Letter Re: An Inexpensive Source for Bulk Silica Gel Desiccant

Hi, James
There is always a need for desiccants for various uses, be it food storage, caching, or other projects. Most who need such things already have a favorite supplier, but I’ll make another recommendation for the sake of saving a few bucks. Any local grocer, pet supply dealer or Big Box store carries silica-gel cat litter in amounts from 3 to 30 pounds: Tidy Cats Crystals is one such product, though there are many. A rounded tablespoon place in a square of mesh fabric purchased in a craft/hobby department (where it can be bought by the yard–think about the bird seed packets at weddings) and securely tied [or sewn shut] will work well when placed in the desired container; depending on the need, they can also be spooned directly into the bottom of the vessel. Note that I’m suggesting the clear-blue “Crystals-only” type which are pure silica; one doesn’t want the silicate-clay “Blend” which is also offered.

Being silicate, they have the potential for re-use by oven drying. Compared to the cost of individual commercial [silica gel] packets, this is a bargain. Regards, – Billfour

JWR Replies: That is a great suggestion. Just beware of any desiccant that has any additives, dyes, or scents. A perfumed desiccant would be fine for tool storage, but potentially a disaster for food storage.

Letter Re: Can I Burn Home Heating Oil or Kerosene in a Diesel Engine?

Hello Jim,
This is in response to the gentleman’s question about using kerosene in diesel engines. Yes, it can be done. I had two 55 gallon drums of kerosene that were reaching the end of their storage life. I also have an old Mercedes diesel car and ran the kerosene with some added lubrication in the vehicle and it worked very well. You are correct that kerosene doesn’t have the same lubrication values of diesel but that is solved by simply adding vegetable oil or biodiesel to to the fuel. I used a 10-to-1 ratio as recommended by another poster on the blog. As far as kerosene burning hotter, it has fewer BTUs per gallon than diesel so I doubt this is a problem.

This discussion brings up another advantage of diesel engines and it’s a big one. That is the variety of fuels they can run on including kerosene, home heating oil and vegetable oil-new and used. Some people over at Mercedesshop.com have even used automatic transmission fluid and lightweight motor oil in their cars as well. I would only do that for a short period of time and if I were truly desperate. Several caveats apply here also. Used vegetable oil must be filtered very well or you will have serious problems. To run 100% vegetable oil (“straight vegetable oil”) in cars it must have a two-tank system that heats the oil first and flushes the fuel lines with diesel when shut off or the oil will solidify in the fuel lines the car won’t restart. However I would not hesitate to use 50% diesel/kerosene with 50% new vegetable oil in warm weather. All this gives you have several options if you need them. Scenario 1: There is a major fuel shortage with low supplies and long lines at the pump. With a diesel engine you can simply go to the kerosene pump and fill your cans up while everybody else waits in line. Scenario 2: You are evacuating from a [Hurricane] Katrina-like situation and begin to run low on fuel. Simply go to any grocery store and pick up several gallons of vegetable oil and dump it in. Then go to the auto parts store and grab a few quarts of ATF and motor oil and dump it in if your really low.

Again some of this I would not do unless I was truly hard pressed, but desperate times call for thinking outside the box. FYI, the drums of kerosene mentioned above are nine years old and were not stabilized (I didn’t know any better at the time. However, it was in very good condition and ran well in my car. I hope that this helps someone. – Jeff in Ohio

Odds ‘n Sods:

Kirk flagged this Business Week piece: Bad Omens for Banks?–News from KeyCorp suggests U.S. banks’ loan losses may worsen. Is the credit crisis hitting a second, even scarier phase? The global credit crisis is worsening. Take steps to protect yourself.

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Thanks to Dave S. for sending this: US rail network facing congestion ‘calamity’

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My recent mention of health concerns about synthetic sweeteners (such as Nutrasweet and Splenda) prompted readers Chris D., Kim, and EMW to all remind me to mention the herbal sweetener, Stevia rebaudiana. It is a safe, natural sweetener derived from a plant that is native to Paraguay. Following enactment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), Stevia can be sold legally in the United States only as a “dietary supplement.” Ironically, even though ounce-for-ounce Stevia extracts can be up to 300 times more sweet than sugar, they cannot be sold as “sweeteners.” OBTW, reader Rick C. mentioned that “Splenda is not aspartame-based [like Nutrasweet]. It consists of sucralose and maltodextrin.” But I should add that Splenda has its own set of health concerns.

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Frequent news tip contributor RBS sent us this: George Soros: ‘We face the most serious recession of our lifetime’

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Regardless of the size or quality of defensive forces, the defender usually extracts large costs from the attacker in time, resources, and casualties." – Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) MCWP 3-35.3

Note from JWR:

The judging was difficult because we had so many great entries. But after much deliberation we decided that the first place winner of Round 16 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is KLK for her article “How To Prepare for Radiation Emergencies”. She has won two valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificates. (Worth up to $4,000!)

Second place goes to B.H. for his article “Safe Food Handling”. He will receive a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing

Three Honorable Mention prizes go to NC Bluedog for “Homestead Fuel Storage and Rotation”, JLG in Texas for “Technology After TEOTWAWKI”., and to Gospel Guy for “Lacto-Fermentation–Enlisting Trillions of Microscopic Allies in Your Fight for Survival.” They each get their choice of autographed copies of either my books “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” or “SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog”

Note to the prize winners: E-mail me and let me know the snail mail address where you’d like you prizes sent. Congratulations to the talented prize-winning writers!

Round 17 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is now open. Round 17 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entries. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

Letter Re: An Importer’s Insights on the Canned Tuna Market

Hi James
I am in the import food business and one of the products that I sell is canned tuna. I know that a lot of survivalists have canned tuna in their larder and thought I might be able to provide some useful information. There are four species of tuna that are sold in cans; skipjack, tongol, yellowfin and albacore. Skipjack is the cheapest and Albacore the most expensive.

I have been selling tuna for about 20 years and over the last two years, have seen the raw material prices double. Normally, prices go up and then back down, as the catch decreases and then increases. However, since there are really no controls on the amount of tuna that are caught, I have been concerned about over fishing, especially with skipjack as it is the every day item that supermarkets sell as chunk light tuna. Given that the frozen fish price has increased from about $1,000 per metric ton to just under $2,000 per metric ton, I think that we may
have hit the point where demand will outpace a diminishing supply. I expect retail prices to continue increasing.

When I was at a Costco [warehouse store] a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that they are still selling 6 ounce albacore for around $1.00 per can. This is a very good price and I don’t expect it to
last for long.

The other thing that has been happening is that many of our overseas suppliers are having trouble getting empty cans. We have had many shipments of fruits and vegetables delayed because the packers have the raw material, but no cans to pack the product in. I know that there have been increases in tinplate costs, but do not know why some of our suppliers are unable to get cans. It could be that they don’t want to pay the higher prices.

Given the decline of the [purchasing power of the] dollar, increases in freight rates, as well as inflation in other countries, I see many food prices continuing to climb indefinitely. All the best, – Kurt P.

JWR Replies: Thanks for the update. SurvivalBlog readers should plan accordingly. If you haven’t done so already, buy a three year supply of canned tuna for your family, post haste!

Letter Re: Physical Gold Versus Electronic Gold

Mr Rawles,
The letter from the gent who recommends investing in synthetic gold startled me. Prior to the Great Depression my family was very wealthy. My great-great grandfather, was an assemblyman from New York State who [had] moved to the backwoods of Pennsylvania and built what was at one time the largest tannery on the east coast. The family also owned a large hotel, at least two other tanneries, a general store and a gristmill. When his son took over the reins of the family wealth he invested the bulk of it in silver stock. When the stock market crashed the family was plunged into stark poverty. My great grandfather had to build a home for his family out of the packing crates that the produce for the store was shipped in. Stock [or shares] of any kind are dangerous if that is where the bulk of a person’s wealth is invested.

Make your readers aware of how dangerous the financial situation is at this time and to steer clear of investing in anything that you cannot hold in your hands, or eat or walk on or wear. Thank you. – DM from the Mountains of Northwest Pennsylvania

Letter Re: A Combustion Temperature Reference

Hello James:
I came across these ignition temperatures in a reference book and thought they might be of use to others,. This may be useful for whatever folks may be doing with flammable materials or fuels at their retreat or at home. All ignition temperatures noted are in Fahrenheit:

Cut Newspaper 446 degrees
Cut filter paper 450 degrees
Straw and sawdust 450 to 500 degrees
Gasoline 536 to 800 degrees depending on octane rating
Kerosene 480 degrees
Natural Gas 1,000 to 1,200 degrees
Propane 871 degrees
Butane 806 degrees
Paints and Lacquers (the flammable part isn’t the pigment, although the metallic chromate pigments are flammable) 475 to 1,000 degrees
Amyl Acetate 715 degrees
Acetone 1,000 degrees
Linseed Oil 650 degrees
Mineral Spirits 473 degrees
Turpentine 464 degrees
Alcohols 750 to 900 degrees
Petroleum Naptha 475 degrees
Magnesium 1,204 degrees, but if material is finely ground then as low as 900 degrees

Regards, – Mikael

JWR Adds this Strong Proviso: Reader Jim. H. in Colorado has pointed out that the full potential fire hazards of stored materials should not be evaluated according to the preceding chart. The chart was based on direct contact of a solid material with a heat source. The true measurement of the volatility of a stored material is its “flash point”, which in most cases is considerably lower than the figures noted. It is explained at this Wikipedia page. Essentially, Mikael’s chart was correct. Any of those material that are heated to those temperatures will combust (without the presence of any flame). However, the essential definition is: “The flash point of a material is the point at which the material will give off gasses that, when mixed with oxygen, can support combustion if exposed to an outside heat source.”

Also note that combustible gasses, dusts, and vapors (such as gasoline vapors) can sometimes travel long distances and still be combustible or explosive. Over the years, SurvivalBlog has stressed safety, particularly with stored fuels. I’ve written this a dozen times, but this bears repeating: Stored liquid fuels should never be stored in a typical attached garage. Most suburban garages also have a natural gas-fired or propane-fired hot water heater with a continuous pilot flame. That is a very dangerous combination of a vapor source and vapor ignition. Read: Kaboom!

Also beware of any processing operation that produces combustible dust, such as grain milling or even metal grinding. There have been countless news stories over the years about grain mill explosions. As I illustrated my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, ounce-for-ounce, fuel-air mixtures can be some of the most potent explosives imaginable.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“JP Morgan has assets of $1.6 trillion and equity of $126 billion. They seem reasonably well-capitalized at 7.6%. We just hope that there’s no problems in their almost $92 trillion derivative exposure that is more than 50 times their assets and, more importantly, greater than 700 times their equity. We hope them to be well-matched, but if they are even the tiniest bit wrong, their equity could be wiped out as their equity represents just 0.13% of their gross derivative exposure.” – Steven Romick, writing in Agora Financial’s Rude Awakening e-newsletter, May, 2008

Letter Re: Physical Gold Versus Electronic Gold

Dear Mr. Rawles:
You are clearly (and presciently) on the record as recommending the purchase of precious metals, ahead of the current inflationary cycle. Congratulations on that excellent macro call. But I believe you also recommend holding the physical commodity rather than synthetic ownership through an exchange traded fund/note. This makes less sense to me.

As an economic hedge against fiat currency deflation, synthetic gold has lower transaction costs since you don’t have to pay for the transport of the gold, the retail broker markup, or the non-gold coinage aspects of value that are embedded into Krugerrand, Maple Leaf, and American Eagle. Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) like the iShares Comex Trust typically charge a modest expense ratio of 0.4% per year to pay for storage and other fund costs, and gold ETFs are backed dollar-for-dollar by physical gold. Synthetic gold can be instantaneously bought and sold, and easily transferred into different currencies or across borders, with a few keystrokes.

Synthetic gold is also safer. If you own physical gold, you have to guard against theft and other loss. You could insure against this risk, but then the cost of insurance (which is quite high for precious metals) will be a material drag on your returns. I suppose one could argue that synthetic gold is exposed to extraordinarily unlikely events such as a nuclear exchange with a resulting EMP that wipes the digital record of your ownership—although I am not even sure that is correct because of redundant, multi-location data backup—but if that is the principal risk you’re trying to guard against, relocation to the Australian outback would seem more sensible (i.e., you have bigger worries than inflation).

It is true that physical gold, in a SHTF situation, would have value as an instrument of barter, whereas synthetic gold would not. However as an instrument of barter, physical gold has tremendous limitations. First, the instrument is not easily divisible, and if you were trying to barter with 1 ounce coins, it could be a bit like trying to buy things with a $100 bill and nobody being able to make change. Second, in a SHTF situation, because your barter counterparty would likely have problems establishing authenticity and weight, you would be charged a discount to value by him/her. In a nutshell, if physical gold’s bartering qualities are what attract you, I would propose that owning other commodities like coffee, cartridges, salt, etc. would be more effective.

My own view is that physical gold combines the worst of all worlds, given the risks that a reasonably prudent (but less than apocalyptic) survivalist should be considering. I’m curious about your view. – DC

JWR Replies: In precious metals investing, there is a continuum of risk that ranges from negligible risk to maximum risk. To my way of thinking, the “near end” of this continuum starts with the gold in your teeth and it terminates with highly leveraged futures contracts at the far end. Electronic gold is somewhere in between, and probably closer to the “safe” end, in normal times. However, since much of my thinking is geared toward some unpleasant “what ifs”, I err on the side of caution. I realize that I’m foregoing the convenience of electronic gold, but being a survivalist dinosaur, I want my metals in hand, if at all possible.

As a preparedness-minded individual, I am relatively risk adverse, and I suspect that the majority of SurvivalBlog readers share my outlook. I recommend buying physical silver, stored very well hidden at home. See the SurvivalBlog archives for some recommendations on wall caches and other secret hiding places.

There are indeed limitations of physical gold in barter as you mentioned (and as I illustrated in the “For An Ounce of Gold” chapter of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”). Recognizing that, my approach has been to encourage my readers to buy and hold a core holding of silver coins, for barter. Pre-1965 mint date US circulated 90% silver coins are widely recognized and have small unit values that makes them ideal for barter transactions.

Letter Re: Can I Burn Home Heating Oil or Kerosene in a Diesel Engine?

James:
Your article today about diesel vehicles still providing long term cost savings was quite interesting. The question I have, and perhaps [shared by] some of your readers is this: is home heating oil and kerosene acceptable fuel for a diesel engine? – Thanks, – Jim G.

JWR Replies: Home heating oil burns fine in any diesel engine, but in may countries it is not legal to do so in a vehicle that is driven on public roads. This is a “road tax” issue. Aside for a red dye additive, the formulation of home heating oil is almost identical to the diesel that was made before the recent advent of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD). The only significant difference between the two is the Federal standard on ash content.

Kerosene is a different matter. Kerosene has insufficient lubricity to be used just by itself in a diesel engine. I have also read that it burns hotter than diesel, so it might harm injectors. However, this is largely a non-issue in all but exceptional circumstances, since kerosene typically sells for as as much as one dollar more per gallon than diesel. But in an an emergency, it is presumably safe to mix as much as 20% kerosene with your diesel and not cause excessive engine wear. And, BTW, the aforementioned road tax is also an issue for kerosene.

To explain the road tax: In the US, Canada, the UK, and several other countries it is not legal to use dyed (untaxed) fuel in a vehicle that is driven on public roads. Of course if you are using the fuel in a generator set, or in an off-road vehicle such as a tractor, you can’t be accused of cheating on the road tax. The two types of diesel fuel are distinguished by the dye additive. In the US, there is no dye added to road-taxed diesel. Enforcement of these statutes varies widely, but the fines can be substantial, so stay legal.

Odds ‘n Sods:

From reader RBS: Buffett sees “long, deep” U.S. recession

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Mike W. sent us a link to a piece written by one of my heroes, Dr. Walter E. Williams: False prophets of doom–Environmentalists would prefer that we forget these predictions

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I was doing some web surfing, and a stumbled into a great collection of photos of Swiss bunkers.

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While the Novovirus threat is subsiding with warmer weather, Rourke sent us an article about a new threat, a bacteria called C-diff: Gut superbug causing more illnesses, deaths

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Unfortunately, solving our economic problems is not a simple matter of passing a law to reestablish gold or any other commodity as money. It was not the politicians, but rather the electorate that demanded the abandonment of the gold standard and the establishment of a credit-money standard. In a nation run by majority rule, unless you can convince individuals to abandon the use of government as a sword of theft, gold or any other commodity will never last as the basis for money. A gold standard is not the cause of a stable economy, it is the result of a stable economy; it is not the solution to our problem, but will be one of the consequences when a solution is found. We had a gold standard in the U.S. for over 150 years, yet it didn’t prevent our current economic debacle. Establish it again, and it will be abandoned again. In fact, it may be established again just as a sly trick to restore confidence in the value of currency, since backing the dollar with gold would make people think that our problems were solved. But the problems will not be solved, not until the use of government as a method of plunder is stopped.” – John Pugsley, The Alpha Strategy

Note from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction. is now at $650. This big auction is for any of you that are gun enthusiasts. It includes 17 items: A four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate, which was kindly donated by Naish Piazza of Front Sight (worth up to $2,000), a $200 gift certificate from Choate Machine and Tool Company (the makers of excellent fiberglass stocks, folding stocks, and shotgun magazine extensions), $450+ worth of full capacity magazines from my personal collection including five scarce original Ruger-made 20 round Mini-14 magazines and five scarce 20 round Beretta M92 magazines, and an autographed copy of the book “Boston’s Gun Bible.” The total value of this 17 item auction lot is $2,700! (See the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction page for details on exactly what is included.) Note: Because this auction includes full capacity magazines, no bids will be accepted from outside of the US or from a resident of any state with magazine restrictions. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments. The auction ends on June 15th.

The following article is the final entry for Round 16 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win two valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificates. (Worth up to $4,000!) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Round 17 of the writing contest begins on June 1st, so get busy!