Letter Re: Advice on Military Surplus Bolt Action Rifles

Jim,
You have spoken convincingly of purchasing pre-1899 firearms. I have noticed a flood of older rifles on the market for the last few years, all at seductively low prices, even if some [that are post-1898] must be “registered.” I looked through the topics on the Blog site but could not find the answer to what I am about to ask.

Would you care to offer comparative opinions on the older rifles readily available (Mosin-Nagant, Yugoslavian Mauser, Turkish Mauser, etc.) on the market today. Thanks, – B.A.C.

JWR Replies: I generally prefer pre-1899 Mauser rifles. The Yugoslavian M48 Mausers currently on the market are legally “modern”, requiring transfer through an FFL if purchased across state lines. State and local laws vary widely, but the Federal exemption on pre-1899s is captivating. I’d recommend that anyone interested in acquiring pre-1899 cartridge guns contact George at The Pre-1899 Specialist (one of our advertisers). He will be happy to share his knowledge on the subject.

You Might Just Be a Survivalist If…

Reader Ken. M. found the following on the highly recommended Daily Reckoning Discussion Board and thought you might enjoy it:
You might just be a survivalist if…
– You can’t put your groceries in the trunk of the car because its already jammed full with emergency kits, first aid supplies, and fully-stocked BOBs.
– You have emergency rations for your pets, and view your pets as potential emergency rations.
– You know the news three days before it hits the mass media.
– You have back-up plans for your back-up plans.
– You’re convinced you’ve been exposed to so many chem-trails, you consider it a form of birth control.
– You’ve ever repressed the urge to bleat “BAAAAAAAAAH” as your neighbor earnestly asks, “What war? Where?”
*- You’ve ever bought antibiotics for human use through a vet, or grains for human consumption through a feed store.
– You’ve got more than one grain mill.
– You’ve ever wondered how you might filter the used water from your washing machine to make it fit for human consumption.
*- You have a kerosene lamp in every room
*- Your living room coffee table is actually a board with pretty cloth over it to disguise your food storage underneath.
– Your box springs are Rubber Maid containers filled with rice and beans.
*- You save dryer lint to make fire starters.
– Your most commonly-used fuel additive is ‘Sta-Bil’, instead of ‘Gumout’.
*- You automatically choose the heavy duty flatbed cart upon entering Sam’s Club or COSTCO.
– If you know the shelf life of tuna fish, but don’t know how long you’ve had an open jar of mayo in the frig.
– Your basement walls are insulated with crates of toilet paper, from floor to ceiling, all the way around.
*- While other people are saving money for new furniture, or vacations, you are desperately saving to get solar panels put on your house.
– You were excited beyond all reason when they came out with cheddar cheese in a can.
*- You’ve ever served MREs at a dinner party.
– You can engage in a spirited debate on chemical vs. sawdust toilets for hours on end.
*- You’ve ever considered digging an escape tunnel from your basement to the nearest stand of trees.
– You know how to use a vacuum cleaner in reverse to filter air in your designated bio-chem attack safe room.
*- You’ve ever considered buying an above-ground pool for water storage purposes.
– You know what things like ‘TSHTF‘, ‘BOB‘ and ‘TEOTWAWKI‘ mean.
– You have different grades of BOBs.
*- You know the names, family histories, locations, and degree of readiness of over a thousand fellow doomers on the net… but you’ve never met your neighbors.
*- The best radio in the house is a wind-up.
*- You have better items in storage than you use every day.
*- When the SHTF, you would eat better than you eat now.
*- Your significant other gave you a sleeping bag rated at -15 degrees for Christmas… and you were moved beyond words.
– You’ve sewn a secret mini-BOBs into the bottom of your children’s school backpacks.
– Local food pantries have come to depend on donations from your larder when you rotate stock in the spring and fall.
– You’re still using up your Y2K supplies.
*- You have enough army surplus equipment to open a store.
*- The local army surplus store owner knows you by your first name.
*- You fill up when your gas tank is 3/4 full.
– You call Rubber Maid for wholesale prices.
*- You have several cases of baby wipes and your kids are all grown.
– Bert from ‘Tremors’ is your favorite movie character.
*- You carry a pocket survival kit, a sturdy folding knife, a SureFire flashlight and a small concealed handgun on you to church every Sunday.
– You start panicking when you are down to 50 rolls of toilet paper.
*- You keep a small notebook to write down any edible plants you happen to see along the road.
*- You shop yard sales, store sales, and markdown racks for barter goods for after TSHTF.
– You own a hand-operated clothes washer and a non-electric carpet sweeper.
*- You have at least two of every size of Dutch oven, and 20 bags of charcoal, although you have a gas grill.
*- You have rain barrels at each corner of your house, although you have a city water hookup, and a Big Berkey to purify the water.
– You have sapphire lights, survival whistle, and a Swiss Army knife on every family member’s key chain.
– The people in line at Costco ask you if you run a store or restaurant.
– You require a shovel to rotate all your preps properly.
*- You no longer go the the doctor’s because you can either fix it yourself, make it at home, or know and understand the Physician’s Desk Reference better than he does, and can get the goods at the vets or pet store for much less moolah anyway.
*- You know that a ‘GPS‘ has nothing to do with the economy.
– You track your preps on a computer spreadsheet for easy reordering, but have hard copies in a 3-ring binder ‘just in case’.
– You’ve thought about where the hordes can be stopped before entering town.
– You start evaluating people according to ‘skill sets’.
– You view the nearest conservation area as a potential grocery store if TSHTF.
*- You know all the ways out the building where you work.
– You have enough pasta stockpiled in your basement to carbo-load all the runners in the New York marathon.
*- You know that you have 36 gallons of extra drinking water in the hot water tank and your two toilet tanks.
*- You know which bugs are edible.
*- You have a hand pump on your well.
– You have #10 cans of ‘stuff’ that the labels fell off of, but you won’t throw it out or open it because it ‘may be needed later’, even though you haven’t a clue as to the contents.
*- You know where the best defensive positions and lines of fire are on your property.
– You’ve made a range card for your neighborhood.
*- Your toenail clipper is a K-Bar.
*- The Ranger Handbook is your favorite ‘self help’ book.
*- You’ve numbered the deer romping in the yard by their order of consumption.
– You must move 50 cases of food for the plumber to get to that leaky pipe, but you have your own hand truck in the basement to do it.
*- You own more pairs of hiking boots than casual and dress shoes combined.
*- You have more 55gal blue water drums than family members.
– Your UPS system has more than 6 Deep cycle batteries.
– You have a backup generator for your backup generator, which is a backup for your solar system.
*- You go to McDonalds and ask for one order of fries with 25 packs of ketchup and mustard.
– You have ever given SPAM as a serious gift.
*- You’ve had your eye out for a good deal for a stainless steel handgun to conceal in the bottom of the magazine rack next to the toilet.
*- You are single male over 40, but you still have an emergency childbirth kit, just in case you have to deal with that possibility.
– You have two water heaters installed in your basement, but one is a dummy that’s been converted to hideaway safe.
– You’ve made bugout cargo packs for your dogs.
*- You have a walking stick with all sorts of gadgets hidden inside.
– Your koi pond is stocked with catfish.
– As a stand-in scoutmaster, you taught your son’s troop to set mantraps and punji pits, and haven’t been asked to stand in since.
– You’re on your fifth vacuum sealer, but you keep at least one of the worn out ones because you can still seal up plastic bags with it.
– You haven’t bought dried fruit in years, but you buy fresh bananas, apples, peaches and pears by the case and have three dehydrators.
*- Your UPS man hates you because of all the cases of ammo he’s had to lug from his truck to your front door.
– You have duplicates of all your electronics gear, solar panels and generator parts in your EMP-shielded fallout shelter.
*- You have set aside space for your live chickens in the fallout shelter.
– When the power goes out in your neighborhood, all the neighbor’s kids come over to your place to watch TV on generator power.
*- You must open the door to your pantry very carefully for fear of a canned goods avalanche.
*- You have a ‘Volcano’, you know you can cook anything, and you cast evil glances at your neighbor’s annoying, yappy poodle, muttering “your day will come, hotdog” under your breath.
– You’ve learned to knap flint, make twine from plant fibers for snares and use an atlatl, because you fear that all of your preps and hard work will be confiscated by FEMA troops or destroyed by earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear blasts, ravening hordes of feral sheeple or reptiloids from ‘Planet X’ after TSHTF.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Polk mentioned a recipe from, of all places, Black-Rifles.com, for do-it-yourself yogurt.

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S.F. mentioned this from Milspecmonkey.com: Videos from the recent SHOT show, demonstrating the Lula magazine loaders, and MagPul’s fully ambidextrous gas piston-operated lightweight .223 with quick-change barrels. Meanwhile, Bushmaster has introduced their own gas-piston operated AR-15 variant. (Which would be my choice if I owned a .223.) Oh, and in related news, the U.S. Army won’t be replacing the M4–or even retrofitting with HK-416 uppers.

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An income tax in Florida? One of just nine U.S. states without a personal income tax may succumb to state budget pressure.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"When a place gets crowded enough to require [identification cards], social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere." – Robert A. Heinlein

Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 10 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. This one is bit short, but still eligible for consideration. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I might again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article for Round 10, which ends May 30th. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

Three Liabilities Addressed: Refrigeration, Sanitation, and Fuel, by James D.

One of the biggest problems for the survivalist is the lack of refrigeration, since the cost in energy is just prohibitive, especially in the multi-generational scenario. Normal refrigeration uses an electrically driven compressor to compress a refrigerant (a liquid that boils at room temperature) turning gas to a liquid. For the survivalist, ammonia is the refrigerant of choice, and at the proper pressure (since it is normally a gas), it will act as a refrigerant, although other chemicals may be added to improve performance, including water and salts. When the liquid boils it will cool the surface that the refrigerant evaporates from returning to gas again. (Note that you can change the pressure in the system to alter the temperature it will boil at)
Evaporative cooling works the same in this case as it does when sweat evaporates into vapor cooling you. Ammonia can be made from urine and was first derived from urea. “It was also used by dyers in the Middle Ages in the form of fermented urine” This is of particular interest for those who worry about the multigenerational scenario.

There are many plans available on the internet for experimental ice makers.
These ice makers for the survivalist may make the difference between life and death for those who need cooling for insulin that will work even after an EMP.
Further ice will have huge trade value when there is no other way to make ice post-crash.
Bleach is a great sanitizer but unless stored as a powder it loses potency over time, and there is a limit to the amount of powdered bleach you can rationally store. So the ability to make bleach from raw materials, water and salt, is worthwhile knowledge. Further with the advent of antibiotic resistant bacteria and pandemic viruses, sanitation is not an issue of social graces, but sickness and death. Further bleach made from salt is another potential use for the salt that should be stored for those who do not have access to bodies of salt water, it has innumerable uses, and this is just one more. The basic process is similar to the other electrolytic processes described on SurvivalBlog, like making colloidal silver. Also see this site.

Alcohol is in many ways the wonder fuel for survivalists. It doesn’t spoil (like gas or diesel), it has been made since the dawn of civilization, so it is a robust and simple process the make it, and the ingredients are ubiquitous, plus it makes good trade fodder as more than just fuel. All you need is sugar, yeast and a sealed vessel. Yeasts digest sugar and make alcohol when there is no oxygen around, this is called fermentation. Yeasts are common enough that even without a culture you can just contaminate the vessel with saliva or expose it to air, and there will be enough yeast to ferment the sugars. This is not the most efficient way, or the most appetizing, but it can work. There are many sources for more information about making the mash, but to make a fuel or liquor rather than a semi-toxic mash you need to refine the product. This process is called distillation, and it works by using the boiling points of alcohol and water to separate them in a device called a still. This process is simple, but for efficient distillation, a well made device is required, and most are quite expensive. This is a good tutorial on how to make a quality one for a reasonable price.

Letter Re: Advice on Storing E85 Ethanol Fuel

Jim:
As far as I know, [modern] E85 vehicles [with fuel flash point sensing] can run on pure ethanol (E100 fuel). You can assume there will never be a commercial supply of E100, though, since someone would inevitably try to drink the stuff.As you note, alcohol is hygroscopic, and “If enough water is absorbed, the alcohol separates from the gasoline and goes into solution with the water.” For E85, “enough” is around 20%, so this generally isn’t going to be a problem. – PNG

JWR Replies: Even E10 (10% ethanol) blended gasoline is highly hygroscopic and can absorb 50 times more water than traditional non-blended gasoline. This can be enough to cause hard starting or even engines that won’t run. Water absorption is of particular concern to boat owners. According to fuel-testers.com, one risk with ethanol blends is phase separation. They assert: “With the process of phase separation, two layers of liquid are visible. An upper ethanol-deficient gasoline layer and a lower ethanol-rich (up to 75% ethanol) water layer. It occurs because ethanol is completely soluble in water but only marginally soluble in hydrocarbons. After phase separation, the gasoline layer will have a lower octane number. The fuel also is less volatile.”

And as for someone attempting to drink E100, as long as it is prominently labeled “denatured” and just a small percentage of gasoline or kerosene is added, that is all that is needed to make it unpalatable. Well, perhaps a wino that is already plastered might try it…

Letter Re: Just Three Days to Relief, Post-Disaster?

Jim:
I read a good posting on the blog [by Bryan A.] that unfortunately made me chuckle. Those of us who are first responders (cops, firefighters, etc.) will confirm that the usual mantra of “three days” of preps is excessively optimistic. In fact, FEMA is quietly (or not so, depending on who you ask) telling folks a minimum of ten days. In a briefing last year by a major Puget Sound USAR director, he stated that in his opinion, 10 days is minimum. This is an actual Region 10 director, contrary to what the government says (who did respond to Hurricane Katrina). Three days for supplies to get to someplace is wholly dependant on the ability to get to the region. Far more days elapsed in Katrina affected regions due to the impassibility of so many roadways, especially into rural areas. In a briefing by a New Orleans, Louisiana police department SWAT officer, even their supplies were drowned by the toxic flooding, causing them to go well outside the area to acquire foodstuffs, fuel, etc. (and yes, causing some station houses to loot stores under the disgusting idea that it was for the greater good).

In the windstorm we experienced in the Seattle Metroplex area last winter, there were whole neighborhoods stranded and without out even power for anywhere from 3 to 14 days. Vehicles couldn’t even access some areas until power lines and trees could be cleaned up. One neighborhood in the city that I patrol in had power out for six days, and they were across the street from the city hall! They were the unlucky folks to be at the extreme end of a power grid.

When asked by folks, I warn them to plan for 15 days as a minimum. I get many shocked looks. A recent evaluation of the region showed that over 90% of folks didn’t even have the basic minimums (three days), as easily evidenced by the panic buys of the usual candles, matches, batteries, flashlights, fuel, etc. No wonder people seem shocked. Best Regards, – MP in Seattle

Odds ‘n Sods:

From the Wall Street Journal (by way of SKaiBlog): Crop Prices Soar Pushing Up Cost Of Food Globally

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GG sent us this article link: Diet of tarantulas saves hikers lost in jungle

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Until May 31, Safecastle Royal buyer’s club members can take 30% off the list prices on all Montague folding bikes and accessories (with a minimum purchase of $100). They are listing seven bike models, including the popular “Paratrooper.” Discounted prices range from $349 to $1,431, with free shipping.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to ‘the common good,’ but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance — and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.” – Ayn Rand

Notes from JWR:

The SurvivalBlog readership in Europe is continuing to grow, particularly in England, France, Germany, and the Benelux countries. Thanks for spreading the word! BTW, simply adding a linked SurvivalBlog banner or logo to your e-mail footer and/or to your web pages greatly increases our visibility. Many thanks!

Today we present another article for Round 10 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I might again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article for Round 10, which ends May 30th. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

The Basics of Keeping a Small Flock of Chickens for Survival Protein, by Korey

A small flock of Chickens are not only fun to raise but also a good source of year round protein. They are good scavengers and can make high quality good tasting protein out of every day scraps. A little known fact about chickens is that they will eat almost anything and everything that grows or crawls on this earth. I have seen my small flock eat grass, seeds, bugs, flies, worms and yes I even saw the flock catch and eat a mouse one day. The mouse was stealing food out of the dish when one of the older hens grabbed him and ate him.

A small flock of chickens will provide protein in the form of eggs year round. The younger birds can be eaten in the fall. If you select the correct breeds and give them the right place to live they will hatch out their own young the next spring. The other good thing about chickens is that they are small enough that you can eat the whole animal at one or two meals. This will avoid the need to preserve the meat in the freezer and or refrigerator. These may be luxuries that are not around in the future. Eggs are very versatile and can be used in many many foods as well which will give you a great variety in your diet which may be missed in the future. The extra eggs can also be traded for other items and they will keep for over two months if stored correctly.

Breed Selection
There are a number of different breeds of chickens. The white hybrids are the best chicken man can make. The ones that lay eggs will lay more eggs than any other breed out there. The ones that are made for meat production can grow to over 9 pounds in just 8 weeks. The main drawback to these is that you cannot breed them yourself. You need to get the day old chicks from a hatchery. So for practice they are a good way to get started. They will save you money each year on feed costs and give you the best product that you can get out of your flock. But for the survival flock they will not be what you are looking for. They cannot reproduce with the same traits that they carry. This is done by the breeders to keep their work from being copied. So for a survival flock I would look at a dual purpose breed. Ones that are okay meat producers and still have hens that will lay quite a few eggs. I like the Black Australorps and Rhode Island Reds but there are many many different breeds available. The hens are good egg layers and the young birds are very well fleshed out at 15 to 20 weeks. The only other thing you may want to look at is getting a few dark Cornish boys around for making some really meaty young birds with a cross breed with some of the hens above.

Care
The most important part of getting started is to realize that the first month will make or break a small flock. You need to keep them warm and draft free. This is usually done with the use of a heat lamp or two and a draft free pen. Until they have feathers they will need an outside heat source. They like to have the area they live in at 90 degrees for the first week and then lower it 5 degrees a week until you reach normal out side temperature. It is best to feed them a high protein seed based diet. (corn, wheat, oats) You will need to crack the seed until they get to be 8 weeks old. Do not feed soybeans that have not first been cooked at 180 for 15 minutes. Some of the chemicals in Soybeans will destroy the stomach lining of poultry. Cooking breaks these down. You can boil the soybeans and that will make them safe to feed. Your hens will start to lay eggs at 18 to 22 weeks of age. The hybrids will lay a few weeks earlier and the really heavy birds will start a few weeks later.

Predators
You also need to keep them safe from predators. Almost every animal that hunts for a living will eat a young chicken. After about 8 to 10 weeks some of the predators will stop looking at them as food (cats, rats). But raccoons, skunks, mink, fox, coyotes, hawks, eagles and owls will eat them at any age. This means that if you want to keep your animals alive you should lock them up at night. Once they are about three months old they can be let out to forage on their own during the day and they will return to the coop to sleep at night. If you can close the door at night, this will keep most of the predators out and your hens safe. It is also a good idea to pick the eggs every night. Hens will usually lay an egg every 36 hours or so. They most likely will lay this egg early in the morning. If you can pick the eggs at noon and again as you close up for the night you will remove a temptation for predators. Not only do they eat the chickens they also eat the eggs as well.

Housing
In the southern U.S., chicken really will just need a place to get out of the rain and stay dry and warm on the colder days. In the northern states they will need to have a place that is not only dry but as draft free as possible. Chickens are really hardy animals and can take a lot of cold weather, but if the cold winter wind blows through your building you will end up with frozen combs and even some missing toes come spring. You will also get as many eggs as the house is warm. Once the birds start to use their energy to stay warm they stop producing eggs and just survive. Which is good because then in the spring you will have eggs once again.

Processing for meat
This is the hard part for many people. But when you are starving and or just sick of beans and rice this may be a lot easier. There are a lot of different way to put down your chickens. One way is to use a killing cone. It is really just an upside down funnel. You place the chicken in the funnel so the head comes out the small end at the bottom. You can then cut the throat until you get spraying blood. They will bleed out in a minute or two. Once the blood is all gone they will thrash around for a few minutes more. The cone will contain them and keep them from bruising the meat. One of the other ways is to cut the head off with a large knife or hatchet. Take an old stump and pound two nails in one side of it. Space them just far enough apart so they will hold the head of the chicken still. Hold the wings and legs with one hand and stretch out the neck. Them with one swift swing sever the head. Hold on to the wings and legs for the first minute or two. Once they have stopped thrashing around you can lay them down.
Heat your water between 150 to 160 degrees. Once the chicken has stopped all movement dip them in the water. You will need enough water to cover the entire bird. Use a small stick to make sure the water gets to all parts of the chicken. You should keep the chicken in the water until you can easily pull out the feathers. At that time I like to move to a plucking area. I keep this process separate from the rest. This will remove the feathers and the dirt from the birds. I usually remove the bottom part of the legs at this time. Then I move to a cleaning table where I remove the crop and then the insides. The crop is under the skin at the base of the neck and can be pulled away from the body once the neck skin is removed. Removing the insides can be done in many ways but usually I just make cut between the legs below the breast bone big enough for my hand to reach in and remove what is inside. You can save the gizzard, liver and hart if you want at this time. Rinse the inside with water and wash the outside as well. Now you can singe off the little "hair" on the body of the chicken. To do this you can use a torch or you can use a rolled up news paper. Once this is done get the bird into cold water to cool. Bury the rest with the feathers so you do not invite more predators to your area. Then enjoy the best chicken dinner you have ever had.

I have described just the basics of keeping a small flock of chickens for survival needs. There is much more to learn and much more to enjoy about keeping chickens. But this should get you started. From here if you listen to your birds they can give you clues of things they need. But for the most part chickens are one of the few animals that if left alone and given enough room to run they will balance their diet with out much help. Just keep them safe at night and enjoy fresh eggs and meat from your small flock. – Korey

Letter Re: Advice on Storing E85 Ethanol Fuel

Hi Jim:
I’m having a good time filling the tank on my [flexible fuel variant GMC] Yukon XL with E85 [a 85% ethanol / 15% gasoline blend] which is very cheap compared to regular in these parts. I was wondering if you had any storage information for E85? Given it’s high alcohol content, by default do you know if it would it require an additive for long term jerry can storage? Google searched return a lot of useless noise. Thanks, – Eric

JWR Replies: In retrospect, I’m glad that more than year ago I started recommending that SurvivalBlog readers buy themselves E85-compatible vehicles. The good news is that I predict that within a few years the price of E85 in the U.S. will be about half the price of unleaded gasoline. But the bad news is that by the time this happens, E85 will probably be $3 per gallon, and standard gasoline will be $6 per gallon. I am hopeful that within a few years E100 vehicles will become available. These will run on pure ethanol (grain alcohol) or methanol (wood alcohol). That would be ideal for a survival retreat, where you could presumably build your own still. But for now, E85 vehicles are highly recommended. They are still fairly scarce. (To find one for sale near you, do a search on “Flex Fuel” in the Edmunds.com vehicle search page.)

The E85 ethanol blend has a storage life that is longer than standard gasoline, but it is essential that it is stored in tightly sealed containers. Otherwise, the alcohol will absorb moisture. If enough water is absorbed, the alcohol separates from the gasoline and goes into solution with the water. (Read: Ruined fuel, and an engine that won’t start.) So keep your containers full, and tightly sealed. A special note to SurvivalBlog readers in damp climates: The higher the humidity, the faster that this will occur!

Pri-G (available from Nitro-Pak) or STA-BIL (available at your local auto parts store) brand additives can and should be added to E85 that is stored more than a couple of months, to protect the 15% of the blend that is gasoline. But of course you only need about 15% of the quantity per gallon that you would normally use to treat standard gasoline. (The alcohol component of the blend needs no special stabilization.) As with storing standard gasoline, it is best to buy E85 for storage during winter months, when you will presumably be buying a winter blend that has extra butane added for cold weather starting. (This also extends its useful storage life.)

Odds ‘n Sods:

The U.S. real estate implosion begins, in earnest: A house costs less than a car in Detroit. The recent shift in the real estate market (which I predicted two years ago) has led me to believe that the best way to buy land these days is to watch and wait for bargains, particularly bankruptcy sales and foreclosures. The foreclosure rate jumped 13% in the past two months. I expect this trend to continue, especially as millions of sub-prime ARMs reset. to higher interest rates. There will be a lot of foreclosures to choose from–including some good rural retreat properties–as the down-market in real estate unfolds in the next few years. By definition, a declining market is a “buyer’s market”, so you can afford to be both patient and picky. If you buy any land, you should assume that the market will go down in value at least another 20% in rural areas, and perhaps 40% in the coastal metropolitan markets. So it makes sense to only make offers that are well under the current prices. I see bankruptcy sales and foreclosures as some of the best venues to have “low ball” offers taken seriously. One good source for finding foreclosure listings in your intended retreat area(s) is Foreclosures.com. (One of our Affiliate Advertisers.)

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By way of blogger Teddy Jacobsen comes a news story on the now chronic ammunition shortage in the U.S. Parenthetically, our family intentionally stocked up on ammunition (“Ballistic Wampum”), starting in the early 1990s. All of that ammo is still in sealed military surplus ammo cans, ensuring that it will be sure fire, many decades in the future. Our small mountain of ammo was a pain to move (our last move to the new Rawles Ranch will hopefully be our last), but the moving expense was negligible, especially since a lot of the ammo that we moved had greatly increased in value (2x to 8x) since we originally purchased it. I still consider common caliber ammunition the ultimate post-WTSHTF barter item.

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Any SurvivalBlog readers in western Washington should jump on this bargain on Craig’s List: just $50 for a big stack of bee keeping equipment.

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The high bid is still at $425 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction for several items (including an EMP-proof antique radio, four books, and a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course) that are being auctioned together as a lot:. The auction ends on April 15th. Just e-mail me your bid. Thanks!

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents ‘interests,’ I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.” – Barry Goldwater