Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy." – John Quincy Adams

Note From JWR:

The high bid is still at $260 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one 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.) The auction ends on January 15th, so get your bid in soon!

Letter Re: Advice on Underground Retreat Construction

Sir:
I have 40+ acres, all wooded. I want to build a shelter. There are plenty of hills that I can dig in to, build the shelter and then cover it up. but I don’t know a thing about building a shelter. I need to know everything. From making it water tight to air venting. Where can I go. I do not want to buy a shelter. I want to build it my self. Thank you, – Buddy

JWR Replies: Building an underground house, a retreat, or just a simple below ground cache that doesn’t become an underground cistern is not a simple task. In general, I do not recommend underground construction for first time do-it-yourself home builders. The nation’s experts on underground residential construction is the firm Davis Caves. They been at it for nearly 30 years and they really have underground construction down to a science. To be done right, even in a dry climate, an underground house needs to be situated in a well-drained area. An unconnected (“freed standing”) small hill with southern exposure is ideal. Simply digging into an existing hill without creating a drainage system is an invitation to disaster, especially if you live where there is any significant precipitation. A proper underground house needs to have an extensive drainage system and excellent water barriers. If you are on a very tight budget and you definitely want to do it yourself, then I’d recommend that you look for an unpaid or low wage summer internship with a company like Davis Caves. Working with experts for a few weeks will teach you what you need to know to build an underground house that will be dry and tight and that will last for generations.

Letter Re: Sno-Seal for Boots and Gaiters

Mr R.:
I finished reading “Patriots” and have begun passing it off to others with the admonition to buy it, link to SurvivalBlog, and pay attention. There are hard-info gems throughout. I can certainly tell that you were in communication in your other life. Info noted. Your passage [in Patriots] on the “book code” is superior to the [Vernam] one-time pad generation, sans a book. If security is rigorously maintained, a book code is “break-proof.”
We got hit twice on successive weekends with big snowfalls. We went out slogging in the storms and got a chance to check just how waterproof the gear really is.
After treating boots and other gear with silicone sprays, I went back to Sno-Seal for all of our boots ( and would do so for leather gaiters too.) Their recommended application method is actually not the best, if I may humbly disagree. Order cans, place one in a saucepan surrounded by water and gently heat on the stovetop. Then carefully apply with a small 1/2″ brush and work it in by hand as you paint it into seams and the entire surface – no better way to feel the process. Split/suede leathers are of course more absorbent – and will darken – so be aware of that cosmetic aspect. I take special care with the tongues and their seams. Finish by letting them bask in the sun for an afternoon.
I shoveled snow off our flat roof yesterday and was working in snow-melt for a few hours – feet dry !
Between that product and SealSkinz [waterproof socks], the feet can be reasonably secured. In a devolved world, that could mean the difference between life and death
Regards for the New Year – MurrDoc. P.S.: I’ll be sending in my 10 Cent Challenge contribution again this year, gladly.

JWR Replies: Thanks for the positive feedback on my novel “Patriots”. I’m glad that you find it useful. On the topic of Sno-Seal: I also use it on my boots. It is a great product. OBTW, back in 1980, when I attended the U.S. Army’s Northern Warfare School at Fort Greeley, Alaska, they were still using Neat’s Foot Oil on their mountain climbing boots. To treat the boots, they warmed up a 30 gallon drum of Neat’s Foot Oil and the members of our entire training class rapidly “passed in review” and dunked the exterior of the boots, doing our best to avoid getting any inside the boots. This was boot waterproofing in the “expeditious, crude, but effective” mode. I have heard that the Army has since switched to some sort of silicone spray. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some large spray rig to treat large numbers of pairs of boots in rapid succession. (The U.S. Army always seem to tend toward expeditious en masse operations for everything from inductee physical examinations to policing litter at a kasserne.) Like you, I prefer Sno-Seal over Silicone sprays. Just be careful not to get any on the upper portions of cloth boot laces. (The portion that you tie.)

Letter Re: Alternatives for Water Pumping, Sans Grid Power

JWR:
T his is the first time that I have put forth any input to your blog. I love the site, and it’s a daily read! I heard on the radio news that the cattle ranchers in Colorado and Kansas are panicking because they have no power, and thus they cannot pump water to water their cattle. I had just finished reading this article, when I heard that on the radio. I think the cattle ranchers would have been very happy to have this information as would any of the survival-minded among us that may have to pump water for home, livestock, or both. – P.G. in Utah

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"…[W]e live in a great and free country only because our forefathers were willing to wage war rather than accept the peace that spells destruction." – Theodore Roosevelt

The Insidious Nature of Inflation–The Debasement of the U.S. Dollar Continues

I recently helped some elderly cousins move from their two story home of many years into a smaller one story apartment in a retirement community. (They are having “mobility” problems.) Part of this move involved cleaning out a storage space that hadn’t been touched in more than 40 years. The accumulation of household goods–mainly books–was not unusual or noteworthy. However, what was indeed notable was that many of the boxes had newspapers used as padding in the top. Pulling out these papers, which were mostly from 1958 was a real eye-opener for our kids. Here are some examples of the advertisement prices that our kids were reading aloud, with much laughter:

Beauty Salon: Ladies stylized haircut $1; Revlon manicure 75 cents; Shampoo and Set $1
Flooring store: Rubber tiles 12 cents each, Inlaid linoleum tile 5-1/2 cents, Vinyl tile 7-1/2 cents
Grocery Store: Leg of Lamb 65 cents/lb., Breast of Lamb 15 cents/lb., Picnic hams 29 cents/lb., Johnnie Walker Scotch $6.38/fifth, Hills Bros. Coffee 49 cents per lb.
Another grocery store: Ice cream 69 cents/half gallon, fresh peaches, 5 pounds for 49 cents; choice tomatoes 2 pounds for 29 cents; Ghirardelli chocolate 53 cents/lb.
Car Dealerships: Current model year Cadillac Convertible $4,395, 1957 Chevy (one year old) $2,195, 1950 Buick Sedan “Real Nice” $165, 1954 Ford Victoria V-8 $875
Classified Ads: 1951 Studebaker V-8 Coupe, new paint $245, 1951 Chevy sedan $145, Olds 1950 “Rocket 88” $140, German Shepard Pups, $25 to $35, Clerk -Typist “Ages 21 to 35” $295 per week, Colt Service .45 Auto [Model 1911] “good cond., with holster” $12.

The prices in these ads illustrate the slow but relentless debasement of our currency. Before 1965, our coinage was 90% silver, and paper money was still redeemable in silver. Granted, wages were proportionately smaller, but any savings held in dollars get relentlessly eaten away by inflation, year after year. It is no wonder that the savings rate in the U.S. recently went below zero. (Americans presently spend $1.06 for each dollar that they earn, piling up debt instead of savings.) The inflation of the money supply is gradual enough that it insidiously goes without raising public alarm. Because inflation is so relentless, I recommend investing in tangibles–things like productive farm land, gold, silver, guns, and common caliber ammunition. The dollar will surely continue to go down and down in value, but for the most part tangibles will hold their value.

Writing recently in The Daily Reckoning (a free e-mail newsletter) editor Bill Bonner (also the co-author of the book “Empire of Debt”) summed up the current situation nicely: “We simplify for the benefit of readers with tight schedules or short attention spans: The United States puts out dollars – trillions of them. U.S. consumers use the dollars to overspend, by buying products from overseas, approximately $1.06 worth of buying for every dollar actually earned. Foreign governments want the spending to continue. Instead of sending the dollars back where they came from by buying American goods, they issue local currencies to buy them and put them in their central bank vaults. All this extra money is then magnified…2…3…10 times…as it is lent, re-lent and used as reserves for various financial instruments.
Meanwhile a whole new industry has risen up to help with the lending, mortgaging, gambling that goes along with this explosion of money. Derivatives now equal seven times world GDP and are growing five times as fast. The new ‘liquidity’ is floating up financial assets all over the world.
Traditionally, more money in the system caused consumer price inflation – which was seen as a threat to the well being of the rich as well as the masses. Central bankers knew they had to get it under control or they would be swamped by it. But this new liquidity is different. People love it. The lumps never get a chance to use it to buy toilet paper. Instead, it sloshes around the hedge funds, banks, financial houses and rich financiers’…in a ‘wave of liquidity’ upon which so many super-wealthy are now riding. In 1980, the ratio of financial assets to GDP stood at about 1.5 to 1. Now, it is about 4 to 1. Yes, dear reader, upon this ocean of liquidity rides a great Titanic of asset price inflation. It is why Picasso, Klimt and Pollack paintings sell for such absurd prices. It is why houses in Aspen, Greenwich and Kensington have reached such breathtaking prices. It is why Chinese stocks have doubled in the last year. And it is why the Dow is at an all-time high…and why Manhattan real estate is selling for such high prices that even the rats are having to pack up and move to New Jersey.”

The debt merry-go-round that Bill Bonner described cannot go on forever. When the average consumer runs out of credit, when the U.S. Treasury itself is no longer considered credit worthy, and when the U.S. dollar itself is recognized for what it really is (nicely printed toilet paper), then things will get ugly. “The Piper must be paid.” In this case the Pipers are foreign lending institutions. If you stop making the payments on your car, the banks send a repo man to tow your car away. And when entire nations go into default, it usually signals cataclysmic events. Be prepared.

Two Letters Re: Advice on Retreat Locales–Former Microwave Sites?

Dear Jim and Family,
This is in response to the article about microwave sites for survival shelters. As it happens, I spent half my summer just South of Whitehall, a couple years before I met you in [deleted for OPSEC]. I was finishing my geology degree and the geology of the area is very interesting.

This is the new free mapping program through Wikipedia. It allows for annotations and contains good quality aerial photos of the terrain using Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

The region described around Whitehall is curious and deceptive. For one thing, there’s an active gold mine north of the interstate, where much of the town’s population works (or worked, I’m not sure if its still open.) One of the forks of the Missouri river flows through the area and its geologically complex. If a person were to consider land there, they shouldn’t settle for 1.3 acres when they can still buy land by the full section [one square mile] for a reasonable price. Pasture land is worth the most, land that held trees but has been cleared is worth the least. Hilly/mountainous or rocky land is also worth little so sells cheaply. Or did 10 years ago, anyway. Whitehall is on the wrong side of a mountain pass from the nearest city, Butte. Its further, around 60 miles to Bozeman which has the highest crime rate in the state due to the high numbers of Los Angelinos. They have drugs and gangs there, from what the locals told me.

Whitehall is a very close knit community. They are predominantly religious, and their main battle is with losing their kids to the city, the second most war is being fought with alcoholism and unemployment. Everybody in the region knows everybody else. They’re all good rifle shots and visibility, when it isn’t overcast and raining, is something around 80 miles. In that country, artillery would make you king, not a mere 50 BMG. That said if you’re an outsider you may find yourself in a world of hurt. It would be really important to practice the same religion, to suffer the same hardships and attend the same schools as the locals. Its the kind of place where being there 20 years still makes you “the new guy”. If you are from California and intend to emigrate to Montana, reconsider. They don’t like Californians there. You could say they’re in agreement on the issue. Californians are bad, no matter how good you may be. That’s why I don’t live there.

As with all poor communities with failing employment, everybody has 2-3 jobs besides their main one. With the collapse of the US dollar, if there’s still gold in Whitehall it will continue to be mined and some of that money will filter into the local economy.

The local king there is the inventor of the circular irrigation systems, the source of those circles of green on the aerial photo. I’ve never met him and don’t know his politics. He cares enough to stay in his home, which means something. Its cattle country and they grow a lot of hay and alfalfa but it also rains in summer, which means crops like wheat and barley are often ruined. They also get a lot of frost, even in summer mornings, so don’t expect veggies to survive without using greenhouses. Most of the population have large metal quonset huts for their barns, and some people live in them. They’re all over the landscape.

As for wildlife I saw Elk, Grizzly, eagles, and wolves there, as well as many coyotes and rattlesnakes. Horseback riding is popular and 4WD is mandatory for most roads there, as pavement is optional. Its worth visiting the place to get your own take on it, just don’t think you understand them simply because you visited once. There’s a lot of hurt in the region. Sincerely, – InyoKern

 

Jim,
After reading your blog a few days ago, regarding surplus microwave tower sites, I was a little suspicious that it sounded too good to be true. I did a Google search and discovered any information about it was at least six years old. One of the primary sources was a company called American Tower. This morning, I called the Western states rep to ask if this policy of selling surplus towers was still ongoing, and she replied (1) she hasn’t been involved in this surplus tower sales in the past and (2) she was amazed that besides my call, she had received at one email regarding the same issue. (I suspect a fellow blog-reader is pursuing the same trail.) She did say they do sell surplus sites, and if I wanted to make an offer on one, that would be fine. I explained to her I was trying to find out what sites might be available for sale. She suggested I send her an email with my specific question, and she would get the information to me. So apparently they are still available (I suspect maybe for more money than $20K), and I will continue following this trail and share whatever information I can. – Chet

JWR Replies: Anyone that is now looking to buy one of these sites is indeed about five years too late, at least for the American Tower Company auctions. However, many of these sites may now be available on the secondary market, assuming that some of them were bought by speculators that never did anything with them. In my opinion, if you can find one that has water, it would be a bargain at twice the typical “+/- $20K” price from back in 2001. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that most of them were bought up by cellular phone companies. In many instances, all that these companies were looking for was a site with good line-of-sight, and they probably didn’t use much of the original infrastructure–perhaps not even the original tower. In that case you be able to buy the land and structures and “lease back” or perpetually “grant back” the cellular site rights to the cellular carrier. And for those that were bought by private parties, you can always track down the current owners by way of the County Recorder’s Office.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Kara S. told us about this story: Thieves Steal $200K In Copper In Broad Daylight

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Our friend novelist Michael Z. Williamson mentioned this book that might prove useful in extremis: Unmentionable Cuisine by Calvin W. Schwabe

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For our readers in the UK that are wondering about the vaguely survivalist Jericho television series produced in the U.S., Simon in England mentioned: “Jericho is starting the the UK cable / satellite channel Hallmark at 20.00 on Friday 12 January 2007.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“I believe that reaching into one’s own pockets to help one’s follow man is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pocket to help fellow man, I think is despicable.” – Dr. Walter E. Williams, guest hosting the Rush Limbaugh radio show, Dec. 29, 2006

Odds ‘n Sods:

Simon in England notes that do-it-yourself and garden centers there are presently selling off their ‘Christmas candles’ at closeout prices. He said that he got ten of the large pillar type candles for just £0.49 (around $1 USD) each that otherwise would have been £3.00 (around $6 USD) each. The nice thing about these candles is that most of them are formulated with extra stearic acid, for longer burning.

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From Yahoo News: 6 of 75 cities get top disaster rating. Jason says: “Yet another reason to ‘get out of Dodge”

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Front Sight director Naish Piazza sent this reminder: “Find Your Local VERSUS (VS) network channel, so you can watch Front Sight Challenge starting Fridays at 5:30PM PST and Sundays at 2:00PM PST. (The air time for Front Sight Challenge is based on Eastern Standard Time of 5:30pm on Fridays and 2:00pm on Sundays, and must be adjusted for your time zone. Example: Here on the West Coast, Front Sight Challenge will air at2:30pm Friday and 11:00am on Sunday.) Go to the VERSUS web site and enter your zip code to locate your local VS Network channel so you won’t miss a single episode of Front Sight Challenge.”

Letter Re: How Should I Store My Extra Garden Seed?

Dear Editors:
What is the best way to store my extra garden seed? I want to make it last several years, but still germinate properly. Also, what are the best kind of seeds for survival gardening? Thanks, – Liz, near Toledo

The Memsahib Replies: Your seed stocks should be all non-hybrid (“heirloom”) varieties, so that the seed that you save from each harvest will breed true and continue to produce, year after year. (Hybrid varieties won’t!) Heirloom seed is available from The Ark Institute, the Seed Savers Exchange, and Ready Made Resources. Long term storage of gardening seed is best done by drying and freezing. Ideally, gardening seeds should be “dried down” with an equal weight of silica gel desiccant and stored in sealed Mason-type jars, labeled with both the seed variety and the date of pack. (A Sharpie pen works well.) These jars should be stored in your chest freezer. Remember that seeds are living things, so resist the urge to vacuum pack them!

 

Letter Re: Recommended Versatile Dog Breeds for Retreat Security

There is a very good breed of dogs that I haven’t seen mentioned (and I did read through all the archives when I first found the SurvivalBlog): the English Shepherd (and their close cousin with no registration papers, the farm collie or farm shepherd). They are in the same family of dogs as the Collie, Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, and Sheltie, but with some advantages over all those breeds. Descended from the dogs brought to the United States by Scots escaping the Highland Clearances in the 1700s, the English Shepherd is a medium-sized dog of all work. They herd, hunt, and protect the family and the family livestock. Calmer than most Border Collies, quieter than Shelties, and with an easier-care coat than the Collie (some breeders call it a ‘teflon coat’), they are ideal for small diversified farms, especially farms with livestock of all kinds and children. If you go to the American Working Farmcollie Association yahoo group and read through the archives, you will find stories about dogs who have saved small children from drowning or when they wandered out of the yard; dogs who have flattened themselves over newborn lambs in freezing rain to try to save their lives; dogs who have put the livestock back in the fence after they got out while the owners were away from home; dogs who put the neighbor’s strays back in his fence without direction; dogs who run predators off the farm; dogs who run trespassers off the farm (in at least one case it was someone the dog knew, who was coming in from the back side of the farm while hunting — if he’d been coming up the driveway, she would have been fine with it); dogs who have saved their owners from injury or death by rams, bulls, or horses — I could go on. The stories about these dogs are nearly endless — they are the real-life “Lassies.”

Feeding them isn’t much of a problem as long as there is goat milk and the offal from butchering, plus whatever rodents and pests they can catch. (Mine eat mostly dry dog food with goat milk over it, plus whatever offal I can give them, as we don’t have all that many animals to butcher each year.) Especially if you have livestock, an English Shepherd or two will more than repay the cost of their keep. For more information, look at this Farm Collies breed site. – Freeholder

Letter Re: Night Sights for Pistols

Hi Jim,
I just wanted to tell you about the TRUGLO “TFO” (Tritium Fiber Optic) night sights that I recently got from Top Gun Supply and installed on my Glock 17.
These things are amazing! The design combines the best of the Fiber Optic insert’s ability to gather ambient light during the day with the benefit of tritium night sights. Outside during the day, the sights look like three single LED lamp flashlights are switched on. At night they look like regular night sights.
I have Meprolight brand and OEM Glock night sights on two of my other Glocks (a G26 and a G19). However, I have always felt that the “three green” night sight arrangement was less than optimal. I felt as though that color combination slowed me down significantly from quickly acquiring a good sight picture in the dark. It always felt like a version of The Shell Game. I had to think through: “Which one is the Front Sight?” and “Where is it?”.
So, in my quest to find the perfect night sight, I ordered the TRUGLO “TFO” sights in the Green Front/Yellow Rear combination. Unfortunately, this combination is not widely available. However, I found them at Top Gun Supply. He has them for Glocks, SIGs, H&K USP, and Springfield XD. After a trip to the range to see if I had made a good choice, my reaction was “Oh! Wow!”
I am very pleased with the sights in this color combination and the Fiber Optic’s daytime brilliance. In fact, I am now considering retrofitting all my Glocks to the “TFO” night sight with the Green Front/Yellow Rear color combination. I should mention that the pictures at the TRUGLO web site do not do justice to the TFO night sight. Regards, – D.S.