get trained.  You do not even know what you do not know until you get some professional training. – S.T.

Four Letters Re: The Off-Grid Dream

James:
The guys over at TSLRF just mentioned: ” There is a free service on Off-grid.net called LandBuddy that connects you with people who are looking to live off grid, people who are currently living off grid and people who want to help others live off grid.” That sounds useful, for J.S.L.’s situation. Here is a link to the full post. – Hector R.

 

J.S.L.,
I’m here in your home of Pennsylvania, and wish you well. Although I wish I had some Arizona property as well, I do not. I have some property away from my home location that gives me some hope, should things become unsuitable for normal living.

I also am involved in alternative energy for a living, and would recommend that you do a full calculation of getting a standard hookup before putting any money down on the alternatives. We have not become fully de-regulated here yet, but if you follow Maryland’s de-reg, you will understand the 100% jump that may occur. At the current time, the payback is still 20 years on the equipment, based on my kwh costs and extrapolating the cost expansion. As this develops, I’m looking at the same alternatives as you.

If I were in your situation, I would be looking at all non required costs, for example television, phone, heat (if you have firewood), cooling, etc.
As always, any spousal input is sometimes a holdback on putting the tv (dish) on the not required list. I’m quite familiar with this situation.

On the garden, keep the chin up, read as much as possible online, and pray for rain. We had about two months of no rain up here, but had public water backup to keep the garden alive. The last week has drowned us in make-up rain. (I’m not overly religious, but I did pray for some rain to bring us back from the bad situation, and it appears to be provided.)

If things get too frail, come back to Pennsylvania, and give it another try. We are making it here, even with the Associated Press’s daily bad news. Take care, – W.H.

 

Sir,
Unless you have money to burn, one should not expect to set up an off the grid home and have all the conveniences of a on the grid home.

First off, for one person a 300 to 500 square foot structure is more than adequate. 2,100 square foot home is too big for even a six person family. For initial cost savings, use a generator for surge electricity needs, otherwise use a small solar system to supply power for LED lighting and solid state electronics. Also use natural lighting (skylights) and oil lamps to keep set up costs down. You can always expand the solar and wind system as funds are available. Use a solar clothes dryer (clothes line) and a manuals washing machine (tub and ringer) and dishwasher (sink, scrub brush and hands).

I think starting off with an old motor home is a good idea and I would suggest reading Thoreau’s book “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” to get a perspective on a personal declaration of independence, simple living in natural surroundings and for self reliance.

 

Mr.. Rawles:
J.S.L. should be able to sell his house to other preppers stuck in New York City and its’ suburbs. His site is a lot less populated than ours. I would love a piece of property in Pennsylvania. It is all about perspective. His grass is a lot greener than our concrete jungle. He needs to place an ad in New York City area Craigslist or something similar. Also the people with money in this area have plenty to burn. Hard to believe but true. Although his home may not be an ideal site it is still a better bug out site for someone living in an apartment in New York City. Peace, – Celia

Economics and Investing:

KAF sent us this article: World at Risk of Folding in on Itself: Deputy Doom

Regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to fail this year

Damon recommended this primer: What is the U.S. Dollar Index?

From frequent content contributor RBS: Canada ponders pulling the plug on the penny. Oh, and speaking of which… Man tries to pay tax with 200,000 pennies

Signs of the times: $20 Million Spent On Stimulus Signs?

Items from The Economatrix:

Higher Education Funds Buys Gold Over Economic Worries

The US Economy is a Dead Horse and the American People are Starting to Get Really P*ssed Off and Frustrated

1.65 Million Properties Received Foreclosure Notices First Half of 2010

More is Spent on Jobless in US, But Benefits Near End

Fed Grows Increasingly Worried About Recovery

Fears Grow as Millions Lose Jobless Benefits

22 Statistics that Prove that Middle Class America is Being Systematically Wiped Out of Existence

Sticking It To Small Business

Gold and Silver Rise versus Falling Dollar as Chinese “Take Refuge” in Precious Metals; World Faces Shortage of “Safe Assets”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Gun Sales Expected to “Shoot Up”

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Things are looking Gibbonesque these days: Roads to Ruin: Towns Rip Up the Pavement Asphalt Is Replaced By Cheaper Gravel; ‘Back to Stone Age’

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K. in Montana recommended a recent essay by Patrice Lewis: Gun Control Takes Two Hands.

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It’s not the pirate flag but that Evil Tea-Party Gadsen Flag that was the issue, dontcha know: U.S. Authorities Shut Down WordPress Host With 73,000 Blog. One solution to this sort of jackboot stomping is Osiris.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.
But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed [are] the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luke 23:27-31 (KJV)