Black Gold: Organic Matter – Part 2, by R.M.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

Do you have access to sawdust? In most places where I have lived, I have had access to free sawdust. Sawdust is almost pure carbon = organic matter (yes I know it’s not quite that simple, but for the purpose of how to make your soil better, it really is). Put it on your plants and they will most likely die from lack of nitrogen as the sawdust absorbs it. For the best and fastest composting, you need a ratio of carbon to nitrogen of 7:1, and sawdust is all carbon, no nitrogen so it will rob nitrogen if too close to a plant. If you have access to sawdust, there are many ways to use you can use it. The following is what has worked best for me. The first I now longer do as my garden soil is over 5%, but I used this technique for many years. Make a raised bed garden by digging out the paths (putting the dirt on the bed on each side so you have twice as much top soil to garden in) and fill in the paths with sawdust. No mud, no weeds and  it does not steal the nitrogen for more than a few inches, which is the edge of the bed where you don’t want weeds growing anyway. Every 2 to 3 years till the whole garden in the fall, plant a cover crop, and repeat the dig out paths the next spring.

Have animals that need bedding? Use the sawdust, put the manure / sawdust mix out on your compost pile or in the area you will get around to gardening in.

Have any animals where you use a outdoor barn lot, or hay feeding area? Bed the whole area down with 6-8 inches of sawdust. The huge advantages of this technique are to keep you and the animals out of the mud, make scraping up the manure easier, but most importantly animal urine is mostly water and nitrogen. At least 90% of the nitrogen (your most expensive fertilizer to buy) evaporates into the air within 24 hours. If the animal urinates on sawdust, almost all the nitrogen is ‘sucked up’ by the all carbon (and no nitrogen) sawdust! Next summer you will scrape up only black crumbly dirt that is much higher in nitrogen than just the manure would have been, and there will be a lot more total volume than just the manure (and waste hay) would have been. This can be your ‘sacrifice’ area where you can rest your pasture when you run low on forage.

Green Manure

Green Manure, grow your own organic matter. Slower, lower costs, but still a fairly quick method:

Get a good tiller so you will not put this task off or better yet, if you have access to a tractor, get a tractor mounted tiller. If just starting on a larger scale and do not yet have a tractor, talk to neighbors who do, who may be willing to trade use of their tractor for use of your tiller for their gardens. Till in whatever is growing there now, and plant something. Your something seed should be cheap as you will be using quite a bit of seed, you are putting it on a LOT heavier than usual. If only green manuring and not using green manure as part of a rotation, you will be growing at least 2 to 3 crops a year. Shop around, I see mail order garden catalogues that sell green manure seeds for $5 to $10 per pound. Go you your local seed / feed store and you will be looking at under $0.35 for grains and a couple dollars for legumes. Till, plant, rake in, and then till back in as soon as it has grown as large as possible, but not so large that you can not easily till the growth back into the ground. If you add some type of fertilizer, you will grow more organic matter faster. The breaking down of plant material will result in increasing organic matter.Continue reading“Black Gold: Organic Matter – Part 2, by R.M.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at The Gathering Financial Storm of Inflation. (See the Inflation Watch section.)

Precious Metals:

First up, over at MarketWatch: Why Basel III regulations are poised to shake up the gold market. A quote:

“Under the new regime, physical, or allocated, gold, like bars and coins, will be reclassified from a tier 3 asset, the riskiest asset class, to a tier 1 zero-risk weight —putting it “right alongside with cash and currencies as an asset class,” said Adam Koos, president of Libertas Wealth Management Group.

Since physical gold will have a risk-free status, this could cause banks around the world to continue to buy more, Koos said, adding that central banks already have stepped up purchases of physical gold to be held in the institutions’ vaults, and not held in unallocated, or paper form.”

o  o  o

I’m a Gold Bug—Because I’ve Seen Real Inflation and Devaluation.

Economy & Finance:

Mortgage rates jump above 3% for the first time since April — economists warn they’re likely to rise higher.

o  o  o

The Moment Janet Yellen Moved for ‘Greasing the Wheels’ with Inflation.

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: Is this the Reversal of Exodus-Triggered Plunges & Spikes of Rents? Mmmm-maybe.
Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The legislative acts against the trust reposed in them, when they endeavour to invade the property of the subject, and to make themselves, or any part of the community, masters, or arbitrary disposers of the lives, liberties, or fortunes of the people . . . whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence.” – John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.” – Clint Eastwood

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 1, 2021

Taking some of my own advice, we are about to implement Pre-1965 silver coinage prices at Elk Creek Company.  We will no longer accept credit card payments.  The prices listed are with the intent for some customers to send payment in 1964 or earlier mint date 90% silver U.S. coins. But you can still send payment in Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) — via check or U.S. Postal Service Money Order — with an initial multiplier of 23 times face value.  That is right around the current market price for $1,000 face value bags.  The shopping cart system should be updated (and reactivated) no later than July 4th. Thanks for your patience!

Important Note For Those Paying in Silver: Silver coins should be tightly wrapped in a triple thickness plastic bags and then taped to a large piece of cardboard so that they are rattle-free, and then mailed in sturdy box—preferably a small Priority Mail Flat Rate box. If you have any questions, then call or e-mail me for details.

When the shopping cart system is back up and running, I will look forward to your orders! – JWR

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

 

Black Gold: Organic Matter – Part 1, by R.M.

Organic matter should be considered black gold. This aricle will describe why you need to work on it, now.

Summary: Higher organic matter soils are just about drought-proof, need far less fertilizer, and the organic matter will balance out acid/base and many other conditions resulting in healthier plants that are more resistant to everything from too wet / too dry to insects and disease.

I started gardening in the sand hills of Florida over 50 years ago. 78 feet of sand until you hit clay. My first garden was a total failure. For my second garden I followed the exact recommendations from the local extension office about gardening, fertilizing every 4 weeks…. Watering every other day if it did not rain, and it was almost another complete failure. I sucked it up and went and talked to the little old lady who lived down the street. Her lush garden was clearly visible from the road so I figured she must know what she was doing. The message I got from her was “Organic Matter!!!” I eventually ran a small truck farm in these same sand hills with good results, before moving on to many other jobs and living in many other places. Every place I lived, except for the year stationed on a ship, I had a garden. We have been gardening and farming in Southwest Missouri on my farm for the last 34 years, a farm that had been tenant-farmed for many decades, and had less than one half of one percent (as low as the soil lab could measure) organic matter, so this is a very personal story. The bottom fields would not grow a good crop of weeds when we first started.

Change is the only constant, will it get dryer, wetter, hotter, colder? Will there be fertilizer available? Will you have money to pay for fertilizer even if it is available? Organic matter is the great leveler. If you need to depend on being able to grow food /forage, you need to think about organic matter. Louis Bromfield in his series of books starting with Malabar Farm (1948) tells the story of how abandoned farmed-out Ohio farms, with dry gravel-filled creeks were returned to productive farms with clear running water all summer long in only a handful of years, chiefly by increasing organic matter. There is a lot of information in these books (although they are pretty dry reading) but the central message is to just increase the organic matter of the soil. He had traveled to many places in the world where low organic matter in the soils were the central reason for poverty, drought, and famine. Conservation to me means how to make more money while improving both the health of the soil and the quality of what is being produced from tree to grain.

“What is Conservation? In its richest terms, conservation means the preservation and restoration of our soil, the husbandry, control and augmentation of our water supply, the preservation and restoration of our forest. But, in its simplest terms it means saving each of these things from our own destructive ways. Although as far back as 1900, when Theodore Roosevelt recognized the need for conservation, it is still a matter that is of high discussion today!
Soil, water and forests are the foundation not only of our national economy but of our very existence and civilization.” – Louis Bromfield

In summary, more organic matter in the soil, up to about 5%, will ameliorate almost anything.

Drought? A 1% increase in organic matter per acre will hold at least 16,500 gallons of free water that is available for plants to use (some official sources cite up to 27,000 gallons!). Here in Southwest Missouri, we expect a couple of DRY months each summer which will severely impact the garden if irrigation is not available. Even when irrigation is available, unless you have drip irrigation to each plant automatically controlled from moisture sensors in the ground, you will spend a lot of time watering and the plants will not do well if it is not done twice a week or even more often in really hot dry windy weather. If you just sprinkle the water on you are promoting a lot of viral and fungal diseases. It is a lot easier to “just have it there” at all times when a plant needs water. Think of how much work it would be to irrigate in a SHTF scenario! Higher organic matter soil will not just hold more water, but will absorb more water and result in less run off. More rain will fall on land that has more vegetation, higher organic matter will result in more dense vegetation.Continue reading“Black Gold: Organic Matter – Part 1, by R.M.”

June in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices.

What Did Gold Do in June?

May was the best month for gold since July 2020. June, not so much.
Gold gained 7.8% in May, which brought year-to-date returns back in the green. June took nearly all that back, falling from $1,905 on June 1 to a 10-week low of $1761 to end the month. June suffered the worst monthly drop in gold prices since 2016.
The bad news started on June 3rd, when gold lost $36 to drop from $1909 to $1873. June 2nd was the last day of the month that gold would be above $1900.
The nuclear bomb for gold prices was the FOMC meeting, which came out more hawkish than expected. Gold dropped $86 in one day, from $1861 to $1774. Gold spent the rest of the month between $1783 and $1763.

Factors Affecting Gold This Month

INFLATION FEARS
June started on the wrong foot for gold bulls and those wanting QE to continue for a long time. On June 3, the ADP Private Sector Payrolls posted blowout numbers. 978,000 new private sector jobs were created in May, up from 654,000 in April. Economists had expected 680,000 new jobs. At the same time, first-time jobless claims for the week fell under 400,000 for the first time since COVID originally hit the US last March.
This put speculation of an imminent tapering of QE by the Fed onto the front burner. Gold hit its lowest point since mid-February.
Later in the month, consumer prices shocked to the upside. The CPI had its largest jump on an annual basis since August 2008, hitting 5%. Core CPI year to year increased by 3.8%, the largest jump since 1992. Used car prices, up 29.7%, and gasoline prices, up 56.2%, were the main culprits.
Producer prices were just as hot. Wholesale prices rose 6.6% in May compared to a year ago. This was the fastest increase since 2010. Agricultural goods were a big factor in the increase, with grain prices jumping 25.7%.
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Skyrocketing oil prices in June were a major contributor in the market’s higher estimates for inflation. West Texas Intermediate oil futures started the month at a two-year high of $68 per barrel. Prices rose as high as $74 per barrel by the end of the month.
Home prices were another huge reason for higher inflation. Sales of single family homes in April were 2.1% higher than in March, and an unbelievable 14.6% from a year ago. This was the highest spike in home prices in over 30 years. Several large cities set all-time highs for home prices, including Seattle, where houses are 20% more expensive than a year ago.
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The New York Fed survey of households on their expectations for inflation showed that consumers had a median estimate of 4% inflation by this time next year, an all-time high.
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The only other country experiencing growth is China. Supply bottlenecks are hitting the economy here as well, pushing wholesale prices to a 12-year high.This has the Chinese central bank on edge, and led the government to release copper and other commodities from their Strategic Stockpile to relieve the pressures of prices pushed higher by speculators.

FED TAPER FEARS
This month’s FOMC policy meeting was a hawkish one, bringing forward the expected date of interest rate hikes by nearly a year. The first interest rate hike is now expected in 2023, not 2024. In addition, the “dot plot” of expectations of Fed officials is pointing toward TWO rate hikes in 2023.
While still insisting that higher headline inflation will be “transitory,” the Fed now estimates that it will top out at 3.4%, not 2.4%. This of course pulls the end date of QE closer, as tapering will begin before increases in the interest rate.
At the post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that continued supply chain shortages is “raising the possibility that inflation could turnout to be higher and more persistent than we anticipate.”
This crushed gold, leading to an $86 daily drop, and virtually extinguishing speculative longs on the COMEX. It was the worst week since March 2020 for gold, which plunged through the 100 DMA and 200 DMA, triggering cascading stop loss orders all the way down.
Stocks were also hit hard, but managed to recover. Gold and silver were not so lucky.

Dollar and Forex

The dollar rode a wave of good economic news higher in June. Starting just under 90, the DXY dollar index peaked at 92.44 on June 30th. This strength was to the detriment of gold and other commodities.

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The Peoples Bank of China spent June trying to rein in extreme levels of private sector debt, while also fighting to keep the yuan weaker than the dollar.

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In related news, Russia announced in June that it was in the process of removing all dollar assets from its $186 billion sovereign wealth fund. This was in retaliation for the country’s government being called out by president Biden for election interference, harboring hackers who were attacking American companies, and the imprisonment of Putin critic Alexi Navalny.

After the realignment, the Russian fund will be divided between the euro(40%), Chinese yuan (30%), gold (20%), yen (5%) and British pound (5%).

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Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller speculates that the US dollar may lose its global reserve currency status in as little as 15 years. He noted “I can’t find any period in history where monetary and fiscal policy were this out of step with the economic circumstances.”

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The IMF reported that the dollar made up 59% of global central bank reserves in the fourth quarter of 2020 — a 25-year low.

Central Banks

European markets were shaken when news leaked of infighting at the ECB over inflation policy. To this point, markets had believed the central bank when it said it would continue easy monetary policy.
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The Chinese central bank spent much of the month continuing to crack down on the crypto market. It summoned leaders of the financial market to a meeting where it re-emphasized government policy for them to not facilitate crypto transactions or operations at all.
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Staff at the Turkish central bank have been purged to give the jobs to political loyalists of president Erdogan. 90 people, from the Central Bank Governor down to branch bank managers have quit or been fired, according to press reports. At least the new Governor has so far successfully fended off pressure from Erdogan to cut rates instead of raising them to combat high inflation and currency devaluation.

Central Bank Gold Purchases

This month’s World Gold Council report on central bank gold holdings covers April.
Buyers included the usual two “stans”, plus a neighbor. Kazakhstan bought 4.6t of gold, and Uzbekistan purchased 8.4 tons.They were joined in the gold market by the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) who purchased 3.8t.
The Uzbeks are serious about increasing their gold reserves. This is the eighth month in a row that their central bank has purchased at least 7 tons of gold. The Kazakh central bank has an 11-month buying streak going.
The mind-blowing gold action among the world’s central banks was Thailand, which bought 43.5 tons of gold. This is the first time the Thai government has purchased gold since November 2019, when they purchased a measly 100kg. Turkey became a buyer again in April, after several months of large sales to gain dollars to fight the collapse of their currency. TheTurkish central bank added 13.4 tons.
The only central bank gold sales of note were actually bookkeeping transactions. Both Russia (-3.1t) and Germany (-1.3t) transferred gold from central bank reserves to their national mints, to keep up with gold coin and bar demand.

Basel III

Basel III, a new set of voluntary international banking regulations, went into effect this month. The biggest change for gold investors is the reclassification of allocated physical gold to Tier 1.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the “central bank of the central banks”, now ranks allocated physical gold the same as cash and currency, as a risk-free asset. This means that banks no longer have to hold collateral against their allocated gold. Unallocated gold remains in Tier 3, the riskiest assets. Banks must carry 85% collateral on all their unallocated gold positions.

This is expected to stop the rehypothecation of gold by banks, as well as stopping entities from selling gold that they don’t actually own. The increased costs for holding unallocated gold is expected to greatly curtail what has until now been the cheapest way to trade gold. It is feared that this will dry up liquidity in the international gold market.

It may also spark a run on physical gold, as banks and traders try to convert unallocated to allocated. They will need more gold, since they say that they have more gold than they actually do.

We will keep everyone up to date as the fallout of these rule changes become clearer. In the meantime, we have a Basel III overview of where things stand now, to get you acquainted with the whole thing.

Gold ETFs

Worldwide, gold ETFs added 61.5 tons in May. This is the first month in four of gold inflows at the global level. The World Gold Council cites higher gold prices, higher concerns over inflation, a weaker US dollar, and more deeply negative real interest rates.
Global Assets Under Management total 3,628 tons. This is only 7% less than the all-time record high in tonnage, hit last October.
North American funds added 34.5 tons to holdings. European funds almost matched that, adding 31.2 tons. Euro action was mainly from Germany and the UK. Asian gold ETFs saw 3.3 tons of outflows. This was from Chinese investors rotating into a risk-on posture as their stock market outperformed. Chinese gold ETFs lost 3.6 tons last month, marginally offset by Japan and India.
On The Retail Front
The US Mint reports that gold coin sales are up 360% over last year. Sales numbers for June have been curtailed as the Mint continues stocking up for the July release of the Type 2 American Gold Eagles and Type 2 American Silver Eagles.

This will change dramatically next month, as the new ASE and AGE designs will hit the market.
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PERTH MINT bullion sales in May were down from April, but far ahead of last year’s sales. Perth Mint sold 1.7 million ounces of silver bullion coins and bars in May. That was 5.4% lower than April, but up 70.6% from last May. Gold bullion sales for May were 91,146 ounces, down 10.1% month to month, but up 43.8% year to year.

Market Buzz

All the forecasts from early in the month were completely invalidated by this month’s plunge in gold prices, so we’re focusing on interesting news you may have missed.
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West Virginia Congressman Alex Mooney is pushing a bill to require auditing of government gold reserves, in an attempt to finally answer the question “Is there really any gold in Fort Knox?”. Mooney is well-known in hard asset circles for his work in trying to get precious metals exempt from Federal income taxes.
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At the recent meeting of G-7 nations in Britain, French president Macron urged wealthy nations to sell some of their gold reserves to fund $100 billion in aid to Africa. This would be used for mass vaccination programs and medical care, among other things. He seems to be the only one enthusiastic about his proposal.
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Koreans raced to buy gold in early June, as inflation surged to a nine-year high of 2.6%. Food was up 12% and petroleum products up 23%. In one example, the CEO of a medium-sized company in Seoul dropped $1.26 million on 18 gold bars in one transaction.
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Indian gold imports fell from 70.3 tons in April to only 11.3 tons in May. This was due to lockdowns and mass deaths from COVID ravaging the country. Gold dealers were offering the deepest discounts in 9 months in an attempt to drive sales.
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Gold prices in China also fell to a discount, as large-scale lockdowns resumed due to the “delta” strain of COVID. This wasn’t a problem in April, as Chinese gold imports hit 111 tons. This was 73 tons more than March, and 106 tons higher than last April – but the entire nation was under strict lockdown back then.
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Gold production in AUSTRALIA nearly stopped completely in June, due to COVID outbreaks at several gold mines. The “delta” COVID virus has sent cases spiralling out of control, resulting in lockdowns affecting more than half the country’s population.
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After bitter negotiations, NEVADA has implemented higher taxes on gold and silver miners operating in the state. Excise taxes of 0.75% will be levied on miners with gross revenue from $20 million to $150 million. Firms grossing over $150 million will be taxed at 1/1%.
These taxes will not violate legislation that caps taxes on net proceeds of miners to less than 5%. The extra revenue is earmarked for improving Nevada’s education system.
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CENTERRA GOLD has had to file for bankruptcy for its Kyrgyzstan branch after the huge Kumtor gold mine was seized by the Kyrgyz government. The government has refused to negotiate on the matter, leading to the bankruptcy proceedings.
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Increasing frequency and lengths of power blackouts by the state-run power company in SOUTH AFRICA is sharply curtailing precious metal mining production.
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The Inspector General of Police in GHANA has pulled police from guard duty on bank bullion vans after the deaths of several police officers. The banks are using regular vans to transport gold, leading to out of control attacks on them by bandits. One such armed robbery took place in front of a police headquarters. The Inspector General said that police protection for bullion transfers would not resume until the banks purchased proper armored cars.
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An ex-DEUTSCHE BANK gold trader was convicted of gold price manipulation by placing spoofing offers. A second convicted DB trader is awaiting sentencing.
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STANDARD CHARTERED called $1770 as the new level of hard support for gold in June. This is holding mostly true.
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Did the Feds swindle Pennsylvanian treasure hunters out of $4 billion in Civil War gold? The Associated Press and Philadelphia Inquirer convinced a judge to unseal 2018 FBI warrants where the agency seized state-owned land in Pennsylvania to search for 26 buried Civil War gold bars that were lost in 1863 when a Federal detachment was attacked.
The Feds were acting on the work of Dennis and Kem Parada, a father/son treasure hunting duo, who had narrowed down the possible location of the gold After interviewing the Paradas, the FBI obtained the warrant to seize the land.
A contractor hired by the FBI discovered underground signals that were probably from a large amount of gold. This touched off several days of excavating by the Feds. In the end, the FBI said that they didn’t find anything. Despite that, they have never filed a written report of whether they did or didn’t find the lost Civil War gold.
The Paradas believe that the FBI did recover the gold, and are trying to swindle them out of their share. The state of Pennsylvania is probably thinking the same thing, as the gold was on state-owned land.

Looking Ahead To Next Month

Gold will be hypersensitive to Non-farm Payrolls and Fed talk in July. Summer is supposed to be the doldrums for the gold market, but this is nothing near a normal year.

Biden is pushing a bipartisan infrastructure bill that doesn’t raise taxes, but neither the real conservatives or real progressives are happy with it.If it gets through the Senate the increase in spending may dampen dollar strength.

Energy analysts are speculating on whether Saudi Arabia can keep the OPEC+ coalition from breaking production agreements. Russia is very unhappy, and wants to pump a lot more. If they all hold the line, we might see $100 oil later this summer, which is going to push inflation higher.

This month’s treasure story has a real historic feel to it. King John of England, who was forced by the barons to sign the Magna Carta, was in the middle of quashing a large rebellion when the English Crown Jewels and most of his treasure was lost while crossing an estuary.

800 years on, a local gentleman thinks he has found the famous lost royal treasure.

This column is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended as investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. – Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the possibility of another “Little Ice Age.”

Preparing for Cold Years

To start, SurvivalBlog reader R.J.R. suggested this piece at American Thinker: Preparing for the coming food shortages associated with the dark, cold years.  Here is an excerpt:

“Contemplating several years of low harvests, on a global scale, with perhaps more years of lingering bad weather, is largely outside our experience. My grandparents and parents lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Mom’s family farmed wheat. Dad’s folks were just plain dirt poor. They all suffered. No matter what else might happen in our lives, our families, our neighborhoods, or our country, our world is facing predictable dark cold years, and we need to prepare.

Last year, some food, farm, and household supplies were unavailable. This reflected negative impacts from reduced harvests from the previous year, bad weather, COVID interruptions of production and processing, limited imports, supply chain and transport disruptions, lack of processing supplies like metal for cans, limited commercial food service, and families being at home round-the-clock rather than at work, school, and recreation. Lines lengthened at food banks. School districts scrambled to keep breakfast and lunch programs going via delivery or centralized pick-up.”

300 Year Drought During The Little Ice Age

Here is a fascinating aricle that was posted over at the Real Climate Science blog, in May: 300 Year Drought During The Little Ice Age.

An Earthbag Chicken Coop

Over at the Natural Building Blog: A Fine Earthbag Chicken Coop. (Our thanks to Tim J., for the link.)

New Autonomous Drone for SAR in Forests

Reader C.B. sent this: An autonomous drone for search and rescue in forests using optical sectioning algorithm.  The article begins:

“A team of researchers working at Johannes Kepler University has developed an autonomous drone with a new type of technology to improve search-and-rescue efforts. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes their drone modifications. Andreas Birk with Jacobs University Bremen has published a Focus piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team in Austria.

Finding people lost (or hiding) in the forest is difficult because of the tree cover. People in planes and helicopters have difficulty seeing through the canopy to the ground below, where people might be walking or even laying down. The same problem exists for thermal applications—heat sensors cannot pick up readings adequately through the canopy. Efforts have been made to add drones to search-and-, but they suffer from the same problems because they are remotely controlled by pilots using them to search the ground below. In this new effort, the researchers have added new technology that both helps to see through the tree canopy and to highlight people that might be under it.

The new technology is based on what the researchers describe as an airborne optical sectioning algorithm—it uses the power of a computer to defocus occluding objects such as the tops of . The second part of the new device uses thermal imaging to highlight the heat emitted from a warm body.”

JWR’s Comment:  Just keep in mind that this same technology could be used to locate someone attempting to hide from a tyrannical government.

Hackers Expose 8.4 Billion Passwords

Hackers Expose 8.4 Billion Passwords Post them Online in Possibly Largest Dump of Passwords Ever.  (A tip of the hat to reader J. McC. for the link.)

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The first right of every human being is the right of self-defense. Without that right, all other rights are meaningless. The right of self-defense is not something the government bestows upon its citizens. It is an inalienable right, older than the Constitution itself. It existed prior to government and prior to the social contract of our Constitution.” – Senator Larry Craig

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — June 30, 2021

June 30th is the anniversary of the tragic death of 19 firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Fire. (In 2013.)

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Pistol Lasers and Red Dots, by Francis

Introductory Note: I’m Francis The Semi-Prepper. Two of my articles have been featured in SurvivalBlog:

The Semi-Prepper, Part 1, dated May 26, 2020 and Part 2 dated May 27, 2020

and,

Abandoning Home, by Francis dated Aug 11, 2020

I reference these as they include my background and beliefs. I’m trying to be proactive but I’ll never be a full prepper. I am constantly thinking and trying to do what I have to do to be prepared for the ominous times coming and to pass onto our grandchildren something of value. We already know the Lord but the Lord helps those who help themselves…

With 75-year-old eyes, my aiming with a semiautomatic pistol is not that good, surprise! Thus, the quest for better accuracy. This is most important today with street crime, riots, and racially-motivated attacks. Therefore, I am armed.

My goal here is to explain lasers and red dot sights and how to mount them to your pistol if it has rear dovetail sights (looking at the rear sight from the side, the rear sight dovetail looks like a triangle with part of the top cut off- /____\ ). Some pistols are set up for Picatinny rails, which will not be addressed here. It can be confusing to the novice, as it was to me, to understand the difference between a laser and a red dot for use on a semiautomatic pistol. Note that there are also fiber optics replacement sights for pistols; I will not be discussing them here because the shooter has to align both rear and front sight. I feel the laser and red dot require less “aligning effort”.

You cannot just buy any product that says it will work and expect it to. All of these products are made for a specific firearm or as in the case of the Sylvan sight pusher for many different firearms but not all. Make sure you diligently investigate what you purchase and that it will properly work with your firearm(s).

Learn from others! I participate in IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) and IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation). You can look these up but essentially they allow competitors to shoot at targets, (cardboard, etc), with some targets moving, time limits, reloading and shooters required to move. There is always a safety officer within 2 feet behind you who is tracking safety and your time. There is usually a $20 to $25 dollar fee to participate; it usually takes about 2.5 to 3.5 hours to run through each station depending upon the number of stations and the number of competitors.Continue reading“Pistol Lasers and Red Dots, by Francis”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

—

H.L. sent this troubling news reported by American Greatness: Deprogramming of January 6 Defendants Is Underway.  JWR’s Comment: This self-flagellating rhetoric reminds me of the public humiliation “Struggle Sessions” that were a staple of the Cultural Revolution in mainland China under the brutal genocidal rule of Chairman Mao and his henchmen.

o  o  o

My wife Avalanche Lily suggested this news item, that I also included in our Economics & Investing column: Israel has already tested a digital shekel cryptocurrency. This has some very far-reaching implications.

o  o  o

Reader M.P. wrote:

“Brian Krebs recently posted an article describing an industry survey that found that the majority of drinking water supply systems in the US have not even fully inventoried their IT/OT (operational tech) systems, let alone secured them. If they don’t know what they have, they cannot lock them down. Couple that with the highly improbably 67.9 percent that say they have had no IT security incidents in the past year and it becomes pretty obvious that this sector as a whole has not IT security strategy and is a whole set of time bombs waiting to explode, or rather be exploded from without.”

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — June 29, 2021

29 July 1805 was the birthday of Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville. He died 16 April,1859. He is best known for his lengthy treatise: Democracy In America.

—

Two noteworthy new listings, over at SurvivalRealty.com:

On the Pend Orielle River: Homesteading with a view!!

and,

134 acres minutes from Downtown Missoula.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Basic Clock Repair and Few Thoughts on Time, by St. Funogas

In The Novice’s recent article Timekeeping When the Grid is Down, he asked for someone with a better knowledge to write an article for TEOTWAWKI clock and watch repair. While we’re waiting for that person to step up to the plate, and I hope they do, I thought that I’d offer some of the clock-repair basics I’ve learned in the past eight months.

I’ve always loved any kind of windup time piece. Some combination of the beauty, intricacies, and the mechanical aspects of clocks captured my imagination at a young age. Once I used my birthday money to buy $2.50 pocket watch. I soon had the back open to examine the marvels beneath the cover, watch the mainspring dancing about, and eventually ruined the spring by accidentally sticking a needle into it while poking around the gears. This is how one learns to be a mechanic.

At an auction last year was a grandmother clock (a small “grandfather” clock) which the auctioneer almost couldn’t give away. Anyone who frequents auctions knows that auction clocks never work. He finally talked one of the auction regulars into taking it for $30, although begrudgingly. When I got home, I couldn’t stop thinking about that clock. Wow, $30, what a treasure if it were running. I wondered just how difficult it could be to repair clocks in case I ever saw another deal like that.

My biggest concern was just exactly how they got all those tiny gears in place between the two brass plates which held it all together. Even now I still wonder. So the thought of trying to learn clock repair with my nine thumbs made me shudder. A week later I finally decided to man up and research clock repair to see just what it entailed. I quickly discovered I’d been making some dumb assumptions all along. Once I figured out the secret I realized, “Wow, I can do that.”

With a brain wired for a mechanical things and problem solving, fixing clocks soon became a fun challenge for me. In the past eight months I’ve been able to repair seven of the eight clocks I’ve attempted including wall clocks, mantle clocks, an anniversary clock (so named because it only needs to be wound once a year), and a cuckoo clock which is a little trickier. I have three more clocks (and counting) to work on as soon as I have time, maybe when I put the garden to bed and fire up the woodstove.

Not only have I learned a cool new skill, but I’ve learned many fascinating things along the journey. Like how exactly cuckoo clocks cuckoo. It’s ingenious! And how their pine-cone weights remove the need for mainsprings inside the clock.Continue reading“Basic Clock Repair and Few Thoughts on Time, by St. Funogas”