Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“So you think that money is the root of all evil? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil? . …Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor… Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love it’s nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men.” Ayn Rand, in a Francisco d’Anconia monologue, in Atlas Shrugged, 1957

Notes from JWR:

Wow! Our unique visits counter just passed the 3?4 million mark. Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a great success!

Because I will be traveling on behalf of a consulting client, I will not be taking any new mail orders from October 24th to November 8th. Thanks for your patience. But of course during this time I will still be making my daily blog posts. (I have never missed a day!)

Two Letters Re: Advice on Ammunition and Precious Metals for Barter?

Jim,
I read your post of 10/15 about barter items and the problems with fake gold coins. You wrote: “The other major problem with using gold coins for survival barter, regardless of their weight, is that they will be immediately suspect as counterfeit by the individual on the other side of the table.”

You are quite correct, but an easy and affordable solution is available. Please note that I am not a salesman for this product nor affiliated with the company in any way. I am simply someone who has been working on preparedness for 40 years and have found this product valuable.

There is a fake gold coin detection product made by Fisch Instruments. The detector, detectors really, consist of plastic fulcrums that measure the diameter, thickness, and weight of a coin. Because of gold’s unique properties, no coin can pass these three tests and be a counterfeit. (Okay, okay, they could be made out of platinum alloy or palladium, but that doesn’t seem too probable). I have had a set of these detectors for about 25 years. I am not a coin collector, I just have them in case I find myself being presented gold coins for payment for food or ammo.

I would not normally make much noise about this except the owner is closing down the business. At some point in the future, these will not be available any longer. For less money than a cheap shotgun, your readers could add to their arsenal of tools for not getting cheated is some future the normal economy has become discombobulated.

 

Mr. R.:
In response to Monsieur Anon’s comments I appreciate that gold would not be the exchange medium of choice in most WTSHTF scenarios, however, let’s not overlook the tremendous versatility of gold as a preservation of wealth for most survival situations that one would plan for. This is not mere speculation either. There is an enormous wealth (sorry!) of history supporting this position.

Gold had value before, during and after the Roman Empire. Gold had value before, during and after WWII, regardless of the country you were in. No matter what the situation (a major war, a local disaster, a government collapse, you name it) those that could dig up 20 oz of gold after the event would be better off than those that could not. Gold has maintained its worth over time. In 1900 1oz of gold was worth around $20 which was enough to buy a good suit. Today 1 oz of gold is worth around $600 and it would still buy a good suit. Okay, I didn’t exactly appreciate much but the intrinsic value was preserved. As we all know, the $20 cash did not fair as well. I don’t think the suit bought 106 years ago would have faired much better.

I can’t think of any disaster scenario where 20 ounces of gold wouldn’t be an asset. After all, you can carry 20 Krugerrands in your bug out bag (BOB) and that may be the only thing that you have between you and your family controlling your own destiny and becoming refugees. $12,000 worth of .22 ammo wouldn’t be quite so portable. It’s also easier to hide $12,000 of gold than it is to hide your other hard assets. Some of those assets may not be quite so hard after all, when looters and the government have finished.

Assuming you have first made appropriate preparations for protection, shelter, water and food, I believe there are many more survival scenarios where owning some gold coins would be more advantageous than not. IMHO, evaluating gold coins for barter in a survival scenario is like evaluating the worth of your Model 1911 pistol for deer hunting – great tool/wrong job! – Dave

JWR Replies: You are absolutely right that gold does have a place in preparedness planning. While it is suboptimal for post-TEOTWAWKI survival barter (for the reasons previously stated), it is an ideal store of wealth with “grab it and go” portability, such as in cross-border refugee situations. Silver is roughly 50 times heavier and bulkier per dollar’s worth, and hence too heavy for most investors to carry in their luggage. To illustrate my point: I recently accompanied a consulting client to both a coin show and a coin shop, to liquidate gold and silver holdings to generate cash for an upcoming retreat property purchase. In just four hours at the show the client sold $147,000 worth of gold–a mixture of slabbed (PCGS and NGC encapsulated ) mint state numismatic coins and bullion coins. (The latter were nearly all 1 ounce Krugerrands and American Eagles.) These all fit easily in a battered old black plastic Samsonite briefcase. It was heavy, but still quite portable and discreet. What a contrast the next day when we went to a coin shop to sell the silver, consisting of 54 Englehard 100 ounce bullion bars (about 385 pounds!), and nearly three full $1,000 face value bags of pre-1965 U.S. coinage. A $1,000 silver bag weighs 55 pounds. Toting the silver into the shop took three very heavy dolly (hand truck) loads, during which time we were in full public gaze. When we were unloading and stacking the bullion bars, (“clank!, clank!”), discretion was difficult. Despite its much greater weight and bulk, the sale of the silver generated less than $100,000.

As you correctly pointed out, gold is also useful as “time machine” for preserving one’s wealth from one side of a war or a currency crisis to the other. (When one’s savings would otherwise be wiped out.) To be ready for all eventualities, I recommend investing in both silver and gold. Each has it strengths for different situations. In my estimation, the priority of investing should be 1.) Retreat land and and core logistics (“Beans, bullets and band-aids “), then 2.) Silver dimes and/or quarters for barter, and then, finally, 3.) Gold bullion, in nothing larger than one ounce coins. You are right that “many more survival scenarios where owning some gold coins would be more advantageous than not.” But of course setting priorities is important.

Odds ‘n Sods:

From Mish Shedlock’s blog on October 21st, titled “Easy Button”: U.S. house builders scramble to unload their inventory in a collapsing market.

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A University of Washington economic geologist counters the Peak Oil theory, asserting that new technology will assure oil supplies that won’t run out for many centuries.

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The world–especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region, and Brazil–will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming,according to a new study.

Note from JWR:

Please keep spreading the word about SurvivalBlog. If you are a loyal reader, please get yourself a SurvivalBlog bumper sticker or T-shirt. The bumper stickers are great conversation starter on your Unimog, or even just when pinned up on your cubicle wall at work. The T-shirts are likewise a great conversation starter at the range, at gun shows, at your local canned food discount store, or just strolling around town. Thanks!

 

Letter Re: Sources for Plumbed-In Reserve Water Tanks?

Jim –
Do any SurvivalBlog suppliers have water tanks that can be plumbed into the home water system before passing the water on through to the house as recommended by Joel Skousen? Our Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) home construction is in progress with the basement walls poured and the retaining walls and dividing/shelter wall formed for pour this next week.- D.A.B.

JWR Replies: The best tanks to use are standard, off-the-shelf, plastic septic tanks, bought brand new. A good friend of mine bought three 1,700 gallon tanks and had them plumbed “in parallel” and buried in the yard outside of his new house. (He used Joel Skousen’s specifications for plumbing them in to his house/shelter water system. They provide low pressure gravity feed to his basement shelter.) It is noteworthy that is that these tanks are essentially a generic commodity made by dozens of plastics manufacturers and they can be ordered through virtually any building supply store. They are inexpensive (in terms of cost per gallon) and quite durable. They also flex a bit, which is an important consideration if you are in an area subject to frost heaving or earthquakes. OBTW, I recommend that if your installation leaves any part of the tanks exposed (such as their “clean out” lids) that you paint those portions heavily with opaque paint or asphalt emulsion, to minimize UV degradation of the plastic.

Two Letters Re: Military Surplus Gasoline Cans–Questions on Cleaning Procedures and Venting

Hi Jim,
I’ve restored older cars as a hobby for about 24 years (Ford is my preference. I was delighted to see [late 1960s vintage] Broncos, F250s and Mustangs in your novel “Patriots”.) I have a suggestion for cleaning older gas cans that works very well for me. Most recently I dealt with a 50,000 mile 1969 Buick Riviera. [JWR Adds: Ah, the roar of a 454! I once owned a 1970 Buick Electra 225. What a ride.] The deceased prior owner had stored the car indoors since 1983. The gas tank was full of vile liquid that at one time had been leaded gasoline.

After draining and removing the tank (I disposed of the fluid properly) I was able to remove the gas gauge sending unit and peer inside. Initially, it looked like the tank had rusted, but it was simply a heavy coating of dark orange varnish. I tried a few different chemicals and even steam cleaning to attempt to remove the varnish but to no avail.

I use Berryman Chem-Dip in a 5 gallon pail to soak/clean disassembled automotive carburetors prior to rebuilding them.

This fluid is some nasty stuff (wear chem resistant gloves!), but it works. (However, I can’t speak for their [special] Kalifornia kompliant formula). It came to me that what was in the gas tank was the same residue in a dirty carburetor, just in greater quantity. My Chem-Dip pail was a little low and needed replenishing anyway. I bought two gallons of Chem-Dip replenisher (Berryman part no. 0901, about $15 a gallon in my area) and poured it in the Buick’s gas tank. I sloshed the Chem-Dip around, then let the tank sit on one side, sloshed it again, let it sit on another side, until I had soaked the entire inside surface of the tank. After two days of soaking/sloshing I drained the tank back into the original cans, filtering the fluid through a fine metal screen. I let the tank dry, then used a pressure washer for a final cleaning, drained the water, then used a heat gun on the outside of the tank to expedite drying time. [JWR Adds: Use extreme caution when applying heat to a gas can or to any part of an automobile fuel system!] The end result was a beautiful (to a mechanic, anyway) shiny factory galvanized internal tank surface with only a hint of surface rust. Later, I used the cans to replenish my 5 gallon pail. My point is I believe this technique would work just as well with a military gas can. If the Chem-Dip is filtered it can be used again – it doesn’t seem to lose its cleaning strength for some time. In a survival scenario, I believe Chem-Dip will even have some significant value in bringing some older pre-1980 non-computer [presumably EMP impervious] vehicles back to operational service.
I heartily agree with SC’s assessment of the durability of the German gas cans. I secured a quantity of the German cans from SOG International about seven years ago, just prior to Y2K. The cans had already been cleaned, given a rust preventative/chemical resistant internal coating (to resist rusting from condensation of water in the air trapped in the can) and then painted. They’ve held my storage fuel on many trips, the internal chemical coating is still adhering, no leaks. (The weak point would be the rubber cap seal – replacements available from Major Surplus and Survival and they have endured outside storage in the hot southeastern Texas climate very well. I keep them as full as possible to minimize condensation. (It is very humid where I live.)
I’ve seen some similar, if not identical, Euro military gas cans at currently reasonable prices. The lowest price is at Major Surplus and Survival (2 can limit? – can’t be sold in Kalifornia.) The Sportsman’s Guide has Swiss cans that are a little higher and no apparent limit on quantity. Though I don’t think the cans currently being offered have an internal protective coating, one could be added after they were cleaned out, like this product:
Kind Regards, – M. Artixerxes

 

James:
Regarding gas cans, I purchased a number of [used] US mil-spec cans and had them cleaned and “red lined” at a radiator shop. The red lining would keep the inside of the cans from rusting. They also replaced the rubber seals on the caps with ones made out of inner tubes and they worked fine. The process was expensive ($20 per can), but they are still in very good shape some 15 years later. – Ron A.

Odds ‘n Sods:

I was astounded to hear a get rich quick infomercial on the radio on Saturday morning. The marketeer was selling his “DVD course” on how to make millions with “nothing down”, investing in residential real estate. Real estate? They’ve got to be kidding. How do you make money “investing” in a declining market? This was the same pitch I heard a year ago, when the market was booming. And he wasn’t taking about about buying foreclosed properties. He was talking about buying houses “in hot markets” to either flip or to keep as rentals while they “appreciated.” I laughed out loud at that suggestion. There are some very naive people that see the current decline in residential real estate as a short term “dip.” I have news for them: This “dip” in prices is just the beginning, and the bear market may last a decade. OBTW, I’ve just coined a new term for people that foolishly “invest” in declining markets: contrapreneurs.

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International political analyst Arnaud de Borchgrave comments on North Korea’s paranoid president for life. Are we supposed to trust Comrade Kim Jong-Il, and feel all warm and fuzzy now that he says that he’s “Sorry” about his country’s recent nuke test?

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Amidst veritable economic collapse in Zimbabwe, Comrade Mugabe will soon move into a newly built $26 Million USD luxury mansion that he can keep for himself after retirement. Oh, but now we hear that he may decide to extend his term in office past 2008, to perhaps 2010. (Depending, I presume, upon his mood and medications.) Gee, I wonder what the price tag for the mansion would be if it was expressed in those hyperinflated Zimbabwean dollars?

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison, written in The Federalist, No. 47, 1788.

The Apex, North Carolina Fire–My Story

Hi Jim,
Love your web site! I live just on the outskirts of Apex, NC which is basically a suburb of Raleigh.One week ago, as you know, a hazmat processing facility there had a huge chlorine gas leak that led to a massive industrial fire with multiple explosions and leaks of all kinds of nasty-kill-you-dead-chemicals leaking into the air. 17,000 people were evacuated from Apex that evening. You can read the complete story here.
What I want to share with my fellow SurvivalBlog readers is how that thing that “will never happen here” happens and the very real need for a ready bag and a plan for when to use it. Here’s how it went down in Apex from my view. I was in a parking lot at a football game 5 miles away from Apex 11:30pm or so Friday night when I remarked to my friends about the lightning and thunder off in the distance. A few minutes later when all of my friend’s cell phones began to ring, we knew something was up- and it wasn’t a thunderstorm. All the wives talked about an evacuation of the town and chemical vapor plumes. At first, we thought someone was joking… but then, some had gotten a reverse-911 call telling them to evacuate the town, other’s heard public address (PA) loudspeakers from fire trucks. Some were just outside the evac zone and wondered what to do. Some panicked, packed the kids in the car and drove 60 miles away. All of my friends live in Apex, I’m just outside of town. We were in the post-game gridlock with 60,000 other fans and going nowhere fast. What I quickly became aware of was the various reactions of my friends. One was clearly in denial and kept making jokes; another just rationalized the impending rainy weather and assured us all it would wash away the plume and that everyone was safe. Another one just spoke quietly to his wife on the cell phone. It was a startling thing to observe. I casually asked them if any of them had a gas mask in the house their wives could use if they need ed to drive out in a hurry. They just looked at me with raised eyebrows…I’m sure they ever considered that thought. One said, “I’ll die with my family before I wear one of those!” I thought to myself, you know, you could likely drive them out of harms way with a mask on or, heaven forbid, have one for each of them! After we got out of the gridlock we drove to my place which was well outside the evac zone and better-yet, upwind. As we entered the garage I went over to the workbench and produced 2 chlorine gas rated respirators and said, here, take these, my full face mask is upstairs. You should have seen the stunned looks! They could not believe that I just walked into the garage and produced personal protective gear for them in under 10 seconds. I chose not to share with them the extent of my ability to deal with a variety of other situations. As it turned out, my friends stayed over and the wives sheltered in place as they were just 2/10 mile outside the evac zone. Not the heroic thing we wanted to do but the police had stopped all of the traffic and closed many roads into Apex. We were not going anywhere. As we drove back in today, each and every road into town had orange cones and a patrol car blocking any access. If you think there is no way the authorities could ever blockade your entire town, you are sadly mistaken. There were police from all over called in to help, fire crews from 50 miles away called in, and hazmat crews from other states on standby. It was the real deal yet it stemmed from a relatively small facility with only a few dozen employees. I’d hate to be unprepared and live downwind of a refinery or major chemical plant! It made me wonder about how we would fair if the nearby Nuke Plant had an evac order for all of Raleigh-Durham which approaches 1 million people in 4 counties. Or what would happen if a pandemic erupted in our town.
The most important take-aways I can share are these thoughts: We’ve had lot’s of brutal hurricanes here over that last 20 years, most of us here know the drill. But that is not the hazard to prepare for- it’s for the ones you don’t think of all the time that you need to consider, the ones that happen to “other people”, the ones that will “never happen here”, that’s what you should consider. Because, everything else, you can probably deal with already- you know, something goes bump in the night, duh, Annie get your gun! Really consider the “big ones” (for us, the Nuke Plant), pandemics, serious bio-terrorism, those are what you should give rational, considered thought to. Because, if you don’t, you will be subject to the whims of authorities and the masses. And no one will be happy with that. – Sig

Letter Re: My Experience with TA-1042 Field Telephones

I noticed that one of your advertisers is currently selling surplus AN/TA-1042 Digital Non-secure Voice Terminal (DNVT) field telephones. Earlier this year I bought two pair of them and even though I don’t have the hard-to-find circuit switch, (AN/TTC-39D) for terminal to terminal dialing, when a pair is interconnected these phones offer super communications. The full duplex audio is clear and crisp over several hundred feet of wire (easily), has a ringer and audio volume control and a ring indicator LED ( flashing for ringing, steady on signifies in-use) for silent mode operation.
I run mine in a local battery configuration: one 12 volt, 17 or 26 amp hour battery per phone with a solar panel and charger controller on the one in my barn. The phones will operate reliably with the battery voltage level around 5.5 VDC although they are designed to function with a voltage range of 5.5 to 28 VDC with a current draw of 50 milliamp. These phones are severely damp proof and quite rugged. They even have a strap for fastening the phone to a pole or tree.
My original plan was to have a net of phones set up at various secured locations around the farm. Without the tactical circuit switch the keypad will not function phone to phone. If one can find a TCS these phones will be transformed from great to incredible. (.They have direct dialing capability addressing up to 240 terminals with four levels of priority over-ride and can even key a radio transmitter for
phone to radio communications). – Joe from Tennessee
JWR Replies: I also think that the TA-1024 is a great design. As someone that was first trained with the older generation TA-1 and TA-312 simplex-only mode field phones, the DNVT generation phones seem very Buck Rogers. As I pointed out in my novel “Patriots”, having reliable field telephones is essential to coordinate retreat security in a post-TEOTWAWKI world. For semi-permanent installation, it is best to buy cable that is rated for underground burial (“UB”) , to conceal and protect all of your lines. For TA-1042s you will need four conductor cable. (Or two parallel runs of two conductor cable.) Burying your lines will prevent both intentional and unintentional line cuts or breaks. Don’t overlook getting a few extra field phones, so that you can run commo wire to your neighbors and coordinate with them as well. The circuit switch that you mentioned (AN/TTC-39D) is sometimes available from Fair Radio Sales. Otherwise, just watch eBay.com for one to come up at auction. The TA-1042 DNVT field telephones themselves are currently available from Ready Made Resources. They sell these field phones in pairs, with a free civilian photovoltaic panel included.

Note From JWR:

Get your entries in soon 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. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start writing and e-mail us your article. This round will end on November 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

Letter Re: The Varroa Honeybee Mite Threatens U.S. Crop Production

Letter Re: The Varroa Honeybee Mite Threatens U.S. Crop Production

The Varroa mite, Varroa jacobsonii, is an external parasite of honey bees. It feeds on the hemolymph of both brood and adult bees. The entire life cycle of these mites is spent with the bees. The Varroa mite originated in Southeast Asia where it is a parasite of the Eastern honey bee, Apis cerana. It was first discovered on the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, in 1960. The crossover resulted from beekeepers intermingling the two species, and further spread has been encouraged by beekeepers transporting colonies.

No one is sure how it came into the United States but it is most likely that they arrived with queen bees which were brought in illegally.

By 1992 Varroa mites have been found in at least 40 of the United States and continue to spread. They were first found in Wisconsin in late 1987 and shortly thereafter were reported in Florida. They are assumed to have been in Florida first and moved to Wisconsin with migratory bees. A further assumption is that they were in the U.S. for at least two years before discovery.

Why am I mentioning the lowly Honeybee in a survivalist forum?

The varroa mite has killed or severely weakened an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of honeybees in the United States during the past six months.
• Millions of acres of U.S. fruit, nut, vegetable, seed and legume crops depend on insect pollination. An estimated 80 percent of insect crop pollination is accomplished by honeybees.
• Crops that require bees for pollination include apples, avocados, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, oranges, grapefruit, sunflowers, tangerines and watermelon. In addition, the production of most beef and dairy products depends on alfalfa, clover and other plants that require pollination.
• Honeybees are ideal for pollination because they can be managed easily and moved to where they are needed. They also will pollinate a wide variety of crops without harming the plants.

Isn’t it great? The things we get from Asia? Formosan Termites, Varroa mites, Asian Avian Flu, etc. – Hawgtax