Letter Re: Fireless Cooking in an Crock Pot Adapted Ice Chest, by B.B.

Mr R.:
To follow up on B.B.’s article, the following piece may be from Kurt Saxon, or another brilliant reality-based mind like that. I apologize in advance for not having ironclad attribution on this.
Awesome info in any case. The small stainless steel cookers/cups ( Thermos “Thermax” model ) will do the same thing on a smaller scale. Once again SurvivalBlog nails it with great information. – M.P.

SAVING MONEY WITH A THERMOS BOTTLE
First the thermos. There are three kinds but only one is practical. Forget the cheap, plastic ones lined with Styrofoam. These might cook oatmeal and white rice but do not have the heat holding power you need. Silvered glass thermoses are fine, but a bump will break them. Also, since you are going to do actual cooking and will use a fork to remove the contents, they will not hold up.
The only practical cooking thermos is the WIDE-MOUTH Aladdin Stanley. It is lined with stainless steel, is well insulated and will keep steaming hot for up to 24 hours and holds a quart. It is also unbreakable, with a lifetime warranty.
Most foods cook at 180 degrees or more. We are used to boiling, which is 212 degrees, and foods do cook faster, the higher the temperature. But if time is not important, cooking at a lower temperature is even better as most vitamins are not broken down. Thus, if you cook at a minimum heat, you save nutrition.
Then you need a heat source. If you are in a non-cooking room, buy a cheap, one burner hot plate from your local Wal-Mart, Target, Sears etc. You will need a one quart saucepan. You will also need a special funnel to quickly pour the pan’s contents into the thermos, plus a spoon or fork to help the last of the food into the funnel. To make the funnel, cut off the bottom four inches from a gallon plastic milk or juice container.
The first step in thermos cookery is to fill the thermos with water up to the point reached by the stopper. Empty the water into the saucepan and make a scratch or other indelible mark at the water’s surface inside the saucepan. This will allow you to put just enough water in the saucepan, as too much will leave food out and too little will give you less cooking water.
Just to test how the cooker works, start with four ounces of wheat. You do not need to buy 60 pounds. You can buy two pounds from your health food store for about $.80 This would give you eight meals at 10 cents each.
In the evening, put four ounces in your saucepan, plus a half-teaspoon of salt to prevent flatness, even if you intend to sweeten it. Fill to the mark with water. (If you have hot water, let the tap run until it is hottest. Tests have shown that less energy is used in using hot tap water than in boiling from cold.) Bring the contents to a rolling boil, stirring all the while. This will take from three to five minutes.
Then quickly, but carefully, swirl and pour the contents into the funnel and help any lagging matter from the pan to the funnel and into the thermos. Cap firmly but not tightly, shake and lay the thermos on its side, to keep the contents even.
Next morning open the thermos and pour its contents into the saucepan. With four ounces of dry wheat, you will now have at least 3/4 pound of cooked wheat and about a pint of vitamin and mineral enriched water. It has a pleasant taste. Drink it. You can now put milk and sweetener on it or margarine, salt and pepper, etc. If you can eat the whole 3/4 of a pound, you will be surprised at how energetic you feel for the next several hours. An added bonus is its high fiber content.
For lunch, prepare a few ounces of hamburger or other meat chopped finely, plus chopped potatoes and other vegetables the night before. After breakfast, put these and the right amount of water in the saucepan and prepare as usual. At lunchtime you will have a quart of really delicious stew. Since nothing leaves the thermos in cooking, as contrasted to the flavor leaving stew cooking on the stove, you can understand the better tasting, higher vitamin content of thermos stew.
The brown rice dishes could also be either a main course or desert. Brown rice has a much greater swelling factor than wheat so four ounces of rice will pretty much fill the thermos. You can put vegetables and meat in it to cook or try a favorite of mine. It is four ounces of brown rice, 9 cents; one ounce of powdered milk, 10 cents in a large box; two ounces of raisins, 22 cents; one teaspoon of salt; some cinnamon and four saccharine tablets. Cook overnight. This is 46 cents for 1 1/2 pounds of desert.

Odds ‘n Sods:

#1 Son Comments: The USDA seems to have given up on a mandatory NAIS. In their new Implementation Plan they say that they will rely on “market forces” to get full registration. I really doubt that they actually mean any of it, and their lawyers have just come up with some great weasel words. Or maybe the “market forces” will be states that want their subsidies back.

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Reader Jeremy I. sent us this link: Can the U.S. Economy Survive a Housing Bubble Bust?

 

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." – Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845) US Supreme Court Justice

Note from JWR:

Today we present another article submitted for Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Since there have been so many great entries in this round of the contest, I will also be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 7 will end on November 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

Stealth Inflation, by Inyokern

This is in response to this article you posted a link to The Fed and Baby Boomers. The Federal Reserve is trying its best to solve the incoming budget crisis as the baby boomers near retirement age. Soon a relatively low number of workers will be paying taxes to support a high number of retirees. Really unsustainable numbers are involved. So how do you solve it? Well, either you tell yourself that the youth will pay for it because they have no choice (which would be a bad assumption), or you find a way to make the money paid to be too less valuable than it appears, but deniably so. Like the 1980s, its all about plausible deniability. Evidence of government sponsored inflation? Why yes! I do have some.

1) The Fed stopped reporting M3 on March 15th [of 2006]. This (M3) is the amount of money in circulation, including printed currency and electronic money. There is an actual total. And until March 15th of 2006, they reported this amount every quarter. Now they don’t. How much money is there? Good question. Only The Fed knows.

2) Disengage economic ties to debtor and lender nations. The USA used to be a lender nation, but things reversed after 9/11 to pay for the war. The Chinese are devaluating the dollar, which has caused a worldwide devaluation of our currency, though not as much as you’d think. Some folks think that the reason the dollar hasn’t crashed is because OPEC buys and sells oil using Dollars, the currency is basically backed by Oil so the world can’t afford to dump dollars without dire economic consequences. If oil starts trading in Euros or Yuan, then that’s another story.

3) Logical reasoning. If the government generates inflation, goods cost more. If they also stop counting the costs of those goods in inflation calculations, as Clinton ordered back when he was still in office, then there’s no reason for a CPI Cost of Living Adjustment to Social Security payments. If you don’t increase the payments, you’re paying less all the time to these retirees. You’re also paying lower wages to US workers, so raises are paper-only, and usually fall behind inflation. Retirees aren’t stupid, but they currently lack the power and will to point this out legally. Workers are mostly naive and don’t realize they’re earning less every year. If they did, there would be dire consequences to the economy, so maybe they’re on-board with making the poorer boomers much poorer in retirement in order to remove some of the tax burden from their kids, Gen Y and Gen X. If the government were honest about the cost of Social Security, which it tried for more than 15 years now, it would be fired for incompetence. Like Bush Sr and Clinton were, and “W” will be.

Inflation solves the problems of debt because fixed rate loans devaluate and ARMs inflate a little less than they would if the truth were known. It also is an acceptable way to deal with the housing bubble. Instead of a home taking a huge dive in paper value, it takes a small drop and still says it costs $425,000 or whatever instead of $500,000. The fact that that money is now worth 60% of its prior value so its only really worth $290,000 now is more palatable if the public and the government continue to pretend that inflation is still 2.6% instead of its real current rate of around 10%. Don’t believe me? Check your receipts for food from a year ago. Most banks have electronic records of ATM payments, and paper checks get sent back to you. Look at your records. Look what you paid then, and what you pay now. Its gone up at least 10%. And then there’s fuel. Even with the dip, its still way more than you paid a year ago. Its like 1979 all over again. And Yes, I’m old enough to remember inflation then.

The big downside for the government is that inflation destroys savings for the few people (like me) who have them. It also destroys investment and retirement funds, if they don’t earn faster than inflation destroys, and few legitimate funds do. Why allow that? Isn’t it making the rich poorer? Well, better poorer than dead, as a fast and well reported collapse would cause civil uprising. Besides, the rich can invest in EU funds and move their money to less destructible and inflation affected properties.

At this point, the government seems to be actively working to make the rich richer and the poor poorer and the middle class poor. All that separates the middle class from the poor are good neighborhoods in the suburbs, better morals (in many cases, not all), and savings for emergencies. With inflation those savings go away, the ARMs take the house, and peak oil makes the suburbs more expensive to travel to and from work in the cities so the cost of living is even higher than the poor ghettos near the city center. A housing inversion is coming, oddly enough, as the wealthier middle class sell their homes in the burbs and move to smaller and recently cleaned up neighborhoods near public transit in the city hubs. (“Location, location, location” has long been the watchword of real estate.)

That’s even more true in Peak Oil, which overthrows 100 years of development truisms. The urban poor either sell for a profit, get driven out by ARM adjustments and financial collapse, or take the offer and move to the burbs, which will soon be the bad neighborhoods of the near future (3-6 years, starting with oil hitting $130+/bbl.) The suburban lower middle class will either watch their neighborhoods get worse or move somewhere cheaper, possibly rural, possibly urban in the less well converted neighborhoods. It will soon become hard to be middle class, very hard. Watch the markets closely and keep your eyes open for those real estate signs. If the new people moving in bring crime with them and housing values drop, thus dropping taxes and budgets, how much crime prevention can your town pay for? If your quiet suburban neighborhood starts to turn into The Hood (like Los Angeles), consider moving out.

One thing is certain: everybody will suffer in the coming economic collapse. Its a matter of degree and how able you are to react to the situation, and how well you can weather it financially and physically. It is possible that the burbs will resemble Argentina in 10 years. Or maybe the transition will be slower and streetcars will remove the downsides of the burbs so the housing inversion is to the exurbs instead. If you live near a rural exurb, expect real trouble there as the price of gasoline passes $4/gallon Its only $2.50 now but time wounds all heels.

Terms:
Lake Inversion: what happens to a lake after a significant temperature drop. Warmer water rises to meet the cold air, stirring up the lake bottom mud. This usually signals the end of fishing season.

Housing Inversion: what happens when previously impoverished real estate becomes valuable due to proximity to mass transit and city hubs following the Peak Oil price spike phenomenon. Poor people suddenly can’t afford to stay close to the city and find themselves living where land is cheap, often places with very expensive transit costs. – InyoKern

Letter Re: Ponchos, Capes, Sleeping Bags, and Improvised Insulation

Ponchos and capes have been popular for centuries and for good reason. During the day they can be worn to protect you from the elements and at night, they double as blankets. Unlike cotton, wool retains it’s insulative qualities even when wet. Good quality wool capes can be found on sites that make items for renaissance fairs or you can make one yourself from an old wool army blanket or two. If you use a wool cape as your travel jacket, you will always have the basis of a shelter wherever you go. (Another advantage is that it also allows you to draw your weapon unnoticed.) One winter night in upstate New York when my car was out of commission I attempted to walk home. It was too far and instead I curled up in the woods on the ground in my wool lined trench coat. It was warm and I slept well. A friend of mine has lead shot sown into the two front bottom corners of his cape. Swing it into someone’s head and lights out. As a flexible weapon, it can’t be easily blocked as it will continue it’s arc around an outstretched arm. Who would expect to get knocked out by a cape??? Sewing valuables into clothing is common for refugees that may have to turn out their pockets at checkpoints and to highwaymen. I’d say that about 14 American Eagles or Krugerrands in each corner should do the trick. A cape can also be thrown over an attacker to temporarily disorient them or used to deflect an edged weapon.
Here’s another trick. If you do find yourself out in the cold in a urban/suburban environment with minimum shelter for the night, try stuffing newspaper (crushed into balls not as sheets) in your pants and jacket. I learned this trick from a hobo. (Hobos are excellent sources of survival information). On another poorly calculated winter night, the newspaper trick saved me from possibly freezing to death.
You may also want to look at the German military sleeping bag that converts into a jacket. These are still available if you look around. – SF in Hawaii

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“We ran into a pleasant interlude up in Vermont which emphasized the wisdom and social utility of the Vermont firearms laws. It seems that some foreigner from down below was in a supermarket when he observed one of the customers wearing a pistol openly. He got all flustered and immediately called 911. In due course a cop showed up and located the complainer, who pointed out the “culprit.” The cop agreed that the man really was carrying a pistol, and then he asked what the problem was. I suppose the poor fellow rushed off out the door and went back where he came from. Obviously the state of Vermont was too dangerous for him. – The Late Jeff Cooper, Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries, Vol. 6, No. 3, March 1998

Note From JWR:

My sincere thanks to the just 1/2 of 1% of SurvivalBlog readers that have signed up for 10 Cent Challenge subscriptions. You know who you are. Subscriptions are entirely voluntary, and gratefully accepted.

Letter Re: Thoughts on Investing, by Michael Z. Williamson

Dear Jim,
I’ve been following the investing threads and would like to weigh in. The first item is to consider what emergency your investments are for. A collapse of order or society could make ammunition and other tangible hard goods very valuable. Conversely, an economic collapse could predate that by years (see Germany during the Depression), in which case freehold real estate and bullion are much more useful. Some people are stating that “X will be worthless,” but that all depends on the scenario. To assume that one and only one disaster will happen, and will happen within a set time frame, is taking a long bet. As you’ve pointed out, beans, bullets and band-aids first, because they are always useful in the present world, and can become more so under certain circumstances, then invest in additional goods (bullion, extra land) that can serve as a cushion against financial crises.
Another consideration: Even if one’s society crashes totally into anarchy, it may not be the same worldwide. A border guard is not likely to be persuaded by a pack of ammo, while an ounce of Swiss gold or similar goods is a much more persuasive argument.
Something to consider is public perception. Before Y2K, I dissuaded a friend of mine from buying gems for trade goods. Who but a professional jeweler can tell the value, and what is their marketability? It comes down to being an unmounted pretty rock, in a potential situation where engagement and wedding rings will be common low-end barter goods. Nor do stones generally keep their value.
However, I am willing to bet and go on record that if a disaster destroys our society (as opposed to a political or economic failure), most people will take good old greenbacks. If the government isn’t printing more, that will just increase the value, since they won’t be inflatable. The US Dollar is a fiat currency, but it’s been so for a long time. People take it because they see it as “money.” The finer points of economics, market value and such are lost on 9 out of 10. Don’t believe me? Try buying gas with silver coins tomorrow. Even though the silver is certainly worth more, most clerks won’t take it for more than face price (Assuming pre-1965 US coins). I don’t believe there are any non-fiat currencies in the world anymore, and a great many people have an unhealthy distrust of any non-cash transaction (Or even of cash transactions above a few dollars. Offer cash for a car or even a generator and see what looks you get).
I suspect that a realistic scenario will involve hard valuables (bullion, land and cars) being sold to keep those with foresight solvent (sold for currency in increasing amounts, since that’s what businesses will insist on). If recovery isn’t immediate, a bullion and barter economy will develop to replace the worthless cash once everyone is made aware of the fact, and if trouble persists, hard to replace goods like ammo and coffee will be much in demand. For a more immediate issue such as enemy attack or natural disasters on a major scale (say Yellowstone erupts, or a large meteorite strike), cash will be the exchange medium of choice, with banks down and government distribution a problem.
Of course, in such a scenario, the idea would be to spend the cash fast for goods and services you need, if it looks like a recovering government will “solve” the problem by printing a bunch more, writing off debts and creating a false surplus that will destroy the value of said currency. – Michael Z. Williamson

Letter Re: The Tiny Homes Concept

Jim,
I was browsing thru one of the much-visited “preparedness” newsgroups, and saw a link to the Tiny Homes web site. Needless to say, I am unable to personally buy into that sort of thing, however, but perhaps you and/or a great-many people who read the/your blog may find some use from that site. Cabins as small as 10 x 12 foot, easily (diesel-powered pickup of medium to upper sizes) towable, wired, etc., etc.,…. think of the possibilities. – Ben

JWR Replies: Being a well prepared individual is unfortunately synonymous with a lot of logistics. Just ask any for the SurvivalBlog readers that have moved recently. All of that stuff takes space. But if you have secure, vermin proof, adjunct storage space–such as CONEX–then the Tiny Homes concept might be practical for a retreat in a safe (presumably “looter free”) area. .

 

Letter Re: Advice on 5.56mm, Versus 6.8mm, Versus 7.62mm Rifles?

Sir:
I’ve been a member of a survival retreat group for about a year. A member told me to contact you. I am finally going to purchase a rifle (not for hunting). I read where the [U.S.] military is really unhappy with the 5.56 and the possibility of changing to the 6.8mm Remington. I like the idea of something larger than the 5.56mm and smaller than the 7.62mm. Is it possible the military will make this change and how soon? I am only going to buy one rifle. What are the disadvantages of buying the 6.8mm? Sincerely, – R.S.

JWR Replies: If the economy were to hold together, and ifthe new 6.8mm round were to eventually gain long term civilian market popularity, then it someday might be a viable option. Otherwise, no, I do not recommend it, since supporting your firearms battery logistics could be troublesome at best, or perhaps even a complete “show stopper” in a worst case. If you have huge budget, you might want to buy both 5.56mm and 6.8mm upper receiver/barrel assemblies to mate with your AR lower and several thousand rounds of each type of ammo. Otherwise, I would skip the small calibers all together and get a battle rifle that is chambered in a real sure stopping and versatile caliber: .308 Winchester. (Parenthetically, I’m amazed how many letters I get from readers who say that they wouldn’t use a .223 for hunting 150 pound deer, but they are willing to trust their lives to .233 for hunting 200 pound armed men. I fail to see the logic there.) For .308 battle rifles, I prefer FALs and L1A1s, since they use inexpensive magazines and have clean (non-fouling) adjustable piston-operated gas systems. But if one of your key goals is light weight, then get an AR-10. (Although the latter do require more frequent and thorough cleaning.) If you do decide to get an AR-10, then make sure that it is one of the brands such as American Spirit or Bushmaster that accept commonplace (and inexpensive) FAL magazines rather than unique (and expensive) OEM magazines. (The Armalite and DPMS brand AR-10s use proprietary magazine designs. Those are usually very expensive modified M14 magazines. Avoid AR-10 from such makers!)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Are you planning to put a pair of walkie talkies under the Christmas tree this year? My #1 Son recently mentioned: “Why should people get their kids cheap 500 milliwatt ‘toy’ walkie talkies, or even 1 watt FRS radios when you can instead get them more practical 2 watt MURS radios? That will be a gift that they can keep and use in their adult lives.” (I think that he was broadly hinting that he wants a pair for himself.)

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A reader penned this thank you: “I just got another 100% Merino extra fine wool sweater from eBay and am looking at a half dozen more. After reading about this wonderful wool material on SurvivalBlog last year, I bought a few and really like them. I wouldn’t even know about it, if it wasn’t for you.

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Reader M.P. mentioned: The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base

 

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Do not try to live on your enemies’ terms or to win at a game where they’re setting the rules. Do not seek the favor of those who enslaved you, do not beg for alms from those who have robbed you, be it subsidies, loans or jobs, do not join their team to recoup what they’ve taken by helping them rob your neighbors.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Note From JWR:

Today we present another article submitted for Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Since there have been so many great entries in this round of the contest, I will also be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 7 will end on November 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.