Jim’s Quote of the Day

“I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools [in the U.S.] that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.” – Oprah Winfrey

Notes From JWR:

Congratulations to Chris in the Carolinas, the high bidder in the most recent SurvivalBlog benefit auction, that ended last night. He won a batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, most of them courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products.) Today we are starting another auction, which runs until February 15th. This one is for a pair of MURS band handheld transceivers, with extended range flex antennas–at least a $150 retail value.The high bidder will receive: “One pair of Kenwood TK2100 VHF 2 channel, 2 watt portable radios in excellent condition, with installed optional six inch “range extender” antennas, tested batteries, spring loaded belt clips, and drop in chargers. Currently programmed for MURS frequencies but can custom programmed for the auction winner.” These radios are being donated by Rob at $49 MURS Radios. Many Thanks, Rob!

Letter Re: How I Convinced My Wife to Prepare

Dear Jim,
I am a very recent reader of your blog, and just finished your novel [“Patriots”] (which I thought was fantastic). I plan on taking the 10 Cent Challenge just as soon as I set up a PayPal account. Anyway I thought you might be interested in how I was able to convince my wife that our family needs to be more prepared in case “something happens.” My wife thinks that I am a little nuts because I believe that society is extremely fragile and will collapse with just a little prodding. She has always put off my desire to spend the family money on preparedness items. This has recently changed: We took a short vacation to New Orleans, and while there went on a post-Katrina tour. The devastation was frightening. Even now there are neighborhoods where cars are rolled over in the middle of the streets and abandoned houses go on for miles. Even more powerful than that was the stories told by the guide. Months without power, no drinkable water available for weeks, and the rampant looting that went on throughout the city. It was one thing to watch it detached on TV and another to view it up close and be able to talk to people who lived through it.

My wife has done a complete attitude shift. We started discussing preparedness from a “natural disaster” standpoint and are making plans to purchase items to see our family through in case the worst happens. She has also asked me to buy more ammo and guns, and we are looking to make our house livable without city electricity or water. Our biggest drawback is the fact that we live in California and can’t leave for about ten years. My boys from a first marriage are still in school here, and I can’t abandon them. I would ideally like to buy land in a more rural location in a more “friendly” state, but will consider it a “win” just to have my wife more interested in preparedness than she has ever been in the past!

As an aside, I have been in California law enforcement (we are no longer “peace keepers”) for thirteen years, and would be happy to answer any California law questions that come up. I will tell you that most officers I talk with these days believe, just like most citizens, that it is the government’s job to take care of us and individuals have little responsibility for their lives.
Keep up the good work and keep your powder dry! – Kevin M.

Letter Re: New York Military Bunker on eBay

Hi Jim,
I can’t say I see many bunkers for sale on eBay. I personally don’t consider New York state ideal for a retreat location, but it is interesting to see this property available nonetheless. I’d be a little concerned about potential HAZMAT issues. BTW – I’m really enjoy reading Rawles on Retreats and Relocation. I’m in between “permanent” dwellings at the moment and it helps to have such a resource when considering my options. Kind Regards, – M. Artixerxes

Letter Re: SHOT Show Report From Mr. B.

The following are my brief impressions of things that I got to see at the recent SHOT Show. There was lot of interest in the prototype .308 Bullpup from Kel-Tec, which takes standard metric FAL magazines. It is planned to be produced in various barrel lengths, and should be reasonably priced.It was interesting, with its forward axial cartridge ejection, just above the barrel.
I don’t recall pricing but $2K would be my best recall/guess. Mr. Kellegren [the “Kel” in Kel-Tec] personally showed me the patent pending ejector. It ejects the casing on the same forward stroke of the bolt that chambers the next round!
The new domestic AUG clone got a lot of attention, and they told me they took 2,000 orders at the show. (Model STG 556)
LRB Arms, famed for their top-regarded M1A forged receivers, was showing a version [the “M25”] with integrated scope mounting points. Those kludgy scope mounts may be a thing of the past. Military users had been welding the mounts to the receivers to keep them from shaking loose! Wait list for up to a year.
“Assault weapons” are here to stay! One industry insider commented that with everybody and his dog (including Smith and Wesson – what would Clinton think now?!) Selling these black rifles, its tough to see the industry standing for a ban on these profitable items.
And speaking of Smith, its announcement of its friendly acquisition of Thompson Center Arms has optimists speculating that the marriage will be a good one, with TC’s esteemed barrel making skills enhancing S&W accuracy. Could this, along with modern machining and MIM (metal injection molding) bring Smith back to the true glory days?
FN’s PS90 (the futuristic one with a plastic stock that looks like is was made from giant elbow macaroni) is selling well to civilians (who can afford the special 5.7 x 28 ammo) in new variants that provide a [optics mounting] rail instead of the terrible 1X scope.
Lever gun shooters who have slept through the last year will be pleased to learn of Hornady’s soft-pointed “Leverevolution” ammo, which provides modern ballistic performance from venerable cartridges. .30-30 is a true deer-getter, and other cartridges reach effectively much farther than before
Savage introduced a varmint rifle in several popular chamberings. The remarkable trigger, an H-S Precision stock and a solid action promise custom rifle performance for about $1,000. One model displayed had the Savage Accutrigger with a 6 ounce pull that was a pleasing rarity for a production rifle.
That’s all from Orlando. OBTW, the word is that the biggest gun industry show will be returning to Las Vegas for the next decade or so.

Letter Re: Dog Food Alternatives and Dog Food Safety Warnings

Jim,
Regarding Ginger B feeding her dog baked potatoes: Always be certain that potatoes are cut into small pieces before feeding them to dogs. Many of them (large dogs in particular) will simply swallow a baked potato whole, leading to awful problems and potentially, death. Another food that most folks are unaware of any danger from is onion, which is lethal to dogs and cats. Be careful not to feed them table scraps that have onion mixed in with them, not even in flavoring agents. The result of onion toxicity is anemia, which is difficult for the lay-person to diagnose (it can creep up slowly over weeks of time).
There are other foods one needs to be aware of too. Most people know about chocolate [toxicity for dogs] but coffee beans, grapes/raisins and macadamia nuts are also considered to be on the "do not feed" list. For those of the "waste not, want not" school of thought, look very carefully at any table scraps you might be feeding your pets to keep them healthy and happy. Regards, – Hawaiian K.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Les Christie, editor of the British Columbia Housing Blog, penned this prescient article for CNNMoney.com: Housing market pain not revealed by statistics

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Rourke suggested that I highlight this product from Canada, which is one of the best door security peepholes on the market

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Bob B. mentioned this article from The Financial Times Online (by way of Matt Drudge): Euro displaces the U.S. Dollar in bond markets

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Nuclear Blast on TV’s ’24’ Causes Fallout for Fox

Jim’s Quote of The Day:

"The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security." – Robert Welch

Notes From JWR:

Now that the holidays are over, we are enjoying the quiet season here at the Rawles Ranch. Other than church activities, 4H club meetings, and homeschooling group meetings, there is not a lot that induces us to go into town. This winter we can laugh at the weather. When it is snowing heavily, we just stay home and stoke the woodstove with a couple of extra chunks of red fir. We home school our kids, so there are no worries about school bus schedules. And we are very well provisioned, so we certainly don’t have to go into town for groceries! We thank God for his tremendous providence. Hallelujah, Jehovah Jireh!

I’m pleased to announce that with the cost advantage of quantity production, I’ve just reduced the price of my non-fiction book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” to $28.

Letter Re: Yet Another Article Touting “Mobility” for Survival

Dear Jim:
See this piece on Survival Preparedness as: “The Ultimate “Contrarian” Investment for 2007 — Be Prepared” The author knows a lot about economics (excellent web site), but one can certainly critique his “Batman in the Boondocks” or “mobile refugee” survival strategy. Regards, – OSOM

JWR Replies: I’m dismayed to see such strategies proposed again and again, usually by folks who have never actually attempted to fill–much less actually shoulder–their “everything that I’ll need” backpack. It is incredibly naive to think that anyone can “head for the hills” with just what you can carry, and survive for an extended period. Note that his overly simplistic “carry heirloom seeds and blue poly tarp” approach does not take into account anything about tools needed to cultivate what he’ll grow, containers he’ll need to store what he grows or gathers, and tools/pots/pans that he’ll need to process/grind and cook what he hunts, gathers, or grows. Nor does it address basics like cages for small livestock, or fencing to protect gardens. How can you expect to carry all that on your back? Unless someone is incredibly fortunate, the odds are that any “mobile” retreating approach will very quickly reduce them to the category of “refugee” at best, or to room temperature, at worst. The history of the previous century –particularly its two world wars and its countless civil wars–taught us that life is, as Hobbes put it, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” for refugees. The last thing that you want to be is a refugee. By definition, going mobile means foregoing the “deep larder” advantage of a fixed retreat. It would be foolish to give that up. Ditto for the often touted “RV land-mobile retreating” approach. As I’ve stated before: In a full scale WTSHTF situation, mobility for the sake of mobility in essence only gives you the opportunity to wander into ambush after ambush. I go into further detail about the fallacies of mobile retreating strategies (backpack, vehicular, and sailboat) in in my book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation.” In the same book I also describe some commonsense fixed location retreat alternatives

All of the preceding is not to say that you shouldn’t own a Get Out of Dodge (“GOOD”) backpack. You should have one, especially if you don’t live year round at your intended retreat. (The pack is only intended for a very short period, to get you to your retreat, in the event that for whatever reason a vehicle is not available.) You should dread ever having to use that pack when forced to abandon your well-stocked retreat and taking off on foot to fend for yourself.

Letter Re: Survival Retreat Potential of Northwest Florida

Mr. Rawles:
I live in south Florida. I would like to know your opinion on having a retreat in northwest Florida, Dixie County to be exact, known as the “least populated county in Florida”. I can’t afford to move out of the state right now and I am concerned about driving through major cities if I had to leave in an emergency from down here.
I would like to be able to do it on one tank of gas which would put me about 5 or 6 hours away from where I am now. I already have a small piece of property up there now with a mobile home on it to use as a base of operation when I buy a larger piece of property and begin my preparations. Traveling two or three days to get to a retreat concerns me.
All of my other preparations are in order: food storage, security, some medical info and books, seeds, and silver/gold, etc. Where I live now is not a defendable place. I have about 8-10 family and friends that will join me. I would like your opinion on this: Is it worth the risk to travel to a farther location like Georgia or North Carolina, where I do have family in the mountains (or even Missouri where land is cheap); or just to prepare up in the Northwest part of Florida. There is a lot of deer, rivers, fishing, and the well water is good.
By the way, I have read [the earlier edition of] your “Patriots” novel and I just got the new [expanded] edition. Thank you for your time and effort into these books. I am looking forward to purchasing the other book about retreats. May God bless you for the wealth of information and knowledge that you share with us and our families. – Patriot Bob

JWR Replies: As previously stated, I encourage moving to selected low population density portions of the western U.S. to increase your chances of survival in the event of a major societal whammy. (See my Recommend Retreat Areas static web page for some pertinent data and recommendations, as well as my recently published book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation for greater detail, including maps.) If you must live in Florida, then the northwest portion of the state is about as good as it gets. It is still in the nation’s hurricane belt, but at least the population density is relatively low. If you can live at your retreat in northwest Florida year round, then my advice is to stay put. (Since you have well water, buy a hand pump from Lehmans.com (assuming that it is a shallow well), or better yet, buy a few photovoltaic (PV) panels and a DC well pump. The folks at Ready Made Resources give advice on sizing a designing a PV power system, free of charge.

If for family or business reasons you must continue live in South Florida, then I would recommend that you consider selling your retreat property in northwest Florida and instead buying a retreat in northern Georgia, South Carolina, or perhaps eastern Tennessee. If you can afford to, you might consider keeping your place in northwest Florida as a “refueling stopover” and as a lightly-stocked alternate retreat locale. It is wise to always have a Plan B and a Plan C!

Two Letters Re: The Novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”

Jim,
I recently received the updated version of “Patriots” a couple days ago. At first I was just going to read the new chapters, but after seeing that you gave it an overall update, I decided to just read the whole thing. So far I have been very impressed. (The two new chapters alone were worth the price of the book.) Not to mention the way everything else was updated. Way to go! You have done a very good job with this new edition, and I have already ordered a few more copies to have on hand as gifts.

I have also just received the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, and Rawles on Retreats and Relocation. Both look very good at first glance, and I’m looking forward to delving into them soon. BTW, I’m also looking forward to the release of the “Best of the Blog” book. – Gung Ho

 

Mr. Rawles:
I read your book in two breathtaking and exciting days, it was impossible to put down. It was as if you took my worst nightmares, and word for word put them into a novel. I had been talking politics with a friend, as is normal for me, when he asked me just what I thought was going to happen in the future of our country. My friend had heard of your book, and when he realized that the vision of my future and your book were one in the same, he told me to go out and pick it up. I couldn’t find it at any of my local book stores, so I ordered it on Amazon. Like I said, two days later… I’m sitting here in awe. Being from New Jersey, most people I talk with are totally clueless to the situation, and just refer to me as a “paranoid nut”, an “extremist” or an “idiot”. Especially if they ever catch wind of the cache I have in my trunk for a “rainy day” as you put it. I just want to say “Thank you!” for such an incredible job of being able to see into the future, and doing your best to help warn people of it in the best way you can. May G-D bless you, – BDB

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage." – Thomas Szasz

Notes From JWR:

It registered 10 below zero Fahrenheit (-23.3 Celsius) yesterday morning at the Rawles Ranch–chilly enough that I resorted to wearing long underwear. The cold winter weather doesn’t bother us much. The great hunting and fishing here in the valley make up for the inconveniences of living in a true “four season” climate.

The SurvivalBlog benefit auction ends tomorrow (midnight EST, on January 15th), so get your bid in soon! The high bid is now at $290. This auction is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.)