Suburban Fish and Game, by J.J. in Arizona

I am new to SurvivalBlog and I am an amateur prepper beginning my trek to becoming self sufficient. My family and I live in the suburbs of the southwest Sonoran Desert. I am by no means an expert in this field and hope that this topic has not been covered by others.  There are so many topics and pages of fish and game that it will take me months to catch up on everything.

My family and I are planning on “buggin in” if the SHTF or the TEOTWAWKI occurs. Unless an NBC attack or exposure occurs here, we plan to ride out the Golden Horde in our home. If we need to leave our home, we will try and do so when it is less chaotic. I am not saying these plans are the best or that they are perfect. For my area, this may be the best we can do with our limited funds and resources.

In making our plans for our home and area, I began noticing the abundance of game in my neighborhood. Our house is located in a suburb several miles from the Sonoran Desert. This desert is the home to many different game animals and other resources.

Our neighborhood has quite the diversity of wild and semi-tame game. My hope is to share some of my thoughts with you on how I may be able to supplement my family’s meals and protein sources, even if only for a short time.

Within several blocks from my house are five separate man-made lakes or ponds. Throughout the year, these lakes are the home to many different species of fowl, fish, reptiles, and mammals. My front yard, although small, is also the home to several different species of game birds and small mammals.

To begin with, there is a large community of quail and dove living in refuge from hunters in the city. There are so many of them, they are seen year round in almost every yard and park. Every morning, I see two pairs of quail that live in our Bougainvillea bushes. Although they are not tame, I can approach them fairly easy before they run off. They may make an easy catch some day. I keep several boxes of bird shot in my house that may come in handy if I need to go hunting the dove and quail here. If I were to need to, I could possibly catch and raise several quail for food and/or eggs.

Several miles south of my location are ranches with farm animals. Aside from the obvious bovine and venison choices that may be left at these locations, there may also be a good supple of poultry living off the land if their owners flee the city. [JWR Adds: As previously noted in SurvivalBlog, the chances are slim that farms and ranches will be abandoned in anything short of a massive pandemic die-off. So any deer hunting on private land would have to be arranged well in advance. Otherwise, you stand a good chance of being shot, as a trespasser.] It is a bit of a hike but may turn out to be a fruitful hunt. Some of these chickens may be able to be caught and raised for meat and eggs.

One of the many birds living here and in most cities around the world is pigeons. Once again, they are fairly tame and can be approached easily before they scatter. They may make an easy target. They may not be as appetizing, but may save your life and that of your family. These birds may even be caught using traps and kept alive until a later time.

Living in the lakes I mentioned above are numerous species of waterfowl. There are at least five different species of ducks that live full time at my local lakes. They are very tame as they have been hand fed for many years by numerous families. Again, very approachable and possibly an easy target as they are accustomed to humans. They may even be able to be caught and raised for their eggs and/or meat. Their nests are made inside the numerous bushes alongside the lakes. These nests can be raided for eggs.

Several species of ducks that spend part of the year here are migratory, including Canadian Geese. As I write this, there are two Goose pairs with 3-5 goslings. These geese and ducks return here every year and lay their eggs. Their young remain here until they can fly and then return north with their parents. Goose parents are very protective. They may attack humans if they try to approach their young. You could possibly kill the parents for food and capture the young to raise for eggs and or meat. This may take more work than the tame ducks but a Canadian goose has a lot of meat. [JWR Adds: As previously noted in SurvivalBlog,consult your state Fish and Game laws before hunting or trapping.]

These lakes have several species of cranes that visit them regularly. I have never eaten a crane or thought about doing so. However, when protein sources become scarce, they may make delectable meals for a hungry family. The cranes are wilder than any other birds at the lake and a small rim fire rifle may be needed to hunt them before they flee when you arrive at the lake.

The five lakes in the green belt are full of 24-36” koi carp. These fish are semi-tame and will come to the surface and sides of the lake when you approach. They have become accustomed to being fed by the numerous visitors. A good fishing pole and bait would probably land you one of them fairly quickly. With a large enough hand net, you could probably scoop up one or two. I have not seen any other fish species in the lakes and fishing is prohibited there. That does not mean there are not any other fish there.

About a mile from my house is a city park. This park has another manmade lake. This lake is part of the “urban fishing program” and is regularly stocked with various game fish. Eventually, the levels of fish may dwindle, but until then a good fishing trip may be had with some good tackle and a pole.

I have also seen several aquatic turtles living and swimming in the waters of these lakes. They are very skittish and flee when they are spotted. Making and setting traps or snares may help to catch them.  I hear turtle meat is excellent.

I saved this part for last as many may not be able to stomach or think of eating some of the mammals I list here. However, when times get tough and meals are scarce, they may be the only thing that keeps you alive.

Some of the easier ones to think of are the many rabbits that live in my yard and neighborhood. There are so many of them, they are hit by cars daily. The cats cannot even keep their numbers down. Remember though, their meat is lacking in some vitamins so don’t make them your sole protein source. Aside from a rim fire rifle and bird shot shotgun rounds, they may be trapped, snared, and possibly kept in cages for future meals.

Because of the many green belts and parks here, there is a large community of squirrels and gophers along with other different rodent species. Some of these species may need to be sniped from a distance with a good rimfire or small centerfire rifle. However, traps, pitfalls, snares, and other means may be used to catch and/or hunt them. [JWR Adds: As previously noted in SurvivalBlog, consult your local ordinances on firearms use!]

Several of the more elusive mammals may also provide your family with some excellent proteins. Coyote and the raccoon all live inside the suburbs and are seen daily here. They tend to be more nocturnal but may be hunted using game calls, attracted to salt licks, or other food sources. Skunks, ring tail cats, and javelina also fall into this section and will make great meals if properly prepared.

Lastly, Hurricane Katrina showed us that many people leave their pets behind when they flee the city. These pets generally cannot fend for themselves and will eventually starve. It may be hard for some of us to think about, but when times get bad and we are facing a TEOTWAWKI, we may need to take advantage of these additional sources of protein. Most of these animals are very tame and may welcome a human. The SAS Survival Handbook says if your pet cannot provide for himself and is an extra mouth to feed, you may need to free him to allow him to find his own food or make him your next meal. [JWR Adds: As I’ve noted in my writings previously, “freeing” pets is not only cruel, but it might also turn them feral, where they will be a threat to both livestock and humans.]

These are just some of the ideas I have thought of as I drive through my area. There are some things to ponder before beginning any suburban hunt. If the area is still inhabited by other families, you may need to be careful while hunting. Know your backdrop and what’s beyond it. If there are still emergency services in your area, you may need to hunt more covertly. The local police may not be so happy about seeing you walking the streets shooting and hunting. A powerful scoped BB or pellet gun may come in handy as they may be able to kill many of these species and not give off a loud report alerting others of your activities.

Many have written that you should “make the animals come to you”. Why not set up salt licks or other animal feed stations that attract these animals to your yard, for easy hunting. Work smarter not harder. As these animals live in the city and the desert, they may have different diseases that could be passed onto you and your family. Make sure you cook the meat thoroughly and use clean preparation practices. My dad always told me to check the liver of small mammals. If it is spotted, don’t eat it and bury the animal.

Eventually the area you are hunting may be thinned out and you may need to expand your hunting grounds. That may be the time our family leaves the suburbs for our retreat or other location. Your specific location will yield different sources and quantities of game and or possible protein sources for your family. I highly suggest you plan now and see where you can search out possible game. Know where they are living and where they find food. If you have migratory animals in your area, know the seasons they will be arriving and leaving.

I hope this gives you some ideas of where to look for sources of food, even in the big cities.

Letter Re: Life of the Farm in Western Australia

Hi,
I have only started reading your web site recently and I must admit I am a little nonplussed. I am a farmer living on the far edge of the Western Australian Wheatbelt, 400 km from Perth (capitol city) and I grow a vegie garden, we buy food in bulk and have at least 6months in the pantry,being a farmer I have a rifle( I generally only use it to kill crook sheep and shoot rabbits), we have a 50 tree fruit orchard and preserve our own fruit, we are on the power grid but we do have a generator (lots of power failures) and I slaughter and dress my own animals. Also I am the last person in the district to milk a cow admittedly with a single stand milking machine. I am not a survivalist "nut", this is the way we live. If you live in an isolated area(and there are more isolated places then here) it pays to be prepared. Like keeping common size bearings on hand or always telling someone where you are going and when you will be back. I have found reading your web site interesting and very informative. In my opinion the best thing you can do to prepare for anything the world throws at you is to learn as many things as possible. You may not think knowing how concrete is made (and similar topics) is useful but you never know. You have a great blog site. – Helen

Two Letters Re: Advice on a Multipurpose Rifle

Sir,
While I do basically agree with your statements on rifles for defense, I think you should rethink your comments about the lever gun in 30-30 or 45-70. You mentioned several drawbacks to the lever gun that I’d like to address if I may:

1) Slow reload time: While it is quite true that a 20 round detachable magazine is faster than any other empty reload method except a second gun, the trick to the combat use of a lever gun is to continuously reload. While my combat experience is over 3 decades old now and I was using an M16 at the time, I don’t ever remember a fire fight where it would not have been possible to slide rounds into a magazine during lulls in the shooting and there were always lulls. Unless you’re going full auto (a horrible waste of ammo) there will be little difference in rate of fire between a good lever gun and any battle rifle.

2) Power and carry: My wife who is a petite 4 ft. 11 in. and older than Criss (please don’t tell her I said so) likes a Marlin carbine in .45 Colt. Not a long range Elk rifle by any means but ample hitting force for most things out to 50 or 100 yards and she will carry it and practice with it where she won’t carry the 7 MM Rem Mag and won’t shoot the .375 H&H Mag (both bolt guns). Marlin makes a guide gun that will chamber .45-70 Marlin or .45-70 Govt. Yes, store rounds are expensive but hand loads are easily done on the .45-70 and it can be tamed down to .30-30 ballistics for practice and most shooting. In bear country it is possible to leave the chambered round for what you’re hunting for and the next one or two (paranoia dependent – I’m very paranoid) for the bear.

3) Styles: As to styles, I’ve had to clear [stoppages in] semi-autos and bolt actions but I have never had to clear a lever gun in 30 years of shooting them. I’m not saying it can’t happen but it has never happened to me and I really like shooting lever guns and shoot them a lot. Marlins can be had in calibers that cover everything from.22s to pistol cartridges to buffalo, bear, or anything else in North America. Since Marlins function all alike, the shooting skills acquired on a .22 lever gun work on the .444 Marlin. While the .30-30 for deer is light for bear, it was originally intended as more punch for use in bear country than the .44-40 and with the 170 grain round or Hornady’s new LEVERevolution ammo it is good for Black Bear at some range and Grizzly up close. If the Grizz is to far out for the lever gun, we aren’t going to be talking to each other. Here are two nice articles:
Hunting with the .30-30 Today
Levergun Loads .30-30 Winchester

You are correct about learning the proper use of the lever gun but the same comment applies to the bolt action on a movement that is not as natural (in my not so humble opinion) as the action of a lever. A great many of the bolt guns don’t allow for a continuous reload either. Neither my 7 mm nor my .375 H&H have detachable magazines so reload for them is the slowest.

4) Accuracy: While not as accurate as some bolt guns, at under 200 yards a lever gun can be much more accurate than say an AK-47. With proper ammo they don’t have to apologize to any gun on accuracy. They are also a simple gun to get started in reloading with. The only drawback is that with the exception of Hornady’s ammo I only feed blunt tip rounds in the magazine or only have one in the chamber and one in the magazine. I’ve never had a magazine detonation, don’t know if they really happen (bet they do) but I don’t want to roll that set of dice.

While I agree that a semi-auto (M14 or M1 would be my choice) in .30-06 or .308 is a preferred battle rifle, I look at the ubiquitous nature of .30-30 ammo, the reliability, the skills transfer, ability to and ease of carry and the commonality (every town has one or more .30-30’s somewhere in it) and think this may indeed be a good choice for the conditions Criss set out. It is a compromise and is therefore not perfect but to my mind it is a better than 98% solution. Unless she envisions shots in excess of 200 yards at targets larger than man sized or intense infantry action, it appears to me that the lever gun might work well. With the prices as they are, even a couple of lever guns could make a complimentary battery for a homestead for the price of a good-to-go battle rifle. You have to prepare for what you think is most likely and what you can afford. For me that points to several really nice lever guns, some in 30-30, some in other calibers. Respectfully, – LBH

JWR:
I think the lever action .30-30 would serve you well, but reloading time is a factor. One rifle platform that is not mentioned on the survivalblog is the DPMS panther they come in a bunch of configurations. I own 2 in 308 win, one is the LR-AP4 the other is a special order LR-308c. I suggest the LR-AP4 for you. They cost around 1100 to 1300 but the magazine are in the 20$ range for 20 rounders (MAGPUL).and it has a six-position stock. DPMS also makes a rifle and upper in .338 Federal that would be better for bears. You could purchase a LR-AP4 in .308 Winchester and then purchase a. 338 Federal upper giving you more versatility for bear defense or hunting but remember a DPMS lower will only accept DPMS uppers, with a few exceptions. – Curtis

Economics and Investing:

Stocks were down yesterday, but precious metals were up. Its a good thing that you are a SurvivalBlog reader, and wisely got out of stocks and into silver and gold, long ago.

G.G. sent this: Long-term unemployment soaring

Also from G.G.: John Williams: A Hyper-Inflationary Great Depression Is Coming

In a recent issue of his excellent (and free) Outside The Box e-newsletter, John Mauldin had these comments: “It now looks like almost 30% of the Greek financing will come from the IMF, rather than just a small portion. And since 40% of the IMF is funded by US taxpayers, and that debt will be junior to current bond holders (if the rumors are true) I can’t tell you how outraged that makes me. What that means is that US (and Canadian and British, etc.) tax payers will be giving money to Greece who will use a lot of it to roll over old bonds, letting European banks and funds reduce their exposure to Greece while tax-payers all over the world who fund the IMF assume that risk.”

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Plunge, Dow Has Record Drop, Then Recovers. (Dropped almost 1,000 points within 30 minutes almost 90 minutes before close, then somebody propped the market up, to close at only a 347 point loss (down 3.20%). Perhaps it was that “mythical” Plunge Protection Team.

Moody’s Warns Greek Crisis Could Spread to UK

Greek Crisis: Three Bank Workers Killed in Greek Riots

The Laughable Nature of GDP Growth (The Mogambo Guru)

Karl Denninger: Threats of Civil War

UK Bond Traders Poised for Election-Night Selloff

Odds ‘n Sods:

Christopher W. spotted this in Science News: New Wound Dressing Makes Bacteria Commit Suicide

   o o o

Several readers sent this: Dugout Dick helped make Idaho, Idaho; The death of the ‘Salmon River Caveman’ ends an era in the state’s history.

   o o o

Bob at Ready Made Resources mentioned a interesting new product for gardeners: Hot Pepper Wax Repellent . It is a natural pest repellent for your garden, that doesn’t have the drawbacks of insecticides. They are offering free shipping on one quart bottles.

   o o o

Reader R.S.R. spotted a web-based e-mail privacy tool that generates an anonymous alias that will forward to your real e-mail address. It will automatically be deleted after either your set time or message limit has been reached.

Understanding the Carry Condition Codes for M1911 Pistols

I recently got a letter from a SurvivalBlog reader who sounded confused about what “Condition One” means for a single action (SA) auto pistol.  So I’ll presume that it is time to backtrack a bit and post a short piece on the standardized Model 1911 “Condition Codes.” These were originated by Col. Jeff Cooper. OBTW, these terms are also applicable to most other semi-auto pistols with exposed hammers:

Condition 0 – Ready to fire: The pistol has cartridges in the magazine, a round is in the chamber, the hammer is cocked, and the safety is off.
Condition 1 – The pistol has cartridges in the magazine, a cartridge is chambered, the hammer is cocked, and the safety is in the up (safe) position. Also known as the “cocked and locked” carry condition.
Condition 2 – A cartridge is in the chamber, the hammer is down, and the pistol has cartridges in the magazine.
Condition 3 – The chamber is empty and hammer is down, but the pistol has a full magazine. This condition is also known as “Israeli Carry.”
Condition 4 – The chamber is empty, hammer is down and no magazine is in the pistol.

My comments:

Condition 1 is recommended for concealed carry.

Condition 2 presents potential safety hazards and is not recommend for either carry or for storage.

Condition 3 could possibly be warranted for open carry in some localities where unknowledgeable people might be agitated if they see you carrying a “cocked” pistol in a hip holster. But be advised that Israeli-style carry requires two hands and more time to get the pistol into Condition 0. (Ready to fire.) The need for two hands could be a problem if you are holding something in one hand, injured, or engaged hand-to-hand.

Condition 4 is how I store our pistols in our gun vault.

It is noteworthy that by SOP, any firearm that comes out of our vault is immediately loaded.  Everyone in the family assumes that any gun seen here at the ranch anywhere outside of the vault is loaded at all times, and it is treated as such. Avoiding ambiguity helps reduce the chance of accidents.

Easy and Inexpensive FM Voice Satcom Operations, by David in Israel

There are many free to use communications satellites for use only by licensed amateur radio operators, more are launched almost every year with more capabilities. Not licensed? Call the ARRL’s toll-free number at 1-888-277-5289 and request an informational Amateur Radio prospect package. You only need to pass a 35 question Technician exam which uses questions from a public question pool and usually pay less than $15 for an exam seat to begin using the Amateur Satellite Service along with free access to the expansive terrestrial repeater network and Morse code on several HF bands, more when you advance in level. Does this sound like a better deal than the $85 to get a GMRS license?

I suggest a solid state HF radio as the most durable and reliable method of long range communication in an emergency, but for portability reasons and those times where HF skywave or skip under or overshoots where you need to talk there is the Amateur Satellite Service.

There are three types of satellites; linear transponder, FM voice, and digital. I have already written in SurvivalBlog about the AO-7 linear transponder satellite. There are several others with many more capabilities, the high flying satellites like the currently dead AO-40 or Phase 3D poor man’s geostationary satellite had several transponders on many bands including microwave and would be overhead for several hours a day. Current FM voice satellites are the easiest such as AO-51, AO-27, and the International Space Station. They work mostly like a regular local radio repeater but cover most of a continent or span an ocean, you just need to deal with the Doppler effect. Digital satellites are either digipeaters or a space based computer BBS mailbox, they require a Terminal Node Controller (TNC) or computer with the right software and sound card. A few of these satellites and the space station combine several of these modes.

This article will concentrate on FM voice satellite operations since this is how most of you will start out since it is cheap and easy to access this service. More importantly it is easy for a person on foot, bicycle, ski, or on horseback to carry and power the gear to access satcom birds, easier and often more reliable than small QRP HF sets for trans continental communications.

Firstly you will need a radio, I have used Alinco DJ-580T and DJ-582 radios for satellite work but they need the large battery for full 5 watts or an external power supply. I know the Yaesu FT-470 and several radios by Icom and Kenwood were also 2meter/440 or 2meter/70cm dual banders, but it is reasonably important that they also be full duplex so you can listen even as you transmit allowing you to tune to your own repeated signal from the satellite. You can fudge and use a 5 watt 2m VHF radio for uplink and a scanner for the 440MHz or 70cm UHF downlink band, the trick is finding a scanner which tunes at 0.005MHz or smaller increments, this fine tuning is critical when we adjust for Doppler, more about that later. I have purchased good dual bander full duplex rigs go for around $50-75 used on eBay, or even less at radio swaps especially if they need minor repairs, are missing the antenna, or need a new battery pack, you can always just use an external power
their battery pack or you need to “re-core” the battery pack.

You also need a high gain antenna, the rubber duck antenna on your radio might be enough to hear the space station, but rare will be the day that you can work contacts on a satellite with just a rubber duck, although it has been done. I see web sites of people who use a telescoping whip but for the plane crash hero fantasy I would just use a roll-up twin lead J-pole antenna like this one. I use the twin lead J-pole for talking to my wife at home and keep one in my bike bag, but have never used it for satellite operations since it requires a stick to hold the antenna out straight. The best antennas for mobile operations are Yagi antennas made from aluminum tube such as the Arrow. it is used out of the box for satellite operations but it is very expensive. The very best antenna in my opinion is one you can build anywhere from stuff at a hardware store,
the Kent Britain Yagi designs are great, this PDF includes how to make a duplexer for splitting the 2m and 70 cm signals for their respective antennas.
For some pictures of these Kent Britain-type antennas and help with working FM satellites see these links featuring Diana Eng. This cute little fashion designer can hand build an easy Satcom antenna and turn the knob on a radio, so why can’t you?

My stick Yagi antenna looks like the second Diana Eng Make link except hers use brass and aluminum tube which is hard to find in Israel. I used steel 1/8 inch wire off the roll for the reflector and parasitic elements. I made the antenna from 10 AWG insulated copper ground wire for the actual radiating element. You can either buy the BNC connector at Radio Shack and attach it to the 50 ohm co-ax or get the radio guy at the truck stop to make your custom cables. You will have to solder a bit to attach the feed line cables to their radiating elements but that should be easy. The Kent Britain PDF also shows how to make a simple duplexer with some coils of wire wrapped with a pencil, some 50 ohm RG-58 co-ax, a square of copper or brass, and four 4.7pF capacitors (available from Radio Shack.)
Operating involves knowing when the satellite is overhead, tuning to match Doppler, and trying to make a voice contact.
Knowing where the satellites are either involves knowing the orbital period and spending a few hours scanning then recording which passes are above the horizon and heard, between a week and ten days the pattern will repeat, now you can mark your calendar into the future with this pattern. Know how to track with a watch calendar and some math but if you are more prepared using a PDA or computer with a satellite tracking program installed is much easier and saves time. Here are the TLE Keplarian elements listings to feed to the programs and a list of programs for many platforms I use Gnome Predict on my Ubuntu Linux machines, and PetitTrack on my tough old 2003 vintage Linux Sharp Zaurus 5500 pocket computer/PDA. Remember that a pass is usually only ten or twenty minutes with the low earth orbit birds longer on a hilltop and quite short in a deep valley where you can only catch very high passes. Draw the acquisition of signal and loss of signal times, appearance compass bearing, frequency up and down links, and sky path on a chalk or white board that you can reuse and not endanger your computer to the elements or breakage.

For the current FM sats the uplink is on 2 meter band which doesn’t require Doppler adjustment, just punch in the published frequency, but on the 70cm receive band you will need to tune for Doppler frequency shift between 5-10khz(0.005-0.01Mhz) over the published frequency as the satellite approaches your position and tune 5-10 Khz under as it flies away, pretty much when the computer says the satellite is over the horizon sweep your antenna where it is supposed to appear and tune around the Frequency range with the squelch open until you will hear static quieting or radio traffic, possibly your own test calls bounced back. See, it’s not hard five clicks; one for far approach, one for near approach, one for overhead, one for passing, and the last click for far passing on most radios. This Doppler shift is due to the satellite moving fast enough to cause a minor, yet noticeable shift! Get the operating frequencies for the satellites you plan to use, include alternate modes and write them in your pocket notebook in case you have no computer. Here are links are for the AMSAT status page, AO-51 schedule page, the AO-27 page, and the International Space Station page. These will help you quickly find the current operating mode of the satellite, you might even get to chat with astronauts or cosmonauts on the ISS or Shuttle, just like in the novel Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Once everything is set and the satellite is over I first listen for other operators, it is rude to talk over other operators. The first few passes as you learn just listen to how people talk on the satellite. Some sats require a PL tone to activate them, just like many Earth-based repeaters, look in your radio operator manual to set that. Evenings and weekends in North America and Europe the satellite will be jammed with people leaving you enough time to say your callsign for training and get a reply, no chatting, if you have an emergency say mayday everyone will quiet up. In low population areas of the south seas you might rarely make contact, keep trying. During an emergency don’t play with the sats just listen as they will likely be used by Amateur Radio Emergency Services or other groups supporting FEMA or state relief efforts. I have best success listening with full ear cup headphones, I run squelch open and know I am getting close to getting the signal as the receive band random static quiets down.

If at all possible record both sides of your satellite conversations but more importantly received transmissions, use a Y-splitter and plug the recorder in a full duplex radio will get your signals off the sat too, chances are you missed something and want to rehear the conversation. Things go fast when you are on the satellite with talking, listening, tracking the sat, and Doppler adjusting. Digital and cassette recorders both have merits and downsides. Even smarter is to tape your message ahead of time ready to play on a second multi speed tape machine, once you make contact and the receiving station is ready play it back on squeaky fast speed if you have a long message. The other side can replay it normally by setting their player on slow speed. If you can’t put your message on tape have a script ready on your chalkboard. Remember that you will probably have less than 10 minutes of talk time on a good pass when nobody else is waiting to talk.

You can enjoy the amateur Satellite Service even before you are licensed by using your police scanner on the downlink frequencies, of course you still need to correct for doppler and use a high gain antenna.

Most servicemen know that only very special troops get equipped with the satcom gear. You can now include this special communications mode to your preps easily for less than $100 per complete unit. Impress your friends and educate your kids on physics and space travel while you prepare. This may sound hard, but so is making a telephone call or using a microwave oven until you someone shows you how, even a fashion designer could figure it out. – David in Israel

Letter Re: Advice on a Multipurpose Rifle

JWR,

I am a 50-something urban homesteader, selling my house to move to a rural area.

I currently own a handgun (S&W 459 9mm) and a shotgun (Mossberg 12 gauge pump) and am researching what kind of rifle would be good for my new urban homestead.

I am a good shot, not pro and not wild, just get within the target lines. I have hunted in the past with a 30-06 but feel with my age and all this would be too much for me now. Not to mention that I am a petite female at only 5’1″ tall and 120Lbs.

The areas I am looking to move to are all what I call “big snow country”. The wildlife ranges from Moose to pronghorn, Grizzly to badger, with the usual cougar, bobcat, wolf, coyote and rabbits, etc.

So basically my criteria is a leaver action, short barrel (no longer than 20″), accurate rifle with the stopping power for the animals I may run across or have to hunt if the SHTF.

In short the basic functions that I would like the rifle to be good at are: animal defense, food hunting, home defense (in that order). Then tack on – readily available and inexpensive ammo.

My “friends” have many suggestions from ARs, AKs to Savage, Winchester and Marlin ranging from .22 to 30-06. Somehow I just don’t picture the. 22 being good unless I was a sharp shooter and could make a brain shot without thinking, as I stated previously I think the .30-06 would be “too much” for me to be accurate enough with and the “assault” rifles just don’t come across or look like hunting & animal defense rifles to me.

I have followed your blog and purchased a book or two, so I value your opinion greatly and figure that some kind of lever action 30-30 would be my best choice.

That said, what type of rifle do you (or your blog readers) suggest for me? Am I way off base, or thinking with reality? – Criss K.

JWR Replies: If moose and grizzly are commonplace where you’ll be living, then you have a few conflicting criteria.

First, any ammunition that will be a stopper for moose and large bears will not be “inexpensive”. For example, .45-70 ammo is current around $2 per cartridge!

Second, given your small stature, you are better off with a semi-auto chambered in something with lighter recoil, rather than a “whomper” bear-stopper such as a .45-70. Unless you are a seasoned shooter, you are likely to develop a flinch if you buy a gun that is near your tolerance for recoil.

Third, lever actions are fairly fast to shoot, but you must practice the operation of the lever while the gun is at your shoulder. Many shooters–especially smaller ones–have a tendency to lower the butt to their hip when working the action. Don’t get into this bad habit! But their greatest detractor is that they are very slow to reload, once the magazine has been emptied. This makes them second-rate guns for self defense. If you are on a budget, then you are better off with a bolt action that can accept stripper clips for reloading, such as a Mauser, a Lee-Enfield, or perhaps a Schmidt-Rubin. (The latter employs a unique and quite fast “straight-pull” action. You might find a Swiss K-31 Schmidt-Rubin carbine at your local Big 5 Sporting Goods store, for under $220.)

My recommendation is that if you are on a tight budget, then buy either a Yugoslavian detachable magazine SKS, or US-made AK-47 clone. Those have fairly short stocks, which will benefit you, given your stature. If your budget is more substantial, then buy a semi-auto .308. Some options include the Saiga .308, the Winchester Model 100 (long out of production, but often found used), or the Browning BAR (not to be confused with much larger military issue full-autos with the same name!). If you have a big budget, then consider an AR-10 or a Valmet Hunter .308. OBTW, I do not recommend the often-mentioned Remington 7400 (or the older Model 742). These were aptly described by a gent over at THR as “difficult to properly clean, sensitive to ammo [variations], and d**n hard to clear when you hit a feed jam.” If you opt for any .308, then be sure to have the stock shortened (or in the case of the AR-10, get a 6-position collapsible stock), and have a recoil pad installed. For many years, my late wife used a Valmet .308 with a short stock and a soft Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad. She also had the barrel shortened, and a muzzle brake installed. She considered this the best “compromise” hunting/self-defense rifle for someone of small stature. (She was 5’2″, and weighed around 100 pounds.) The Valmet Hunter doesn’t look like a battle rifle, but it uses the unstoppable AK action. Extra magazines are available in 5, 9, and 20 round capacity. The big drawback is that these rifles now cost around $1,100, and spare 20 round magazines cost around $250 each!

Economics and Investing:

CMBS Delinquencies Hit Fresh Record, Now at $51 Billion, 268% Increase. (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)

Also from G.G.: Still No Credit Where It’s Due (Commercial and industrial loans have contracted 19% in the past 12 months. Consumer credit is down 6% in the year to February, when it stood at the same level as June 2007.)

RBS sent us this: Idle rail cars generate cash for Boise

Also from RBS comes this article in Der Spiegel: The Mother of All Bubbles Could Push Euro Zone into Bankruptcy.

Thanks to Steve S. for forwarding this: China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says

Greece’s Costs Seen Exceeding EU-IMF Help

Items from The Economatrix:

Trickle of Nonsense (The Mogambo Guru)

Frugality Among Consumers Outliving Recession. (Could it be, because people realize that the “recovery” is a fraud?)

Government Debt Explosion Hits Turning Point

Stocks Extend Decline On European Debt Worries

Gold Hits 5-Month High on Greek Aid Uncertainty

No Guarantees at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Odds ‘n Sods:

Newsweek magazine quoted me about the complex interdependencies of technological societies in an article about the implications of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Finland. But sorry, you have to read Polish. (It was Newsweek‘s Polish edition. (I was quoted on the third page of the online edition.) Well, at least they mentioned the title of my book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”. 😉

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Reader RBS sent this: A swap of seeds in Boise on Saturday will tap into a practice with roots in the dawn of agriculture

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The Gulf of Mexico oil spill–how bad could it get? (A hat tip to Bryan E. for the link.)

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Tony B. mentioned that the Chinese built a better mousetrap. (Tony’s comment: “Think of their entrenching tool as a Swiss Army Knife, writ large.”)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“As the dollar breaks down, you’ll also likely see disruptions in supply chains, including shipments of food to grocery stores. People should consider maintaining stockpiles of basic goods needed for living, much as they would for a natural disaster. I sit on the Hayward fault in California. I have a supply of goods and basic necessities in case something terrible happens—natural or man-made—that will carry me for a couple of months. It may take that long for a barter system to evolve, which I think is what you’re going to end up with; at least until a new currency system is reorganized and you get a government that’s able to bring its fiscal house into order. No currency system in the U.S. is going to work unless the fiscal conditions that drove it into oblivion are also addressed.” – John Williams of ShadowStats, by way of Jim Sinclair’s JSMineset web site

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 28 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.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

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 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Survival Rations and Food Security, by J.I.R.

I think we can all agree that a deep larder is good insurance for bad times. There is some variation on how we approach this topic, but we probably all have a lot in common. I would like to present my approach to food storage to give your readers (perhaps) a new perspective. Some of them may have inadequate plans for feeding their families.

First, I have to admit that I am probably not as well prepared as a lot of readers and that my preparations could easily be improved if I were less lazy or worried more. I don’t put very much work into survival preparation. I don’t own very much equipment or a whole warehouse of guns and ammunition. I don’t worry too much about which gun to use with what ammunition or what holster looks best with my outfit. I really don’t worry about which brand of SUV might make a good G.O.O.D. vehicle. I finished my main preparations long ago and I now simply live my life as I wish, tweaking my preps here and there as the whim takes me.

I was able to gain a lot of peace of mind by rationally looking at the threats I face and prioritizing my needs. Preparation is easy if you plan carefully with a clear view of the likely threats. I assessed the risks, set some achievable goals, and executed the plan. Now I spend a lot of time fishing or messing around doing what I want.

Important Caveat: Skills definitely come first! You should never skimp on skills in favor of gadgets. Your best survival kit is your own noggin and what you put inside it. I am not advocating sitting idle. You should frantically be learning new skills all the time and honing your old ones. Use your time and money to learn valuable skills. The rest is just stuff.

I take a fairly flippant attitude about survival gear in general. With the right skills, you need surprisingly little equipment to keep breathing. I have firearms, of course and some ammunition, a few basic necessities, like a good water filter, a good grain grinder, camping gear, backup power, reliable vehicles and spares for everything. But all of this costs less than you would probably believe and I think I have my bases pretty well covered on equipment.

But I do take food security very seriously. Perhaps more seriously than some of you. I have traveled to several third-world countries and famine zones in the course of my military career and have seen hunger up close. I have eaten the same gruel given out by UNICEF and other NGOs in their feeding programs and watched powerless as children died from lack of a few dollars worth of basic foods. I have also seen that abundance of food doesn’t do much to alleviate hunger if the finance and transport systems don’t work. I have seen women with young babies standing along a highway, literally among corn stalks of ripe corn, trying to flag down a truck and prostitute themselves so they could afford to buy some of it. Yes, I take food security very seriously.

Food security is the first and foremost problem the human race has always faced. It’s the specter that never sleeps for long. Thomas Malthus was right. Populations tend to increase as long as there is plenty of food, overpopulate in good years, and then starve when the food supply becomes scarce. You can actually correlate death rates in medieval England directly to grain prices. It’s been that way throughout history and it still is today. We are just enjoying incredible surpluses and record-low food prices right now (for the last hundred years or so) because of technology and new lands coming under development. Predictably, the population has swelled logarithmically to take advantage of that abundant food. Starvation has become almost unthinkable in the western world. Unfortunately, those good times will end if our society ends. We will be back where we were a thousand years ago, anxiously watching the harvest to see if our children will live
through the coming year.

Food is the one thing you can’t improvise. Any interruption in your food supply will kill you and your family, so you need to store a lot. How much is enough? Simply put, I don’t think you are likely to be able to store too much. A five year supply is not excessive because there are always going to be people less fortunate than you who need it desperately. Food is wealth. Have you ever worried about having too much wealth?

I take food security seriously enough to make it my top priority. I have a tiered approach to storage that works well for me and I think it has advantages that other methods don’t. I have long term storage, medium term storage and short term storage. And, I eat what I store.

Short and medium term storage items I keep in my home. Long term storage items, like wheat, beans, rice and white sugar are stored elsewhere in hidden permanent caches. My short and medium term goods are largely to see me through short and medium severity events, like a regional disaster or slow-slide economic decline. I don’t intent to raid my long term storage until I am ready to replace it (in about 25 years, if I live that long) or in the event of an extreme emergency. My long term supplies are insurance, pure and simple, in case there is a major interruption to my family’s food supply. I built my caches well and don’t spend much time worrying about them. I don’t rotate the food in them regularly or need to check on them often. But they will be a life-saver when (and if) I ever need them.

Most of the supplies I keep in my home are more perishable. They have to be rotated regularly. This is easy because we live on these supplies. I don’t store anything we don’t regularly eat. I choose not to grow a garden since I have some old injuries that make it painful for me, (also I am terribly lazy), so I have to buy all my fresh stuff at retail prices. If you can grow a garden and keep some livestock, like chickens, I highly recommend you do this. That would enable you to be much better prepared than I am. As a non-gardener, I shop every week to get fruit, veggies, potatoes, milk, eggs and cheese. I take that weekly opportunity to top off all of my rotating supplies. Anything we use up, I generally replace within a week or two.

In addition, to the perishables, I probably have about 3 month’s supply of most of our semi-perishable staples like canned veggies, meat, pastas and sauces. All of these things, along with most medicines and vitamins, have a shelf life measured in months (or a few years in some cases). Wet-canned foods have to be rotated. You can save a lot of money and (surprisingly) trouble by home canning. The price of home canned foods are lower, even if you have to pay full price, plus it allows you to buy things in bulk when the prices are low.

In November 09, I started canning meat instead of freezing it and now I tend to buy about a “canner load” (20lbs) every couple of weeks and can it for later use instead of freezing it like I used to do. (My stocks of canned meats has been going up ever since). This has already proved to be a wise decision. Our freezer recently got unplugged and we only discovered it because of the smell of a few rotting steaks and the few pounds of fish I keep there. I glanced at my stacks of canned beef, chicken, pork and turkey and smiled. I figure my pressure canner paid for itself that day.

I also maintain about 350 pounds of wheat, 100 pounds of white flour, 150 pounds of dried beans, 100 pounds of white sugar, 150 pounds of white rice, 5 gallons of canola oil, 5-7 gallons of dried milk powder, about 30 pounds of dried eggs, 20 pounds of raisins, 25 pounds of salt, and about 25 pounds of dried corn. (I also maintain a fairly large stock of sprouting seeds, garden seeds and vitamins in our spare refrigerator). All told, I figure my wife and I could eat pretty well for many months in an emergency without dipping into long term storage. All of this stuff is rotated and eaten regularly.

Let me say that again. We live mostly on wheat (in many forms), rice, and beans. (we eat a lot of potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage and turnips too, but I will cover that later). The other things we buy at the store are mostly adjuncts. While they would be sorely missed, losing fresh eggs, milk and cheese wouldn’t cramp our lifestyle much. We cook with dried milk, cheese and eggs already and only use the fresh variants for fried eggs, sandwiches and drinking milk. We prefer the fresh, but use an awful lot of dried food in our day to day lives, just for the convenience.

I marvel at people who store foods they don’t eat and really don’t like. I met a man once who had a “whole year’s supply” of expensive dried foods in his basement for several years. In all this time, he had never once opened a can and tried it. Once I talked him into trying his larder, he was sorely disappointed and lost all enthusiasm for storing food. (I have to admit that I didn’t like it much either.)

This is a serious issue because I have doubts that most folks could easily transition to a “basic food” diet in an emergency. The caloric density of basic foods is about half as much as the diets most Americans currently eat. If you are used to living on fast food and plan to transition to a whole wheat and bean diet once the emergency happens, you are deluding yourself. You have to eat a lot of wheat to equal a double cheeseburger and frankly, If you eat mostly prepared or fast foods, (as most US citizens do) You have a finely tuned digestive tract that can’t handle bulk foods and lots of fiber.

If you introduce these foods gradually into your normal diet, you will grow to enjoy them. I highly recommend that every survivalist attempt to live off of his stored foods. See if you can learn to like them. The benefits of doing so are tremendous. First, my grocery bill is tiny. Most of the foods we all store are the cheapest food you can buy. Second, a largely vegetarian lifestyle is not bad for you. You will feel better if you get most of your calories from grains and beans and eat more veggies and fruit. You will never buy another antacid or laxative and will have more energy. You might even lose some weight.

I am not advocating giving up meat products, lord no! I am a confirmed omnivore and eat more than my share of meat. I am only advising you to cut back on them. Too much meat is terrible for you and probably the most expensive food you buy. It might also be much too expensive after a crisis. Beef in particular is horribly expensive to produce. In most of the world, meat is too expensive to eat more than a few times a month. If you cut down on meats and other fatty foods now, your digestive system will already be adjusted to living on bulkier grains and other carbohydrates. You also won’t get indigestion or gas from eating beans. Cut down now and maybe you will miss these high calorie foods less if they become scarce or expensive. I enjoy meat, and eat some almost daily, but I don’t crave it any more.

FAMEAL: Famine Chow is a good way to introduce storage foods into your diet. This is a slang word for WSB or CSB (Wheat-Soy-Blend or Corn-Soy-Blend) used by NGOs in their feeding programs. Most Americans have never heard of (much less tried) this stuff. This is the same gruel fed to starving people in Africa and elsewhere. The only word that describes it is “foody”. It’s delicious. You can eat it as a thin paste or thicken it up and make dumplings or bread out of it. You can add it to soups and casseroles or even make cookies out of it. Best of all, it’s healthy and cheap and made of storage foods. The NGOs buy it pre-made in big dog-food bags so they can just add water. The pre-made mix is extrusion cooked so it’s easier to work with under primitive conditions. You are not going to find this stuff at your grocery store but here is how you can make your own:

50% (by volume) Corn meal or wheat meal. (I prefer meal to flour, but both work)
30% (by volume) Bean meal. Any kind..even soy. I use lentils because the are easy to grind.
10% (by volume) Oil. Any cooking oil works.
10% (by volume) Sugar or honey or syrup if you prefer.
Add salt to taste. You can also add vitamins by grinding a tablet with the mix.
(With multi-vitamin supplement, this is a fairly well balanced diet).

To cook it (it will be a powder) mix it slowly (it clumps) with boiling water (three cups of water per cup of meal). Turn off the heat and cover it and allow it to cook for 10 minutes. If you add the powder to the water and then try to heat it, it burns to the bottom of the pot, but a microwave oven works great for cooking the wet mixture. Or, use the powder just like flour for baking. It makes an awesome bean bread. It also makes a wonderful cake mix if you add more sugar and other flavorings. You can vary the amounts of everything, including water to suit your own tastes. Try it. You may find that you really like it. It’s fairly tasty, filling and satisfying. My kids ate an awful lot of fameal muffins while they were growing up. They freeze well and make a good quick breakfast food if you are in a hurry.

Fresh Vegetables.
Potatoes, carrots, squash, corn, green beans, Broccoli, cabbages, greens, tomatoes, onions and turnips. We eat a lot of these crops, but I don’t currently grow a garden. They are all difficult for me to store because they require a cellar or refrigeration, so I buy them as needed. Fortunately, they are cheap and abundant now and will remain so unless there is a major economic crash or other terrible disaster. When this happens, I intend to grow my own. I maintain a rotating stock of heirloom garden seeds for this. Potatoes require a little more work since you must start from root-stock and not seeds, so I will have to try to grow them from store-bought roots when I need to. If I am unable to grow any of these crops when I need to, I will have to do without. Until I can get a garden going, I will be forced to substitute a lot of sprouts for other fresh veggies, but I don’t expect any insurmountable problems.

A word of caution: Growing a garden is not easy. It requires a lot of physical labor and practical knowledge. I have a solid set of gardening skills and years of experience, so I feel ok about just storing seeds. I have grown several gardens using the same techniques I will have available without modern society. If you have never done any gardening in your area, especially using only hand tools, you really should. Your learning curve will be steeper than you probably think. Learning is cheap now, but won’t be later. Make your mistakes now, not when you need the food. You will have to grow a large garden to feed your family. Gardening is a critical skill! and so is food preservation.

Just as important, you need to learn which varieties of non-hybrid plants grow well in your area and the only real way to learn this is to grow a garden. Even a small one can teach you volumes. Your soil also needs building, so every season, your productivity will increase. You might find you enjoy it. Once you get good at it, you might be safe just to stock up on seeds, fertilizers and tools like I do, but build the skills first.

Long term storage foods:
Your long term storage is your capital for the future. We are going to need time to get our permanent food production capacity going again. We may need several years. I expect farmers in the USA to have to re-learn a lot of their skills once the machines don’t work anymore. Plowing with a horse team (even if you have horses available) requires tack and harness and tools that don’t really exist anymore. My father’s generation in rural Tennessee were among the last folks who grew most of their own food using a horse team (Amish communities and anomalies like them excepted). Since then, the specialized tools needed have been lost to age, antique shops (and cracker barrel furnishings). Before we can go back to a simpler pattern of farming without modern machinery and chemicals, we are going to need to re-invent the tools and breed and train the livestock. This is going to take time. Your storage food is all you have to give you that time.

At the risk of sounding like a nut, I believe you can’t have too much food. As long as it doesn’t go to waste, the more you have the better off you will be if society collapses. If I were able, I would store a warehouse of grain and keep my whole community alive, but this is impossible for me. If everyone in the USA stored two years of food, we might be able to save many of them after society collapses. Unfortunately, even preppers rarely store two years of food. Most of us have a year or even less in storage. I am not confident that we will have adequate food production to feed everyone left alive two years after a collapse. I think three years is more realistic. Not only will that give us time to increase production, but it will give more people time to die. Starvation will be ever-present until we can grow enough food for everyone left alive and that could take a long time.

Storing food long term is not easy, but right now, it can be very inexpensive. You can store over a ton of wheat for the price of a new Glock Model 17, four spare magazines and holster. Cut down on your gun collection a little and you can store a lot more food. I store almost exclusively wheat, beans, white sugar, salt and rice. I have stopped using plastic buckets for my long term storage. They are just not sturdy enough to last several decades and they are not rodent proof. I use two-quart mason jars with a spoonful of diatomaceous earth, sealed with an oxygen absorber and the lids dipped in paraffin. This is a little more expensive, and the jars are breakable, but they are water and rodent proof and I figure the dry food will last basically forever. Jars are about a dollar each, but worth it for me because I store the bulk of my long term foods underground, where there may be moisture or rodents. Enameled cans are cheaper, shock-proof and probably a better choice for most purposes. If you have a secure environment, plastic pails with mylar liners are a good choice.

I have stored quite a lot of basic foods for a single family and done my best to get others to build up their reserves. But the sad truth is, all of my supplies would still last less than a year for my whole extended family. My meager supply wouldn’t feed a whole town more than a few days. You can’t feed the world and can’t stop the coming die-off with your storage food. But you might be able to save your family and perhaps help a handful of people. If you are reading SurvivalBlog, then you are at least thinking about the problem and that puts you way ahead of the general population. I encourage you to go overboard. Store many times more than you need. Because you may want it. – J.I.R.

Letter Re: Using Pipe Infrastructure to Your Advantage

Beneath many of our very feet are hundreds of miles of underground piping which utilized correctly can provide valuable resource in the event of a TEOTWAWKI situation.
Storm drainage pipe siphons rain water from urban areas into surrounding streams and rivers. Accessed through manholes and curb gutters water runs off the street into basins and concrete piping. (Concrete piping varies in size, however most urban areas use diameters 36” and upward.) In the event of a G.O.O.D. situation slipping into some form of drainage would at least allow stealth movement for a decent distance (remember water always flows toward the river). To access the storm drainage manholes may be bolted down, however curb gutters usually can be picked up freely, another method would be to crawl into an open culvert. Along with concrete piping many developments use underground retention facilities to temporarily hold water (so as not to over tax the drainage in the event of a flood. Underground holding facilities also allow a development not to dedicate portions of valuable property to open “ponds.”) An underground retention facility is usually composed of some form of greatly larger pipe included in the drainage system; for example a 36” drain pipe may run into several sections of 72” pipe or cistern with an overflow (usually under a parking lot as they cannot support building loads.) Under dry weather or slight water flow these areas are large underground structures that can be used as temporary shelter. JWR Adds: All the usual safety provisos on enclosed spaces, flooding hazards, noxious gasses, et cetera apply! This information is provided only for education purposes. Use common sense, do plenty of research, and use storm drain infrastructure only in an absolute disaster.

Underground water systems use force pumps and gravity to provide water to the consumer. In rural settings these pipes may differ widely in size but are usually composed of plastic or ductile iron (water pipe is usually blue plastic or black ductile, gas is yellow, green is sewer, pink is re-purified water used for irrigation). Usual rural water lines are 4 to 5 feet deep (older water lines may not be as deep) 5-15feet from the edge of pavement of say a rural road (5-15 ft is a wide generalization as easements can differ greatly, when in doubt look for a fire hydrant in some cases.) These lines can be located by looking for obvious signs of past construction, such as gaps in tree lines. In the event of a total TEOTWAWKI situation where drinkable water is scarce, low points in these water lines will retain water even after the pumps stop. Simply find a low point such as sag in-between hills, locate the line and dig. WARNING: Do not attempt this unless there is a major, long-term TEOTWAWKI situation. Some of these lines are highly pressurized. – N.B.