Household Basics in TEOTWAWKI- Part 3, by Sarah Latimer

I’m continuing my journey to consider some of the pantry basics (beyond meat, eggs, dairy, grains, fruits, and vegetables) that I will want to have available in the event of TEOTWAWKI. I am resolved that I will ideally be able to make these items myself but in researching them I know I may find it necessary to either store them indefinitely in large quantity and have some alternatives available, and/or have a local/regional source for obtaining in barter.

So far, I’ve dug deep into the use, science, history, manufacturing, and storage of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and discovered that I will need to store it until the mines for soda ash are activated and some basic manufacturing and distribution of baking soda begun again. I also learned that there are a few alternatives to baking soda, though they’re far from ideal. Pearlash (potassium carbonate) is one of those. Pearlash is a bit troublesome to make and has a bitter aftertaste, plus I’m curious about the health implications. According to King Arthur Bread:

On this side of the Atlantic the early colonists were blessed with hardwood forests as far as the eye could see. Aside from being a logical building material and fuel, hardwoods provided another important resource, ashes. Ashes were a major export two hundred years ago, both to Canada and Britain. They were valuable for sweetening gardens and providing lye for making soap. They were also a source of potash and its derivative, pearlash, another creative leavening agent.

To make pearlash, you first have to make potash which itself is made from lye. To make lye, you pass water through a barrel of hardwood ashes over and over until an egg can float on the residue. (To make soap you boil this “lye water” with lard or other fat until it is thick, pour it into molds and harden it into cakes.) To make potash, you evaporate lye water until you have a solid.

Pearlash is a purified version of potash. It is an alkaline compound which will react with an acidic ingredient such as sour milk, buttermilk or molasses to produce carbon dioxide bubbles, the very same thing that yeast produces. Pearlash was used primarily in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but because of its bitter aftertaste, it not only did not replace yeast but was eventually replaced by saleratus.”

The above website has summarized information on other quick bread alternatives that I also found in my research elsewhere. You may enjoy reading it. I found this website’s information about baking powder interesting as well. However, I do not use double-acting baking powder, due to the neurological health risks of aluminum, which is an ingredient in double-acting baking powder. In this, I very much agreed with the website and appreciated their suggestion for people concerned with this factor to make their own single-acting baking powder using baking soda and cream of tartar. My recipe is slightly different and depends upon the food in which it is being used. King Arthur Flour says,

Since baking powder does tend to lose its leavening powder after a while, rather than being caught empty handed, it’s useful to have baking soda and cream of tartar around in separate containers. Then you can make your own baking powder in an emergency. These are both available separately at your grocery and, separated, have an indefinite shelf life. To make the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of double acting baking powder, mix 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar with 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (two parts of cream of tartar to one of baking soda). This single acting backing powder will work very successfully but you must remember that when you use it, get whatever you’re baking into the oven right away.

Then, last week, I shared some of uses for, health benefits of, and methods for making vinegar as well as shared resources for learning more. Details for making apple cider vinegar were given. We’ve used several types of vinegar this week, and I’m so glad to have it on hand! After reading more about vinegars, I’m now intrigued with someday trying to make new kinds of vinegars than the usual apple cider vinegar. Maybe I’ll try some rice vinegar or eventually get brave enough to venture into wine vinegar or even balsamic vinegar! If I want to have it indefinitely, I need to know how to make it. So it needs to go on my “to be learned and practiced before TEOTWAWKI” list.

Spiritual Nourishment From This Week’s Pantry Item- Yeast

There is great wisdom in the Bible verse found in Deuteronomy 8:3 “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Our family regularly gives thanks to God for our food and even specifically for the bread that He provides, because everything we eat comes out of the ground or was fed by what comes out of the ground and is sustained by the water and the sun provided by our Creator. Life itself is from Him! Furthermore, He gave us His Word so that we might have abundant life.

His Word teaches us and the Word who became flesh (Jesus/Yeshua) and who died to fulfill the covenant that redeems us also models for us how we are to live. He used bread and leavening in His teachings as well as wine (which is made with yeast/leavening also), and I want to talk about bread and leavening a bit as part of my lesson on pantry prepping because I just cannot pass up the opportunity to share something far more valuable than physical food. I pray that this spiritual food takes hold and is meaningful to you to nourish your soul before we move on to the physical.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:9-11

In Deuteronomy 8:3, bread is referenced as a means for sustaining life. I have a few family members who, when fresh bread comes out of the oven, behave as if their lives are dependent upon consuming that warm, fresh bread and say they could almost live on it. I happen to know that one is a meat and potatoes guy, too, and I may be slightly exaggerating their enthusiasm over the bread, but we all most certainly look forward to it coming out of the oven and expect to have it with our dinners. There is something so very attractive to fresh yeast bread, and when it is made from fresh whole, healthy grains it contains a wealth of nutrients and fiber and even protein to sustain us. Even fresh, unleavened bread is very appealing. Freshness matters a great deal! When my daughter told me about a restaurant she enjoys recently, her comment was simply about their fresh, hot rolls rather than their entrees or desserts or anything else. Stale bread is nothing to talk about, but fresh baked bread sure is. We all know that stale bread requires a considerable amount of addition flavor, such a garlic, herbs, and parsley, and effort to make it tasty or useful in the form of croutons or breadcrumbs.

Jesus is our perfect example of Godliness and righteousness. He was humble and meek but not the tiniest bit ignorant or weak. He began to teach the teachers at a young age and was a carpenter’s son who braided a wipe to drive out the money changers from the Temple’s Court of the Gentiles, where they had no business occupying, transacting business, and certainly not interfering with/distracting the worship that was supposed to be carried on in this area (though the Pharisees/Sadducees did not permit it). Jesus was fresh in staying true to the instructions of the Word and lived it as the “Word made flesh”. He was life-giving and life-sustaining, and as His followers, we are to be about that work also!

Jesus was obedient to consume the unleavened Passover bread and remember the redemption of the Israelites when God heard their cries and delivered them from the oppression of Egypt. Before the Israelites left Egypt, they were instructed to rid their homes of leavening. We are taught that this removal of leavening signifies a cleaning of our hearts to humble ourselves before God and to seek out the most remote parts to repent of any hidden sin or rebellion or pride that might be hidden and as we go about our “Spring Cleaning”. We should leave our state of oppression in sin (Egypt) and enter into God’s fresh kingdom through Jesus’ redemptive work with a pure heart, and we should periodically re-examine every remote part to clean out anything that might be growing in hidden places, such as rebellion or pride or any injustice. It is a good and practical physical exercise to clean and most definitely an excellent spiritual one to clean our hearts! I have found that when I take the time to think and pray, God is faithful to expose their hidden parts that need light shined on them so I can repent of them, make restitution, and adjust my way to move forward in freedom and hope. It’s such a delight to receive this forgiveness and release that bondage that I sometimes didn’t even know had crept into my life.

Historically, all of the people who chose to leave Egypt with Moses and honor the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were instructed to annually clean their homes of leavening and for seven days eat only unleavened bread in remembrance of this salvation. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins with and follows Passover, is one of the instructed feasts of the Lord that Jesus and His apostles kept, and it is unleavened bread that is also used at Passover and that Jesus used as He asked His disciples to remember Him when they ate of it. So, clearly, there is great significance in unleavened bread as a reminder to us of our salvation and particularly of our Savior and His sacrifice for us as the Passover Lamb!

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Exodus 14:13

The word “salvation” in the above verse is the word “Yeshua”, which is transliterated to “Jesus”, though it is not capitalized in the AKJV translation for a reason unknown to me. The Hebrew language does not have upper and lower case, so this appears to me to have been at the discretion of the translators. It touches my heart to think of Jesus, each year of His life, remembering the Passover with His family and with His friends and disciples, listening to and reading the Scripture where His very name is used to declare the freedom from the people’s oppression in Egypt, and to know that in the future He would be the Lamb slain to fulfill the covenant of redemption that the first Passover Lamb only signified. He followed the commandment to keep the appointed times, including Passover and the Feasts of the Lord, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The basic instructions regarding removing the leavening and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were that it was for seven days, and everyone, whether born in the land, of the bloodline, or a stranger, needed to participate in order to worship God:

“Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.” Exodus 12:19

…to begin in Abib (the spring), the 15th of Nisan:

“The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.” Exodus 34:18

“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” Leviticus 23:6

…for God’s people to remember all the days of “thy life”:

“Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.” Deuteronomy 16:3

…one of the three feasts God commanded all the men appear at the Temple with an offering for Him:

“Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:” Deuteronomy 16:16

… Jesus and His disciples and apostles kept the feast and Passover:

“Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.” Matthew 26:17-18

…Jesus referenced the deeper meaning beyond remembrance of the symbolism of leavening and applied it to two largest religious organizations of the day:

“Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?” Matthew 16:6,11

We keep our homes clean and should also keep our hearts clean, because a little sin grows and spreads, just like yeast. The lesson from these teachings about yeast relate to how yeast grows. A little pride and power can grow until we can find ourselves adding to God’s Word in ways He did not intend, like what we read occurred with the Pharisees and Sadducees. We, too, must be careful not to become boastful and arrogant in our traditions or thinking so as to become stale, old, harsh, and man-derived in our worship or theology but rather can approach fresh, alive, and humble in complete submission before our God and true to His Word.

Remember that nothing we store or purchase or even learn is guaranteed to bring about our security. Everything is at God’s mercy, including our memories, physical abilities, and the ability to focus on tasks. Some of our friends who have not so long ago faced hurricanes have shared with us their lessons learned. More recently, we have seen and prayed for those around us affected by various tragedies caused by heavy snows collapsing buildings and leaving people homeless and/or unemployed and floods damaging bridges and homes. Then, just in the last week or so we have watched and prayed over Oroville, California’s dam and the in-coming storm, “Lucifer”, (what an awful name!) which is threatening heavy rains that could push the lake and dam beyond limits, causing potential massive damage and even great loss of life. I feel compassion for those who have had to be evacuated and returned, and those who have lived with the anxiety over the condition of the spill way and worried that if they leave too soon thieves will take their home’s remaining possessions. The National Guard is now there, I hear, but they’ve caused other concerns with misinformation that caused panic. Remembering all of this, we do what we can and we remain humble in not only our physical preparedness but also in our faith and relationships. None of us is the perfection of Jesus, except for receiving His forgiveness and cleansing power. We must pursue righteousness and seek to walk in His ways!

Once we have taken the time to go through the exercise of a spiritual spring cleaning to repent of pride and any hidden sin and we get back to the basics of His Word and putting Him above all others in our lives and in our minds, as God demands in the first portions of His Ten Commandments, we will begin to have a fresher and closer relationship to our Creator. Life then becomes sweeter and more abundant and we are able to spread joy, love, and hope.

Yeast is itself not sin, as God instructed for leavened bread to be given as a sacrificial peace offering in His tabernacle/temple; however, it is the properties of yeast– the rapid growth and spread to affect what is around it– that is similar to sin, which festers and grows and spreads to have greater affect upon the sinner and others around the sinner, especially when it is allowed to remain in dark, hidden places. It is these very properties of rapid growth and spread to affect what is around it that make yeast useful for bread making and brewing. So, next week I’ll share more about God’s creation of yeast, a little history, and how to capture and use wild yeast.

Two Letters Re: License Plate Readers & OPSEC

James and Hugh,

A while back I saw a guy wearing an IR LED hat, to defeat cameras: How To Fool Facial Recognition Cameras and Video …. Plate covers will get you caught; taking out or burning your bulb out will likely get you pulled over and searched if the police decide they are having that bad a day; having no lights out is best. This might help. – F.M.

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JWR,

Another (mostly) legal way to block your plate is to get one of the receiver hitch “baskets”. Some fold up when not in use and block plates just enough. Some can be modified to block plates. – W.A.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Former Trooper Who Took $70k In Drug Bust Money Remains President Of School Board – T.P.

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SurvivalRealty.com has a new featured property that’s a great example of a modern off grid homestead, on the remote Yaak River in northwest Montana.

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State trooper in hot water over calling ICE – D.S.

JWR’s Comment: This incident is just one more reason for Eastern Washington’s counties to seek partition from Whacko Western Washington.

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Publishers are hiring ‘sensitivity readers’ to flag potentially offensive content

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Homeschoolers Revolt Against Republican School Choice Bill – DMS

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” – Matthew 5:3-12 (KJV)

Notes for Saturday – February 18, 2017

This is the birthday of Jack Palance (1919–2006), an actor known for his “Tough Guy” roles, such as the rebel leader Jesus Raza, in The Professionals

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Today, we present another entry for Round 69 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $15,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 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 with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel 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, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
  6. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  7. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $2,400 value),
  2. 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,
  3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. A selection of canned meats containing a 10 pack of 28oz cans of Premium Beef and a 5 pack of 28oz cans of Premium Pork from Wertz’s Farm Market (a $300 value),
  9. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  10. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A custom made Sage Grouse model utility/field knife from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  4. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  5. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  6. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  7. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a $125 Montie gear Gift certificate.,
  9. 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), and
  10. Fifteen LifeStraws from SafeCastle (a $300 value).
  11. A $250 gift certificate to Tober’s Traditions, makers of all natural (organic if possible) personal care products, such as soap, tooth powder, deodorant, sunscreen, lotion, and more.

Round 69 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.

Exercising Your Rights vs. Being Nice: When the “State” is at Your Door, by The Recovering Feminist

Disclaimer: I need to be perfectly clear first off. I am not a legal professional; therefore, I have no license to provide legal advice. The information in this article is opinion only and freely available. This is not legal advice. Do your own research and practice due diligence here. Seek out your own legal advice on these issues. This is, however, a matter of Natural Law and no Juris Doctor in the world can trump Natural Law.

The Movie Scene

In the movie Prince Caspian, do you recall the scene when Lucy is standing face-to-face with her enemy on the bridge and Aslan walks up beside her as she pulls out her knife in a position of strength? You can see this scene in the Youtube video titled “Prince Caspian The River God x32g54k converted”.

If you have time, there are other videos showing the landscape of this scene. Did you know that it was filmed in the Soca Valley near Bovac in Slovenia, Europe? Slovenia is a beautiful country indeed.

Did the enemy stop advancing when they saw who was standing beside Lucy? No. They continued to advance. Did they realize what they were facing or more importantly who they were facing? No. As the movie scene shows, the enemy was met with a great and fierce resistance by water. The “River God” took the burden of the fight literally on his shoulders; he destroyed the enemy advance and caused their immediate retreat. He rose up in righteousness to fight against evil men.

A Hidden Battle Rages

This is a superb example of how we are to stand against evil ourselves. When a person is in Christ, they have the full backing of a fierce and great power– the righteous power of God. His defense may not come until we are taking our last stand, but it comes. He promises to never leave us.

“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you” (Deut 31:6, NASB).

When will we be called to stand, like Lucy, against the forces of evil? Every single day. What people may not realize is that there is a spiritual battle raging all around us. We cannot see it with our human eyes, but some can sense it; some know it is so real we can almost touch it. A “supernatural heaviness” or a “negative bubble of pressure all around” is how I have heard it described. Usually it is a woman who speaks in such descriptive language.

Women do have a sense for things like this, perhaps to be the warning signal for the men in their lives. The warning is and always will be issued. However, the heaviness is a daily fight. We must fight it. We must resist. The enemy will continue its assault; therefore, we must continue our resistance, a resistance that relies on the Word of God and the Armour of God as our protection and weaponry.

Brace Yourself, Prepare for Impact

When you are preparing to take flight in one of the many corporate airlines, the stewardess predictably stands in the front and provides the safety briefing. A good stewardess or steward takes this briefing seriously; however, some will make a joke of it most likely out of the monotonous nature of having to deliver the same message over and over. Smart passengers take this briefing seriously, take note of their surroundings, and memorize the procedures like you would any muscle memory in case of an emergency scenario. The ones who are not so smart don’t pay attention at all. By the way, these are the exact fellow passengers to avoid in case of an emergency.

Handing out unsolicited advice is a strange thing. However, if you are reading this, perhaps look at it from the perspective of the stewardess briefing emergency procedures and suggesting you enjoy the flight. That way you take note of the important information and it is saved to a muscle memory for later use just in case.

Breaking up the Family: Violating “The Bill of Rights”

Is CPS and Health and Human Services directly responsible for the breakdown of the American family? Are they complicit in the damage? Have they been held accountable for the false accusations and pain and suffering of unsubstantiated cases? Do they understand the horror a mother feels when someone takes her child away? Are they aware of the intimidation, threats, pride, manipulations, and oppressive tactics employed by the agents of the state who are armed with unusual power to separate child from parent?

There exists an effort in some agencies to break up the family. Excuses are used, like keep the child safe, yet the law is not followed. “The Bill of Rights” is repeatedly violated and people aren’t even realizing this violation in their own homes. There is an effort to turn wife against husband (feminism) and turn child against parent (children’s rights over parental rights). What if removing a child from families causes more harm than letting the child stay with the parents?

Yes, there are bad parents, and, yes, there exists real abuse and neglect. However, the statistics show that a certain percentage of children are taken from parents for unconfirmed reasons. There is also a potential for anonymous reports to be motivated by viciousness and a sick form of power. Imagine the anonymous caller who enjoys the power of reporting on innocent families just to destroy and crush the beautiful, healthy family they are jealous of. How many anonymous reports are called in on “just a hunch”?

What is worse is that it is difficult to find independent data on the statistics of the families that are falsely abused or the children who are taken out of legitimately good families and then abused in foster care. I have heard the tactic is to tell the child “Your mommy doesn’t love you anymore.” It is a psychological attack against the weakest among us, an attack that is not being confronted and an attack that uses fear and threats to accomplish its agenda.

FEAR BASED

What can be worse than threatening to take children away from parents? What can be more scary for a mother or father? To take the children away is the worst thing you can do to a parent. Many totalitarian regimes used this tactic to put parents in prison. They threatened the parents that they would harm the children. ISIS uses this tactic. “Declare your allegiance to Allah or we will kill your children.” In America, it goes like this: “Either declare your allegiance to the state and federal agencies’ recommendations and assessment requirements and follow every single command or we will take your children.” “Do not resist.” Conform. Stand down. Comply.

The CPS system is a fear-based system! Fear produces results, and the system has proven effective. Threaten to take away someone’s children if they do not comply and you get your compliance. More effectively, use the child against the parents and coerce the child into condemning the parents. With a little encouragement, I can get my own children to say anything. Children are fragile, and they should be protected rather than abused by power hungry sycophants. These are the tactics of the Stasi.

“The Truth Fears No Questions” (General Michael T. Flynn)

When you resist, prepare for a litany of hatred, judgment, and threats beyond what you can imagine. The fear-based system will be elevated to a vicious, vengeful level. You are resisting a person who relies on your compliance for their paycheck. You are threatening their job security. However, with the truth on your side, you have no reason to fear.

If you are faced with a CPS or other state contracted agency and you are required to respond, first, do not fear. Fear will take you down the wrong road, and it will paralyze you. Fear is not productive from a righteous standpoint. You must fight against your fear to exercise your rights.

Are CPS and other government workers required to follow the law? Yes. Do we hold them accountable? No. Are people aware of their basic rights when it comes to resisting the fear-based system of CPS? Most are not.

Your Rights

The Bill of Rights. Need I say more? It covers:

  • Your right to remain silent. Remember anything you say can be used against you. The CPS agent has already assumed your guilt and is building a case against you from the first moment of contact. Don’t help them build their case. Don’t self sabotage.
  • Your right to video and audio record. Some states require that you notify the person being recorded.
  • Your fundamental right to boldly and unapologetically protect your children from enemies “foreign and domestic”. There is a grave misinterpretation of what a fundamental right is that continues to be taught to our children and even the adults in our society. The truth must confront the lies of what a fundamental right is and where it comes from. A fundamental right trumps all other rights, statutes, and laws. It is fundamental because it is rooted in a foundation that is not of man but of God. It is not made by man but given by God. It carries with it a certain power that will not be mocked.

Giant Tattle Tellers

One more point. For those of you who are participating in this fear-based system, stop! For those who are getting high off their power and abusing the innocent, uninformed, unsuspecting public. Stop! For those who threaten, twist parent’s words and cover your immoral acts in bureaucracy and pride, stop! Stop participating in immoral, unethical, and sometimes unconstitutional acts. You may not be accountable to man, but you are certainly accountable to God. Justice will be served. You will be held accountable, and this will not be in a human court with a jury of your peerss; this accountability will be served in a much higher court, the highest court with a perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, all powerful judge.

Resources

Do you find yourself in the jaws of the CPS? Are you yearning to learn more about how to protect your family? Are you now aware that the state contracted agencies do not have your best interest at heart? Have I convinced you to listen to the safety briefing of the stewardess and pay attention to your surroundings, take note of those who are complacent? Look into the following resources or do your own research. I am not affiliated and do not gain benefit from sharing these.

  • fightcps.com (Sign up for a membership and you will see you are not alone. So many families have been destroyed and are seeking a place for comfort and advice.)
  • HSLDA – Homeschool Legal Defense Association – JOIN…JOIN…JOIN NOW! Organizations in your state: http://www.hslda.org/orgs/
  • parentalrights.org –

    Take a moment to read over the “Parental Rights Amendment” and share it with others:

    PROPOSED PARENTAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

    SECTION 1

    The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right.

    SECTION 2

    The parental right to direct education includes the right to choose, as an alternative to public education, private, religious, or home schools, and the right to make reasonable choices within public schools for one’s child.

    SECTION 3

    Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe these rights without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.

    SECTION 4

    The parental rights guaranteed by this article shall not be denied or abridged on account of disability.

    SECTION 5

    This article shall not be construed to apply to a parental action or decision that would end life.

    SECTION 6

    No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.( Source)

Finally, do not fear!

“You drew near when I called on You; You said, ‘Do not fear!’” (Lam 3:57, NASB).

Letter Re: License Plate Readers & OPSEC

1

Sir:

Two of SurvivalBlog’s recent posts referenced altering or covering license plates to avoid identification by license plate readers. Coincidentally, the last two episodes of the reality show Hunted involved people being tracked by this technology. Altering your plate is clearly illegal. Apparently plastic covers are also illegal, at least in some jurisdictions. Electronic surveillance devices seem to be virtually everywhere these days. Do you have any advice for those of us who still believe in personal privacy but don’t want to break the law? About all I can think of is a good coat of mud or a trailer-hitch receiver cargo rack.

– R. in Maine

JWR Replies: You are correct that this is an emerging threat to our privacy. Sadly, it is just one part of the emerging Surveillance State.

There are a few options that I’ve mentioned to my consulting clients who have raised this issue:

  1. Registering your car in a “one plate” state—that is, in one of the 19 states that do not require a front license plate. (Called a “tag” in some regions.) That alone will eliminate half of the risk. So, for example if you park somewhere like at a gun show or at a politically rally where you don’t want your presence logged, you can back in to a parking spot up against a building or close behind another vehicle.
  2. You are correct about the legalities of obscuring license plates. But there are a few things that are legal or at least quasi-legal, including combinations of any of the following:
    1. A coat of spray lubricant, or rubbing on a very light coat of grease on the plate, to attract dust and road film.
    2. Buying a vanity license plate with short combination of letters and numbers that is easily confused by the naked eye or difficult to scan. One example of such lettering is: “0CQO” (Zero Charlie Quebec Oscar),
    3. Picking out a specialty license plate design with a very low contrast between the lettering and the background image. For example, on a recent consulting trip I noticed that in Montana if you buy a Grizzly Bear theme license plate, you end up with black lettering on top of a brown bear for the middle four digits, so the letters are quite difficult to read in anything but perfect lighting, and
    4. Adding punctuation to a vanity license plate, using little bits of black electrical tape. For example, changing a vanity plate that reads: “C M0RE” to instead read “C-M0RE”. That could easily be explained to a traffic officer who pulls your over. And unless he is having a very bad day, you wouldn’t get anything more than just a warning.
  3. If you live in a state where they are legal, invest in “Photo Shield” covers for your license plates. Some use a reflective surface, while the best ones use a Fresnel lens, to limit the viewing angle. They are available from a number of companies including PhantomPlate.com.
  4. Even if you don’t ever tow a trailer, buy a receiver hitch and the largest ball available, to partially block the view of your rear license plate.
  5. “Accidentally” allow the light bulb that illuminates your rear license plate to burn out. (Removing it and applying 120 Volts AC for a few seconds should do the trick.) Again, this probably won’t result in anything more than just a warning from a traffic cop, if it were noticed.
  6. If you live in a state where they are legal, buying novelty license plate FRAMES that obscure the State name on the plate, to add to your anonymity when traveling out of state. The more reflective, the better.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Some good news for the owner of HK9x-series rifles: I contacted the management of Franklin Armory, and they told me that they have now produced prototype HK binary trigger packs that are the functional equivalent of their very popular BFS-III binary triggers for AR-15s. They said that the new HK trigger packs will be shipping to individuals around May or June of 2017. I will be eagerly awaiting mine. OBTW, because of state level restrictions, binary triggers are not available for civilian sales in California, the District of Criminals (DC), Iowa, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, or the State of Washington.

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Man who used CNC mill to make untraceable guns sentenced to 41 months – T.P.

JWR’s Comment: It is notable that this was a Federal prosecution. We must ask: Where is the “Interstate Commerce” in this case that would justify Federal jurisdiction? There clerly is none! This man’s conviction is a good candidate for an appeal or an immediate Presidential pardon.

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New Hampshire set to be the 13th state with Constitutional Carry, still on track to get 16 to 17 states by end of year – DSV

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AI-Powered Body Cams Give Cops The Power To Google Everything They See – DSV

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If you use One Time Pad (OTP) encryption, you may be interested in this tool submitted by a SurvivalBlog reader: One Time Pad Coding Tool

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.” – Exodus 18:21-22 (KJV)

Notes for Friday – February 17, 2017

SurvivalBlog readers in Northern California who are downstream of the Feather River should be advised that a series of storms are due, so the crisis is far from over. Make contingency plans, top off your vehicle fuel tanks, and do some pre-packing!

o o o

Today, we present another entry for Round 69 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $15,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 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 with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel 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, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
  6. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  7. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $2,400 value),
  2. 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,
  3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. A selection of canned meats containing a 10 pack of 28oz cans of Premium Beef and a 5 pack of 28oz cans of Premium Pork from Wertz’s Farm Market (a $300 value),
  9. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  10. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A custom made Sage Grouse model utility/field knife from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  4. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  5. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  6. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  7. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a $125 Montie gear Gift certificate.,
  9. 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), and
  10. Fifteen LifeStraws from SafeCastle (a $300 value).
  11. A $250 gift certificate to Tober’s Traditions, makers of all natural (organic if possible) personal care products, such as soap, tooth powder, deodorant, sunscreen, lotion, and more.

Round 69 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.

It is the Best of Times and the Worst of Times to Research Your Family History, by Michigan Swamp Buck

Gone are the days of the nuclear family. With high divorce rates, remarriages, single parents, and the legalization of same sex marriages, the family unit as it was once known is becoming a rare thing in the 21st century. Although these changes have brought more choices and variation in family structure, there have been losses from abandoning the traditional family unit. One loss is the traditional family value of knowing your family’s history and lineage. Knowing who you have descended from and the history surrounding their lives provides a foundation of pride and strength that many families have lost touch with in our current era. Knowing this personal family history not only gives strength to the individual but brings to life the unique history we all share in the United States. Losing this personal connection to the past can leave us weakened and indifferent to the reality of history and open to revisionists who seek to change it to suit their agendas. In essence, the survival of our family history helps to ensure our survival as individuals as well as the survival of our western lifestyle.

I’m what you might consider old now, as I’ve passed the half-century mark. My family has been scattered to the four winds with the oldest members long dead. Our family has almost completely lost touch with each other, and those who are left have little or no memory of who and what our family is about. As disconnected and dysfunctional as my family has become, there was a time when we were much tighter.

Back in the 1970s, we would frequently gather on the family farm owned by my grandparents and attend a yearly family reunion organized by my great aunt. When they passed the family reunion torch to my father, it lasted for a few years into the early 1980s, but he gave up due to low interest and attendance numbers. I believe that was the decade when things began to totally fall apart concerning my family. All my immediate family had moved away, I lost three grandparents and a number of older relatives that decade. The 1990s saw my parents get divorced. I lost my last grandparent in 2003 and my mother in 2009. Few are left who may remember our family history, and most of the rest don’t know it or even care to.

Since then, I’ve had the unusual luck to have recovered my grandparent’s photograph and document collection from both sides of the family. I saved them from poor storage conditions and situations that would have soon found this valuable collection in the trash heap. At that time, I felt compelled to compile the information chronologically and digitize the entire archive. I also have endeavored to make a complete family tree to trace the family back to at least their original country of origin. I’ve found out many things that were not only unknown to me and my surviving family members but unknown to those who had kept the family unified back while they were still alive. Some of things included the fact that two of my father’s ancestors came over to the new world on the Mayflower and an ancestor on my mother’s side helped found Jamestown.

As worthy as the family tree and archiving project is to me, it has proved to be a huge undertaking. It has, at the very least, put me more in touch with my closest family members, a couple of cousins, and a few extended family members I never knew existed. Fortunately, I was blessed by my father’s interest in photography. His collection of photos and his organizational bent was very helpful in my own archival endeavors, making it much easier on me to organize and to remember the good old days growing up in the 1970s. As much time and effort as I have devoted to preserving the family’s history covering the past century (and more), I’ve managed to work on my own collection of photos and videos and make more sense of my own immediate family history.

In my intensive efforts to preserve my family history, the use of our expanding digital technology, the Internet in particular, has made it easier than ever to research our family trees and the history surrounding them. In years gone by, this research required a huge amount of time, effort, and expense to do. Before the digital age we are currently in, you would have to find your research material by going to various libraries, historical societies, and churches all over our country and beyond. I’m extremely grateful for all the research that had been undertaken by so many in those years to document and preserve that information so that we may access it so easily today.

I started my family tree by utilizing the resources of Ancestry.com that offers an initially free service. I worked like crazy to complete as much of my family tree as possible during the free period. If you continue with the unpaid membership, you retain your tree and research and can continue to work on it without the use of their resources. However, there are many free family tree services and historical reference materials available online to continue the research started on Ancesrty.com in addition to the fact you can renew your paid membership for short periods of time when needed. Other free resources available online are the numerous stories and photograph collections of other people. I’ve found it quite useful to do online image searches to fill in the gaps of my family photographic archives, especially those years in my life where photos and videos are lacking for me. It was during this research that I began to think that perhaps the days of reliable online research may soon come to an end concerning the history of how things used to be back in the day.

Since an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act was passed in 2012, it is now legal for the U.S. government to overtly publish propaganda. Also, there has been this latest push to censor the so called “fake news” offered by sources other than the tightly controlled main stream media. Factor these things into the now changing family unit and efforts toward the new revisionist history and it can be surmised that our sources of reliable online information may soon become diminished.

Although it has not yet come to the point of being unable to find our neglected family histories online, I feel that it has become important for us to recount our life’s experiences before the new “Ministry of Truth” changes our past for our children, our grandchildren, and the future generations yet to come. As an example, one of my recent areas of study has been the points of interest we visited during our family vacations back in the 1970s. Those memories I’ve been reassembling are things like historical markers, amusement parks, and tourist “traps” that are now long gone, currently abandoned, or are being removed due to politically correct sensitivities. There may well come the day where those things will be considered forbidden knowledge that will cause unrest to a population subdued by a lowered standard of living and by a government bent on control. It’s not beyond possibility that in the near future such extravagant excesses of capitalism, free travel, and independent thought are eliminated and erased from the memory of the public’s mind in order to control the masses who have lost touch with their personal family histories.

This brings me back to the main points about my research. It seems obvious to me, and there is evidence to support my contention, that there has been an ongoing effort in our country to subvert the traditional family unit and revise our country’s history, since before I was born. It also seems that those efforts have been gaining ground and momentum in recent years. Regardless of the “how” and “why” these things are happening, it cannot be easily denied that the family unit and our collective history has undergone many changes that have caused us as a nation to lose ground in remembering and preserving our history.

As important as the preservation of our family history is to our country and way of life. Our individual family stories can be related to our own personal survival as well. Most, if not all, American families have ancestors who have lived though hard times and adversity and who have ultimately allowed us to come into existence. By and large today’s Americans are derived from groups of people who lived through times and situations that rival the most difficult survival scenarios we could imagine and that we might have to endure in this day and age. From European immigrants fleeing poverty and oppression in the Old World to Native Americans surviving genocide and Africans forced into generations of slavery; for the longest time most had to endure impossible odds and extreme conditions to survive. Those personal family stories must be preserved, honored, and even celebrated so that we will remember that we have come from people who had the strength and will to survive such unforgiving circumstances and that we have that same ability to overcome when times get tough once again.

To summarize, the survival of our history is just as important as, if not more than, our own physical survival as individuals. This issue goes well beyond our own personal survival to the survival of our unique way of life and our survival as a country as a whole. What future will we have without our past? These are the best of times to do the research needed to reassemble the forgotten and missing pieces of our collective histories and to preserve them for future generations before they are changed and lost forever. This is also quickly becoming the worst of times, as censorship and revisionist histories are working against our efforts to remember and preserve our vanishing family histories. As easy as it has become to do such research, I fear it will not last, as fewer and fewer people have the interest or the time to invest in such a project. However, I believe it is worthwhile on a personal level as well as on a universal one.

Enjoying (and Surviving) Solar Eclipse 2017

On August 21, 2017, residents of a narrow swath through the United States will have a rare treat: The chance to observe a total eclipse of the sun. The path of totality will transit several major cities, including Greenville, South Carolina and parts of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Nashville. In the west, most of the viewing will be in smaller towns, since major cities, like Denver and Portland, are well outside of the path of totality.

Because this eclipse is occurring in mid-summer (with a lower chance of cloud cover), there should be good opportunities for viewing, if you are positioned inland of coastal fog. I have heard that many hotels and motels that are in or near the path of totality have been fully booked for the eclipse travel period since late 2016. And I heard that the hotels and motels in or near Jackson Hole, Wyoming were booked two years in advance. A State Parks official in Oregon told me that their reservation system was overwhelmed in the first 10 minutes after midnight on January 1st, 2017, with folks seeking campground site anywhere near the path of totality.

At this late stage, your best bet would probably be simply boondock camping on BLM or National Forest land. Of course, most SurvivalBlog readers are already well-equipped for boondock car camping. A few musts will be sleeping bags, tents or tarps, cooking gear, LED flashlights, a large plastic water can, a water filter (or better yet a self-filtering water can, and welder’s goggles. (I’ll discuss those more, later.) You will also need sanitary supplies—at least TP and a compact shovel or entrenching tool, but perhaps a bucket toilet lid and a 5 or 7 gallon bucket, if you want to attend to your boondock ablutions in comfort.

There will be so many people traveling to see the eclipse that I expect some major traffic snarls the night before and the morning of the eclipse, particularly on the I-65 corridor north of Nashville and the I-5 Corridor south of Portland, Oregon. (The latter will be crowded with masses of people traveling south from Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, all in the hopes of seeing the eclipse.)

Safety Warnings

The safety implications of eclipse viewing are obvious: retinal burns can cause permanent blindness and be self-inflicted by direct observation, or by insufficient eye protection. (Anyone who claims that “two thickness of regular sunglasses”, “smoked glass”, or “exposed photographic negatives” will suffice is a fool. In actuality, you will need very dark #14 (aka Shade 14) air-carbon arc cutting lenses. Less opaque gas brazing or welding lenses (typically #5) provide insufficient protection!)

Note: If you already own a welding hood or typical Hobart goggles with a #5 plate, simply buy a darker #14 shade plate , and retrofit it.

The Editors of SurvivalBlog recommend these lightweight glasses, which are also useful to subsequently keep in your welding and thermite kits.

Give any children near you copious safety warnings, and provide them with the means of safe viewing. For example, see the many online instructions on how to build a long cardboard box pinhole eclipse projector. (The longer the box, the larger the projected disk.)

There might be the risk of a few idiots foolishly attempting to “chase” the path of totality on east-west highways, so I don’t recommend parking close to the shoulder of any of those roads, for fear of a high-speed rear-end collision. The ground track speed of the sun is 1,100 miles per hour near the equator and nearly 5,000 miles per hour near the poles so it is foolish to think that you can “chase” the eclipse totality to extend your viewing time in anything slower than a Turbo Mooney Type S airplane running at full throttle at 25,000 feet, whilst sucking oxygen. I suppose that some millionaires will be chartering jets for this event.

In Closing

Book your flights early to the eclipse region, and buy your #14 glasses, goggles, or mask early. I predict that many of the Internet vendors of welding supplies will be sold out of #14 goggles as early as May or June. – JWR