My Recent Experience Bugging Into A Disaster- Part 1, by J.W.

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I had a recent experience of traveling into a situation where everyone else was leaving due to Hurricane Irma. I learned some valuable lessons during the process.

Homes in Both Florida and Midwest

My home is in Florida, and my bug out location is in the Midwest. I spend most of my time during the summer at the BOL due to the climate, the gardening opportunities, and most of all the simple peace and quiet living. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Irma was seven days out in the Atlantic and on a track that may bring it closer to Florida. When this happens, it’s time to load up needed items and travel home to secure everything and also to be there for the aftermath if there is anything to clean up and repair.

My Florida home is a log home. It’s well built to withstand the winds of a hurricane, but it’s not so great if the power is out for weeks in that humidity. Mold can be an issue for any home in Florida, and wood homes seem to draw moisture first. Part of my everyday living and being prepared is the notion that having two places means twice the work, twice the cost, and lots of travel in between. All of this is possible on a small budget if you think things through.

My Travel Vehicle and Contents

My travel vehicle is a 10 year old one ton GMC dually. It has an enclosed topper with a locking (as in padlock) back top glass. The side and rear window are blacked out to keep anyone from viewing all the contents. The truck has been well maintained, though it has over 200K miles, and looks very common on the highway or in a parking lot. The fuel mileage is reasonable no matter the load, and it will pull any trailer. It also can remain loaded down with tools, supplies, and spares at all times so you are reasonably prepared for situations when traveling across country, like I do often, or just out for the day.

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Freeze Dried Friday

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!

More Tomatoes!

This week was a continuation of the tomato harvest. The freeze driers are working 24/7 now and we are still canning two to three times as much as what we can freeze dry. In addition to the tomatoes, the garden has a plethora of Jalapeño peppers, onions, cilantro and garlic. Anyone that has spent time in the southwest knows what that means! Salsa! As soon as this current batch of tomato sauce finishes, we will be canning Mrs Latimer’s fresh salsa. Salsa works really well because you can reconstitute it in as small a quantity as you desire. If you’re into binging on chips ans salsa, you can reconstitute a full quart of it, or if you just want a quick snack, all you need is a couple of tablespoons in a ramekin.

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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 Monetization. (See the Economy & Finance section.)

Precious Metals

First, over at Seeking Alpha: Revisiting The Silver/Gold Ratio

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The Q2  Platinum Quarterly is now available.

Stocks:

Moving on to stocks, there is this at Bloomberg: Stress at the UN Is Not Shared on Wall Street

Commodities:

Over at FX Empire, here is their most recent predictive piece: Natural Gas Price Analysis

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EIA Report Kills Bullish Sentiment

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Preparedness Notes for Thursday – September 21, 2017

On this day in 1780, during the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold met with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word “traitor”. It’s too bad the current crop of politicians are not held accountable for their treasonous acts.

Guest Article: A Listening Pause, ShepherdFarmerGeek

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It’s time for a listening pause and then some evaluation and possible adjustments. As the roller coaster of our national life clanks its way to the apex for the sudden wild ride to the bottom, we can see events unfolding now that will prove to be the beginnings of multiple crises. Which wheel falls off first will not be as important as the fact that there will soon be several overlapping issues.

Time To Evaluate and Adjust

Now is not the time to be congratulating ourselves on our level of preparedness, but the time to make sure that we have:

  • More mobility, and are able to stay on the move (“orbiting” a small town or key area), able to move on short notice at any time, able to move at night or in inclement weather,
  • ­Lighter weight – we might start out heavy but also able to shed/cache gear and supplies as needed,
  • ­More durable gear that’s rugged. Equipment that can take years of hard use, not just several months,
  • Shed dependence on electronic equipment (which might be awesome and needed, at first, but not sustainable long term). Think good binoculars instead of night vision. (Have both, if you can afford it!),
  • More focus on stored calories (maybe in distributed caches) and less focus on gardening. (Got caching barrels/containers?),

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Letter Re: Irma – After Action Report

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HJL,

As Alfred E. Neuman say’s, “What? Me worry?” I live in North Central Florida, so usually by the time a hurricane reaches us, it’s dwindled in strength. Having read Mr. Rawl’s blog for many years, I do prepare. Oddly, this time around, employers let most of the employees leave work Friday, even though the event wasn’t expected until sometime on Saturday. It ended up being later. Guess hurricanes work on their own schedule.

Friday, I went to Walmart to do some last minute stock ups. Tarps were gone. Water was gone. Camp stoves were gone. Batteries were still in stock, but the bread and milk aisles were gone, and tape (for windows) was mostly gone.

People were moving north. Gas stations were doing a brisk business. By Saturday there was an element of fear among travelers you could almost taste. Businesses were mostly closed.

Sunday night/Monday morning Irma rocked into town. It was no stealth operation. Somewhere around 11AM Saturday, it got so bad that emergency personnel were pulled off the road and told to hunker down and wait.

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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”. We’ll start today off with a story sure to send the current crop of snowflakes and progressives straight into an apoplectic fit – The Texas Tattoo!

Texas “Looter” Tattoo

In the French Caribbean, fear and looting grip the island in the wake of recent hurricanes. Chaos reigns in the streets and the strong take what they want. Politicians cry for armed European soldiers to come to their aid. Meanwhile, Texans have their own brand of law and order. This picture of the time honored tattoo placed upon looters is priceless. We love our Second Amendment! Thanks to reader T.P. for the link.

Electric Vehicles

From the desk of Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large: German Analysis: Florida Evacuation With E-Vehicles Would Mean “Mass Death On The Highways” – Yeah, electric vehicles – a bad idea in a disaster.

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Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – September 20, 2017

On September 20th, 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sear route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. He initially spent time searching the South American coast for a strait, but was unable to find one. He crushed a mutiny executing one of his captains and leaving another ashore. Eventually, over a year after he set sail, he discovered what he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located at the southern tip of South America.

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Without This, All Your Preps and Training Are For Naught, by M.P. in Ohio

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The Answer Is Good Health

Instead of teasing you by giving you the answer in the third paragraph, here is what you need for your preps and training to be meaningful; it is good health. So before you think you’ve already read similar articles, please read on. I think you’ll find this different. Your health during SHTF scenarios is more important than:

1) All your training,

2) All your stored goods, and

3) Your bug out location

I understand we can’t all be in perfect health, but you owe it to yourself to be as healthy as possible. I’m not only talking about getting in better shape, but included with your preps, you should include certain foods, herbs, and spices that I will list here to help keep you healthy and to cure many ailments when you get sick. If you think staying healthy is difficult now, imagine how hard it will be to do so after TSHTF. There will be no doctors, no hospitals, and no pharmacies to run to when you need them. Without good health, all your preps may likely go to someone else who comes along and takes it.

I can’t tell you the number of acquaintances I know who have spent years and lots of money stockpiling but don’t do squat (no pun intended) to stay healthy. How they think they’ll survive is beyond me.

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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 investing in Raufoss ammunition.  (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals

The annual Summit Colorado Precious Metals conference ends today. This three-day conference usually generates some great interview  videos.  I’ll try to post some links, soon.

o  o  o

Gold retreats ahead of US Fed meeting

Stocks:

Moving on to this at Zero Hedge: Deutsche Bank: “Global Asset Prices Are The Most Elevated In History”

 

Commodities:

Sub-$50 Oil Could Kill Shale

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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. This week the focus is on Firewood Stacking. (See the Instructional Videos section.)

Books:

It is that time of year again: A Guide Book of United States Coins 2018: The Official Red Book

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Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love

 

Movies and Television:

The Hope: The Rebirth of Israel. This a is quite well done documentary, now available on DVD, or free download for Amazon Prime members.

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The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver

Music:

The Rough Guide to Scottish Folk—Living Traditions from Glasgow to the Shetlands

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And for those who enjoy jazz violin ensembles: Jean-Luc Ponty: Live At Chene Park

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Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – September 19, 2017

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On September 19th, 1778, the Continental Congress passed the first budget of the United States. While the budget may have passed, the states responded poorly to the call for taxes to fund the government, and the government resorted to printing paper money to cover debts. In effect, the first budget was a failure, due in large part to the states not responding to the demands of Congress and the depreciation of fiat paper money. Are we talking about 1778 or 2017 here?

Also on this date in 1796, George Washington addressed the nation in his farewell address as president.

On a less serious note, Mickey Mouse made his first screen debut in 1928 (Steamboat Willy at Colony Theater NYC).

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