Letter Re: “Power Up”–A Useful Reference on Battery Conversions for Military Electronics

James,
You need to take a look at this link. It is an online version of a very rare book (Power Up) that shows how to make standard battery conversions of many military items, something that could come in handy one of these days. Best Regards, – Jim K.

JWR Replies: This link works well in Firefox, but Netscape some other browsers have conflicts, so you may have to turn off Java to see this page properly. Once there, click on the link for any particular piece of military equipment. This is indeed a great reference!

Letter Re: Are Your Neighbors Prepared? by Doc

Mr. Rawles:
One point to note with Doc’s observations as a home repairman. I had my hot water heater short last week. If a repairman had come to my home, he would have walked past my garden and wood pile, had to go down the stairs past one ammo cache and rifle, 12 cases of Mason jars, around bags of old clothes waiting to be used for quilts, past various toolboxes, a chest freezer, lanterns, a grain mill and workbench, et cetera. But, instead, I went to the hardware store, bought a thermostat, and made the repair myself. I would wager that the 2% of the population that still farms (and those that grew up on farms) and a portion of the population that works in plumbing/electrical/contracting work don’t call repairmen. [That is a] lot better odds than 1/1000. Still…his observations show that there’s little hope for the McMansion dwellers and moochers. – Al in Durham

Odds ‘n Sods:

Al Jazeera (not well known for unbiased reporting) comments on Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and Syria–all making distinct moves away from the U.S. Dollar.

   o o o

Michael Z. Williamson pointed us to a Box 0′ Truth evaluation .223 and .308 versus body armor. As I often say, a handgun is just a portable tool to buy time to get you back to your rifle.

   o o o

Back to the Bunker: The Washington Post reports on FEMA’s Continuity of Government (COG) plans.

  

 

Note From JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 5 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up up to $2,000!) If you want a chance to win, start writing and e-mail us your article soon. Round 5 ends on July 31st.

The Ultimate Preparedness Community, by George L.

In Boston T. Party’s excellent novel, Molon Labe, the central character, James Wayne Preston, writes an inspiring letter on page 45 to his father outlining the issues he sees requiring separation to build a common community of free people in Wyoming. A better plan doesn’t require moving to one state for a political revolt. For those who are not Christian, please bear with me for a moment. You will quickly identify many of these organizational principles as essential for all group dynamics of individualists freely associating with each other to achieve specific goals. God’s plan of true Church organization does not require a physical move. It simply requires a small gathering of His people wherever they live, organized as outlined by the early apostles. Both accurate orthodoxy and orthopraxy (the practice of the Christian life) are vital to creating a dynamic culture that will overcome today’s popular culture. In 1858, Southern Baptist theologian J. L. Dagg wrote in Manual of Church Order, P. 84-86 that the apostles, “have taught us by example how to organize and govern churches. We have no right to reject their instruction and captiously insist that nothing but positive command shall bind us. Instead of choosing to walk in a way of our own devising, we should take pleasure to walk in the footsteps of those holy men from whom we have received the word of life…respect for the Spirit by which they were led should induce us to prefer their modes of organization and government to such as our inferior wisdom might suggest.”
Just as true conservatives know in order to understand the implications of our Constitution for today, they must understand the root arguments made by both the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. These type conservatives will appear radical to the world today. Consider the term radical is from the Latin radix and simply means root. To understand Christ’s organizational format we must return to the roots of the apostles’ writings, while often ignoring the customs around us today.
Remember that no one survives for long without the assistance of others. Within the preparedness community some are primarily interested in political reform, others economic, religious, social or just preserving certain issues we know are important to a free people such as rights of speech, arms, or privacy. None of these issues alone will compete with the culture of tyranny that grows in our midst. We must actually grow an alternative culture that provides a more dynamic and free alternative to what the current environment is forcing upon many of us. Home education was the mustard seed of involvement that resulted in many Americans realizing the ineptitude of the design and intent of government education. Now comes a new growth of social organization I believe will even eclipse the positive experiences of those having grown up in the home education culture.
Everything that happens in this world, including preparedness, begins first in the heart. It then works its way into the subconscious mind and into our conscious thoughts. Only then do we decide if we will take the time, energy, risk and creativity to put it into effect.
The great challenge of the preparedness community is the conflict of world-views. The Western world has historically understood that “civilized” life began first with the integrity and value of the individual. It then worked its way out to the family, tribe, and only then to the state or nation. We are now often at odds with a socialists or communist perspective of sacrificing individual values, even the entire individual, for the better good of the state. We have come a long way from the original values of a government designed to protect live, liberty and property to those of grand social designs that harness your life, liberty, and property for it’s purpose. Even our religious institutions have mostly gone this same route of centralization of power to serve the needs of an “organization” at the expense of basic individual rights.
How does one stand against such a great tide of opposition? Millions have been killed and persecuted in the last century of its oncoming wave of ideology. Many have argued our defense with opposing theories, but with no success against the envied and hate-filled majorities of democracy’s tyrannies. For almost 1700 years the Christian church has organized itself more along the lines of the world’s spirit of collectivism than the spirit of freedom that Christ came to give. Once Constantine made Christianity legal and forced its adoption, the original principles of organization outlined by the apostles in the first several hundred years of Christian growth began to be subverted and then mostly lost. The accurate application of orthodoxy and orthopraxy will show how weak and fallen men are built into individuals of spiritual, moral, intellectual, and physical strength completely capable of working together in a spirit of freedom to overcome even the strongest system of collectivism ever created by the fallen nature of man…that of Rome in it’s later days. The success of the Christian home churches in communist China is also an excellent example of the success of God’s organizational system even today.
Please do not discount this brief article as an inspirational or motivational piece. It is neither. It is motivational only to the extent that my desire is to move you toward a self-directed academic study of the greatest “how to” organizational design ever to come form the heart and consciousness of the Creator Himself.
While space does not allow me to get into the details of how the early church gathered in homes, was lead by a plurality of unpaid elders, and provided for the teaching, spiritual and physical well being of its members and often the larger community, please permit me to point you to a few resources to guide you on your self-study:
1. The New Testament Reformation Foundation:
2. A Baptist Greek Professor’s blog:
3. For encouragement of young adults: Turning The Tide
4. The first week of March 2006 issue of Time magazine gave an interesting overview of the “home church” topic.

The combination of communities of free people working with and alongside others who both home educate and have home fellowships is a viable foundation of building a dynamic decentralized culture. This is far superior to the alternative being forced on us by confiscation of our life from both government taxation and emotional manipulation of a paid clergy system. In summary, first develop a love of freedom, second, a knowledge of freedom, and then, act with inspired courage in being free.

 

 

Odds ‘n Sods:

Dr. Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute recommended reading these transcriptions of interviews with subject matter experts on Asian Avian Flu. The interviews were part of a program that was aired in Canada last year. Geri also recommended this recent article from The Guardian newspaper in England on the origins of the viruses. It points finger of blame at intensive agriculture.

   o o o

Allstate is dropping most of its earthquake insurance policies, throughout the U.S., as a part of a larger move to reduce exposure to catastrophic losses.

   o o o

Fred the Valmet-meister sent me a link for a web site devoted to cowboy dutch oven cooking and sourdough “start” as well as some sourdough recipes.

Cooking Raccoons, Beaver, Muskrats, and Snapping Turtles, by Buckshot

Raccoons are like a fat pig when it comes to cooking them. The best way for mid size and smaller coons (under 15 pounds) is to roast them. Now the trick to cooking coons is to have the meat above the heat so the fat can drip down.For example, use a barbeque grill or place it in the oven on a grill above a pan to catch the grease. Cut as much fat off as you can, cook allowing most of the grease to melt off. Apply a light coating of barbeque sauce. Now you have some great eating.

Now on to other cooking methods for raccoons and beaver. Young beaver under 35 pounds are awesome on the grill, and so is muskrat. Parboil the meat for 10 minutes allow to cool and strip off the meat from the bones. Take that meat and place it in your favorite stew recipe. I really like it in white navy beans. Let it simmer all day. This makes a nice meal when you come in from the cold. With beaver, another way is to bake in the oven at 350 F, cover with Lipton onion soup mix. Here a simple beaver Chili recipe: Parboil and strip the meat off the bones. Add the meat to the rest of the chili ingredients. If you use a good chili recipe on beaver, most folks can’t tell that that they are not eating beef. Another one that is always a safe bet is to parboil, strip the meat off the bones, and simmer in Cream of Mushroom soup all day. Serve over fried potatoes or rice. Season to taste. I like chopped onions, lemon pepper, salt, a little garlic, and green peppers. This works in stews or soups. Or you can parboil, strip the meat off the bones, roll the meat in flour and fry it. Again, I use chopped onions, lemon pepper, salt, a little garlic, and green peppers.

My sister makes the best turtle soup. Now big snapping turtles have tough meat. She boils it overnight. Drain. Strip the meat off and then add the normal soup ingredients and let it simmer all day. It is awesome. Just about anything can be made to taste good this way. 🙂 Play around and try different things. You will find a great way to cook most wild game. – Buckshot

Letter Re: Updated Nuclear Weapon Targeting Data?

Dear Jim:
I would like to ask if anyone has done a serious re-calculation of the old 1980s FEMA data, taking into account decommissioned nukes on both sides (US and the former USSR). I’m talking in particular about the Bruce Beach maps that we all know and love. (Hats off to Bruce). The point is many of these targets no longer exist, and many of the missiles that targeted these targets no longer exist. I also worry about a shift from military and industrial targets to civilian population centers, as we essentially saw with the 9/11 attack – directed at a capitalist symbol, yes, but also at one of the greatest vertical concentrations of people on the plant. What used to be the worst spots in the nation, down wind of the Minuteman and Titan bases, may now in fact be much better places to consider is my point.

The radmeters4u site shows that it was updated last of April 1, 2001. I feel like a freeloader requesting Bruce Beach to continue his good work, and ask instead what we can do, which I would be willing to contribute to, in order to get this information updated, taking into account China IMHO now that they, thanks to our previous President, can target us as well.
I would like to hear people’s thoughts on this. – Rourke

Two Letters Re: Stocking up on Prescription Medications

Jim:
One more opinion on this, RARELY if EVER do medications cause ANY harm if taken past their expiration date. The only thing you MIGHT lose is some of the effectiveness of the particular drug. If they are stored in the oft-mentioned common sense fashion ( cool, dark, dessicant-added, etc.) meds are easily good for 5-10 years past their expiration date . I am a family doc with 27 years of experience in both the civilian and the military end of family medicine. Thank you for your daily dose of great information. – FLS

 

James:
Your topic of stocking up on medical supplies holds some interest for us because we have an elder living with us by our choice in our home. The price of prescription drugs notwithstanding, it may be
just our situation in our state, but we find it difficult to stock up on my parent’s prescriptions when the insurance company(ies) won’t allow one to buy more than a 30 day supply.
To take this a bit further, even when you have a sympathetic doctor, the local pharmacies won’t allow you (and this includes the Canadian pharmacy we buy from as well) to purchase more than a three month supply of meds for your elder. Most of us do not have a way to acquire more than this amount of any needed prescription meds. So is there a way around this?
Also, how does one go about obtaining other very practical meds that seem to be a doctor-only prescription that would be nice to have in the medicine kit bag at home (antibiotics are a prime
example.) I would appreciate some tips from your readers out there. Regards, – Redclay

JWR Replies: Getting extra prescriptions is not a problem if you have a sympathetic doctor. You can always visit multiple pharmacies with these prescription slips. But you probably won’t be able to get around the insurance company “three month limit” policy. You must resign yourself to paying for the extra medications entirely out of your own pocket.

Letter Re: The Death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi = Increased Threat Level in CONUS?

Hi Jim,
[Regarding press reports of the death of Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq) in an intelligence-queued a bombing raid on his safe house.] You may have thought of this, but if you were a rabid terrorist leader, with assets it the USA, that were on the alert and ready to go. What better message to send to the infidel enemy than to have your death signal an attack? Make a statement about how long your reach is, and all that. Hit the enemy while he is celebrating. Heads up extra high for a while. – John Adams.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it." – Robert A. Heinlein

Two Letters Re: Great Depression II What Will it Be Like?, by Buckshot

James:
I read [Buckshot’s article Great Depression II What Will it Be Like? in] SurvivalBlog on Monday and kinda got depressed. Its really only my mother and me living together and she is very anti-survivalist in nature and ideology. I’m thinking that I could handle four or five raiders, but more then that I would be doomed I could never reload and fire fast enough. My mom wouldn’t help me at all and probably would actually hinder me….what would you do?
The other thought was being burned out I have three fire extinguishers but can I fight the fire from inside so I don’t get shot? My locale (western Washington state) is like two out of [every] three neighbors are liberals so there would be few if any allies or help… There are really only four people I could trust. One of them is is 10 miles away. Two others are 15 miles, an the fourth is about 60 miles. I’m assuming that I can’t get out of my city to get to them. So a worse case scenario… I don’t own the vehicle–my mom does. So I have to assume I’m on foot for everything. – Wally

JWR Replies: Don’t let that article depress you. Instead, it should encourage you. First, consider that what Buckshot described in the latter part of his article (i.e. the potential threat of large organized groups of looters) is only an outside chance. This is just the “worst case” possibility. Odds are that things will not get nearly that bad. And even if there were large groups of bandits roving the countryside, I predict that they will pick on people that are passive and defenseless. When you start to put lead down range, the bad guys will quickly decide to move on to easier pickings. Who in their right mind would want to risk a bullet wound during a crisis when there is no medical aid available? That would be suicidal. Second, consider the fact that because you are aware of the full implications of a grid-down situation and even the risk of a full scale societal collapse, you are doubtless actively preparing. Thus, you will be far better prepared than 99% of your neighbors. Because of that, your chances if survival will be an order of magnitude greater than theirs. Lastly, because you do have some friends in the region, you have a planned desitination–and most importantly you will make the move to team up with them long before the GDP (Generally Dumb Public) awakes from their stupor and hits the road. While your neighbors are still trying to sort out what happened, you will already be linked up with your friends and hunkered down well outside of the urban zone. Cheer up. Put your faith in God. Trust that he will put you in the right place at the right time, with the right friends. Its called Providence.

 

And this one, that was coauthored by two SurvivalBlog readers:

James:

Buckshot’s thoughts are very valid; the post is well done with many good thoughts. But let us not forget that if we are going into a “new dark age” and I think it may be worse than that, then fuel supplies last only a short time, things wear out, steel rusts, and society may not recover.
It is all well and good having your ‘retreat’ and so you should, and it is, as many including Buckshot say, better to be able to live at your retreat. It is also wise and prudent to have stores, but these stores must cover not only your initial short term period, many suggest a year, but to also to help you and yours into the long term future.
Gold and silver may well be an advantage in the initial breakdown stages but longer term they may prove useless if others do not accept them as a value for trading. In my view it may be better to have [tangible] ‘items’ for barter and trade rather than gold or silver.
I fear that this will not be like the previous dark ages where society has been rebuilt and advanced after a collapse. In previous dark ages we have had easy access to the minerals and fossil fuels that we have needed to live and it was this that has allowed us to not only expand to the numbers that we have now but also to advance technologically. We have used all the easily accessible minerals and fossil fuels, we are not only using more energy to extract these items but they are becoming harder to find and mine and are also becoming scarcer.
We may expect to still be able to generate electricity after the collapse, even in small amounts by wind, wave, and tide turbines, of which so much is expected. But these are constructed and maintained using massive tonnages of steel and concrete. These basic bulk materials are fairly cheap and abundant today, but will soon be seriously scarce and expensive.
A wind turbine is not successful as a renewable generator unless another similar one can be constructed from raw materials using only the energy that the first one generates in its lifetime, and still show a worthwhile budget surplus.
It would be interesting to see more debate on this blog on the longer term aspects of survival, not just 1 to 3 years but 50 to 100 years.
Next time I fear it will not be back to a Dark Age it will back to the Stone Age unless we as survivalists start serious long term planning and discussion. – Mr. Whiskey& Norman

Letter Re: On Training and Cross-Training with Unfamiliar Gear

Mr. Rawles,
This weekend, I saw an excellent training strategy employed: trade equipment with your friends and see how well you do with it.
Whether it’s a rifle/pistol match, where everyone has to use the same beater Remington 870 instead of the expensive “tactical” setup they brought, or having to set up and use someone else’s stove or tent on a camping trip, it makes sense.
Having to make do with unfamiliar gear expands the range of situations you can deal with, and gives you confidence and general knowledge that you can apply later. You’ll also get ideas on how to improve your equipment next time. Since doing this, I’ve learned that I need to start keep inventory lists in my first aid kits, and general instructions on some of my items. A log book that details each of your firearms, with instructions on how They are zeroed with particular ammo (i.e. 1″ high at 100 yards with 55gr ball, 10″ low with 68 grain, et cetera) is also a good idea.
Even better would be instructions for zeroing it out from scratch (i.e. sights are 48 clicks Left from stop and 12 up for standard ammo), copies of the take-down procedure and other basic info, All of this can live in a small 3-ring binder.
Basically, any bag of gear or complicated piece of equipment should have the supplies and documents for someone who has never seen it before to be able to operate it cold. If all of your stuff is maintained in this state, you will never forget something important (such as bringing the chain saw with no bar oil) and your brother-in-law won’t burn out the generator if he needs to run it while you’re gone and he doesn’t know the oil/gas mixing procedure. Hope this helps! – JN