Constructing a DIY Composting Toilet, by SF in Oregon

Here is my description of my do-it-yourself (DIY) toilet that works like a charm. This is how to deal with the “S” part of when the Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF).

Of all the kludges I’ve built off-grid, I’m most proud of my toilet. As preppers, we tend to spend a lot of time on food (what goes in) but not so much on sanitation (what comes out).

If you are on-grid with a septic system, great. But as many folks in Texas recently discovered with their once in a generation below freezing storm and subsequent power outage, without water to flush, toilets don’t work.

Add to it that without power, they also have no ventilation, and without heat, just keeping the bathroom windows open is not an option.  It’s not just about bad smells, it’s then a health hazard.

Nine years ago I began building my off-grid retreat and one of the first questions was: “What about going to the bathroom?”  We have a big tick problem here (guineas to eat the ticks and dogs to chase away the rabbits and deer have helped), so I didn’t think that urinating around the house was a good idea. I have read that the smell of urine can attract the ticks.

Also, using the ‘bucket’ method (whether a 5 gallon bucket or the fancier versions) wasn’t working well.  While the urine and feces had a smell, add them together and it was much worse.  Wet feces goes through a different biological process than dry feces and the smell and end product is both more dangerous and offensive.

We think nothing of mixing solids and liquids since they get flushed down the toilet.  We never have to experience the end result of their mixing unless we live near a waste treatment plant.  Mixing the two and adding a flush of water makes sense in a modern world. Liquid slurries are easy to move from point A to B.  From your toilet, down pipes, into your septic.  Not so easy to move solids. So, what to do?  First, let’s separate the liquids from the solids. The idea is called a ‘urine separating toilet’.Continue reading“Constructing a DIY Composting Toilet, by SF in Oregon”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens… Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.” – Leo Tolstoy

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 9, 2021

March 9th is the birthday of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin – the first man to ever travel in space. He was born in 1934 and died in the crash of a MiG-15-UTI fighter on March 27, 1968.

Today is the birthday of writer John McPhee (b. 1931), a master of creative nonfiction. One of McPhee’s most widely read books is Coming into the Country, which eloquently describes the Alaskan wilderness.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 93 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. 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.
  5. 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. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. 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 93 ends on March 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.

 

2021 Winter Storm Lessons Learned , by Chill N. Texas

I am a long time reader of SurvivalBlog.com but this is my first time submitting an article to the blog. Much of this will be “train of thought” as I am reading through my notes that I was keeping during and immediately after the exceptionally cold winter storm that hit the Houston, Texas area in February, 2021.

I have been “preparedness-minded” most of my life, but didn’t consider myself officially a “prepper” until about 10 years ago. I have generally had the support (or at least she humors me) of the wife when it comes to being prepared, but as with everything else in life, you have to find balance so I’ve tried to keep my family prepared where we are, when we can.

For some context and level setting:  My family and I live in the greater Houston area. We are a family of five with near-adult children living in a suburb with a HOA,  one-story single-family home. It has natural gas appliances, and a wood-burning fireplace, on a municipal water supply. We try to maintain a baseline level of supplies at all times, for both natural/manmade events, as well as just general day-to-day living without having to run to a store every day or two to pick up something that we need but don’t have.

I won’t get into too many details related to timing since that has been covered in news reports, but when we started seeing weather forecasts that something unusual was heading our way (about 10 days out) we started to take a look around and “top off” anything that we thought we might need to stay inside for a day or two.  (We get icy weather every few years, and didn’t expect this to be much different from those events.) Unfortunately, that ended up not being the case, but in general, and especially compared to many people, we did not fare badly. I believe that this was a combination of being ready, being able to pivot and adjust to the actual situation (not just what we had planned for), and quite frankly just being blessed or lucky.

We lost power for a few hours Tuesday evening (while it was still very cold outside) and again on Wednesday afternoon also for a few hours, but other than those events we had power. We never “lost” our municipal water, but we did have very low pressure for several days and were under a “boil water notice” for several days.

If you read nothing else from this, please read this: The stuff that is discussed in preparedness articles/blogs is very real. The things that happened in this event are all things that we’ve all read or talked about and will be surprising to no one here. Things happened basically the way that we all thought it would. Lots of people were not ready for this, stores were cleaned out quickly, and then could not be restocked for several days due to either the loss of power at warehouses, or due to not being able to get trucks moving since all of the roads were iced up. By the second day of the storm, the news was rife with stories of people out looking for groceries and basic supplies and not being able to find them since stores were closed, without power, without staff (roads were icy), or some combinations of those.

I know I’ll be “preaching to the choir” on many of the following mentioned items, but wanted to put together a list of what went well, what didn’t go well, and some takeaways from this event that I hope that someone will find useful, or at least help to reinforce areas that someone might be lacking in. Note that this is coming from someone who thought that he was pretty much ready for this.Continue reading“2021 Winter Storm Lessons Learned , by Chill N. Texas”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

We no longer have comments to articles, but this column is intended to maintain the continuity of some two-way communication. 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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Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Tim. J. was the first of several readers to recommended this excellent vlog from Good Patriot: “How To Fight Back – Part 1: Using Your “SHIELD”.

o o o

Frank suggested this piece by John Whitehead: Home Invasions: All the Ways the Government Can Lay Siege to Your Property

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Sir,
I read the review about the slip-on Pachmayr Decelerator pad with interest.  I have a much older permanently installed Decelerator rifle butt pad installed in late 1980s.  It still works nearly as well as it did when new.  At least, that is what my now 58-year-old right shoulder tells me :^)  Because adding the extra length would have affected my off-hand rifle shooting, I removed about ½” of factory wood stock, then regained approximately ¼” from the pad thickness.  It does affect future worth to collector, but it gains faster time mounting to shoulder.  Worth it to me. I recently purchased a slip-on Kick-Eeze pad for a lightweight single shot 12 gauge shotgun but as of yet have not tried it yet. – J.R.G.

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Avalanche Lily (AVL) and several readers sent me this link: The Digital Gulag: Why Team Tyranny Won’t Need Door-Kickers to Enforce the Coming Gun Bans

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From Reader C.B: Red Canary researchers find evidence of malware on 30,000 infected Apple computers

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G.G. suggested this: So Long as You Carry a Cellphone, the Government Can Track You

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Facebook’s advertising ban for Kryptek.   (See the Idaho section.)

Idaho

I just heard that Kryptek Outdoor Group (of Eagle, Idaho — a town north of Boise, where the boonies begin) has had their ads banned on Facebook, just because a few people attending the Capitol Hill protest on January 6th were wearing outdoor clothing made with their distinctive camouflage pattern. That is typical liberal picayune nonsense. FWIW, I own a deer rifle that was dipped in one of their patterns. I think that I’ll order one of their jackets to match, just show them some support.

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Hundreds of Idaho wolves could be killed under new legislation. (Thanks to C.B. for the link.)

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Six election bills to watch in the Idaho Legislature

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SaraSue and CW64 both recently wrote to mention North Idaho Energy Logs. A clever product — made in Moyie Springs, Idaho. You may recall that is the little mill town where I take my mail. By the way, they are looking for dealers for their logs.

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Idaho lawmaker draws ire after saying moms should stay home

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Coeur d’Alene Public Schools to move students to five days a week

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” –  Michael Crichton

Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 8, 2021

March 8th is the birthday of famed revolver shooter, big game hunter, and gun writer Elmer Keith, who co-designed the S&W .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges. He authored the book Sixguns, which is still considered a standard reference. A Proto-Redoubter, Keith spent the second half of his life on a ranch near Salmon, Idaho. (Keith was born in 1899 and died February 12, 1984.)

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Today, another review written by our Redoubtable Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio

Springfield XDs 9mm Mod 2 Red Dot, by Pat Cascio

In 2016, I reviewed the then-new Springfield Armory Mod 2 version of their outstanding XDs 9mm pistol – and it was, indeed, an improvement over the original version. Springfield is not a company to sit back and enjoy what they just did, they are always improving on various guns, and in many other cases, they are coming out with completely new versions and model. I like that about a company, if you sit back, you will get left in the dust by competing companies.

I’m sure many readers will remember the first Terminator movie, and the “Long slide .45 with laser sighting.” Truth be told, that laser was huge, and what you didn’t see in the movie was that the battery was actually not on the gun, instead it was on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body, with a wire running up his jacket sleeve, from the laser. We’ve come a long way, since then! Back in 1990-1993, I worked for the late Colonel Rex Applegate, and he gave me some lasers to test for him, on various handguns. And, I just didn’t see any practical applications – they were too big. Well, as we all know, handgun mounted lasers have come a long way, and are micro in size now, and many major holsters makers are manufacturing holster to fit handguns with lasers mounted on them. So, I became a fan of handguns with lasers on them – not all handguns, but many.

The first red dot sights go back many, many years, and like laser sights they too were huge, and they weren’t practical for use on handguns. Today, there are micro or miniature red dot sights, and now they can come from the factory mounted on some handguns, and we’re talking sub-compact pistols, too. Who’d a thunk it? Crimson Trace has been a major player in the laser field for handguns, but now they have expanded into red dot sights. A red dot uses a powerful light-emitting diode (LED) that cast the dot on a “screen”  that you look through.

The Springfield Armory XDs Mod 2, 9mm is currently being offered with or without a Crimson Trace red dot sight on the slide, and we are talking a very small device – I can’t wait to see how red dot sights evolve over the next 5-to-10 years – but I’m sure they will be even smaller and possibly manufactured so they are an internal part of the gun – with just the small “screen” showing on the slide. In any event, the XDs Mod 2, 9mm – has a tiny Crimson Trace Model CTS 1500 mounted on the rear (top) of the slide and it is quite the feat of engineering. The CTS1 1500 is mounted into the rear top of the slide in a milled out area, and it sits about as low as you can possibly go (at least these days.)

The Crimson Trace CTS 1500 only adds a fraction to the weight of the gun, too. It comes with a plastic cover, so you can keep the “screen” from the elements, too. This cover fits nice and tight – unlike some other covers that would easily fall off the red dot sight. Crimson Trace says this is a “smart” red dot sight. It has no on/off button – it automatically turns itself on when the gun is moved – even a fraction of an inch, and turns itself off when not in use. Plus, it will adjust the brightness of the red dot automatically – if you are in low light, the red dot is a little dimmer, in bright sunlight, it will adjust itself so that it is brighter and easier to see. Wow!Continue reading“Springfield XDs 9mm Mod 2 Red Dot, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Savory Eggs

The following recipe for Savory Eggs is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book is one of the many bonus items included in the latest edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. The first production run of 15th Anniversary Edition (2005-2020) USB stick sold out quickly, but a second batch should be available for ordering in a few weeks,

Ingredients
  • 6 hot hard-cooked eggs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup hot cream
  • 1 cup hot thin white sauce
  • Chopped parsley
  • Anchovy paste
  • 6 slices hot buttered toast
Directions
  1. Cut the eggs in two lengthwise and remove the yolks.
  2. Mash the yolks.
  3. Add seasonings, cream, parsley, anchovy, or any desired relish.
  4. Reflll the whites.
SERVING

Place on slices of toast and pour the white sauce over them.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

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 some practical tangibles to invest in. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold and silver sell off when U.S. Treasury yield spikes above 1.5%

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Gold prices drop below $1,700 as Jerome Powell dismisses rising inflation and bond yields

Economy & Finance:

Beige Book Escalates Inflation Warning: Sees Most Prices Rising “Moderately”, Some “Notably”. JWR’s Comments:  With a recent additional $1.9 trillion in pork barrel stimulus and bailouts, and another $3 trillion in “Green Energy” Federal spending planned by the Dem-wits, the market movers can clearly see inflation approaching. If their schemes are neacted, we’ll see a $33 trillion national debt, by the end of 2021! Plan and invest accordingly. Get out of Dollars, and into tangibles — with an emphasis on the kind that go “bang.”

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Another at Zero Hedge: Deutsche Bank: Central Banks Simply Can’t Afford Higher Rates With Global Debt So High

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“An Eye-Popping Decline” – US Mall Values Crash By A Record 60% In 2020

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At Wolf Street: Movie Theater Business Isn’t Going Back to Normal: Disney CEO

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.” – John Marshall, in Marbury v. Madison (5 US 137), 1803

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 7, 2021

March 7, 1944 was the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, a gifted Texan singer/songwriter. (He died in 1997.)

March 7, 1707 was the birthday of Stephen Hopkins, (Governor of Rhode Island) one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 93 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. 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.
  5. 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. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. 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 93 ends on March 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.

The Long Range Game – Part 3, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)

Common caliber rifles are the best choice for non-handloaders. But I’ve found that 7mm bullets are plentiful, as they are used in a long list of popular and modern 7mm rifle cartridges. Even if you do not reload, I would at least have the dies for each cartridge in your arsenal of rifles. As a reloader, I can make brass from other cartridges into 7×57 and other antique rifle cartridges, from such cartridge brass as 7.92×57, .25-06, .270 Winchester, .30-06, and others. And although it is perhaps too late to buy powder and primers, as these are now very hard to find, we can still buy bullets and dies. Less popular bullets such as 7mm and 8mm are still found. The batch of 7mm bullets ordered today only cost .24 cents each at Graf &Sons. These 140-grain soft point boat tail bullets are made by Privi Partizan. I hope there are some left at the time you are reading this. I believe Privi Partizan knows how to make bullets for the 7×57. If all you have are bullets and dies, I can use powders that few would consider, and make the rifle shoot well enough, but it ain’t going to be cheap. Recently, I saw once inexpensive .30-06 hunting ammunition, peak at $5.00 per round. What would be the value of a harvested deer to a starving family? This is how it was during the Great Depression. If you bought a box of 20 cartridges, there had better be 20 dead deer. Having a set of dies for your rifle, especially if it is not a common caliber cartridge, could keep it still useful, should you run out.

How Does the 7×57 Compare to Modern Cartridge Performance?

Although the 7mm Mauser (aka 7×57) was invented around 1891, it is still relevant in this modern era, when compared to modern cartridges, when modern spire point 7mm bullets are used. It is no slouch when compared to the venerable and second most popular military cartridge, 7.62 NATO! The JBM ballistics calculator was used to generate the data for the comparison. The numbers speak for themselves, yet we can make the numbers speak loud and clear.Continue reading“The Long Range Game – Part 3, by Tunnel Rabbit”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

To share this, you can find it here: https://kapwi.ng/c/9uNWkPHF

A Legislative Note from JWR: If you have a Republican Senator that might consider voting for a private party transfer ban (“Universal Background Checks”), then please send them that link, included in your e-mail, in opposition!

Meme Text:

If the Senate’s RINOs Vote for Universal Background Checks

Then They’ll Soon Learn What They’ve Stepped In