Letter Re: Corn for Food Storage Programs?

Hello Mr. Rawles :
I must say I love your blog and writings as they provide an invaluable service for like minded folks on preparedness!This email is in regards to the absence of dry corn or any corn other than popping corn in your excellent “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, I am wondering if corn is a viable storage food and if not, why? would it be because of short storage life or unsuitable packing methods to retain nutritive value? Or any other reason that I can’t imagine? While looking at the Provident Living site of the LDS they mention dry corn as a storage item but it is not mentioned even in passing in your “Rawles Gets You Ready” course is there some pertinent reason for this omission? Also when I received your course I “thought” I was disappointed with it after my initial viewing until I kept reading and rereading it and realized how great and enlightening it actually is, you certainly covered the most important issues and opened my eye’s to storage preparations with real food and a real life working man’s wages!! Trying to save for the year long pre-packaged storage item’s being sold by vendor’s can be disheartening, you made it viable, reachable and virtually painless. Thank you! – CL.

JWR Replies: Thanks for the positive feedback on the course. The omission of corn wasn’t an oversight. I didn’t mention corn because the “Rawles Gets You Ready” course was geared toward stocking up on items that you could find at your local Costco and/or grocery store. We wanted just about every food item mentioned in the course to be things that could be bought at a “Big Box” store, even at the 11th hour.

Corn is a valuable food to store, although it is not as versatile as wheat, nor does it store for nearly as long. Corn does store fairly well if its moisture content is low. Like wheat, once it is cracked or ground, its nutritive value starts to drop rapidly. Therefore you should buy your storage corn whole, and then grind it into corn meal in small batches, as needed.

I’ve found that the least expensive place to buy whole kernel corn is Walton Feed, in Montpelier, Idaho. Even lower prices are often available at your local feed store, but they don’t always have whole corn. (They generally order cracked corn, and cracked Corn Oat Barley (“COB”) blends–such as “sweet feed”, which has molasses added.) But if you ask, they can likely special order it for you, typically in 50 pound sacks. You would then have to re-pack it in food grade buckets, using the dry ice method described in the course. Note, however, that if you buy corn from any source except Walton’s or another major storage food vendor, be careful about the moisture content, which varies widely. Also, speaking of moisture, beware that mold is the greatest bugaboo with bulk corn. Never, ever, eat moldy corn! It can induce micotoxin poisoning that is potentially deadly!

Two Letters Re: Prussian Blue for Radioactive Isotope Exposure by P.H.

Dear Jim,
I have been reading your blog for a bit and I appreciate your flow of information. One thing I (finally) saw that should be added [to the commentary on Prussian Blue and Potassium Iodate] is the popular poison oak [and poison ivy and poison sumac] treatment called TECNU. It was originally created as a waterless decontamination for nuclear fallout. Just a minor but currently easy to obtain treatment. – Ferk

 

Dear Jim:
What B.F. is looking for is US Pharmacopoeia (USP) listed Prussian Blue. It is sold by prescription. Get a friendly doc to write a script for it and present the script to your local pharmacy. While your at it, make sure you have antibiotics for your stock. Otherwise, even a minor knife or gunshot wound can kill you. – S.F. in Hawaii

Odds ‘n Sods:

Back to school week: Refuting the argument that home schooling leaves children insufficiently “socialized.”

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The Intelligence Summit web site has some interesting analysis and commentary on emerging threats. Some of it qualifies as serious “Food for thought and grounds for further research” (FFTAGFFR).

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Richard from KT Ordnance sent a pointer to this interesting site on Kia (South Korean) military vehicles. He also bemoaned Jeep dropping the planned Gladiator 4WD Pickup from their product line queue, stating: “I’m sorry to see Daimler-Chrysler take such a short sighted view of Jeep’s future by killing off the only rig I have considered buying new in quite some time. They don’t seem to understand Jeep equals truck, not sissified SUVs.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." – Samuel Adams

Letter Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

James,
Please look up the Gang MS-13 who I understand are a Venezuelan controlled “Mafia” for drug running. These members don’t use guns, (for who knows what reason), they have chosen the Machete’ as their weapon of choice. In a post TEOTWAWKI situation, sizing up a danger by looking for a gun alone will not suffice. Keep your distance. All the more reason to have good firearm training. If it’s hand to hand, it’s probably too late. – The Wanderer

JWR Replies: I concur that gang members will be a significant threat in a post-TEOTWAWKI “law and order vacuum” (Just as a portrayed in my novel “Patriots.”) However, lest there be any misunderstanding I must emphasize that the race of the gang members is not an issue. I distrust all prison gang members, regardless of their race. Classify me as an “equal opportunity” gang-o-phobe. I consider The Aryan Brotherhood (a white prison gang) to be on an equal footing (just as much to be feared) as the Bloods, The Crips, MS-13, La Nuestra Familia, and the Mexican Mafia.

Be aware that in recent years many rural communities have intentionally sought local prison construction, with the goal of increasing employment in the community. (Jobs for prison guards, counselors, service industries, housing construction, and so forth.) When searching for retreat properties, I recommend that you avoid towns with nearby prisons! The last place that I want to be WTSHTF is in along the line of drift of an escaped prison gang.

Letter Re: The Hazards of Even Non-Recourse Loans

Just a heads-up, lots of folks in place like California where non-recourse loans are mandated by law (at least for homes) feel pretty smug, thinking that even if they get upside down on a mortgage they can walk away without repercussions. Bad news: the IRS considers the amount of the loan “forgiven” by the bank to be income. That means, to use California numbers, if you owe $500,000 on a house which sells at foreclosure for $200,000, you now owe income taxes on your $300,000 in income you just “received”.

Just a quick “report from the ground”, I live in western Oregon and I work closely with the real estate market. Homes are still selling here and there, but the inventory is building quickly and homes that last year would have sold in a week are sitting on the market for months, plus we’re starting to see some serious price reductions (this is in a very rural community, not one of the big cities). The biggest local builder just sold off his entire inventory of buildable lots and quit building “spec” homes, folks in the business can definitely tell how the wind is blowing. – Bill in Oregon

Re: Prussian Blue for Radioactive Isotope Exposure by P.H.

Mr. Rawles:
I have always felt that Prussian Blue [as mentioned in SurvivalBlog on August 27th] should be part of one’s system of NBC protection but never had the info needed to make it happen until P.H. kindly provided important details. I checked the link that was provided to obtain the powdered Ferric Ferrocyanide and noted that their web site indicates it is “made from Ferric Ferrocyanide”. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is chemically pure. I inquired, and they indicated they cannot confirm the chemical analysis as the product was obtained over ten years ago and don’t even know the manufacturer. Further searches were futile as chemical suppliers seem to be only selling wholesale to other industries. Does anyone know of a chemical supplier to the public of small amounts (a few ounces) of demonstrably clean Ferric Ferrocyanide? – B.F.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Rourke e-mailed us a link to a table of U.S. Metro home price changes: The level terrain before the precipice.

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Michael Z. Williamson sent a link to this handy reference page that gives the bullion content of older European coins. You never know what you might be offered in a Post-TEOTWAWKI, barter transaction–French “Roosters”, , British Sovereigns or perhaps even native gold nuggets… In the absence of the Internet and your local coin shop or jeweler, you must be the expert. Without this expertise, you may end up the victim of a swindle. So it is important to print out some hard copies of some key references like the page linked above. (And, for example, see Item #6 in my original TEOTWAWKI FAQ.). It might also be wise to buy and practice using an acid test kit for gold, and a touchstone. And needless to say, if you buy gold coins via mail order, be sure that they are from a reputable dealer like Swiss America.

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If you think that your state’s gun laws are sub-optimal then reading through California’s myriad laws should cheer you up. Reading through the California DOJ‘s web pages is like Alice stepping through the looking glass–with no hint of logic evident. My favorite is their recent ruling that Yugoslavian (“Zastava”) SKS carbines are classified as “destructive device” grenade launchers (a potential felony possession offense), simply because they have 22mm diameter flash hiders! Please don’t tell those idiotic legislators in GranolaLand (the Land of Fruits, Nuts, and Flakes) how many other rifle models there are that have combo flash hiders that can accept rifle grenades!

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“`Get to your places!’ shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.
The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!’ or `Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.” – Lewis Carroll , Alice in Wonderland

Note from JWR:

The bidding is now at $115 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction for a copy “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. The course was kindly donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Please submit your bids via e-mail. This auction ends on September 15th.

Letter Re: What We Learned From Hurricane Katrina

Dear Mr. Rawles,
The anniversaries of Katrina and Rita offer us an useful opportunity to reflect upon the lessons of profound adversity. As a Texan and a native of Houston, the disaster and its aftermath have reminded me of three important truths. First, we were all cautioned that the time to leave is well before the mass of people thinks that leaving is reasonable. Second, if you do plan to stick around, plan to be on your own for longer than you expected in conditions more harsh than you anticipated. Third, any mass-casualty disaster is going to let loose a plague-like horde of the worthless, the dangerous, and the desperate.
The first two lessons are obvious to most people who frequent this blog, but the third point merits some serious discussion. In each and all of our major cities, there lurks a small (but lethally dangerous) element of congenitally predatory scum that the combination of the criminal justice system and differential property value usually manages to mostly confine to a small geographic area. In each and all of our major cities, there also lurks a class attuned to permanent dependence on government subsidy, which normally lacks the initiative to pose any serious threat to anyone. Katrina displaced both of these classes from the rotten slums of New Orleans and placed both of them as a threat to the good people of other cities, especially Houston.
When the dangerous class of New Orleans arrived on busses in Houston, it immediately sought new victims and new territory. Crime increased dramatically in Houston, and I understand anecdotally that the standing inventory of most FFL dealers shrank radically as law abiding citizens suddenly began to feel threatened. The filth of New Orleans awoke in Houston, shorn from the institutions (e.g. regular parole officer visits) that had constrained their previous felonious conduct. You may think that New Orleans is the Mos Eisley of America, but every major city has such a class of dangerous people, the control of whom is the primary job of every major city’s police force. Just as every river flowing through a large city has a layer of settled toxin in the deep sediments, which only endangers the world at large if the bottom is churned catastrophically, the depopulation of any major city due to a disaster must necessarily loose upon the world a class of people that we would all do well to fear.
The lesson of Katrina is simple: If you realize that refugees are headed to your neighborhood from some disaster, then take care to your own security; the people churned up by any evacuative catastrophe will likely include men of perennially dangerous intent.
While the dangerous are an obvious and instant threat in a time of upheaval, the worthless and the desperate of New Orleans may be about to illustrate that tragedy can convert normally harmless people into predators. Among the refugees received in Texas, there was a large population of people conditioned to perform no function in life other than the receipt of charity. New Orleans had accommodated them poorly, but she had accommodated them in a manner adequate to squelch any motivation to initiative (whether noble or nefarious). When these people arrived in Texas, many were shocked by the generosity of our people.
The people of Houston, both through charity and federal assistance, placed in decent housing huge numbers of the poor of New Orleans. It was widely rumored that the surplus apartments rented for these people by Mayor White were frequently a step up from their previous quarters.
Now, however, charity has worn thin. It is widely quoted that over half of the refugees are without work, in spite of the fact that the economy of Houston provides jobs in such great numbers that the city draws thousands of immigrants from all the world. The common sense of the people of Houston seems to have turned to the admonition that a man shall have bread by the sweat of his brow. This thinning of charity is happening at the same time that FEMA has decided to get out of the business of housing permanent welfare cases. To put it bluntly, we are about to witness a new wave of homeless New Orleanians that had been previously contained in the excess apartment capacity of Houston. I fear that we are about to see a second wave of Katrina-violence, as the worthless and the desperate begin to see their situation as dire. Unaccustomed to working, a substantial number of the permanently dependent may join the class of the dangerous from a sense of desperation.
The lesson in this is also simple: disasters that uproot the normal order that has supported people for all of their lives will turn the some otherwise harmless persons into predators of necessity; watch your back.
I am sorry to have sent something so grim, but there is a cautionary tale in the experience of the Texan people, which much of America may have missed because it is so far geographically removed: Just as flood drives snakes into trees and houses, disaster lets loose both the worst sort of people and the worst capacities in people. Best Regards, – K.A.D.

 

 

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader T.P. mention this editorial: some common sense on preparedness, coming from the journalistic mainstream.

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I just saw that Rich Saunders at Century Gun Works (CGW in Gardnerville, Nevada–not to be confused with Century Arms) has revamped his web site. This gent is a fantastic gunsmith that specializes in FAL, L1A1, AR-15, and Glock work. He also does custom gun refinishing with very durable weatherproof coatings such as CenTac 9H. I can personally vouch for the superb quality of his gunsmithing and finishing work. Rich built three of the L1A1s that we use here at the ranch. When he says that he will make a rifle look nice, he isn’t kidding. Just substitute the word “perfect” for “nice.” OBTW, tell him that Jim Rawles sent you.

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Three different readers (Cruzan, M.M., and Rourke) e-mailed me the link for a web site with video available for the upcoming television series Jericho. It is a post nuke scenario, set in the near future. Cruzan noted: “I am looking forward to seeing the pilot of this show but I am afraid it will probably devolve into a Politically Correct solution or a “rely on the government/village” theme. (You know… all the survivalists that did prepare are rifle toting nutz and all die off…..and those that “don’t” own rifles live.). The pilot probably won’t address a lot so that people get hooked into it, but then slowly “teach” something else… Here is a separate link for “sneak peek.”

Two Letters Re: Questions on Faraday Cages and Radiological Survey Meter EMP Resistance

Mr. Rawles,
I am an RF and EMC engineer. I’ve worked nuclear EMP issues for a couple of decades.
You were fairly right on – a Faraday cage (or “shield room”) is hard to build. It can be done with fine mesh – similar to window screen but made from copper wire – but the penetrations and doors are always the problem. Mesh will not protect you from large magnetic fields, but for much of the affected area, they are not the problem.
Your plan to use a steel ammo can has merit – as long as you close the seam created by the lid and rubber gasket! Otherwise you don’t get much shielding. You could sand off the paint and use copper or aluminum tape to cover the gap from lid to case. It’s sold for use in EMC testing and features a conductive adhesive.

Transistor gear is susceptible – vacuum tube gear is much more hardened. But the prospect of having to replace tubes in a major SHTF scenario drives many people to buy solid state gear. So there are trade offs to consider. – Sun Dog

 

James:
First, the misconception on the effectiveness of chicken wire. It is correct to state that any wavelength that is shorter than the holes in the chicken wire will pass through it as if it isn’t there. However, EMP is a broadband RF signal and most of the energy is in the lower frequencies. Almost no energy will remain at frequencies high enough to penetrate the wire, making damage highly improbable.
The basic design of a Faraday cage is to have a space that is entirely enclosed by a conductive surface with the lowest possible resistance. The best Faraday cage would be a hollow cube of gold. Of course, with no door, this is not a terribly practical design. More typically, top end Faraday cages were made of two layer of copper screening attached to a wooden frame with no electrical connection between the layers. The door would have the same two layers and some sort of copper fingers would be on the doors to make the electrical connection to the rest of the cage. Any power going into the cage would have some big filters on it to prevent any RF from going into or out of the cage.
The most common Faraday cages that are in people’s homes are microwave ovens and computer cases. Microwave ovens were originally called radar ranges because they heat your food with the radio waves from a radar transmitter. Needless to say, it designed to heat only food and not the user so these are designed to prevent the RF from escaping. Just make sure that no one can plug them in if you have your electronics stored in them. Similarly, computers are notorious emitters of RF interference due to their use of square wave clock signals. All the cases that I have seen are pretty much solid and the newer ones have the fingers to insure that any removable panels maintain electrical connection.
Ammo cans can be used but are not perfect because the gasket and paint prevent good electrical connection between the lid and the box. Aluminum foil is an amazingly convenient material to make a cage out of. Chicken wire can be used, but you will have to solder it together to get the good electrical connection. Virtually any metal box will provide some protection, including ovens and refrigerators. As stated in the original comments, the cage will not be effective if penetrated by antenna or power lines. Cars, being made of metal, will also provide some protection. Multiple layers of metal will provide additional protection, but must not contact each other. Put your electronics in a plastic bag with desiccant, wrap it foil, another plastic bag, and put it in the modified ammo can.
The basic rule of thumb is that susceptibility to EMP damage is proportional to size of the collection area (usually the antenna or power line) and inversely proportional to the size of the electrical component [gate]s. The first thing that anyone can do is put all their sensitive electronics on power strips or better yet surge protectors with EMI filtering. Doing this will allow a quick disconnect from the power lines should a threat arise. The filters will also provide a small amount of protection should an unanticipated event occur. Back in the 1980s, QST magazine did a three part article on EMP. As part of this series, they exposed a handheld radio to an EMP simulator, with no damage to the radio. Based on this, it reasonable to expect that a fair amount of electronics will survive, so long as they are not plugged in.
For the record, I am an RF Engineer. While I do not work in the EMP field, I have read up on EMP from what sources I could.
Note that Wikipedia has entries for both Faraday Cage and Electromagnetic Pulse. – R.H.

Letter Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

Jim,
First off I don’t want to come across as a dooms day advocate or an alarmist, but….last night while channel flipping I came across a program on Court TV. It was about the gangs that are in prisons. Mostly in the south west and western regions of the United States. I should have remembered the title but I don’t. Anyway, it was an eye opening session for me. I recalled the different books I have read about post TEOTWAWKI and Mutant Zombie Bikers (MZBs) scenarios. The descriptions in the books are vivid as to their ruthlessness, however, I think they pale in comparison to the real gangs in prisons.
These prison gangs are racially centered re: Hispanics and blacks. There apparently weren’t enough of the other races to even consider for the show. The Hispanic gangs are controlled by the Mexican Mafia. [JWR Adds: Actually, there are at least two major gangs that are rivals: the Mexican Mafia (a.k.a.Los Sureños) and La Nuestra Familia (“Our Family”, a.k.a. Los Norteños). Each gang has dominance in particular regions.] I don’t believe the black gangs were that organized. Both races considered each other heavy rivals for control and dominance of the prisons.
The Hispanics that came into the prison were from “rival” Hispanic gangs, however, once they entered the prison they were part of the new prison gang. If they refused they were beaten, sliced and diced and often times killed. Big motivating factor to tow the line. The Hispanics and blacks are well disciplined as to their own gangs goals. Mostly to stay in shape to be a warrior for the gang and their race. That was the word that one Hispanic gang member said in an interview. He was very proud of it and of his being a member. He would do what ever was asked of him. These men are in the kind of shape most of us can only dream of. They do nothing all day but prepare to fight, to be warriors for what ever cause their handlers deem important. No questions asked.
Of course this concerns me. I think of post TEOTWAWKI times and know that one of the areas of concern when the infrastructure is gone is the release of these individuals into the mix. I suddenly envision the movie The Postman with walled communities. If a post TEOTWAWKI gets to the point of gangs of this caliber roving around the country side we will have a big problem on our collective hands. Imagine them with weapons and leadership. A lot of us are probably over 40 years. Many probably a lot older. We are in a really bad way physically to deal with this. I see a time that will make the dark ages look like a Sunday school picnic. Suddenly I felt I and my loved ones were on the bottom of the food chain.
Again, I know I sound alarmist but it’s a fact we can’t overlook in our preparedness efforts. Retreat security, training, whether it’s shooting, squad tactics, medical, has to be in the forefront for us. Establishing clear fields of fire, kill zones, etc need to be planned out and carried out to the best of our abilities. Training that is fun for the whole family. That’s what this is all about in a nut shell is Plain Jane survival.
Maybe this was a little wake up call. Every now and then needed to keep us on track. We all work jobs during the day and on the weekends trying to make ends meet. Not a whole lot of time to do other things. I was wondering if some time can be spent in this area for your readers. . Maybe some readers with prior military experience could chime in? Concerned, – Larry in Kansas