Note from JWR:

The SurvivalBlog benefit auction for a pair of MURS band handheld transceivers, with optional extended range flex antennas ends on February 15th. The high bid is currently at $150. These radios were kindly donated by Rob at $49 MURS Radios. Check out his products. What Rob sells are a lot of radio for the money. I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from the SurvivalBlog readers that have bought these. As previously mentioned in the blog, Kenwood 2 watt MURS handhelds have far better range than FRS radios, they require no license, and can be custom programmed for, MURS, 2 Meter Band frequencies (2 Meter Band transmission is legal only for licensed individuals), and/or weather warning (WX, receive only) channels, and they are also compatible with alert message frequencies for Dakota Alert intrusion detection systems. I strongly endorse these hand-helds! If you don’t already own a pair, look into buying some.

Two Letters Re: Electric Golf Carts as a Retreat ATV Option

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have a few points to add to the golf cart idea. first, It is feasible [to convert an electric golf cart into a quasi-ATV.] I worked a a mechanic at a golf course. Power is power. Most carts use four 6 volt batteries [cabled] in series to make 24 volts. Second, some very necessary tools and parts for the job, many feet of battery cable, end fittings and a good swagger [–a cable terminal swaging tool.]
Look for these at your nearest auto store. [JWR Adds: These tools are also available at most marine supply stores. I cannot overemphasize the importance of a solid terminal connection with high current DC cables. Don’t just borrow or rent a swaging tool. Buy your own so that you will have it available when it is needed for periodic cable repairs or replacements.] The arrangement of the batteries during high [current] use kills the cables within weeks. Have spares ready. Third, most electric carts use a rheostat as the input for how fast you go. By finagling your “go pedal” and the rheostat, you can go faster, however this is at the cost of your batteries and the motor – B.B

 

James:
I think that The Bad Boy Buggy is what you are looking for in an off-road four wheel drive electric buggy. – Russ

Two Letters Re: Advice on Sawdust and Other Barn Waste as Fertilizers

Jim:
Something to very careful with when composting sawdust is to be absolutely sure you do not have any sawdust from pressure treated wood. There is a myriad of nasty chemicals in this wood that will destroy your compost heap. Sawdust should not be added directly to your garden because it absorbs and holds moisture and other nutrients. Wood ashes are fine, but only add 1 or 2% Phosphorus and 3 to 7% of potassium. Wood Ashes have an alkaline effect on your soil. I put eggs shells and coffee grounds and wood ashes directly into the garden all winter on top of the snow so as it melts in the spring it helps incorporate into the soil. Before I roto-till in April, any compost I have accumulated since the previous April goes in and then I get a load of Cow /Horse manure from a neighbor. Then I roto-till and let it set until mid to late May when I plant. One last thing: Never add Chicken manure directly to the growing garden unless it has “matured” for about a month or more. It is very high in nitrogen and tends to burn plants. – Carl In Wisconsin.

 

Dear Jim and Family,
I have a comment on the sawdust in soil issue: Sawdust absorbs between 12 and 32 times as much nitrogen as soil which does not contain it. The nitrogen helps it decay but the downside is that it makes the soil infertile. If someone tries to sell you “topsoil” and you can ID sawdust in it, you’ve just met an enemy who trying to pull a fast one on you, and with TEOTWAWKI looming, it could doom your whole family. The only solution to sawdust contamination in your soil is to dump a lot of nitrogen into your soil and let it fallow a year or two to convert all the sawdust into useful nutrients. Covering it in plastic sheeting and doing ammonia gas injection isn’t a bad idea, as that will speed it along. Pay an expert for that. Its dangerous and explosive (Remember The Mosquito Coast? That was an Ammonia gas explosion). Then retest your soil with a kit from the farm supply store and wait for your balance to settle down. Then you can get back to building up the humic and folic acid values again (planting and harvesting crops). It’s very irritating and I keep running into people who pull this particular fast one on the unsuspecting. Don’t let them dump that ac**p on your land, and don’t let them BS you into thinking its “good fer ya soil”. It’s not.

However, if the soil contains rice hulls, you’ve got a winner. Turns out rice hulls decay very slowly and don’t absorb nitrogen but do wonders for your soil aeration, which lets roots breathe better and improves your plant health and fertility. Rice hulls are a good thing. Really good quality compost and potting soil has this. Perlite is much more common (tiny white volcanic glass beads) and does a similar task through not quite as well as rice hulls.

If your topsoil is full of clay, you’ll need to add a lot more fertilizer as clay absorbs it into its crystal structure ([under a microscope] clay looks like a xylophone when it swells and shrinks depending on water content). The upshot of that is the nutrients act on your soil and plants for years afterwards so you can get your money’s worth out of it. If you have too much clay in your soil, till in gypsum as it causes an important chemical/structural change. The clay reacts with gypsum and turns into small pellets which allows better aeration, drainage, and nutrient absorption. Its important to remember: Do not walk on wet clay soil. Make paths with boards around the beds. Don’t compact the soil or your plants will die.

Its not too late to take a soils and horticulture or gardening class at your local community college, or look into books like “Gardening When It Counts”, written by the greener side of the survival community.

One other important thing: if you use well water in volcanic areas, test it for boron or borate. Boron kills plants. Kills them really well. Its mostly harmless to humans, but to plants it’s like their kryptonite, even worse than salt. Apparently using borax soap powder was a common prank for killing lawns in the 50’s, though I’m not old enough to verify that one.

If your soil does get contaminated for some reason, you may need to either plant special crops to remove the toxins, or use a special chemical poison which destroys its fertility but kills everything (even nasty nematodes and soil parasites), or flood the soil for a few weeks to leach out the salts and then drain it off (method for removing sodium salt, potassium salt, selenium or borates from soil). You’ll have to start from scratch with all but the plant method, rebuilding your soil fertility from ground zero takes years, most of the time, unless you’ve got a lot of chemical additives and a working tractor. If you want to do that, consult an expert (I’m just educated, not practically employed in that field), get a quote, and hire another expert to inspect the work.

And if you get insect problems, use sulphur based insecticides. Unless you’re personally allergic to sulphur compounds they are the best bet for your soil. Plants tolerate sulphur well, and for some its an essential nutrient. It bonds to clay well and keeps out of the way after use so its win-win, for all but the allergic people.

Soils maps are easy to get from the federal government, as well as USGS, and most counties keep stocks of these maps though I’ve never felt the need to seek one out. I will when I someday buy a house so I know what I’m dealing with. Most government soils maps were made in the 40’s and usually detail potential uses, indicating fish farms for poorly drained clay soils and suggested crops for specific soil types known to be naturally suited to them. Soil Survey Maps are a very good tool for retreat property hunting.

Incidentally, for desert soils, with irrigation and the right temperature range, will grow nearly anything. They are the most fertile soil type. You just have to avoid the borates and salt flats and washes (those aren’t soils, just alluvium).Sincerely, – InyoKern

Odds ‘n Sods:

Federal budget explosion: $2.9 TRILLION! Gee, you don’t suppose that this will be inflationary or that it will force higher taxes…

  o o o

An interesting article ran in Disaster Recovery Journal‘s 20th Anniversary issue: No Rain, No Power. Written by Ugandans, it describes how the recent drought in Eastern Africa has created a systemic power crisis. Lack of hydroelectric power has forced the Ugandan power utility resort to lengthy “load shedding” power blackouts.

   o o o

The folks at Safecastle wrote to remind me that they now have a Safecastle Royal Buyers Club, with hundreds of high-quality preparedness products listed, and more going up every day. They offer free shipping on all items all the time. And members get at least 20% off the listed prices on everything in the store, even off special sale prices. Safecastle sells freeze dried food, water storage and purification products, optics, communications, and security products, NukAlerts, Paratrooper folding bikes, knives, emergency response kits, and much more. And of course, they’re well known for their prefabricated vaults/shelters/safe rooms.

Jim’s Quote of the Day

"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man’s self defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against unarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: Such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man’s deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his." – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Note from JWR:

There are just 10 days left in the big “Container load sale” at Survival Enterprises. Based on the running inventories posted on the web page, many items have sold out.Get your order in while there is still a good assortment of these long term storage foods! The prices are less than half of retail.

Letter Re: Advice on Using Oak Acorns as a Survival Food

Hi:.
I live in Florida where there are a lot of oak trees with a lot of acorns. Is there any way to prepare acorns so that humans can eat them in a survival situation? Thanks. – Joe in Florida

The Memsahib Replies: Yes! The California Indians’ main staple was acorns. Along the creek where I played as a child, there were many grinding holes in the rocks where the native California women ground their acorns into flour. One anthropologist has speculated that it was the acorn as a diet staple that made the development of civilization in Europe possible. The tannins in acorns make them bitter, make you feel sick, and can cause liver damage. So it is important to leach out the tannins before eating acorns.

Here is the basic “how to” from the University of Illinois Extension Solutions Series: Around the House:

“Acorns are very high in tannins, which make them very bitter and astringent when eaten raw. They need to be boiled or roasted, or both to make them palatable. The sweetest nuts come from the white, burr, and chestnut oaks. The black, pin, and red oak acorns are bitter.
To use: Collect the acorns in the fall, when ripe. Remove the shells and caps. The shells will come off easier if you first slit them with a sharp knife. Boil the acorns whole for at least two hours, changing the water each time it becomes light brown in color. This boiling removes the bitterness and they become pleasantly sweet. You will find, after this boiling, that they are quite dark brown in color. Toast in a 350 degree F oven for another hour. They can then be eaten as they are or ground into flour.”

Here is an article which includes some recipes for using acorns, that ran in one of my favorite magazines, Backwoods Home: “Harvesting the Wild: Acorns” by Jackie Clay

Letter Re: The CDC’s New “Five Categories” for Pandemic Severity

Mr. Rawles,
Given the unique nature of a flu pandemic, (or a “biological” attack), how would one assemble their retreat group after possible outbreak in one’s immediate area, (within 50 miles) with confidence? The vehicle alone that they travel in could be laden with contamination and the door handles become a scary transmission device. Seeing is believing, invisible is invisible.
“To Group or not to Group?”, that is the question. – The Wanderer

JWR Replies: There is no way to be certain to avoid exposure if an influenza outbreak is in close proximity. But odds are that the first outbreaks will be in distant regions. That will be the time to act. I’ve done consulting work for members of three different retreat groups in recent months, and all three had essentially the same concept of operation: If there is news of an outbreak of a rapidly spreading human-to-human (“H2H“) flu strain anywhere on the planet, they plan to send out an alert (via e-mail/phone tree), meet up, lock their gates, and hunker down. One group mentioned a 24 hour deadline. The other two groups quoted 36 hours. Nobody will be allowed in after those deadlines. One of these retreat groups plans a novel procedure for any group members that who get delayed and arrive after their deadline: They will be forced to “quarantine camp” on adjoining National Forest land for two weeks, to establish whether or not were infected. With all seriousness, one of the group members that I interviewed said, “If they start getting sick, we’ll say say prayers for them–from quite a distance–and then we’ll toss them some Sambucol and a shovel.”

Letter Re: CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Training

Jim-
I’m just finishing up the nine-lesson [Citizen Corps] CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training. I highly recommend it. Besides the very good information on dealing with a variety of scenarios, I really like the heavy emphasis on taking care of yourself and your family first. This gets constant reinforcement. So though the training is intended to help you be useful as a first responder, it is even more useful in helping you harden up your home, yourself and your family members.
Of course it’s also a very good way to invite your neighbors into a local cohort group: instead of fending them off, you have a natural reason for engaging them in getting into CERT, and therefore themselves becoming more self-reliant as well. – Bob B.

Letter Re: My M1911 Loyalty Has Been Shaken–I Bought a Beretta

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I just finished “Patriots” and enjoyed it very much. I have been reading SurvivalBlog for over a year now. Today I went to my local gun shop to trade off a Springfield 1911 Micro Compact, which never worked worth a hoot, even after a return to the factory. The Micro Compact is not the only 1911 I have ever owned, I have several Colts, full size, Gold Cup, Government Model, et cetera. I wanted something different, and I have always wanted a Beretta M9, ever since seeing the movie “Die Hard“. So with a little haggling I traded for a brand new Beretta M9 [9mm.] I then took the new Beretta out to the range. Low and behold, out of the box, this Beretta shoots better and more accurately than any 1911 I have ever owned or shot! On top of that it holds 15 rounds. That [much ammunition in the magazine] can buy you a lot of time to get to your rifle, in a jam. I know about knock down power and all the benefits of both. But after years of 1911 loyalty, I have been shaken down to my core. I know that if I go out to the range tomorrow and plink some more, I am going to wind up liking the Beretta more. I have a crisis on my hands, what is a loyal 1911 man to do? – Dan in Oklahoma

JWR Replies: First, I wholeheartedly agree with your assertion that a handgun is not a substitute for a rifle. It is just a tool that buys you time–something that allows you time to “fight your way back to your rifle.” (An old saying, popular with U.S. Army trainers.)

It may surprise you hear that I am not a Model 1911 purist. My general advice is: shoot whatever you are best at shooting. Only hits count, so shoot with the tool that will give you more hits. For most shooters, that means choosing a Glock or perhaps a Springfield Armory XD. Just be sure to use enough gun to stop your opponent. I consider the 9mm cartridge marginal, at best. The .40 S&W cartridge is a bit more of a sure stopper (but still perhaps marginal), and the .45 ACP is about the best compromise cartridge for use a combat autopistol. Keep in mind that NO semi-auto pistol cartridge is going to stop an opponent rapidly unless you get lucky and score a nervous system hit. (Namely, the ocular window or spinal column.) Unlike when using a high power rifle, it will take the effect of cumulative hits to put Mr. Badguy out of action. So use a large caliber handgun loaded with premium hollow point ammo (such as Golden Saber or HydraShok) to start, so that you pile up the damage more quickly with successive hits.)

My only suggestion for you in particular would be to upgrade your Beretta to the .40 S&W cartridge. Factory-made slide/barrel/magazine conversion kits are available from CDNN (see this link, for example) and a number of other Internet vendors. Since they don’t include a frame, no FFL is required to purchase these kits. Buy this conversion kit soon, before you invest too much in 9mm ammo and magazines.

One key proviso: You should line up a supply of Beretta factory made Model 96G (.40 S&W) 10 or 11 round magazines before you order a conversion kit. Parenthetically, I would consider 5 spare magazines a bare minimum–but 10 or 12 spares should probably meet your comfort level. After you’ve made the switch, I recommend greasing up your old 9mm top half and all of your 9mm magazines with R.I.G. Then seal them up in double plastic bags with a little silica gel desiccant inside the inner bag for good measure. Tuck them away in an ammo can–right next to those cans full of 9mm ammo that you can now resign to the category of ballistic wampum. OBTW, I recommend that you consider having a set of Meprolight or Trijicon tritium sights installed on your new .40 top half. Lay in a supply of at least 1,200 &W if your Beretta will be your secondary handgun,

OBTW, if you you decide to leave you pistol “as is” (in 9mm) then get yourself at least one of the scarce Beretta factory 20 round spare magazines. These were originally made for the Model 93R, but they also fit and function in the Model 92 or M9. These extra-high capacity magazines are expensive ($90 to $100 each!) , but are ideal for “bedside table” use, and will hopefully compensate for the marginal ballistics of 9mm. Beretta 93R 20 round magazines can often be found on Buddy Hinton’s boards. BTW, beware the aftermarket 20 rounders, that are often of dubious quality and prone to jamming. All of the originals will be stamped “PB”.

Odds ‘n Sods:

For those of you that have a fast Internet connection, watch SAR expert Robert Nielsen’s recent Google Tech Talk lecture video: Wilderness Survival: Building and Using a Wilderness Survival Kit. It will be one hour of your time, well-spent.

   o o o

Reader P.M. sent me flyer that mentioned the Earth-Box gardening system. P.M. says that he has used these for two years with great success. They can be put on wheeled platform or casters, allowing them to be moved indoors at night when frosts are expected.

   o o o

Rourke (moderator of the Jericho Discussion Group) mentioned that airing of new episodes of the vaguely survivalist television series Jericho will resume on Feb 21st

Jim’s Quote of the Day

"People commit crimes because they are people—because they are innately selfish and do not care how their behavior affects other people, unless they have been raised to behave otherwise or unless they fear the criminal justice system." – Thomas Sowell, Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays, p. 21

Note from JWR:

I’ve been asked by several blog readers about quantity pricing on autographed copies of the latest (expanded) edition of my novel “Patriots”. Here you go:
1: $22, Book Rate postage paid in the United States
2: $20 each, Book Rate postage paid in the United States
3 to 5: $19 each, Book Rate postage paid in the United States
6 to 10: $16 each, Book Rate postage paid in the United States
11 to 25: $14 each, Book Rate postage paid in the United States
Full cases of 26 copies $325 (just $12.50 each), Book Rate postage paid in the United States
Overseas orders: Add $9 for the first copy and $3 for each additional copy, for Global Priority Mail postage (where available.)

If sending payment via US Postal Service money order (sorry, no checks), please use this address:
Elk Creek Company
P.O. Box 303
Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845

On-line payment options:
Our AlertPay address is: rawles@usa.net
Our GearPay address is: rawles@usa.net
Our PayPal address is: rawles@earthlink.net

Most orders will be mailed by our order fulfillment partner, that is in Montana. Regardless of the method of payment, please allow three weeks for delivery. Thanks!

Electric Golf Carts as a Retreat ATV Option

Jim,
A good friend put a lift kit on an electric golf cart. It will go anywhere a 4-wheeler [all terrain vehicle (ATV)] will go; it is drop dead silent; and will go about 24 mph without alterations. I got to thinking: Why not retrofit a PV charging cell on the golf cart’s roof to trickle charge the batteries. An engineer buddy told me that it was very feasible to accomplish this with the additional thought that a redundant solar charger at ‘base’ would increase the time needed to maintain a full charge. I believe that such a unit would be quite popular when the pumps don’t work and the teller machines are ‘down for service’. – Matt, Somewhere South of KY

JWR Replies: Arrrrgh! You beat me to the punch on an article that I had planned to post in SurvivalBlog. Here is my input on the subject, in brief: Electric golf carts have limited range, but are indeed very quiet. You should consider that most gas powered golf carts are much quieter than a comparable-size ATV. If you don’t plan to go more than a few miles, then get an electric cart. Lift kits are indeed available for retrofit for three popular brands of electric carts: Ez-Go, Club Car, and Yamaha. You can even get brush guards and other ATV-esque accessories for golf carts. Photovoltaic (PV) battery charging panels and charge controllers are available for retrofitting a golf cart, from Internet vendors like Ready Made Resources. (A charge controller is a must on any system with more than just one small trickle charging panel. Otherwise you will overcharge and badly “cook” your batteries.) OBTW, there are also PV panels that are factory original equipment on electric carts like the Cruise Car Sunray. (Here is another page on the same cart.)

To make your cart-cum-ATV at least quasi-tactical, I’d recommend that you paint your cart in a flat earth tone color. (You can add a “flattener” to the mix of a normally glossy or semi-gloss paint that you put though a paint spray gun.) You should also keep the materials handy to spray paint, or Bowflage paint, or camo tape over any chrome parts, if and when things get Schumeresque. (Bowflage paint seems to be best for reducing IR signature.) For both off-road flexibility –where you might encounter low overhanging tree branches– and possible tactical use, you should make your canopy (with PV panels) quickly detachable, with lock washers and wing nuts or similar mounting hardware.

Letter Re: Advice on Security for Unattended Retreats

Mr. Rawles:
I feel guilty about asking you this in an e-mail, since I should probably pay for consulting time to have you answer the following: I have a vacation/retreat house that is in another state, almost 600 miles from my home on the coast. I agree with your advice (that you’ve repeated gosh how many times) that someone should live at retreat year round. I tried renting it to an acquaintance that needed some “space” for a time following a divorce, but he eventually moved on. Now my retreat is vacant. All of my friends and me–including the two families that are our “bug out buddies” that will help us man the retreat if times get wild and violent–all have corporate jobs on the coast. So we can’t live there. And because of the way the retreat house is stocked, I can’t rent it out to a stranger. And I can’t have a modern burglar alarm system, since the house is off grid and there are no telephone lines for miles. What can I do to increase security so that nobody rips off all our survival supplies? There is too much for us to bury, and besides, the water table is quite high there, so underground caches are pretty much out of the question. (Our well depth is just 12 feet!) Thanx, – R.T.U.

JWR Replies: I recommend that you: 1.) Get an insurance policy for your retreat, to cover theft and fire. 2.) Install either a Smokecloak device (or something comparable, perhaps tripwire activated) in each room with an exterior door, and 3.) Install several infrared security cameras, such as those sold by Ready Made Resources. Having photographic evidence is essential to eventually apprehend burglars, and is also quite useful for substantiating insurance claims. Ideally, there should be a hidden camera facing down the length of your main approach road/driveway (so that you can catch images of vehicle, driver, and most importantly their license plate number), another camera with a view of the front door or other expected point of entry, and possibly yet another with a view of the bathroom. (Burglars tend to get nervous and use the bathroom.) OBTW, if you have a gun vault for you weapons, optics, and electronics, then be sure to bolt it securely to the floor, and if possible build it into a hidden compartment or hidden room.