Preparedness Notes for Monday – September 11, 2017

September 11th is of course the anniversary of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. , but it is also the anniversary of the Benghazi Embassy attacks, in 2012. (Those events were recounted in the recent Hollywood film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.) Please remember the sacrifice of J. Christopher Stevenson, Sean Smith, and CIA (former Navy SEAL) agents Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Between them, Woods and Dohery reportedly dropped at least 60 of the attackers. Please also remember the spineless worms in Washington, D.C. who decided to not back up the embassy staff when they were in dire need of help. Eventually, they will pay for that. Time wounds all heels.

Valley Food Storage, by Pat Cascio

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While there are many different types of “survival foods” on the market, ranging from military MREs to freeze-dried and dehydrated plus any number of types of off-the-shelf foods that last a long time, today we are looking at dehydrated foods from Valley Food Storage.

Survival Foods

Having been a Prepper since I was a little tyke, I’ve tasted all manner of “survival foods” over the years. Some were better than others and some much, much better that others. Then we have some that aren’t very tasty, but they will keep you alive. My family and I are always on the lookout for something new to try and add to our food stores, and we make a point to eat what we store. I’m not a very picky eater, but some would say otherwise.

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Recipe of the Week: Hamburger Soup, by R.T.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp basil
  • 1/4 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 envelope onion soup mix
  • 3 cups boiling water
  • 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 cup sliced celery
  • 1 cup sliced carrots
  • 1 cup macaroni, cooked and drained
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

  1. Crumble beef into a crockpot.
  2. Add pepper, oregano, basil, seasoned salt, and dry soup mix.
  3. Stir in water, tomato sauce, and soy sauce; then add celery and carrots.
  4. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
  5. Turn the control to high. Add cooked macaroni and Parmesan cheese.
  6. Cover and cook on high for 10 to 15 minutes.
  7. Serve

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Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on the recent massive Equifax Hack attack. (See the Troubling Trends section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals

The first 26:20 of this 33-minute mini-documentary is well worth watching:  Silver vs. The World (Why I Went ALL IN On Silver) His reasoning is sound.  If you don’t quite grok it, then watch the first 26:20 a second time.

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Wall St., Main St. Look For Gold To Extend Recent Gains

 

Stocks:

Stocks, Dollar Slide as Irma Bears Down, Korea Threat Lingers

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Time for some crash protection as US stocks hit record overvaluation

 

Commodities:

OPEC Fails To Cut Oil Exports Below 2016 Levels

 

Forex:

The slide continues: United States Dollar (USD) To Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rate History. Are you hedging yet?

 

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Preparedness Notes for Sunday – September 10, 2017

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Please pray for everyone in the path of Hurricane Irma, and continue to pray for those already devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

On September 10, 1776, George Washington asked for a spy volunteer. Nathan Hale stepped up to the challenge of an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City. Unfortunately, the British captured and executed him. He is probably best known for his last words before being hanged: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” He has long been considered an American hero, and in 1985, was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut. It is good for us to remember that every American patriot and hero from the times leading up to and during the American Revolutionary War would have been considered traitors to the crown and would have suffered much the same fate as Hale had America not won her independence.

What We See And Believe Is Not Always Reality, by Old Bobbert

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Let’s talk about reality and what we see and believe, but just for a moment imagine this scenario. Visualize the following presumably safe evening event at your home one day soon.

A Grateful Situation…Somewhere

You are reflecting on the terrible situation in (name any major city, state, or area) and you are very grateful that your home area is not severely affected by that power grid outage somewhere else in the country, specifically about 1,000 miles away from your home. Your area power system is functioning just fine. You’re feeling really bad for that area as you watch the video news after a pleasant evening meal. Your older children are teasing one another while working on homework. Your younger children are busily falling asleep watching television. As you see the videos of hospitals not accepting additional patients and wrecker trucks pulling cars off of the highways where they were abandoned when their fuel tanks went dry, you will be grateful! Remember that there will always be trials!

You are safe and you are an experienced and confident prepper. You helped to organize last year’s preparedness expo, sponsored by the power company and the city water division. Your name was on the brochure as an area preparedness leader. Your family feels safe, well prepared, and well protected. Dad and Mom know their stuff and are fully prepared if the power grid down event ever visits your area.

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Letter: Well Water Pump Options And Alternatives

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Hello JWR, HJL, and fellow readers,

I truly appreciate the info my family and I have gleaned over the years from SB. It has become one of our most trusted sources of info as we have been embarking on our self-sufficiency. Now, on to my question that I believe could be beneficial to other readers. (I have searched the site, but no recent info came up.)

I have been researching water well hand-pumps. Bison Pumps has great customer service and so far I am leaning towards them as my grid-down water retrieval solution from my well. Their product appears to be quality made where others seem to be designed more in an aesthetic nature, rather than truly functional and hard-wearing for daily use. If anyone has experience with Bison or another well pump, please share your experiences. For folks who are in warmer climates, freezing pipes aren’t an issue, but here last year we had multiple days where temps dropped into the negative teens… needless to say, ensuring that water is accessible while keeping pipes from rupturing is of paramount importance!

Additionally there is another product called the “earth straw” by a company named FloJak. This doesn’t appear to be a permanent solution, but rather an emergency item. Does anyone have any experience with this product or another solution to water retrieval? I don’t have a pond and the closest river is about a mile away. – S.H.

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 “HJL”. While Florida is getting socked today, Irma has finished with many islands and, as expected, the looting has begun.

Golden Horde

SurvivalBlog Reader R.V. suggested that the mass of humanity coming out of Florida on I-75 and I-95 illustrated what JWR had talked about when he referenced the “Golden Horde” in his novels. The only difference is that these people are not starving and looting on their path. Some reports suggest that as much as 25% of Florida’s residents have been told to evacuate.

Hurricane Hygiene

Robb, of Robb’s Homemade Life YouTube channel, was reminiscing about Hurricane Andrew in Miami while waiting for Hurricane Irma and remembered that he lost power for days afterwards. While the lack of power was easier to deal with, the loss of water was difficult. He created a gadget (and subsequently a video) that will allow the user to be very frugal with water used for hygiene, yet can be made with only a milk jug and a Popsicle stick.

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

Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” – Luke 21:1-4 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – September 09, 2017

On September 9, 1492, Columbus’ fleet set sail west. The rest, you know as history, or is that revisionist history.

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On a sad note, SurvivalBlog received word today that one of our favorite Science Fiction authors passed away. Jerry Pournelle had many novels published under his own name and with the collaboration of others like Larry Niven, John F. Carr, Steven Barnes and Michael Flynn and more. He is also credited with having the first and longest-running blog on the Internet–long before it got the name “blogging.” One item that will probably be overlooked in the obituaries published about him in the next few days is that Jerry was a life-long prepper. For several years he wrote article for Mel Tappan’s P.S. Letter newsletter. (Published from 1977 to 1982.) Jerry Pournelle’s memory will live on in our hearts.

Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 5, by JMD

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We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate when we do not have wireless electronic communications available to us. We’ve been exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about the different types of communications and types of interference to communication. I wrapped up yesterday’s part of the article by introducing what you should do to prepare. The first part, of course, was plan. Let’s take a look at the second part and conclude the article with the subsequent steps to prepare.

Document

Once you’ve got a good handle on your requirements and solutions, you should create a couple of important documents. The first is referred to by the military as a “Standing Operating Procedure” (SOP). This will be the “bible” for all of your communications. It should cover all of the elements for your communications, such as types, encodings, handshakes, feedback, watches, et cetera. This will probably change as you practice, learn, and evolve, so make sure you keep it up to date. You should print off multiple hardcopies of the document and keep them in separate safe locations. Note that this doesn’t have to be (and probably shouldn’t be) a huge hundred-plus page document. Just cover the areas that are most relevant to you. You may want to make the document modular and keep it in a three-ring binder. Then you only need to replace the pages that change.

The next potential document is a training plan. You probably want to avoid just handing the SOP to people and saying, “Read and learn this”, especially to kids. Put together a realistic plan for getting everyone involved. (See the “Practice” section for more details.)

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The Editors’ Preps for the Week

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, 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 the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

This week was fairly typical for us for this time of year, with lots of firewood splitting and stacking.  We are wrapping up our outdoor gardening season, but will continue in the greenhouse for at least another month. This week we processed 10 quarts of tomatoes. We are beginning to harvest potatoes, but the main harvest won’t be until after the first frost. We are getting back into our regular homeschooling schedule. Jim cut down three more dead-standing Western Larch trees, but that wood will probably be stacked in place for the winter. We also picked up several gallons of honey from a local apiary.  – Avalanche Lily Rawles

HJL

Chickens

This week at the Latimer Homestead, we will be cleaning out the garden of expended plants and weeding around the fall plantings. Also, its time again to clean the chicken pen. We are closely monitoring the behavior of chicks and chickens, as they are gradually integrated. The chicks are now with their protector, their rooster, getting friendly. He’s struttin’ his stuff and letting them know who is king around them, but we are hopeful that he will be a good guardian and manager, as well as a father to future lines of chicks for us. We are spending a good deal of time out there with them and feeling a bit like chicken therapists, as we work to reduce stress and “make friendly” their environment. So far, adult hens are still laying well, which is the main goal, and chicks are getting big and seem healthy and strong.

Gardening

We remain quite busy putting up our daily garden product. Tomatoes are put up every other day by the gallons, and many other vegetables are also put away, mainly through canning but also freezing, freeze drying, and dehydrating, too. The winter squash are beginning to mature in massive quantities. In past years, we have only had a few make it past the squash bugs, so we are pleased with this bumper crop. Our battle efforts have won out against those pesky creatures. We’re still battling grasshoppers, but the population seems to be dwindling now that we are regularly baiting with NOLO.

Bugout Practice

With the Hurricanes in the Southeast and forest fires in the Northwest, we also have plans to test out our new generator and work on our portable water treatment system this week. We can’t assume things will work as we plan unless we periodically test them and practice using them!

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Again, please share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments.

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 “HJL”. Have you ever wandered exactly what data Facebook was collecting from you? Now you can know.

Election Politics

Here we are, 10 months after last years presidential election and the topic is still as hot as it ever was. On one hand, we have Hillary releasing her book “What Happened” which is probably more aptly titled “It wasn’t my fault”. I’ve yet to see a blurb from it where she takes any kind of responsibility for her lack of integrity or lack of policies (other than get rich quick.) Now we have a report out of New Hampshire that their same-day-registration may have swung the vote for Hillary and the Democrats. While Trump didn’t really need it, the republican Senator could have been that single vote needed to repeal Obamacare.

Hurricane Recovery

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is saying to follow SAAMI guidelines for the care of your flood damaged guns. SAAMI offers a very useful guide called: “Guidance on Firearms That Have Been Submerged or Exposed to Extensive Amounts of Water”. Basically, you need to disassemble them, clean them and apply a moisture displacing lubricant to the metal parts. SAAMI also recommends no attempt to salvage ammunition that has been submerged in water. Thanks to Reader D.B. for the link.

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Superesse has published a list of resources that may be helpful for those recovering from Harvey and Irma: Prepping for a Hurricane and tips for the aftermath. Note that this list has some North Carolina specifics in it, but you can still use it as a guide. If you live in another state, you can replace the NC specific links with those from your state and county and store it in your safe along with keeping a copy handy while traveling.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.  Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice.” – Deuteronomy 26:16-17 (KJV)