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!

Tomatoes!

Man! We are in the tomatoes now. Two standard size freeze dryers are working 24/7 overtime this week and they are clearly not capable of keeping up with Mrs. Latimer’s Heirloom Roma tomatoes. We produced 32 quarts of freeze dried tomato sauce and another 40 quarts of canned tomato sauce. We are still anticipating about another week of harvest at this rate before it slows down.

I included a picture of both the freeze dried product and the canned product for comparison. All four of these jars came from the same batch of tomatoes. By the way, this is strictly tomato sauce with no other ingredients. The tomatoes come from the garden, get washed, cut in half and then run through the KitchenAid strainer. The sauce is then boiled in large pots on the stove to reduce the water content by roughly 50%. The goal is to have tomato sauce that doesn’t separate out into a weak watery tea with clumps of tomato pulp. Rather, it should stay well blended, even when canned. This makes it easy to create delicious tomato based sauces that don’t drown your plate in water.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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 market watcher Nick Giambruno and his comments on the looming U.S. pension crisis.  (See the Troubling Trends section.)

Precious Metals

Kitco video: As Bitcoin Plummets More than $500, Will it Mark a Return to Gold?

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Gold iPhones: Weight of Gold & Silver Recycled by Apple is Eye Popping

 

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Preparedness Notes for Thursday – September 14, 2017

Today is the birthday of actor Clayton Moore (1914–1999). His name is almost synonymous with Lone Ranger. It is also the birthday of James Wilson, a lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (1742 – 1798).

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If you are looking for an off-grid home that is ready to go, Survival Realty has a new listing in Washington that borders state land. It is on 40 acres and is capable of being self-sufficient. It was constructed with ICFs and has a 6,000 watt PV power system.

Tires As Part Of Basic Vehicle Preparations, by D.K.

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It’s easy to overlook an important item, such as tires, for those planning different bugout scenarios, getting home after an event, or just driving home from work. I was reminded of this during a recent trip moving my daughter to California. We rented a 5’ X 8’ U-Haul trailer, hooked it up to my Chevy Avalanche, drove it to her apartment, and loaded it for the move the next day. She had bagged up trash, and as I was taking it out I noticed some 8” zip ties. I pulled them out of the trash and threw them in the truck. The weather was hot and windy on the way from Arizona to California. The drive was long but uneventful. The next morning we ate breakfast, dropped the trailer (a long story), and headed home.

A Recent Event

Driving through the San Gorgonio Pass on I10, I felt a vibration and thought it was the center line reflectors. Then I heard flapping getting louder and louder and felt a shimmy in the front. I knew I had a flat tire. We were in a left lane, so I pulled to the left shoulder and turned on the flashers. I got out and saw that the flat was on the right front and knew there was no way I wanted to change a tire on the traffic side of a multi-lane highway on a downhill. I got back in the truck and waited about five minutes for a gap in traffic and slowly drove over to the other shoulder. (“This will be a piece of cake now,” I thought. My son was with me, and he could help. “It would be a good learning moment for him, too.”)

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Letter Re: Search Engine Privacy and Security

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Good day, Hugh,

I recently switched over to TOR as my web browser. I am now using Proton mail as my email address, and I now use Signals as my SMS text messenger. My bases are covered. These are also recommended actions by Snowden himself:

  • TOR sends your search through a relay of servers, making it extremely difficult to find your true IP Address.
  • Proton mail is an encrypted server that prevent your messages from being intercepted.
  • Signals is an app that prevents text messages to other persons, other than the person you sent the message to, from being read.

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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”. Another of Bloomberg’s anti-gun minions bites the dust this week.

Bloomberg Anti-Gun Mayors

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigns after fifth child sex-abuse allegation. Once the poster boy of the LGBT movement, Yet another of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun Mayors is resigning in disgrace. (Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) was re-named Everytown for Gun Safety. It is ironic that so many of Bloomberg’s “crime fighting” mayors are criminals—or in the case of Murray, an alleged criminal.)

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Reader B.M. sent in this article: At Least 11 Mayors Accused Of Child Sex-Related Crimes Since 2016 . The lack of moral fiber of these people shows the underlying motivations of this movement. It has nothing to do with the safety and security of the people that elected them. It has everything to do with the overlords maintaining control of the peasants and making sure that they can’t rise up in force to confront them.

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A Proposal for a Better System for Sleeping in the Wilderness, by ACC

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In my youth, I was a pretty avid camper and hiker. I spent many a night in a sleeping bag with a pad of some type underneath. Some of the pads were foam, others were inflatable. Probably the best over the years was the Thermarest brand, which is a self-inflating type. However, they were only an inch or so thick, and the ground was always hard. I learned that comfort was relative. If you hike ten miles with a 30-pound pack beforehand, you can sleep in pretty austere conditions.

Looking For A Better Sleep System

However, now that I’m in my sixties, I’m not as tough as I once was. I started looking for a better sleeping system. It has taken a couple of years to work out the details, but I’ve developed a hammock based system that works really well, is light enough to carry, and is amazingly comfortable.

I am going to describe the system and discuss why it works. I will recommend specific brands, but I have no connection to any of these companies, except that I like their products.

The Hammock

The beginning point is the hammock. In the past, they were typically made from canvas and were just too heavy for backpacking use. More recently, several companies have developed hammocks made of lightweight nylon with fabrics similar to that used in parachutes. My favorite is made by Eagle Nest Outfitters, sometimes referred to as “ENO”. They come in two lengths. If you are under six feet, the smaller one is plenty big and saves a few ounces of weight. They also come single nest or double nest. The double nest is big enough that they claim two people can sleep together in one, but in my experience they had better be really fond of each other. The single nest weighs just 16 ounces and is rated to hold a 400-pound load. That’s what I bought. It costs about $60 street price.

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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 Economic Stagnation. (See the Economy & Finance section.)

Precious Metals

Gold Price Prediction for September 12, 2017

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Hub Moolman: Gold Prices And The Coming Collapse: Are We Close To A Major Monetary Event?

Commodities:

Cobalt and Tungsten: The prices of these vital metals are soaring

Forex:

Deutsche Bank Warns: ‘The Dollar is in Trouble’  (Thanks to Gregg P. for the link.)

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X22 Report (video): De-Dollarization Continues As More Countries Separate Themselves From The Dollar – Episode 1374a

 

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on the new Survival Maps available at Northern Redoubt.  (See the Region-Wide Section, near the end of this column.)

Idaho

First, I’d like to direct your attention to a short piece over at Redoubt News: Scotchman’s Peak: Who Really Is For Idaho?

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Here is some commonsense “anti-hype” post at AmericanRedoubt.com: Apocalyptic Earthquakes in Idaho?

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The Couch Prepper, by J.S.

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There are many types of preppers, including the couch prepper. How many of us “preppers” have sat behind a computer screen and researched the newest and greatest AR-15 accessory that will ensure our survival for the coming “collapse”? I’m sure most faithful readers of this site have put into practice some form of prepping. Maybe that means you have bought a few extra cans of food or purchased that first firearm and some ammo to go along with it.

Or maybe you fall in to the camp of focusing on a certain aspect of prepping (i.e. that amazing gun collection you have now). Some have the “I have 3,000 rounds of ammo and I am going to live off the land” mentality. Possibly you are completely self-sufficient and are prepared for any number of different scenarios. But in reality, I am willing to bet the average prepper is somewhat like myself.

Being the Average American

I am the average American with the stereotypical wife, two kids, and very modest income. I fully believe that the TEOTWAWKI awaits us in the not so distant future. My bet is that it comes in the form of an economic collapse, but others predict some type of natural disaster or health pandemic. And like others, while I believe the collapse is imminent and unavoidable, I try to balance my prepping mentality with that of carrying on a “normal” way of living.

I don’t want to spend every single dime of discretionary income I have on bullets, beans, and band aids. I am constantly trying to find the balance between adding to my preps and providing my family with as many of their desires as is fiscally appropriate. The beach vacation will not be skipped  to add six month’s worth of freeze-dried food to my larder. With all of that said, that leaves what I believe is a large group of people, myself included, in the “somewhat prepared” stage.

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