Getting Out of Dodge – Part 2, by Doc

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(Continued from Part 1)

Two slanted walls were poured on the East end. They were 22′ wide at the building and 14′ wide at the East end and went from 8′ to nothing at the end. This was for a roof for the patio and security when I was traveling. Then I had the messy job of coating the outside with tar to seal it. Next a layer of 2″ closed cell styrofoam was installed on the outside walls. Then part of the ditch was back filled to hold the foam in place. The temperature was hot and I was soaked with sweat by 9:30 and the steel deck was so hot it burned my feet. So I started the generator in the RV, turned on the AC, and went to bed. About dark I hooked up a quartz light and worked all night. I extended the metal decking to be even with the offset for the fireplace and installed 1” threaded rod to support the hinges for the patio roof. We poured the 12” concrete slab.

Then forms were set up around the outside and around the stairway opening to pour a three foot wall. We poured it with no problems. The next project was to install 12″ half blocks for solar heat ducts and connect the 6″ PVC air ducts to a plenum where the solar heat panels would be on the wall of the steel building above. Looking back at the half blocks, I would use welded steel culvert if I was to do this again. The limestone dust was a real mess for a couple of years. I also stacked blocks above the center walls in several places to provide support for the garage floor.

Next I had 10 loads of 3/4″ limestone hauled in for a heat sink. The truck drivers were nervous and afraid it would collapse, but they didn’t know how thick it was and all the rebar in it. Then I spent several days shoveling limestone and drinking beer. Da*n it was hot!! I laid out 2″ styrofoam on the rock and then the rebar for the garage floor. It was windy, but the rebar held the foam in place. I propped up the rebar with bricks and poured the floor about 7″ thick. I had previously ordered a 40′ x 60′ steel building and put the anchor bolts for the steel columns in the concrete. Used a piece of ½” plywood and drilled the holes to fit the steel columns and used two nuts to hold the bolts in place and left space under them to reach in with a small trowel and finish the concrete.Continue reading“Getting Out of Dodge – Part 2, by Doc”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 secondary market prices of Rawles XL Voyager knives. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The US Economy: All Roads Lead To Gold

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Horwitz: Gold may have found a bottom

Economy & Finance:

Reader Mark J. sent a link to this piece by Chris Martenson: The Federal Reserve Is Directly Monetizing US Debt. Mark’s Comment:  “The Fed bought more than $4 billion of this CUSIP.  If these T-bills were out in the “open market” they weren’t there for long. At most, less than a day before the Fed scooped them up. Does it really matter if a big bank sits ever-so-briefly between the Fed and the Treasury debt it buys?”

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At Zero Hedge: Q4 GDP Crashes: US Economy Growing at Slowest Pace in Four Years

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California gig economy law to strip truck drivers of highest-paying industry jobs

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At Wolf Street: US Freight Shipments Skid Below 2014 Level, Hit by the Slowdown in Industrial, Manufacturing & Construction

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There was an open ‘debate’ about MMT or Modern Monetary Theory. Brilliant young man economist Sam Rines took the difficult position of being pro-MMT for the sake of debate. He thinks it would be a disaster but is truly afraid we will actually pursue such a policy. There was the usual pushback, which I’ve written about more than once, but I have to admit that I was struck by the private conversations after the debate. Many smart, well-informed thinkers were almost resigned to seeing MMT actually attempted in the next decade.

Mauldin take away: If we attempt MMT it will end the US dollar’s reserve currency status, produce out-of-control inflation that will essentially destroy the Boomer generation’s ability to retire with anything like most envision today. I can’t say it any stronger. If I really see MMT coming I will reposition my portfolio to heavily weight gold, real estate, and a few biotech companies. I simply can’t imagine a more dire economic scenario.

Honestly, though, I don’t think we will go there. Are there politicians that would like to do it? Absolutely, and they have less economic understanding than God gave a goose. Even economists with whom I strongly disagree on many topics think MMT is not something to be trifled with.” – John Mauldin

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — November 21, 2019

On November 21, 1916, Britannic, the sister ship to the Titanic, sinks in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people. In the wake of the Titanic disaster, the White Star line had made significant modifications to the design of the ship, but on its way to pick up wounded soldiers near the Gulf of Athens, it was rocked by an explosion causing even more damage than that which had sunk the Titanic. Many of the dead were from some of the crew who attempted to launch life boats while the Captain tried to run the ship aground. The life boats were sucked up into the propellers, killing all of those on board. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but many suspect it hit a mine.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Getting Out of Dodge – Part 1, by Doc

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In 1993, I was practicing in a large city and had a home on a lake in the suburbs. I had an attractive younger wife and life was good. I bought a new computer and was stopped in traffic on my way home while ahead of me, a backhoe was digging a hole in the street. I was hit from the rear by a truck loaded with pipe fittings. The truck had a sprinkler company sticker on the door, and was driven by a Mexican with no insurance. The impact was so great that my car was slammed into a stopped vehicle in front of me. The impact broke the CRT screen in the new computer monitor when it slammed into the back of my seat. The Mexican disappeared as did the sprinkler company. And the address on his license didn’t exist.

I was badly injured and had to sell my practice. My young wife was advised by her friends that I would be a cripple, and she divorced me. But I had property before we were married that was not included in a divorce settlement, by a premarital agreement. By 1997, I had healed up partially and decided to go south for the winter in my motorhome. I set the thermostat so the house wouldn’t freeze, turned off the water, and I left.

When I returned several months later the electricity was off. I called the power company and they said I didn’t pay the bill. It was set up on an automatic payment from my bank account and the account was closed by the divorce. They turned on the power and I went to take a shower but the gas water heater was off. I went outside and checked the gas meter to see if it was turned off and noticed the meter had been replaced. I called the gas company and they came out and lit the pilot light on the water heater and explained I must have had a defective gas meter because my neighbor with about the same size house used four times as much gas as I did for the past several years. I explained that I had R-30 in the side walls and R-64 in the ceiling and the plastic on the south end of the house was a large solar panel for heat.Continue reading“Getting Out of Dodge – Part 1, by Doc”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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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 veterinary antibiotics.

All Antibiotics for Livestock Will Soon Require a Vet’s Prescription

Reader D.B. sent this bad news for survivalists: All antibiotics for livestock will soon require a vet’s prescription. A quote:

“The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service wants producers to be aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is continuing the phasing in of a law that requires a prescription for any antibiotic use in animals raised for human consumption, as well as for all companion animals.

A prescription is already required for most antibiotics delivered to livestock, and the remaining three categories of injectable antibiotics available over-the-counter will soon be joining the list of medically important antimicrobials that require a veterinarian’s prescription.”

Hong Protestors Hold Out in University Siege

Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Hong Kong: About 100 protesters still hold out in University siege as Communists Crack Down

Berkeley Instructor Blasts Rural Americans

M.G. sent this: Berkeley Instructor: “Rural Americans” Are “Bad People Who Have Made Bad Life Decisions”.

Here is a key quote, from one of his tweets:

“I unironically embrace the bashing of rural Americans. they, as a group, are bad people who have made bad life decisions… …Some, I assume, are good people. But this nostalgia for some imagined pastoral way of life is stupid, and we should shame people who aren’t pro-city.”

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of – for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” – Socrates

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — November 20, 2019

National Sovereignty Day (Spanish: Día de la Soberanía Nacional) is a national public holiday in Argentina, celebrated each year on November 20th. It commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, when a small Argentine army stood against an Anglo-French navy that broke into the Paraná River, against the will of the Argentine Confederation. Although the battle itself ended with an Argentine defeat, the losses of Britain and France in the whole military campaign were so high that both countries were forced to the bargaining table and signed a treaty with Juan Manuel de Rosas. The day was enacted as a national observance in 1974, following a request from the revisionist historian José María Rosa, and promoted into a national holiday in 2010.

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On November 20th, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials began, placing 24 high-ranking Nazis on trial for atrocities committed during World War II. The trials lasted 10 months and 12 were condemned to death with one committing suicide in prison. The trials of lesser war criminals continued in the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and 806 executions.

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Today, I’m posting special announcement on the announced Idaho Senate candidacy of Alex Barron.

Alex Barron Announces Idaho State Senate Run

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Alex Barron has just announced that he has filed candidacy for Idaho State Senate in District 3. SurvivalBlog readers will surely recognize Alex Barron’s name. (He is also known as The Bard of The American Redoubt.) State Senate District 3 is in western Kootenai County. This is from his candidacy announcement:

With the retirement of Don Cheatham, today, Alex Barron of Post Falls filed his historic candidacy for State Senate District 3 which encompasses Western Kootenai County.  Alex’s initial supporters include Neil Oliver, former Chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Party, Karen Calisterio, former Chairwoman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho and former Idaho State Representative, Elizabeth Allan Hodge, a fierce advocate for individual liberty and free markets and the recipient of the prestigious Idaho Freedom Foundation Ralph Smeed Lifetime Achievement Award.

Alex Barron was born in Chicago to a single mother.  He graduated from high school with honors and joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. Alex served honorably in the armed forces during the First Gulf War and spent over 10 years serving this nation overseas. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Information Systems Management using the G.I. Bill.  He spent the next 12 years as a successful small business owner – supplying critical information technology in support of our troops on the battlefield.  Alex’s campaign will focus on promoting his Opportunity For All Agenda.

“I am running for State Senate because I believe my neighbors in District 3 deserve a new generation of innovative conservative leaders dedicated to unleashing prosperity for Idaho residents.”

“As I campaign throughout District 3, I look forward to hearing from the voters and better understanding their needs, ideas, and concerns. I am a conservative, dedicated to liberty and promoting the Christian values that Make America Great. We like our government small, our taxes low, our borders strong, and our speech free. When elected, my practical engineering thinking and my can-do military service attitude will be effective in protecting Idaho taxpayers and building up our great state with creative new ideas for our and future generations.” [Emphasis added.]

I wholeheartedly endorse Alex Barron’s candidacy. He is a genuine conservative Christian Republican with a pro-individual freedom outlook. He is strongly pro-life and pro-Second Amendment. I consider him the perfect candidate. And of course he is one of the key organizers of the American Redoubt movement.

I’ve made mention of Alex Barron many times in my SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt column. Barron has been a moving force in the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee where he  helped to assure that the Idaho Republican Party kept true to its long-standing conservative platform. Though I haven’t yet met him face to face, I have talked with him on the phone. He is a genuinely likeable gentleman. He is intelligent, articulate, and although an outsider, he understands the machinations of politics.

Please back Alex Barron in both the primary and general elections. To keep current with his campaign, you can visit:

Website: www.alexanderbarron.com

Minds: https://www.minds.com/MrAlexBarron

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrAlexBarron

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Alexander.Barron.Idaho

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on winter greenhouse gardening and sprouting. (See the Books section.)

Books:

Reader Steve R. wrote to again recommend the book Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, And of the Outbreaks to Come, by Richard Preston. He also authored The Hot Zone and other medically-related books.

From the author’s Preface: “The people in this story have been largely unnoticed by the world.  Yet, for me at least, their actions and choices, their lives and deaths, seem to loom at the center of the  most destructive rapid epidemic in anyone’s lifetime, one which sent feelers into Dallas and New York City, and may be an example of things to come.”

Steve’s Comments: “Preston is an excellent descriptive writer and this book is mostly about the 2013-2014 outbreak, although the 1976 one is included as well. Epidemics/pandemics are, of course, on the list of things we should be aware of as we prepare.  Preston describes civil order breaking down, even to the point of attacking medical personnel.  Many people involved found strength in their Christian faith.  The activities of personnel representing Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian medical relief organization, are described throughout the book.

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Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers: The Texas Victory That Changed American History

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The Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual

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Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Calling QE not-QE doesn’t make it different than QE, but it does communicate the Fed’s panicky desire to mask its stupendous injection of financial cocaine into the financial system. The Fed’s level of panic is noteworthy, as is the absurd transparency of its laughable attempt to conceal its panic.

In the same fashion, the financial media is loudly declaring the current blowoff top in stocks is not a blowoff top. The delicious irony here is these denials are reliable markers of blowoff tops: the louder the denials, the greater the odds that this is in fact the blowoff top that many pundits have been expecting for some time, but always in the future.” – Charles Hugh Smith

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 19, 2019

In an unprecedented move, Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat traveled to Jerusalem on November 19th, 1977, to seek a permanent peace settlement with Israel after decades of conflict. Despite heavy criticism from Egypt’s regional allies, Sadat continued, eventually reaching a peace agreement with Israel at the Camp David accords in Maryland. While Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace prize for their efforts, the peace accord was not admired by the Arabs, eventually leading to Sadat’s assassination. Despite this, the Egyptian-Israeli peace continues today.

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Today, I’m posting a feature article by my lovely wife, Avalanche Lily.

Our Winter Indoor Greenhouse Room, by Avalanche Lily

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I was recently asked for any advice that I could give concerning growing foods indoors. Growing anything indoors or outdoors is always an experiment, because there are so many variables to contend with.  In essence: Indoors: humidity, light, and nutrition. Outside: sunspots (or lack thereof), temperature, cloud cover, rain, drought, storms, bugs, soil nutrition, et cetera.

Let me preface that I have no claim at all in thinking that I’m an expert. I’m not. I am no expert at all, nor am I an expert in any subject. I am a “by the seat of your pants” kinda girl.  I just get a general idea of something that I am interested in doing. I do some basic research and then get the equipment needed, and do it. I don’t try to be the best, the expert, or to do anything perfect.  That stresses me out! There will always be people who do it better, neater, more professionally, have a better method, be more organized, have more ingenuity, are faster, or with more knowledge.  I just want to do projects for fun, in a simple manner, experimentally, to see what happens, and then improve it for the next iteration, if it is worth the time and energy.

Therefore, with this in mind, I will tell you about my indoor garden, what I have done, for fun and learning,  with the goal of growing some of our own food. I’ll relate my trials and tribulations, and what my results have been. I’ve organized this as a scientific experiment and report. I’ve done so in a loose framework of a Scientific Research Paper which consists of: Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.

Introduction

Many people in the SurvivalBlog community and others have recently observed the claimed “climate change” occurring around the world. We have seen adverse weather events (such as late freezes and early frosts, high wind rain storms, hail storms, drought and lack of rain, too much rain and flooding) which has destroyed crops and livestock during the past two years. The sun has cycles of eleven years, but for the two most recent cycles, there have been dramatically fewer sunspots. The mainstream media is barely reporting on this — keeping the general public at large in the dark. What is really happening is that we are entering a Grand Solar  Minimum, and there will be global cooling, not warming, perhaps for many decades.  The mass media will not tell you about the approaching food crises which will lead to food scarcity and famines.  It won’t be until there is profound cooling that they try to claim that it is the “Climate Change” that they had warned of.

Those of us who aware and proactive are already growing our own gardens and are preserving our own foods through canning, dehydration, freezing, and even freeze-drying. Crops can be protected in short growing seasons with greenhouses, hoop houses,and even indoor gardening. Indoor growing only works if one has electricity. This article describes my experiment with growing vegetables indoors, in a guest bedroom.Continue reading“Our Winter Indoor Greenhouse Room, by Avalanche Lily”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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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 the death of Jessi Combs.   (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

Idaho

Faithful Observations: From 9/11 ashes arose Christian emergency group.  JWR’s Note: I learned that the newspaper had a typo in the contact e-mail address fro the north Idaho representative. His correct e-mail address is Nick.welbaum@ChristianEmergencyNetwork.net. (There is only one “L” in Welbaum, not two as in the article).

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The Los Angeles Times reports: ‘Go back to California’: Wave of newcomers fuels backlash in Boise.  JWR’s Comment:  It is the liberal mindset on some Californians that isn’t wanted. True conservatives are generally welcomed.

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Property Rights Organization Laclede Meeting

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