Mark O’Byrne: Gold In GBP Up 43% YTD – Massive Twin Deficits To Impact UK Assets
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I found this over at The Daily Reckoning: The End of the Great Experiment.
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Hubert Moolman: Silver Price Forecast: Higher Silver Prices For Many Years To Come
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.s
This great video shows a “stealth” camper van project with some
potential for preppers: How to convert a Van in to an Off-Grid Camper in 17 Days! Used Transit Vans and Combi-Vans (as well as similar large vans–which you probably recognize from out on the highway, and on American Pickers) are starting to become affordable here in the States. Most preppers would of course want to have more battery capacity, more propane capacity, and some hidden compartments. A little Velcro behind paneling and molding works wonders, for those. (Don’t miss opportunities like that.) Oh, and don’t forget to wear eye protection at all times–and ear protection when appropriate–whenever you are tackling any DIY projects. Safety first! – JWR
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A consulting client recently mentioned the annoyance of “junk” phone calls. She also mentioned that she had never got on the National Do Not Call list.  I recommend that all SurvivalBlog readers get registered, to avoid nuisance calls and to prevent needless charges on their cell phones. It will stop nearly all business solicitations, but will not stop political calls. Just go to: DoNotCall.gov. This “.gov” site is operated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), so you won’t get spammed. – JWR
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Reader H.L.R. wrote to mention some news: Amazon is producing a second season of The Man In The High Castle. Fans of parallel universe fiction should mark December 16th on their calendars. Hopefully all of the episodes will be made available on the same day, to allow binge watching. (This was how they released the first season.) H.L.R. also notes that for a limited time, the e-book of the novel (on which the television series was based) is available free of charge for Amazon Prime members.
“Liberties aren’t given, they are taken.” – Aldous Huxley
October 18, 1662 was the birthday of Matthew Henry (died 22 June, 1714.) He was a Presbyterian minister who lived primarily in Chester, England. Matthew Henry’s six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (commonly called Matthew Henry’s Commentary) is a must for the bookshelf of any serious Bible scholar.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 67 ends on November 30th, 2016, 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.
If you are reading this article you are already awake to the impending Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF) and whatever that could look like.
You probably already have your bug out bag packed, your rendezvous rural destination with loved ones, your hard copy maps, your silver coins and small bills, and your gun and ammunition.
If you are thinking you need to stay put you have your stored food and water, your medical supplies, your plans with like minded neighbors.
You may even have learned some new trades – perhaps you learned on YouTube from a Canadian how to be a makeshift dentist and affix a temporary filling for a broken tooth or a lost filling. Certainly you know the old Boy Scout lessons of different knots and building fires from scratch and medical emergency procedures in the wild. And you even know how to make a water filter from readily-found natural materials.
You have your “safe room” stocked with food and potassium iodate pills in case of a need for a nuclear fallout shelter.
You’ve been hitting the gym and the trails preparing your body for an escape by foot while carrying extra weights to simulate a back pack. You have your hammock and your tent and even your Mylar blankets to keep in warmth and block those drones from sensing your heat. You’ve got your hiking boots and the rest of the clothing needed to manage mother nature in all her forms.
You’ve taken classes on foraging food in the wild. You can spot the medicinal mushroom from the poisonous one. You know all about Chaga and how to access it’s medicinal qualities (including how the Russians use Vodka.) You got the berries down and know how to store those Goji berries while traveling through the dessert. You know exactly which plants are filled with nutrition and which will kill you.
If you are staying put, you have already been gardening. You learned that you need two different blueberry species contiguous to each other to get any crop at all. You learned to love those bees and worms. You learned that your empty toilet paper roll is a necessity for your small compost of fruit and vegetable scraps. (And you skip the dairy and meat unless you want the vermin.) You may even have found that Garden Tower where you can plant 50 plants vertically using just a couple gallons of water every other day (depending on climate) and needing no land to grow and no need to buy fertilizer.
You have learned that anything given to you from anything organized and funded is probably inverted. You don’t trust Government (or the concept of political parties), Education Institutions, Religious Institutions, Medical Institutions, Entertainment, or Media (to mention just the obvious.) And you are now learning that you may not even be able to trust your gut. You know that your gut has been compromised. You ingest probiotics to balance it – maybe a daily teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or homemade sauerkraut or yogurt. And that while your gut is out of balance, you need to rely on your heart.
You know that the Ph balance of your body is crucial to be at your mental peak in times of stress. You know the tricks to move an acidic body to an alkaline body, or vice versa. You avoid refined sugar and chemicals and other foods that stress your body. You are aware of foods that are toxic. Your quick and easy reference is “organic,” “wild,” and “home grown” foods. You know if you can’t spell it or pronounce it, it is probably stressing your body.
You have studied the founding documents of our country. You own hard copies. You know that once SHTF, and you will survive, you will be the new founders. You must know what our founders knew. Perhaps you will be able to improve the systems of self governance.
Perhaps you will at least be able to identify how/when/where we abandoned our constitution and prevent it in the future.
You know how to access the dark net. You have the IP addresses of your most trusted sources for news and information. You have a CB radio and an AM/FM with a solar or hand crank power source. You have the means to find like–minded survivors when all goes dark. You have pre-arranged communications with family and friends who are too distant to rendezvous.
You have decided on your commodity for trading. Perhaps it’s a service, perhaps it’s medicine, or ammo, or heirloom seeds. It is whatever is right for you but you have something and hopefully a few options. You have something to contribute to the game of survival and the adventure of rebuilding. There may be no handouts, only barters. You will have something to contribute.
You have or are becoming (prescription) drug free. You know that when SHTF, drugs will be hard to come by.
For those areas where you haven’t been able to become an expert, you have written directions. Perhaps it’s tips for gardening or natural medicine or filtering water or building with tools. Whatever you know that you don’t know but you think you will need, you have written instructions.
You have not forgotten the down time. Even though we’re living in a time of quickening, there will still be the hours we sit in the dark in the safety room. The time at dusk when we have nothing left to prepare and are sitting around the fire. This is the time we need some other items. Items to bring us joy. Perhaps a harmonica, a deck of cards, or even a blank journal. You remembered to put these items into place, too.
We believe we are the best prepared as possible. There should be nothing left, right?
May I suggest to you now, the most crucial aspect of preparation has been ignored.
While we have protected our body in a SHTF scenario, we have
ignored our soul.
To prepare our soul, we must take an honest look at our diversion from love and heal it.
It starts with me. Personally. Individually. It starts with you. Personally. Individually.
It is the reflection of the Cherokee legend of the two wolves found here.
It may be the hardest preparation of all.
Knowing what you hate in another human being and turning it around. Stop feeding the wolf of the head:
So that in the rebuilding of humanity we consciously move forward feeding the wolf of the heart:
There is an understanding in the Universe right now that the only way to survive the devastation is transcendence of it. Some say that it is the fear that feeds the beast of this SHTF scenario. This fear is what “they” thrive on. If it is so, then we must rise to the challenge of “NO FEAR.”
Some even believe if we raise our personal vibration high enough, feeding the wolf of heart within us, we will be beyond physical reach of the bullets and famine. It is a worthy concept to consider. Perhaps the Universe is devising a way to bring enlightenment to humanity.
Do not fear what is to come. Do not hate they who have brought it forth. Embrace the change and prepare both your body and your soul for the aftermath. That is the blessing we have to look forward to. – Nancy K. in Los Angeles
Elbow Room Matters! Consider the following: Idaho County, Idaho measures 8,503 square miles (22,020 km2), but it has a population of just 16,267. Thus, it is slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey (which measures 8,722 square miles and has 9 million residents), but it is larger than Connecticut and Delaware, combined. (They measure 5,543 and 2,488 squares miles, respectively.) And ponder the geography and demographics of Sweetwater County, Wyoming: It measures 10,426 square miles (larger than the state of Maryland, which is 9,707 square miles) and has a population of just 45,267. Maryland has a population of just over 6 million people. Fewer people will mean fewer problems in the midst of a nationwide crisis.
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In Wyoming: Proposed natural gas project tests sage grouse plans
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Compare the disparate results in these two YouTube videos: Mining The Banks For Silver: Is It Worth It? and Coin Roll Hunting Walkers, Franklins, & Kennedys. Obviously, you have to find a bank in a small town that has not yet been harvested by Coin Roll Hunters. For someone who is retired or disabled, or for anyone who travels by road regularly, this could be fairly profitable.
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So much silver! (Coin roll hunting.) And one result that was even better: Are You Kidding Me? There are still lots of 40% U.S. silver half dollars out there folks, if you you just take the time to ask at banks. – JWR
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Now a bit dated, but this video provides some good advice to a newbie from Dan Celia: IInvesting with Swiss Francs: Is it time to buy this currency?
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Former senator spills beans on Hillary’s anti-gun strategy
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Reader J.E. sent us this: Russian state newspapers predict ‘direct military conflict’ with US as it compares Syria stalemate to Cuban missile crisis
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I spotted this item at Mac Slavo’s great SHTFplan.com news aggregation site: Our Threat Comes From Within: “The Establishment Is Doing Everything It Can To Make Us Look Crazy”
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Video: Wranglerstar’s family makes a batch of elderberry wine.
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This article over at Skilled Survival is of interest: DIY Survival Gear: 11 Projects Worth Building
“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were in?icted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.” – Ludwig von Mises
On this day in 1835, Texans approve a resolution to create the Texas Rangers– a corps of armed and mounted lawmen designed to “range and guard the frontier between the Brazos and Trinity Rivers”. After winning their revolutionary war with Mexico the following year, Texans decided to keep the Rangers, both to defend against Indian and Mexican raiders and to serve as the principal law enforcement authority along the sparsely populated Texan frontier.
In close to 25 years as a writer for firearms, cutlery, and survival magazines and websites, I have reviewed quite a few products. Lots of boots have come my way and, to be sure, I only report on the best-of-the-best in boots and other gear. I don’t want to waste my time, or our reader’s time, reporting on junk products. As I’ve said numerous times over the years, “You only have to buy quality once, but if you buy junk, you have to keep on buying junk…” Of course, when it comes to clothing and footwear, you do eventually have to replace it but not nearly as often as you replace junk. Quality clothing and footwear lasts a long, long time. I have a pair of Rocky boots with 800 grams of Thinsulate that are more than 20 years old. They’ve had the soles replaced once. The only reason I don’t wear these boots any longer is because my foot grew one size, but I’m holding onto these waterproof and heavily insulated boots just in case someone else needs them.
I insist on waterproof boots or hikers because of where we live, in Western Oregon, where we get about eights months of rain each year. Insulated boots aren’t a necessity here, but I do have several pair of boots that are waterproof and insulated just because! Most of my winter coats and jackets are also either waterproof or water-resistant, again because it’s a necessity for me. I spend a lot of time outside testing products, as well as just being in the outdoors. When we have heavy rains, I reach for a waterproof jacket, instead of one that is just water-resistant. Most of the year, a heavy jacket isn’t called for in my neck of the woods, so a light-weight, three season, waterproof jacket works great for my needs.
Back in 1979, and “yes” I can remember that far back most of the time, I worked for a K-9 security company. We patrolled outside of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant quite a ways outside of Portland, OR. It’s now dismantled. We patrolled with a K-9 from sunset until sunrise the next morning. Thos were very long nights, and it was very chilly with lots of rain. I wore a pair of insulated coveralls with an insulated jacket under that, plus a rain suit, pants, and jacket, plus rubber military boots that were heavy. No matter what, I was always wet and cold at the end of the shift. We didn’t have materials like Gore-Tex or Thinsulte back then, so my feet would get wet from perspiration, as well as my entire body. That rubber rain suit didn’t allow the perspiration to get out, and I was wet about halfway through the night. However, it was better, I guess, than being absolutely soaked from the pouring rain. Also, about halfway through the night, my Doberman would start shivering from the cold and rain, which was not good!
So, with the above background, I have some experience with good and poor waterproof products or the lack thereof. We live in wonderful times, with all the new synthetic waterproof products, as well as various types of insulation. I would have done anything if these products were available back in 1979, but they weren’t!
Brand new to the Blackhawk Products line up and a first look for our readers is their Waterproof Tactical Softshell Jacket. Because of our great contacts in various industries, we are giving our readers a first look at this new jacket. It has been tested as well as it could be without any rain, but a soaking garden hose worked great as a test media.
The new jacket has what Blackhawk is calling Teflon Shield, which not only makes this ¾ length jacket waterproof but also repels oil and stains too! It is very nice! Plus, this new waterproof material is breathable. (See my Trojan story above.) If perspiration can’t escape, you will get wet under the jacket. There are also various pockets inside and outside of the jacket for storing your extra gear and equipment that you don’t want to get wet. And, the pockets that have zippers are really cool. They have locking zippers. Once you zip the pocket closed and slide the head of the zipper into the little pouch, there are no worries about the zipper coming unzipped.
I also like that the jacket is flexible, so you have a lot of movement. Some jackets are tight and don’t have any “give” at all, which is not good. The jacket also has gusseted underarms for more freedom of movement, plus a vented yoke on the back of the jacket, and it comes in two different colors. I expect Blackhawk will come out with other colors if there is enough demand. My sample was gray, and the other is a shade of blue. My sample came with a hood to keep that rain off the gray hairs on my head.
Now, if I counted right, and you’ll have to forgive my public school math, there are a total of nine pockets on the jacket. Plus, to aid in keeping you as dry as possible, the seams are all sealed to keep the rain out. The hood has an adjustment for wearing a baseball cap or even a military-style helmet, which is another nice touch. The cuffs on the sleeves are also adjustable with rubber tabs, once again so the rain will stay out, and this also gives you a better fit in the process. There is a Velcro patch on the right sleeve, and a mic clip for your radio use.
Since I received this jacket in August, when we rarely see any rain in this part of Oregon at this time of year, I elected to have my wife turn the garden hose on me while I wore the jacket. Remember that the water was under pressure too. I stayed dry, other than the cuffs on my cargo pants and that my hikers were a little wet on the outside, but the hikers are waterproof, so I had no worries about wet feet. The water just was totally repelled by the waterproof material. There was no hint of the jacket getting wet on the inside.
The Blackhawk Waterproof Tactical Softshell Jacket doesn’t have any sort of lining to keep you extra warm in the colder weather. However, slipping a Wooly Pulley under the jacket or a fleece light-weight jacket on before putting the Blackhawk jacket on, and this baby will probably keep you a lot warmer in the winter months than you can imagine. Being waterproof, the jacket is also windproof. That goes a long way in keeping you warm in cold weather. Standing on the corner when I was a teen, waiting for the public transportation bus to come along in the dead of winter in Chicago, I know how the wind can “cut” right through even the heaviest jacket or coat, giving you a chill to the bone.
The jacket appears to be generously cut, too. Many jackets that I have (and I have a lot of ‘em) are cut a bit tight, and when zipped-up they sometimes allow my concealed carry handgun to print on my right side. Luckily, I rarely have to zip-up a jacket or coat; I’m a bit on the hot-blooded side and rarely get “that” cold in this neck of the woods. But the biggest handgun on my right hip, and I tried several, were easy to conceal with the Blackhawk jacket when it was zipped-up tight.
This particular jacket doesn’t exactly scream “tactical” if you ask me, and that’s a good thing in my book. I don’t want anyone giving me a second look and be mistaken for a law enforcement officer or someone in the military in civilian clothing. This jacket is very stylish, if you ask me, and it will fit in, whether you are in downtown Chicago or out in the country or on the farm.
For more information on this jacket and some much better pics than my wife could take, You need to look at Blackhawk’s site. Keep in mind that quality isn’t cheap. If you want the best, buy the best. This new offering from Blackhawk retails for $209.99, and Blackhawk clothing can now be found in many outdoors stores as well as places like Cabela’s. Check it out. I think you’ll like it, and it is worth the money! I was very impressed with this product, very!
– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio
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Useful Recipe and Cooking Links
Now that it is “Hog Killin'” weather, here are a couple of more pork recipes for you.:
Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!
James,
We lived along the northern shore of the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP), in the Marquette area. This was way back in the late 1960s. (We left in 1972.)
We spent the last two years of that living in the middle of a fairly isolated 40 acre tract about half an hour drive (summer travel) from town.
The great lakes, Superior in particular, have an enormous influence on the local climate. Varying by distance and prevailing winds, you tend to have cooler summer temps as well as slightly warmer winters. The lakes effect precipitation, most noticeably snowfall, but cloud cover and rain as well.
In our experience the climate favored potatoes, rutabagas and the like. Snow peas did very well. We have had frost on the 4th of July and Labor Day. One year we saw snow flurries all through the July 4th parade.
Tomatoes and other tender crops require a greenhouse.
The black flies which lasted all summer (unlike at my family place in Maine) made gardening a blood sport (this was before DEET insect repellent which I’m told is effective.).
I had friends that moved into the hinterboonies and attempted to garden, also with sad results. One couple eventually sold out and the other moved into town and took up storekeeping.
In general, I think that the UP has much in common with coastal Alaska (as opposed to interior) as described in some recent posts. In colonial times the native peoples were said to have come there only in summer and mainly to fish. The deer were very scarce back then too, there being little browse in the uncut terminal forest that then covered the area. Regards, – D.W.
JWR Replies: Thank for making those points.Obviously, having a big greenhouse would be a must.
For those who must live in the upper Midwest, I consider the U.P. to be the best compromise retreat locale. On a recent tour of the region, there were two areas that looked particular appealing to me, and both of them were partially agricultural: First, the area east of the town of Nisula, and Second, the area north of Bruce Crossing. If someone were to buy a property that is back on “a sideroad of a sideroad“ there, then the odds are that they could avoid trouble in all but an absolute worst case societal collapse. I hold that view by virtue of the facts that the U.P. is geographically isolated from major population centers, and that the U.P. has such a notoriously brutal winter climate that it is very unlikely that many urban refugees would heard in that direction.
The banksters’ Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) appears to have quietly put the IMF’s analysts in a Modified Stationary Panic. See this August 2016 IMF white paper: Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP):Implications for Monetary Transmission and Bank Profitability in the Euro Area. Buried in the report is this little zinger; “Early evidence suggests that the adverse impact of negative rates on bank profitability may increase non-linearly as the policy rate declines further.” We are headed for some interesting times, folks! The Deutsche Bank death spiral may be just the beginning of a full-blown, widespread debt crisis contagion.
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How to Buy Silver Below Its Spot Price
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UN fears third leg of the global financial crisis – with prospect of epic debt defaults. JWR’s Comment: The banksters have backed themselves into a corner, by getting themselves so highly leveraged at the same time that NIRP is expanding and while they have so many “under performing” (read: bad) loans in their portfolios, particularly in Europe’s southern tier and in mainland China. Given the over-leverage of the banks, it won’t take much of an event to reach a tipping point. Then we will see a cascade of events that will make the 2008 debt crisis look small, mild, and brief, by comparison.
Daisy Luther warns: Eight Alarming Warning Signs That Indicate War With Russia Could Be Imminent
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John Whitehead at The Rutherford Institute: The Imperial President’s Toolbox of Terror: A Dictatorship Waiting to Happen
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