Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

We’ve been very busy packing orders placed during our Jeff Cooper’s Birthday sale, at Elk Creek Company.  Thusfar, more than $14,000 worth of guns have sold. Please note that if congress passes their private party transfer ban scheme (“Universal Background Checks”), then I plan to put Elk Creek Company on hiatus for six months, awaiting price discovery on pre-1899 antique guns. I will also probably discontinue accepting credit cards, regardless. Paying $300 per month for a credit card merchant account is painful, especially when they also charge 2.5% of gross for the privilege of using plastic. Once I drop my credit card merchant account, I will only accept payment in cash, U.S. Postal Money orders, or silver. This will probably be my last big sale, before that change. The Jeff Cooper’s Birthday sale ends on May 21st, so get your order in soon.

This past week I did a garden water infrastructure project, split a good poke of firewood, and worked on some fences. I dropped three more small dead-standing fir trees in our north woodlot. The largest of these was only 14 inches, at the butt. I cut them into 5-foot lengths — the longest that our ATV trailer can safely handle. Our daughters have started limbing those, to prepare them for me to haul out of the woodlot. Next week: More of The Firewood Imperative. I won’t rest until I have plenty of firewood cut and stacked!

I took one of our sons with me on a gun show trip. That was a three-hour drive there, four hours at the show, and then a three-hour drive home. I did manage to find a few pre-1899 guns and a couple of complete AR uppers, so that made the trip worthwhile.

 

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying,

Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,

And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:

And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:

That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day

For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.

And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:

About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.

On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

And the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying,

Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.

Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.

And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever.” – Joshua 4 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — May 14, 2021

On May 14th, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, reestablishing the Jewish state after 2000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel,” prompting applause and tears from the crowd gathered at the museum. Ben-Gurion became Israel’s first Prime Minister.

The British Army had withdrawn the day earlier and fighting broke out almost immediately. Egypt launched an air assault later in the evening. Despite a blackout in Tel Aviv–and the expected Arab invasion–Jews joyously celebrated the birth of their new nation, especially after word was received that the United States had recognized the Jewish state. At midnight, the State of Israel officially came into being upon termination of the British mandate in Palestine.

—

Please pray for Divine Intervention, for peace in Israel!

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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 94 ends on May 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.

Growing Your Own Food in the Inland Northwest – Part 4, by D.F.

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.)

Harvesting

I have tried several contrivances for hand harvesting grain or lentils etc., but each time I have been disappointed. Inevitably I have resorted to pulling a clean plastic garbage can behind me while I manually grab the grain heads and jerk or strip them off and deposit them into the garbage can. Surprisingly this procedure has been “perfected” such that I can harvest about a bushel worth of wheat per day. A bushel of wheat weighs 60 lbs. Because wheat and dry legumes have about 1,500 calories per pound a person could expect to survive decently for a year on five or six bushels of wheat and an equal quantity of legumes. Therefore, harvesting a bushel of wheat or peas per day is tolerable though also quite tiring. Harvesting lentils the same way is much slower and is really back-breaking work because they are such low-growing plants. This is a problem waiting to be solved.

Threshing was initially tried by abrading the wheat heads between screens or surfaces. This was clearly insufficient. My current method uses my electric drill with a bolt in the chuck. On this bolt I have attached a couple pieces of steel chain extending about 5-6 inches out from the bolt [forming a flail.] I shove this up and down in about 1/3 of a garbage can full of grain heads while the drill is running and complete the job in about a minute. I follow this by winnowing using a box fan and then further cleaning with a couple screens. Screen with ½, ¼ and 1/8 inch mesh from hardware stores can be nailed to a frame and provides some useful additional seed cleaning. I may need to repeat these steps to get satisfactory results. Field corn is certainly much easier to harvest by hand, but these methods make grain harvesting possible so I have largely decided not to grow dry corn.

Grain can be stored in white plastic food grade buckets as has been described many times by preppers.

Grinding into flour can depend on the cooking method used. Several people have talked about which mill they prefer. My experience is different. I bought a hand crank grinder like the Chard GM150 for trial. It was not even called a mill and was recommended only for rough grinding into meal rather than flour. To make it work I first adjust its screw tightener about one full turn less than totally tight. This just cracks the wheat into pieces but makes it easier to turn by hand for the next grind. After sifting out the fine powder the unfinished grain is returned to the grinder which is then adjusted for a tighter grind. The grinding and sifting is repeated until no further improvement seems evident The resulting flour is not uniformly fine. Much of it is about equal to commercial fine flour, but a substantial portion is more coarse. This produces a dense but tasty loaf when placed in a bread machine, but a 50/50 mix of this with store-bought flour makes quite a fine loaf.Continue reading“Growing Your Own Food in the Inland Northwest – Part 4, by D.F.”

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 rising steel prices. (See the Commodities section and the Equities section.)

Precious Metals:

A video interview: Roubini: There’s tech bubble, crypto bubble, Robinhood bubble, ‘I would be slightly overweight gold’ right now.

o  o  o

Egon von Greyerz: Gold vs $200 Trillion Counterfeit Money.

Economy & Finance:

‘$17 trillion’: Economist finds Biden plans 3 times costlier than advertised.

o  o  o

Inflation Nation: Consumer Prices Jump 4.2 Percent

o  o  o

Brandon Smith: Existential Economic Threats: How U.S. States Can Survive Without Federal Money

o  o  o

New tax warning: Biden to whack small businesses

o  o  o

Charles Hugh Smith: Here’s How ‘Everything Bubbles’ Pop.

o  o  o

Montana Is First State To Cancel Unemployment Benefits In Response To Unprecedented Worker Shortage.

o  o  o

Reader H.L. sent this: LA’s Homeless Housing Now Costs More Than Some Luxury Condos.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.” – Col. Jeff Cooper

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — May 13, 2021

May 13th is the birthday of firearms engineer Theodor Koch (born 1905, died 1976.) Koch, along with Edmund Heckler and Alex Seidel salvaged tooling from the bombed-out Mauser factory at Oberndorf, and with it founded Heckler und Koch.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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 94 ends on May 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.

Growing Your Own Food in The Inland Northwest – Part 3, by D.F.

(Continued from Part 2.)

Little marvel peas were the usual variety planted for shelling. They also had a bad year in 2020 for some unknown reason. Some of my dry field peas were picked while green and shelled to substitute for this bad year. They are a satisfactory backup to the garden varieties. Shelled peas can be stored frozen or dried. Rehydrating dried ones has been acceptable but is not yet perfected.

Oregon sugar pod peas for eating the pods have been planted. They generally produce acceptably, but suffered this last year with the other garden peas. They taste great fresh, but I am not as pleased with them when frozen or dried so I grow only a smaller amount of them.

Cylindra beets have been grown almost exclusively rather than other varieties. They are named because their roots are huge long cylindrical things rather than the normal round balls. They produce more than I need from even a relatively small plot. They taste about the same as other varieties, and they store well in the ground. This storage method is nice provided voles do not destroy them before they are used, and provided I dig them when the ground is not frozen. They can be impossible to extract from frozen ground. They may store in wet dirt in the garage, but this has not been investigated fully yet.

Yellow onion sets were purchased from the garden store each time I attempted to grow them. These have been very satisfactory with big size and much more production than I can use. They last until spring when stored in mesh sacks in the garage. White onion sets also have been grown but with less success. Since they do not store as well as the yellow onions and have similar taste they will not be grown again. However, it will be necessary to learn how to raise onions from seed that are not purchased as onion sets from a store.
A variety of carrots have been tried. They often do not do well in my clay soil, but have done better in a raised bed with top soil from a landscaping business. This soil needs to be screened to remove stones. It is hoped this will allow carrots to grow straighter. They also can be stored in the ground with the same issues mentioned for beets.Continue reading“Growing Your Own Food in The Inland Northwest – Part 3, by D.F.”

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 Colonial Pipeline hacking incident and the subsequent fuel shortages.

Colonial Pipeline Hack Update

First up, there was plenty of talk in the past few days about the Colonial fuel pipeline ransomware hack, and the subsequent gasoline shortages: “Gas Run Has Begun” – Fuel Stations Run Dry Amid Hacked Pipeline.  Here is a key quote: “The shortage continues to develop. We are assuming the craziness is just beginning.”

Colorado’s Planned “Liberated” City

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: First (possibly last) look at founders of newly ‘liberated city’ in Colorado.

A Solar Cycle and Weather Cycle Link

S.B. suggested this: The sun may offer key to predicting El Niño, groundbreaking study finds: Scientists identify possible connection between the solar cycle and whether El Niño or La Niña is present. The article begins:

“When it comes to long-term hurricane forecasts, tornado predictions in the Plains or prospects for winter rain in California, you’ll often hear meteorologists refer to El Niño or La Niña. They’re phases in a cycle that starts in the tropics, spreading an influence across the globe and shaping weather both close to home and on different continents.

Now there’s emerging research to suggest that cosmic rays, or positively charged, high-energy particles from space, might be the mechanism that flips the switch between phases. Cosmic rays come from outside our solar system, but the number and intensity that reach Earth hinge on the magnetic field of the sun.

A swing between El Niño and La Niña can have dramatic implications on global weather, bringing widespread shifts in precipitation and changes in temperature that can be problematic for vulnerable populations and have massive economic effects. In California, for instance, flood events during El Niño periods have proven 10 times more costly than those during La Niña events. In some parts of the world that depend heavily on agriculture and marine commerce, a flip from El Niño to La Niña can alter daily life.”Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — May 12, 2021

One hundred years ago this week, in May of 1921 a solar storm began, dubbed The Great Geomagnetic Storm of May 1921. These were some of the headlines: “Telegraph Service Prostrated, Comet Not to Blame” — declared the Los Angeles Times on May 15, 1921. “Electrical Disturbance is ‘Worst Ever Known’” — reported the Chicago Daily Tribune. “Sunspot credited with Rail Tie-up” — in The New York Times.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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 94 ends on May 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.

Growing Your Own Food in The Inland Northwest – Part 2, by D.F.

(Continued from Part 1.)

What to grow

I have tried quite a variety of plants, and have learned some that I like and others that I don’t.

The Heavy Hitter Plants:
Pinto beans appear to be the best bean variety for my situation. I tried black beans, grex, and navy beans. Routinely pinto bean plants look less robust than the others, but they surprise me with yields that are just as good; and they seem to get ripe and dry down for harvest sooner than the others. This is important if the fall rains are on time or perhaps slightly early. I have needed to pull up the others before they are really dry and store them in a shed in hopes that they will dry enough to thresh. This obviously won’t work for large quantities. Since I can’t discern much difference in taste between these bean varieties I am satisfied with pintos.

However, my experience with beans has also taught me why eastern Washington is best for grains, lentils and field peas but not beans. Grain, lentils and field peas are early crops. They germinate in the cooler soil in the spring and get ripe and dry down in summer. This is a perfect match for the climate which provides winter snow and spring rain, but the summer from mid-July to much of September is quite dry. Beans, however germinate later when the soil is warmer and are not ready for harvest until September when rains may interfere with the pods drying out. It also means irrigation is required during July and August because the beans are actively growing then. Irrigation is possible for a vegetable garden but it gets much more involved for quarter acre bean plots. In a survival situation this could be significant.

With this knowledge I plan to rely on wheat, field peas and lentils for the main source of calories for desperate times. They match the climate, and I have methods worked out to harvest them. However, significant issues exist for them that must be resolved. My yield of lentils is not good yet, and they require back-breaking effort because they are low growing plants that don’t compete well with the numerous weeds that outgrow them. Field peas are much easier to grow and harvest because they are relatively tall plants and yield better than lentils. Their problem is severe susceptibility to weevil. This needs to be solved.

Another surprise was the difficulty finding seed for grain, field peas and lentils. These are not grown by the average gardener in their back yard. Consequently, the normal garden stores did not have seed and usually did not even know where to get it. This was a surprise because these crops are widely grown on farms in Eastern Washington. Finally, the internet led me to Spokane Seed Company which deals with field peas and lentils. They were happy to do business with me and would sell small amounts (meaning 50-100 lbs) of seed that could be used for food preparation as well as seed.

Finding wheat seed was much more difficult. The internet plus several phone calls that bounced me around to various locations finally put me in contact with someone from the farmers coop who was pleasant and helpful. They eventually gave me about 100 pounds of hard red winter wheat seed. It was probably more convenient to give it to me than figure out how to charge me for this small amount that was not treated with fungicide. I wanted to be able to eat it as well as plant it so fungicide was not wanted and would have complicated the transaction as well. I should have just asked the neighboring farmers where to get wheat seed, but I did not want to look like a foolish city slicker. I had tried some packets of wheat seed from mail house seed companies, but it cost a few dollars for just a few ounces; and I was not really happy with the result. There is something to be said for the seed that is grown locally by the farmers. It is a variety that is known to produce results for the particular area. I now have hard red winter wheat and a spring wheat variety that was purchased in bulk from a big box grocery store.

Oat seed obtained by mail from Bountiful Gardens gave acceptable results from the start. This was fortunate because oats are not nearly as widely grown as wheat in my area so I don’t know how to obtain that seed locally. This variety was called “hull-less oats”. Regular oats have hulls that can be hard to remove from the kernel so “hull-less oats” are expected to be easier to thresh. This is nice because even this variety still has a small fraction that does not completely shed its hulls. Eating oats for breakfast sometimes requires using a toothpick afterward because of hulls.

Amaranth and quinoa seeds are so small that the only way I could think of to plant them was by broadcasting. This process requires some way to ensure they are just below the surface, and usually a cultipacker is needed to press the thin covering layer of dirt firmly. If this is not done they don’t germinate well. However, I wanted to use methods that required minimal special tools and did not have a cultipacker at the time so the results were minimal. Even when plants grew I did not feel confident with caring for them. Amaranth looks initially like common weeds so I was continually wondering if I should pull them up and discard them. Harvesting these two crops did not seem to go well so I did not pursue them after one or two attempts. Amaranth seeds obtained from the grocery store did not taste especially good to me so my motivation to pursue them was low. Their leaves tasted okay so they might be more useful in salads, but lettuce and kale were used for that so I did not pursue them further.

Buckwheat is planted for cover crop here, but growing it for grain occurs mostly in the upper Midwest only. Because buckwheat does not completely ripen all at the same time, harvesting it requires estimating when the highest percentage of ripe seeds exist. These complications plus a less than impressive yield persuaded me to abandon it after the first attempt.

Pearl millet was another totally unknown plant for me. It did not do well on the first try, and because I had no experience with harvesting it I did not persevere with it. This could be unfortunate since it is supposed to a crop for desperate times. It can be planted later after the “normal” other crop has failed to germinate. Supposedly this allows one to salvage at least something from a growing season that starts out as a failure.
Fava beans grew and produced nice big beans that could be picked as fresh beans, but I was not convinced they could produce dry beans that could be stored if grown in my area. Lima beans did not grow at all, but that was probably because of the drought that first year. Also, they have significant levels of a somewhat toxic phytohemaglutinen that must be removed by soaking and boiling so they were abandoned as a main source for survival.

I grew dry flint and flour corn with acceptable results. Its advantages are that significant quantities can be planted and harvested by hand. However, I have not used it in meals extensively, and it requires irrigation so it is less desirable than wheat.

Potatoes have been consistently productive. I now grow about 50-60 plants each of russet and red potatoes. They provide ½ to 1 pound of potatoes per plant which is acceptable. However, my taste for potatoes has declined over the years. Furthermore, potatoes are not as calorie-dense as most people think with only about 395 cal per pound compared to about 1,500 for dry grains and legumes. They also have recently been criticized for being easily digested into sugar—meaning they have a high glycemic index. They are low in protein. The russets store fairly well in paper sacks in the garage, but the red potatoes don’t store quite as well. I will continue to grow them and eat them but not expect to rely on them as the main sustaining crop.

Garden Vegetables Planted:

I have grown the usual variety: green beans, beets, green peas for shelling, green peas for edible pods, tomatoes, onions and carrots. So far as possible heirloom varieties are used so the seed can be saved.
For green beans I used the Kentucky wonder variety with some success, but last season they did not do as well as expected. Another gardener friend also had problems with his variety for unknown reasons. Probably a new variety should be tried along with varying their location even more radically. Perhaps disease has built up or perhaps the seed was old. Green beans can be stored frozen or dried in a food dryer. I prefer their taste when frozen, but dried ones are tolerable.

(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 3.)

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.

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This was a very thought-provoking essay: The Inevitable End of a Ruling Elite.

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Michael J. wrote:

“Here are my inflation-fighting tips for the SB community:
1) If you go to work, don’t buy your lunch; bring it from home.  When even a burrito can cost $10-13 dollars, that adds up fast.  Buy some lunch meat and bread, trick it up with some vegetables and mustard and mayonnaise! Fast and easy!  And while we’re at it — cook your own food as much as possible!
2) I buy kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans (aka chick peas) and olives in 15-ounce cans from the grocery store. I open one can of each and make a beans and olives blend that I scoop onto my salads. It’s an extra source of nutrients and fiber, and it’s a non-meat source of protein too!
3) Concerning meat: I usually buy ground turkey in 3 pound packs — it’s cheaper than buying 3 1-pound packs.  I then split the meat into 3 1 pound blobs and put them in storage tubs. A little bit of work up front, but cheaper in the long run.  Don’t buy fatty meat because it’s cheaper because that may cause constipation.  It’s worthwhile to spend money on quality food.  We are what we eat.  Spending that extra few dollars on quality food will save hundreds or thousands of dollars in medical care!!
4) A few months ago, the precious metals firm I work with started advertising copper rounds.  They are selling 1.7-ounce coins at $44.75.  That equals $26.32 per ounce — almost the price of 1 ounce of silver!!  I haven’t bought any copper yet, but it’s another option if you want to get something tangible to hedge against inflation.  [JWR Adds:  The least-expensive source of copper is U.S. 5-cent Nickel coins. Those are 75% copper and 25% nickel.] Those who advocate for “quantitative easing” must think that we can all live on Rainbow Stew.
5) Concerning commuting: If you can, ask for telecommuting.  I telecommute two days per week. That helps — both in terms of gasoline and in terms of more time in between having to get the vehicle serviced.  Another alternative is to ask for an 4-10 shift — four days per week, ten hours per shift.  You’ll be tired, but you’re skipping that one extra day of driving. That didn’t work well for me, but it might work for some SB readers.
Right now I’m studying for another IT certificate. More knowledge and skill = more money. The next step will be to find a house in a remote area and leave the apartment behind. A house with even a little bit of land is much better than an urban beehive.”

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Reader Anne K. wrote:

“Everything in your recent article [on inflation] is very true. I would add that many do not realize the immediacy of what is happening. I have converted all paper money savings to hard goods already. Reason — I work in a small rural grocery/gas/çonvenience store. In the past year, all of our goods have had to increase 10-20 percent and sometimes more. The week before last when our grocery supply truck came we were forced to increase a 10-pound bag of potatoes from $4.59 to $7.79. This is considerably more than the “reported” inflation rate. Also, since February, hay has gone from $10 to $13 per bale. A 50-pound bag of cracked corn from $8.99 to $10.99. Hyperinflation is already here and continuing to rise.

This is no longer something that we can discuss in the abstract as something which may happen in the future. It is already here.”

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S.B.’s Commnets:

“The recent excellent article by Jim titled “Readying Yourself for Inflationary Times” reminded me of a story my dad told about surviving inflation. My father was in Argentina during the late 50s and early 60s. It was a time of political unrest, economic insecurity, and severe inflation. My father was doing construction work and was having trouble getting a client to pay him. Payment of contracts was slow for everyone because the longer people could put off paying others, the less they were actually paying due to the rampant inflation. “Better to use the money I owe you to buy groceries today since that same amount of money will only buy 90% of those groceries a couple of weeks from now.” This one client was taking a particularly long time to pay my dad, even in the environment of slow payments everywhere. My father was becoming increasingly desperate as the money he was owed was losing value on a daily basis and he needed the pesos. I won’t go into the details, but ultimately he took some action he was not proud of to change his client’s attitude about payment. It was that incident that convinced him that he needed to get out of Argentina. Soon after he started the process to emigrate to the U.S., which he did legally, even though he had to wait 7-years until his turn in line came up. That inflationary environment caused my father, a very very good man, to behave in a way that he never would have otherwise. Whatever keeps you sane, keeps your moral compass true, and keeps your spirit in line with God’s plan, hold onto those things tightly when things go bad; and be prepared to have people around you who don’t take that path. Stay strong everyone,”

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Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson mentioned this article: Philadelphia City Council OKs Ban on Bullet-Resistant Windows — Philadelphia City Council voted, 14-3, Thursday to approve a bill that merchants fear could jeopardize their safety and livelihood.  Mike’s Comment: “Not allowing people to murder you is an ‘indignity’ in Philadelphia.”

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From SurvivalBlog reader Jim L.:
“Thank you for the inflation article! A few comments:
    • I started as a box boy at my local Safeway grocery store in 1974, the middle of the inflation-packed 1970’s. I recall shrinkflation was rampant then: ground coffee (before fancy-shmancy brands were popular) started showing up in 13 ounce cans instead of 16 ounce cans. I also recall that a six-pack of the store brand of beer, “Padre”, could be purchased for 89 cents. These days, a six-pack Budweiser is 7 Fake/Fiat (Federal) Reserve Notes. And in addition to using 1.5 gallon containers, ice cream makers have another trick which they use; since they sell by volume, they whip air into the ice cream and now sell you less cream and more air in the same container therefore hiding the fact that they are selling you less product.
    • I watched a YouTube video about one month ago (I think it was George Gammon but can’t find it now) that showed that a family in Venezuela can still feed itself using a few ounces of silver per month.
    • There is a little diner called “Late’s” in Manitowoc Wisconsin which has already implemented your silver pricing strategy. It looks like they have been doing so for many years.

May God cause His face to shine upon you.”

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Reader D.S.V. sent us this: State of Emergency Declared in 17 States and D.C. After Pipeline Cyberattack. JWR’s Comment: I’d always expected a simple and direct attack on SCADA software. It is interesting that this attack was ransomware.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — May 11, 2021

On May 11, 1949, Israel was admitted into the United Nations.

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Our Jeff Cooper’s Birthday Sale at Elk Creek Company is now underway, and will end on May 21st.  This is the time to round out your collection of pre-1899 Federally-exempt guns!

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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 94 ends on May 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.