Letter Re: A Twenty-Something EMT with Limited Preps Storage Space

Mr. Rawles,
First off I would like to thank you for your profound impact on my life in the last four months. All of my life I grew up with a father and grandfather who were/are minor survivalist men. They believe that the end times are coming and we should prepare for them. They keep about three days of food and water at their homes and plenty of guns and ammo. For the longest time I always thought it was ridiculous and never understood it. Now my thinking has changed to the fact that they are under prepared. When I was 11 my parents divorced and they both re-married. After high school my dad moved to Arizona and I do not see him much and live with my mother who thinks my dad was “crazy” for his survivalist lifestyle.

Five months ago I met my boyfriend. Our second date we went shooting and our third we went fishing. We are very outdoors-oriented people. One day he handed me your book “Patriots” and I shrugged it off for a little while. Eventually I picked it up and didn’t put it down till I was done reading it. It changed my life. Soon after I became a SurvivalBlog reader and have a moderately stocked bug out bag. We have talked about a future together and dream of a life together and it includes getting a house and prepared for TEOTWAWKI because we both know it will happen eventually.
My issue is that I live with my mom and stepfather. I have a small room and small car. My parents don’t allow me to store anything in their garage or tool shed and are in a “getting rid of stuff” mood. They think having a day or two worth of food in our RV outside will cut in for a SHTF situation. My mom freaked out that I wanted to bring my 12 gauge shotgun to her house when I got it, so it stays at my boyfriends along with my M44 [Mosin Nagant carbine] who also lives at home. Needless to say if I asked for a place to store food and water I would become “crazy like your father” which is what she said when she saw my Bug-Out Bag (BOB) in my closet. In addition to that I pay for my own car and bills, work 40 hours a week and am a student.

In January I will be attending paramedic school and that will take a lot of time and money. That being said I also already have a lot of medical supplies around my room and car since I am an EMT. I’m also a girl who has a lot of clothes and a closet jam packed with them and old school books. I also have shelves and a desk, again filled with books and personal items that I simply cannot part with. (childhood memories) I have very little space and very little money. I know there are many ways to start small with survival, but do you have any suggestions for storage that I can get to while being cost efficient and not asking a friend who would think I’m crazy? Any advice would truly be appreciated. I know most of the blog readers either have their own place or a place to store things but in my situation I can’t think of anything.
Thank you again for changing my life and how I think of the world. Sincerely, – Michelle T.

JWR Replies: Don’t be discouraged about the state of your preparations. Just store things as best as you can with the space that you have available until after you are married and have a place of your own. You might want to enquire about the price renting a small commercial storage space. If that is cost prohibitive, then you might wangle some extra garage or attic space with friends or relatives. Another possibility might be to get permission from your EMT organization to store two or three padlocked “contingency” footlockers of clothing and food–stenciled with your name and “Contingency Gear”–for you in a back room. You can explain that in some disaster situations you might have to stay “on station” 24 hours a day, with no chance to go home. Regardless of where you store things, just keep in mind that heat will greatly reduce the shelf life of most storage foods. See for example this chart at MREInfo.com on MRE shelf life versus temperature.

OBTW, if you can handle the recoil of a 12 gauge and 7.62x54R from a light carbine like a M44 Mosin-Nagant, then you rate pretty high in my book. And you are an EMT, too? And outdoorsy? Please tell your boyfriend that–at least according to this editor–he has found himself a good choice for a bride.

Odds ‘n Sods:

MQC sent us this: Standard & Poor’s Downgrades ACA Capital to Junk Status. MQC notes: “S&P cut ACA’s rating to ‘CCC,’ or eight levels below investment grade, from ‘A,’ the sixth-highest investment-grade rating. It also said it may cut Financial Guaranty Insurance Co’s ‘AAA’ rating.” Here is a sobering snippet: “The entire US economy is $14 trillion or so in contrast to $42.6 trillion in credit default swaps. The entire derivatives trade is now a record $681 trillion.”

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Ready Made Resources just added a new photovoltaic (PV) power product to their line. For those of us that can’t afford a full-blown PV system, they now sell the Brunton Solarport –a 4.4 watt compact folding PV panel designed to charge electronics like cell phones, digital cameras, GPS receivers, and PDAs via a USB port, as well as charging batteries for radios and flashlights, with and included charging tray. It come with a 20″ extendable power cable with a modular adapter plug. Up to three units can be linked together for more current output. See the Ready Made Resources web site for complete specifications and pricing.

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Chrysler CEO: We’re ‘operationally’ bankrupt. “To raise money, Chrysler is looking to sell over $1 billion in land, old factories, and other holdings, even if it has to let those properties go for under book value, the Journal said.”

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David in Tennessee found a fascinating Financial Times interview of Bill Gross of Pimco (one of the world’s largest fixed income managers) on interest rates, recession, and government intervention. You can read the transcript, or watch the video. Here is one of the most crucial parts of the interview:
Mr. Gross: “…most modern financial derivatives have been highly leveraged, and it’s that leverage that has rather stealthily snuck in to the economy. And when the leverage goes too far, when the spreads get too tight, when the prices get too high, the de-leveraging is very painful. Especially in the property market, which is, perhaps, the most highly levered asset class of all.
And so, yes, the financial derivatives to the extent that even a subprime is a derivative, or an option-adjusted ARM is a derivative, and then of course, the conduits that include them, all of them levered at five, 10, 15, 20 times – and all with the assumption that things can’t go wrong, and that the only task is to scrape off the carry and the return off the top – you know, that concept is, basically a dying concept and will lead to an implosion at the edges, at least, of this new financial marketplace.
FT: So we’re going to see the whole concept of some hedge funds no longer operating?
Mr. Gross: A hedge fund basically, makes its money – hopefully, through brilliance, but in reality, through leverage and the ability to borrow short and to lend longer and riskier. That’s what a hedge – hedge fund is basic –
FT: Do you think this has been a giant con? The investors haven’t been smart enough to see through that?
Mr. Gross: Well, a hedge fund, to my way of thinking, is an unregulated bank. I mean, a bank isn’t a con, but a bank is a regulated entity. A hedge fund is not, and so from that standpoint it’s been a con on the government, in terms of their unwillingness to regulate the industry. And it’s been a con as well to those investors that have felt that hedge funds could provide double-digit returns forever – or even for a short period of time. That can be done, and was done, but ultimately, you can’t manufacture asset returns simply through the employment of leverage.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice; the belief in Christmas, which is truth; the all of Christmas, which is Christ." – Wilda English

Note from JWR:

Our first post today is from our correspondent in Israel. David was American-born and had a career as a firefighter before emigrating to Israel. He is now a Torah student.

Moon Bounce Communications, by David in Israel

James
When you were working at Defense Electronics I’ll bet you came across a few old articles and references to the pre-communication satellite days and how the military especially the navy handled this in a nuclear war scenario.

While EMP can be handled by hardening and charge dumping circuits there is still the whole problem with a totally disrupted natural ionospheric layers. Under those conditions, it is predicted that long range HF radio just wont work on most bands most of the time.

What started out as a way to listen to Soviet radio and radar transmissions was utilized by the US Navy for a short time as a assured way to get intercontinental communications as long as the moon is in the sky. Although it is usually expensive to get started with Earth-Moon-Earth (EME or commonly called “Moon Bounce”) communications, I have found a nice site that covers using a lower powered 2 meter (144 MHz) setup that most of us could afford.

Here is a site about a hobbyist who watches for EME-bounced TV stations in Australia with simple gear

Wikipedia has a nice intro on the topic.

While communications ranks far lower than food supply, location, a simple defensive battery, and sustainability it is nice to know that you could contact prepared family, or even just listen for
signals from elsewhere on the planet even if a solar, nuclear, or other event were to cut off HF and normal amateur radio or commercial satellite communications. Kol Tov – David in Israel

Letter Re: Coleman Fuel–Uses and Storage Life

Hi Jim,
According to Coleman’s web site, Coleman fuel can be stored for 5 to 7 years. I wondered if a chainsaw with the correct oil additive run on Coleman fuel. So I did a web search, and this is what I found, over at the Timebomb 2000 (Y2K) Discussion Forums, posted back in 1998] – E.L.:

Coleman Fuel the Final Word!
Boy What did I start? I have seen more rumors and half truths about Coleman fuel since I posted that it did work on engines!! Coleman fuel is a very highly refined version of gasoline! It has no additives in it. It comes in sealed metal cans and it stores at least five years if you keep it cool and leave it alone til you use it! It will work in all gasoline engines! You mix oil in 2 cycle [engine]s so that is not a problem. In 4 cycle add 1/2 to 1 oz of ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil per gallon of fuel to provide top cylinder lube. If you want to go one step further get some lead substitute for the old regular burning engines. Okay?

Now I am going to provide you with a very basic primer on how oil and fuel relate to the cracking (refining) tower. crude oil in:[the] lowest [fractioning] levels give you motor oils then fuel oils. Here is how it is,, [from] top to bottom:
LPG (Much more done to refine but you get the idea), white gasoline, Racing gas, Avgas, Gasoline, K1 kerosene, kerosene fuel oil, #1 fuel oil, #2 fuel oil, #3 fuel oil, # 4 motor oils. Okay, now there are many other products made at various levels and many other additives are introduced to provide the end products we use but this gives you an Idea as to how the various fuels relate.
Now if you want to store some Coleman fuel for emergency use, then go ahead, do it! If it burns gas it will burn Coleman! But if you want to use it try it now! Don’t wait to see if it will work, don’t post over and over and over.Try it out for yourself!!! But don’t plan on it being your primary fuel. You can’t possibly store enough [in one gallon cans] to run generators on it. Most of you have no clue as to how much fuel a gasoline generator really uses. Running a typical gas generator would run you at least 5 gallons per day, every day, assuming you only ran it 5-6 hours per day! Do the math! Store 20 gallons [of Coleman fuel] for your chainsaw. Another 10 for the log splitter. But that’s about it. if you need to use some for another reason for a short term use go ahead! But if your looking for long term continuous use get a diesel car, truck, generator, or whatever. – Rich H.

Letter Re: Comments on the Movie “I Am Legend”

JWR,
My wife and I saw “I Am Legend” last night at the local theatre. The movie house was packed. Almost every seat was filled. Of the most interest was the end. As the movie faded to black and credits rolled, there were more than several spontaneous bursts of applause throughout the audience and a few cheers. Wow! The last movie that I remember ever getting applause was the last “Star Wars” installment. Something really hit deep with many in the audience…

My wife was weird’ed out by the zombies though, as they were quite scary. So viewer beware.

As for the movie, I enjoyed it, albeit the zombies are a far stretch to the imagination, the premise is not! (a viral cancer cure with unintended consequences) The self-sufficient [aspects of] survivalism were pretty close to reality (Honda generators, large stores of supplies), although preparedness was not advocated. He just rounded up (looted) whatever he needed during the day[light hours.] The desperation of loneliness was also driven home well. And although he had a very nice AR-15 rifle (my survivalist choice, although I do own a SA-58 FAL [clone]), his hunting skills sucked: Like chasing deer through the city with a high-performance Mustang, etc. Good action, dumb logic!

Anyway, I thought you would be interested in hearing about the audience response from a liberal college town (University of Virginia at Charlottesville.). Regards, – Rmplstlskn

JWR Replies: Keep that .308 FAL. In my opinion, and as previously discussed at length in SurvivalBlog in most situations it is a much better choice than a .223 AR-15 or an M4gery.

Odds ‘n Sods:

SF in Hawaii sent this: World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns. Here I must mention that I have hope that American agriculture can come to the rescue. Since they are still free-market driven, American farmers can react rapidly to changing markets. They see the price of corn soaring, so they plant more corn. I wouldn’t be surprised to see hundreds of thousands of fallowed acres taken out of the CRP and put back to productive use within the next couple of years. In real terms, the price of crops actually fell from 1975 to 2005. Since then, they have started to bounce back. It is clear that prices will continue to rise as long as supplies are thin. One of the beauties of the free market is that its reacts and naturally seeks equilibrium. OBTW, the huge global demand for food also underscores my contention that productive farm land is a good investment, even in the midst of a cyclical real estate collapse. The price declines will primarily be seen in suburban real estate in the coastal regions, and in commercial real estate. Farm land prices will probably be much more resilient.

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For those of you with concealed carry permits, or those that live in the blissful state called Vermont (where no CCW permit is required, even inside city limits), I noticed that Survivor’s Club For Men now carries the “Hidden Agenda” pistol cases, that look just like Day Planners. They have them in various sizes to fit pistols as large as full size Colt M1911 Government Models and Glock M21s, and with or without calendar inserts. (Hopefully the Memsahib will take this as a hint for a Christmas gift.)

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Thanks to SJC for sending this: Small Asteroids Pose Big New Threat. A new study concludes that the asteroid that is believed to have caused the massive 1908 Tunguska forest blow-down may have only been 20 meters in diameter.

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K.L. in Alaska recommended this analysis of the ACA Capital debacle by broker Jim Willie: US Dollar and Monoline Bond Insurers. K.L.’s comment: “This article gives some insight on what will happen next as the banking system spirals toward a crash. The mega-bankers are trying to be upbeat in public, but they must be really scared in private. It’s beginning to look more and more like a house of cards that could collapse at any time. As it says in the article, ‘The giants are toppling’.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The budget should be balanced; the Treasury should be refilled; the public debt should be reduced; the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled. Assistance to foreign land should be curtailed lest we become bankrupt. The mob should be forced to work and not depend upon government for subsistence." – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 – 43 BC

Note from JWR:

The high bid in the current SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $200. The auction is for a scarce original 1980s-vintage Heckler und Koch 19mm Emergency Flare Launcher (EFL) aka “Notsignalgerät“ from my personal collection. It comes with three magazines and 28 scarce original German 19mm flares–10 red, 10 white, and 8 green. Together, this package is worth approximately $400. It is not classified as a “firearm” under Federal law. (Consult your state and local laws before bidding.) Sorry, no overseas bids will be accepted for this auction. This auction ends on January 15th. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments.

Letter Re: Sources for Gasoline and Diesel Fuel in a Grid-Down Collapse

Dear Jim:
There have been a lot of posts recently about bug-out vehicles and such on SurvivalBlog. Of course, every car or truck requires fuel, and in a sudden grid-down situation there will be a bunch of fuel in underground tanks at most every gas station, unable to be pumped out due to the lack of electricity. I have observed oil company trucks filling these tanks, and it appears they simply pry up some covers and drop the fuel into the tanks.
How deep are these tanks, and can the fuel be pumped out by some kind of lightweight hand-cranked pump of some kind, directly into a vehicle tank? How long a drop tube would one need to access the gas?

These questions, of course, bring up the moral aspects of pumping out the gas. In a short-term grid down situation, like is presently occurring in Oklahoma, taking gas without the station being open would clearly be theft. But at the beginning of a long term TEOTWAWKI situation, one might wish to get the gas, and leave payment in cash or junk silver, for example. What are your thoughts on this? Sincerely, – Mark in Albuquerque

JWR Replies: Typical retail gas station fuel tanks are less than 14 feet deep, including the height of the filler necks, so a 15+ foot draw hose is more than long enough. Back in February, I posted details on a safe and cost-effective solution to pumping gasoline from underground tanks without grid power. My design variant (of a time-proven design that has been popular with some dirt bike enthusiasts for more than a decade) uses a 12 VDC fuel pump and incorporates an in-line fuel filter.

Odds are that you will be able to find the station owner to make payment, at least while there is still fuel in their tanks. In fact, any wise station owner will probably hire armed guards, regardless of whether or not power is available. In a societal collapse, with no re-supply in sight, they’d know that any significant quantity of gasoline would have tremendous worth. But of course after the tanks were drained, in a worst case scenario the station would probably be abandoned.

If you build two or more such pumps in advance, then you could probably use the extras in barter–most likely to trade to a gas station owners for some of their fuel.

Letter Re: LDS Church Offers Food Storage Starter Kit

Jim,
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS or comminly called “The Mormons”]. I am also the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for my ward. As you know the leaders of the church constantly speak of preparedness. In April 2007 a talk was offered by Keith B McMullin in the Saturday evening session of conference titled “Lay Up in Store”. This talk proclaimed again all the benefits of preparation.

While not every Latter-day Saint is fully prepared, a percentage somewhere in the mid-teens have done at least a 72-Hour Kit (Bug-out Bag). The Church’s preparation web site was simplified as most were overwhelmed when trying to prioritize to prepare. The focus is now on a Three Month Supply of normal items

In support of this, the Church now offers [at cost] a Family Home Storage Starter Kit. Like everything we as the dominant two legged creatures on this orb learn..Food Storage and Preparedness is “line upon line and precept upon precept.”

The following is quoted from the Provident Living web site:

“The family home storage starter kit may be used to teach family home storage principles and help individuals get started with longer-term food storage. The kit includes materials that teach the importance of a three-month food supply, water storage, and savings and 6 cans of longer-term food supply items.
The kit contains:
* All is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage pamphlet
* All is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances pamphlet
* All is Safely Gathered In: Basic Recipes pamphlet
* Financial reserve and drinking water teaching aids
* Two #10 cans of hard red winter wheat
* Two #10 cans of white rice
* One #10 can of pinto beans
* One #10 can of rolled oats
Available for shipping to United States addresses only.
Available from Church home storage centers in the Spring of 2008 with a savings in shipping and handling.”

[end quote]
This kit is available for anyone–not exclusively for church members. Cheers, – Tim C.

Odds ‘n Sods:

With credit to SHTF Daily (one our favorite sites) comes this tale of housing market woe: Bargain houses largely unsold Courthouse-step auctions offer 1,336 properties in foreclosure — 17 are sold

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Great Britain bans samurai swords. I suppose that the British citizenry will soon be down to just butter knives, cricket bats, ASBOs, and harsh language for self defense.

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SurvivalBlog reader Mary R. forwarded us this odd notice from the US Treasury: Annual Purchase Limit For Savings Bonds Set at $5,000. Could the Treasury have been warned that the Fed plans to further lower interest rates, potentially making even low-yield savings bonds more attractive? We live in strange times, dear readers.

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I heard from Bruce at Best Prices Storable Foods that from now until Dec. 31, 2007, they are offering 20% off all the Mountain House freeze-dried foods they have in stock. Please check their web site for availability. On the phone, mention the End-of-Year special. With their shopping cart, use Coupon Code: MH20off (meaning “Mountain twenty percent off”.) Note that this sale price lasts only until December 31, there is no free shipping offered for these sale items, and the sale is limited to just what they have on hand.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more. A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains." – Alexis DeTocqueville, Democracy in America

Two Letters Re: Wider Implications of the Credit Crunch

Sir,
I read your piece on the credit crunch, and believe it or not, it gets worse. Morgan Stanley not only took a $9.4 billion dollar hit, they shored up their books by getting a $5 billion dollar infusion of capital from the Chinese! They received a 9.9% share of the company in return. The same Chinese fund has also propped up the Blackstone Group, a private equities firm. – Tim R.

Mr. Rawles:
I don’t understand what all this credit and financial news means to us poor folks who don’t have any investments to lose. I have a tiny home, with a reasonable mortgage. Why is this news so bad for us peons down here at the bottom? What exactly are you saying is going to happen? – KB

JWR Replies: What I’m saying is, that even as innocent bystanders, we might be going to witness a severe economic crisis, and experience the fallout. Credit is the lubricant that keeps the American economy going. If credit dries up, the global economy will with slow down. The current (and extraordinary) rate of consumer spending is based on credit. When that credit is no longer available products will not sell. Corporations large and small will lay off workers. As unemployment rises consumer spending will decrease causing further layoffs, company bankruptcies, mortgage defaults, and personal bankruptcies. Cities and counties will have to raise taxes, since even the municipal bond market will be impacted. There could very well be a depression as a bad or worse than that of the 1930s–which was the last time there was a major credit crisis. The bottom line is that you and your neighbors could face massive unemployment. Crime rates will rise. The times could very well resemble my novel, in the near future.

The personal application to all of this is: Do you have a job that is recession or depression proof? And if you do lose your job, will you still be able to pay your mortgage and property tax? Buckle up.