There has been much talk about Iran’s new Euro-denominated oil bourse. Presidente Hugo Chavez now says that he might start pricing oil in Euros, too. And President Putin of Russia wants to trade oil and natural gas in rubles. Are they all trying to tell us something about the once-almighty U.S. Dollar?
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BBC News Economics Editor Steve Schifferes comments on why the dollar is sinking so rapidly.
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The high price of platinum is boosting palladium, as an alternative for jewelry making
"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth. For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer." – Patrick Henry
James
Every time I see an article by Buckshot [such as “The Basics of Stocking a Retreat For One Year”, posted May 19th], I am most impressed that he expresses the distilled wisdom of a true survivor. I don’t believe I have ever see him recommend a battle rifle as an primary part of a survivor’s arsenal. A military type rifle in the hands of someone without a realistic idea of combat gives a sense of super hero power. Sadly in a generation of video games where the “Hero” is able to take down whole rogue military installations a subtle psychological training shift takes place. I don’t so much fear the fake violence as much as the ludicrous expectation that the weapon makes the commando. More than anything what really makes a special team is combat practice several times a week, blitzkrieg tactics which make the opposing force play to your rules, and massive expended firepower giving your adversary sensory overload.
My recommendation is to play the mouse and hide using your .30-30 to bag meat and defend yourself until you have squared yourself away in the more important departments. For most people the heavy arsenal is an strong temptation to be the local super cop, an unpopular and very dangerous decision. The nail that sticks up (in a scary “black rifle” way) is the first to be hammered down by any new regional emergency authorities. Even worse are the temptations to use your heavy weapons to supply your family because you failed to do any other preparations.
Remember in a survival situation you are not the U.S. military expeditionary force. Please adjust your survival plans accordingly. – David
James:
I am getting a Model 1893 Turkish Mauser. I know that these actions are not as strong as the Model 98. However, they are German Mausers made in Oberndorf. What finer pedigree can a rifle have? I have read some posts on forums that these are marginally safe with commercially available ammo. I was warned that the Turkish ammo was dangerous, it is known to be the hottest of the milsurp ammo.
I was also warned against the Yugo [ammo]. One or two guys even said you only should shoot hand loaded mild loads. I am just wondering what your personal experience has been regarding this rifle. Any info you could give me would be appreciated. Thanks, – Scott
P.S: Thanks a lot for your FAQ info [on Pre-1899s] over at Empire Arms.
JWR Replies: Standard velocity 8×57 military surplus ammo is well within the pressure limits of the re-heat treated Turkish contract Model 1893 actions. Even commercial soft nose ammo (which produces slightly higher pressure) is still within limits. So there is no need to handload for these rifles. However, have any surplus rifle checked for proper headspace and below-the-woodline pitting by a competent gunsmith before shooting it.
The problems with the Turkish surplus ammo are that A.) Most of it is corrosively primed, and B.) What you often find when you open the cases is from mixed lots, which means erratic point of impact and worse yet, a few of the lots were made to extra high pressure specs, for machineguns.
Most of the German surplus (including the black tip API) is corrosively primed. And again, a few of the lots were made to extra high pressure specs, for machineguns.
The FN-made ball is mild and non-corrosive primed, but sadly it is getting very scarce.
You might have a gunsmith re-barrel your M1893 to .308 Winchester. That ammo is currently much more common and will continue to be more readily available in the future, since the supplies of 8×57 Mauser ammo are only going to get more scarce as time goes on. BTW, if any big batches on non-corrosive military surplus 8×57 ball or AP do hit the market, buy yourself a lifetime supply. Someday you will be glad that you did. One other interesting option for small game hunting and plinking are the Rhineland .45 ACP conversion kits. These use standard M1911 pistol magazines (Coincidentally, I have one of these kits listed in my mail order catalog.)
I highly recommend getting one or two Turkish contract Model 1893s for your collection. Do so while they are still available at reasonable prices. Every family should have at least one rifle that is Federally “antique” yet chambered for a modern high velocity smokeless cartridge. The time may come when you are forced by legislation to bury nearly everything else! Model 1983 Turkish contract Mausers are available from Sportsman’s Guide for $299. The Pre-1899 Specialist (one of our advertisers) currently has a small but very nice hand-picked batch that are selling for just $199 each.
BTW, the foregoing advice does not apply to Model 1893 or Model 1895 Spanish-made Mausers, which are notorious for both deep below-the-woodline pitting and soft actions. Most Spanish Mausers are not suitable for shooting with modern ammo or for re-barreling to cartridges like .308 Winchester.
I’m nearly done reading “The Protector’s War“” the second installment in S.M. Stirling‘s “Dies the Fire” trilogy. If you can suspend disbelief–getting past the basic premise of the series (an inexplicable overnight change in the laws of physics that renders gasoline and gunpowder impotent) then you’ll enjoy these books. In this installment, part of the storyline takes place in England. The author uses the books in this series as a bully pulpit to preach preparedness and self-sufficiency. (Or at least I think that is his intent.) He weaves lot of history and practical skills into the storylines. Stirling is one of my favorite science fiction authors. I previously mentioned his parallel universe novel Conquistador, which in my opinion is his best piece to date. (And it also has some practical/tactical tidbits.) Stirling is known too, for having written three novels based on Jim Cameron’s Terminator movie franchise, and several other sci-fi novels, all of which have considerable merit. Given the high price of books these days, it is probably best to pick up his books from a bargain Internet book dealer such as Abebooks.com or BooksAMillion.com
. (Or for our readers in the U.K., perhaps Abebooks UK.)
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There is a great thread of discussion on “collapse assessments” underway over at the Survival and Preparedness forum at the FALFiles.
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Ken Timmerman reports: Israel ‘Will Not Allow’ Iran Nuclear Weapons
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Mirroring the recent cooling in the oil market, Gold and silver have both been pushed down substantially in recent days. Methinks the present dip is a good time to buy.
"It is certain that free societies would have no easy time in a future dark age. The rapid return to universal penury will be accomplished by violence and cruelties of a kind now forgotten. The force of law will be scant or nil., either because of the collapse or disappearance of the machinery of state, or because of difficulties of communications and transport. It may be possible only to delegate authority to local powers who will maintain it by force alone." – Roberto Vacca, The Coming Dark Age
I just ran the numbers. Of the more than 9,500 people that read SurvivalBlog several times a week, only 242 of them have subscribed, sending 10 Cents a day, or more. That represents just 2.5% of readers. Subscriptions to SurvivalBlog are 100% voluntary. Nuff said.
Remember the movie Red Dawn? Think about when Colonel Tanner said: “You think you’re tough for eating beans every day? The scarecrows in Denver would give anything for a taste of what you got. They’ve been under siege for about three months. They live on rats and on sawdust and sometimes… on each other. At night, the pyres for the dead light up the sky. It’s medieval.” Do you have a plan set up to keep you and your family from become scare crows? I mean a realistic plan that you are working on every payday?
A good friend once told me. My place is going to have one foot thick concrete walls, solar, wind, and a positive air system to filter out all nuclear, biological, chemical attacks. Solid steel doors and steel shutters. That is all fine and good but do you have the $100,000 to build it? Ah no? It is far better to have a 12×12 hunting camp with a hand pump well, kerosene lights, a wood stove, and a propane cookstove than a dream retreat that never got built. Start with the basic stuff first the Five Bs: Building, bullets, beans, bacon, and buckshot.
An apartment size propane cookstove with a small oven is very efficient. Normal everyday usage is from 2 to 5 gallons a month. Five gallons of propane is commonly called a 20 pound cylinder. You can get two 25 gallon cylinders (100 pound) and hook up with automatic switch over when the first tank is empty it switches to the full tank. Hook up to a propane stove and you have one year supply of cooking for a family of four. This is just an estimate–your results may vary. Now this is not a camp stove but a regular looking small apartment size propane kitchen stove.
What about light for a year? If you use a Dietz lantern for light and use it 4 hours each night you will need how many gallons a year? 26 hours per fill up on I believe is 22 ounces, 128 ounces in a gallon, one gallon will give 150.8 hours of light or 37.7 days per gallon. A little less then 10 gallons of lamp oil or kerosene per year. Plus extra wicks and at least one spare globe. You can burn kerosene it is cheaper then lamp oil but it smells. Make sure you test it before depending on it. That means kill the lights for 1 hour and burn it and see if you can handle the smell. Please be careful with a lit flame in your house around children, pets and anything flammable.
The most important thing to have on your property beside owning it free and clear is a drilled well. Hauling water is for the birds. I have advised many people it’s better to own five acres with a well than forty acres without one. Water is vital and after the first few days of hauling water more then ten feet it become old, tiring, and a dreaded chore. They say each person uses seventy gallons a day that includes, cooking, drinking, flushing the toilet, and showers. You can get by with ten gallons a day pretty good except when you wash clothes. A solar shower sold in camping supply stores are a great thing to have. Fill it in the morning place where the sun can reach it and you have a hot shower.
A drain field for most states requirement for a drain field for even a small cabin is a ridiculous price ranging from $6,000 to $20,000 to meet new strict codes. Before you buy property make sure you find out the cost. Normal problems are typically found in the blue states with too many bureaucrats. Some states are so strict they will not allow National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) approved composting toilets. That is a clear indication it is time to vote with your feet and move to a red state. If you can use a basic composting toilet, a sink, a shower drain hooked to a small drain field. It works great.
If you do have a well on your property there are lots of ways to get water from windmills, hand pumps and solar power pumps. Water is a requirement that you need every single day. So, the first thing you need on any property is a well.
Are you heating with wood? How much wood do you need to get through a winter? Depends on the size of the building, how well insulated, where you live and how efficient your stove is. Cheap $100 wood stoves are for the birds. Get a better airtight stove. Buy the better thicker pipe, buy the cleaning rods and brush, if you have a chimney fire how do you put it out. There is a couple of ways you can set up a chimney cab that slams shuts on the top. This cuts off the vent and air or another way is they sell a item that looks like a road flare you can toss in your wood stove that is suppose to put it out. I have not tested either. But have cleaned my pipes and chimney every year. I don’t burn pine or fir or cedar. If you do burn soft resinous wood like pine I recommend you clean your chimney once a month. Another safely precaution is a metal roof it might just save your house from burning to the ground if you ever do have a chimney fire. If you have never had a chimney fire they say it sounds like a tornado shooting up the chimney and flames shooting straight up 4-5 feet or more. Normally they happen in the coldest nasty weather because people really fire up the stove then. Might just ruin your whole winter to watch your retreat burn to the ground. Hopefully you have smoke detectors and everyone made it out safe. Be careful wood stoves can be dangerous.
Get a good chain saw like a Husqvarna 141. They are good on gas not too heavy and very reliable. Extra chains, spare bar, spark plugs, pull cord, sharpening files at least 6, and air filters. Maybe a spare electronic ignition brain. You will need 5 gallons of chain and bar oil, or in an emergency you can use used motor oil. 10 gallons of gas per year and enough 2 cycle mixing oil for the gas. Now how are you going to haul the wood back to the cabin? A 2 wheel cart is one way. Splitting mauls make sure you buy them with fiberglass or steel handles. Axes with fiberglass handles same with rakes and shovels use fiberglass handles. You are going to need safety goggles and plenty of leather work gloves. Cutting down standing trees is dangerous if you never handled a chain saw before it might be a good idea to go out with a trusted friend and have him teach you the safe use of dropping trees and chain saw use.
Okay, so far we have talked about a small hunting camp with a metal roof heated with wood, a propane cooking stove for summer cooking, a well, compost toilet with a small drain field for sink and shower, good tools, etc. Now what else? Just the basics of what you will need. A .22 rifle with a good scope and 1000 rounds of ammo, a 12 gauge pump shotgun–I prefer the Remington 870–with assorted shells: slugs, buckshot and bird shot, a good hunting rifle, at least a .308 with a good Leupold scope and 160 rounds for it.
Now what else? gill nets, four dozen assorted snares , extra matches, good flints, traps, garden seeds, a way to can or dry and store food. Flashlights, in 9 volts like the PAL Light which is great because it is has a always on feature that last two years on one battery. The solar yard lights are fairly cheap come with AA Batteries that can be put in to use in other flashlights. Or remove the batteries at dusk place back in the day and recharge again. Lots to do with that idea. Use your head. Having a working flashlight 6 months into a real emergency is God sent. Worst comes to worst you can use them inside for your night lights.
A year supply of food. A good basic storage assortment with just the essentials and don’t forget a wheat grinder so you can grind flour. This is written for a single person or small family that would want to live at their deer camp for one year. I am not even getting into retreat defense or other assorted guns [and the amount f ammo required for that]. As I have stated in another article if I was going to be in a thick wooded area give me a Browning Buckmark .22 [pistol] and a good old reliable .30-30 Winchester.
First aid. Don’t forget spare eye glasses, chap stick, Vaseline, prescription medicine, super glue, tweezers, Advil, aspirin, assorted Band-Aids, gauze, wraps, antiseptic, etcetera. Make the kit according to your family needs.
Make sure you cover the basic needs first. What good is 12,000 rounds of ammo, two battle rifles, BDUs, one flashlight, and one case of MREs after the first week? You must have a full plan to survive. Providing for just one year takes some serious dedication to reach that level. A couple of decks of cards, pens, papers, small note books, the list can go on and on and on. You have to be well rounded. Can you skin a buck, run a trap line, drop a tree with a chain saw, plant a garden, protect your garden, preserve your food? Do you have dogs? Do you have enough stored food for them? How about pest control, mice traps, squirrels, rabbits, coons, ground hogs, can sure tear up a garden do you have traps for them? Think it through: Chipmunks, gophers, garden pest, and bug control. Mosquito netting is the best thing you can buy if you plan on being outdoors.
Sit down and try to put a list together for one year of supplies. You know just the basics like where are you going to get water every day. How are you going to cook? How do you heat in the winter? Have you ever tried to chop a years supply of wood? Do you have children? What kind of medicine will you need for them in 1 year? What kind of non power games do you have for them to do? Does you wife sew or crotchet? Do you have some supplies like that put away. A knitted wool hat or mittens sure would be nice if you didn’t have them when you left. How about washing clothes? One way that works ok is to take 5-6 gallon buckets and cut a small hole in the center of the lid just big enough for a toilet plunger. Fill 3/4 ways with water add soap (you did remember laundry soap for a year right?) add clothes for about one person pants, shirt t-shirt, under wear and socks, plunged for 1 minute let soak for 5 minutes plunge again for 10 seconds. Dump out water, fill with fresh water again plunge for 1 minute dump out, fill again with clean water plunge for 1 minute dump out. Hand wring the clothes, hang out to dry or hang near wood stove in the winter to dry. Again be careful you don’t allow clothes to get to close to the wood stove or you have a fire hazard.
You did put away enough toilet paper for a year, right? You also protected this toilet paper with traps or poison so the mice and chipmunks didn’t chew it all, up right? How about feminine products for a year. What about yeast infections? I know not the most pleasant thing to talk about but a must if you are seriously planning to survive. I talked to an old timer once that grew up in the Depression and I asked him what did you use for toilet paper his words “Last year Sears and Roebuck catalog, oh and by the way I sold all my furs to them too.” What would be a good catalog today? How about some thick old city telephone books, might be a good choice to store away for back up toilet paper.
I did this the old fashioned way through hard knocks. Trust me, the first time you have to haul water for 100 yards you will wish you spent the money for a well. When your Coleman lantern runs out of fuel or breaks, you will wish you had a Dietz lantern back up. When your splitting maul wooden handle breaks you will wish you had spent the extra money for fiberglass. When your ammunition is damp and unreliable you will wish you’d spent the $5.00 each for used ammo cans. Trust me, I learned these all the hard way and still had the luxury of running to store for replacement supplies. When I say I tested everything that is what I mean and along the way I had several lessons learn the hard way. Having a fully stocked retreat is a comfort. Having tested everything yourself it gives you experience and know how.
Lots to think about. You will be glad that you put up a year supply of food, it sure will make a welcome sight every morning instead of surviving like scare crows eating sawdust and rats, that is brown rats not the good tasting marsh rabbit–what most folks call muskrats. :-). When you have water, heat, a cook stove, and roof over your head life will seem pretty good. Lots to do when you sit down and really look at what it takes to survive with just the basics for one year. Don’t waste your time worrying, get to work. After you take care of the basics then you can move forward with more advanced plans. – Buckshot
Mr. Rawles:
I bought a cheapy Chinese plastic model (“Dynamo and Solar Radio” model, in a small black rectangular plastic case), and it worked okay for a couple weeks. Then the flimsy plastic crank handle broke inside the unit. At least the solar cells seem to recharge it okay if left in the sun for a few hours. The Eton/Grundig ones seem to be well constructed I hear, but now perhaps a better one is coming with a Sony model being released in Japan. They are usually pretty good about testing ergonomics and durability much more than most companies.
For our U.S. readers: According to Congressman Ron Paul’s office the vote on his NAIS de-funding amendment (H.R. 5384) has been put off until next week. This gives us more time to reach our representatives in congress. E-mail, call, tell friends and family, et cetera. The NAIS scheme would impose costly and time consuming requirements on U.S. animal owners, without compensation. It must be stopped!
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SurvivalBlog reader RBS mentioned these two articles on the fate of the dollar: US dollar weakness likely to crash global stocks and “The Declining Dollar Erodes Personal Savings” (from Ron Paul’s congressional newsletter)
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U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions unveils Massive Numerical Impact of Senate Immigration Bill
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“If Calvera comes riding in with no idea of the reception we’ve prepared for him, I promise you we’ll all teach him something about the price of corn!” – Yul Brynner as Chris Adams, The Magnificent Seven
Hi Jim,
I remarried about three years ago to a woman from Vietnam whom I met through a friend I work with. We were introduced by my friend who is also from Vietnam. We became pen pals and conversed via e-mail and chat for almost five months before I went to Vietnam to meet her. She was a school teacher in Saigon and had never been married. She and her family survived the brutal takeover by the communist North Vietnamese after the U.S. government abandoned the South Vietnamese in 1975. My wife and her family made several attempts to escape after the war but were caught and imprisoned until they bought their way out of jail. They finally resigned to staying in Vietnam and moved to the central highlands to become farmers. Years later they moved back into the Saigon area and now maintain several homes and properties they have acquired. Things in Vietnam are much better now that the communists have opened the borders to foreign trade and tourists. Most Vietnamese are free to travel anywhere in the country and around the world if they can afford it. I have been there three times and enjoy it immensely as the people are very friendly and just curious about outsiders. My wife has adjusted to life here in Southern California and now works in a nail salon as many Vietnamese women do because it is easy to do and the money is very good. My wife is very survival oriented because of her former life in Vietnam and she still maintains a garden here. She is very thrifty and resourceful as most Vietnamese are. She understands my survival preparations and is okay with them as long as I don’t “break the bank”. None of her family want to come here to the U.S. because they have successful thriving businesses and family back in Vietnam and things are very expensive here. My wife calls her family almost every week and we travel there to visit every year. It has been a wonderful experience for both of us to have met and married. You may post this if you feel your readers might be interested.
Thanks again for a great site with lots of good info about our ever more dangerous and changing world. I am a 10 cent challenge member and have been into survival prepping for more than 30 years. – DC in So. Cal.
The Memsahib Replies: Your suggestion that foreign women make better "survival" wives is very interesting. Many American women I know from the baby boom generation have had it good all their lives. They were brought up in a time of a booming economy and their parents did very well for themselves. These women do not want to face the reality of the weakening American economy. They want to go on their merry way, believing they will be just as affluent as their parents and that their children ought to be even more materially blessed than they were. Most of the practical women I know are women who are in their eighties! They are old enough to understand the realities of the Great Depression. They saw the shortages of the World War II years. It makes sense to me that foreign-born women who have experienced war, persecution, and economic upheaval would be survival minded. My caution would be though that those women might be so desperate to marry an American that they might pretend to be someone that they are not, just in order marry. I also think certain countries have a "national personality" which is more congenial to meshing with the American personality. Native-born Filipinas that I know seem to have a strong Judeo-Christian underpinning but the Soviet Bloc and Communist Chinese women I have known (raised during 60+ years of atheism) have been brought up to look out only for themselves. Make sure that your faith matches that of your prospective spouse. Also consider the differences between women raised in rural villages versus women raised in big cities. For any SurvivalBlog readers considering marrying someone from abroad, I suggest that you interview many men that are already married to women from the country that you are considering. Are they happily married? If not , why not? Is there a pattern of behavior/attitudes that their wives show? I also counsel a really loooooooong engagement!
Jim:
Regarding your recent discussion on the disinfectant properties of household chlorine bleach, this article might be of interest: Germ Killing Power of Bleach Increased by Vinegar. Regards, – D.C.
Good Evening JWR:
I want to safely hide guns and ammo at strategic locations on my wooded property without placing them in buildings, in the chance situation I could not get into my home. Do you have any suggestions on safe storage? Thank you, – Rus
Jim,
I have been thinking, perhaps someone with expertise in this area may want to post on your blog about long term firearms storage. I have stocked up firearms in the spirit of your book “Patriots”, to give to a friend who has none, or to group standardize for a group that doesn’t exist yet. After stocking many firearms of three different systems, if find there is a hidden liability, all the eggs are in one basket. I find myself wanting to inter them in long term storage in off site locations. (They are all legal firearms, and in legal safe locations, of course.) Any words of wisdom on this topic would be greatly appreciated. In particular, what should I store with them, and how to build waterproof containers, how to choose a cache site that won’t be frozen in winter, et cetera. Thanks in advance, – J. Mac
JWR Replies: Caching is a bit of an arcane art form. Rather than going into detail, retracing “trodden ground”, here are three links to get you started: First, a thread that appeared at the Free Republic site. Next, an article on some techniques developed out of recent legal necessity, in Australia. And lastly, here is a piece from the Anozira site. Waterproof containers are readily available but often expensive. Large diameter PVC pipe is quite expensive–especially the threaded end cap that you will want for one end. One low cost alternative are U.S. Navy Surplus sonobuoy canisters. These sturdy hexagonal gray plastic canisters have have a threaded end cap. They were originally made for shipping the expendable sonobuoys dropped by P-3 Orion anti-submarine warfare (ASW) patrol aircraft and by Navy helicopters. They are commonly called “Orion tubes” or “Gray overpacks.” They are only about 7″ inches across and have a roughly 6″ diameter opening, so some rifles must be disassembled in order to fit inside. They were made in huge numbers. Even though they haven’t been used for U.S. navy contracts since the late 1980s, these tubes can still be found at military surplus stores in coastal areas.
One point that I need to emphasize: Regardless of the container you choose, be sure to include at least six ounces of silica gel to dry the air in the container that you are sealing up. Be sure to seal the container very well. A coating of vaseline on a container’s rubber seal helps. If you use glue (not recommended for closing the final seal–if you do, you’ll be sawing the container open someday. Metal ammo cans have a tendency to rust, but this can be retarded by painting the cans with heavy marine paint or asphalt emulsion. In my experience, the large U.S. Navy surplus 40mm (or larger) anti-aircraft galvanized steel ammunition cans are zinc coated and hold up remarkably well in the elements. Large ammo cans are often available from Cheaper Than Dirt!, Coleman’s Surplus, and other military surplus dealers.
If you live in an area with high water table, you might have to get creative to protect cached items from moisture–even if it is in “watertight” tube. Two tried and true methods for getting around this difficulty are placing the plastic container inside a hollowed-out log, or in the middle of a firewood pile. (Of course if someone steals your firewood, they will also get an unexpected bonus.)
Don’t miss this “must read” piece from Chris Laird on gold price increases and the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar.
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Yikes! Human-to-Human Transmissible Avian Flu in Indonesia?
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The high bid is currently $110 in the SurvivalBlog Bandwidth Fund benefit Book Auction. Please e-mail your bids before May 30th. Thanks to Kurt and Angie Wilson of Survival Enterprises for sponsoring this fund raiser!
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The next big Los Angeles earthquake could be strong and prolonged.