Snippets: The Watchman’ Thwarts General Gage’s Gun Grab

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

First up, reader H.L. sent us this: Forgotten First Shots of the Revolutionary War, ‘The Watchman’ Thwarts General Gage’s Gun Grab.

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‘Nothing looks good’ preparing for summer wildfire season.

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David in Australia wrote:

“G’day,
In the post it mentions keeping various dowel on hand. A dowel jig/maker can be made pretty cheap at the moment (or purchased). Just a series of different sized holes drilled in a piece of metal (around 10mm 3/8” thick) or better. Keep a nice square shoulder on the hole. First plane/cut timber to rough size then hammer/force through holes till you have the size dowel you need. Pretty simple and works.
Not sure if 3AD has used them or heard of them but it means you don’t have to keep dowel on hand (reducing storage room) and it also means you can make dowels of the same type of timber if required for aesthetic purposes. Using an Alaskan Mill is back breaking work on Australian hardwoods!
Good luck and God speed”

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Reader C.B. spotted this; Bacterium causing rabbit fever remains virulent for months in cold water.

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Texas Passes Bill to Remove NFA Suppressor Requirements for ‘Made in Texas’ Cans. (Thanks to Tim J. for the link.)

Gwen wrote to mention:

“I found a free link to the book of letters John Quincy Adams wrote to his son concerning his method of reading the Bible in one year. I thought your readers might be interested.”

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Reader H.L. mentioned this June 8th deadline: Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors.

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Warming effect of greenhouse gases has been ‘overestimated,’ now climate scientists may know why.

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Terry C. mentioned:

“Please remind readers that even more important than lumber, tin, etc. is the storing of fasteners. If you look back 100-200 years ago fasteners (nails, bolts, screws, etc.) were very expensive and hard to find. You can make your own lumber but nails are hard to do.”

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Report: 20% of America’s Beef Production ‘Wiped Out’ After JBS Cyberattack.

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Reader D.B. wrote:

“I worked the Overland Park, KS gun show this weekend as a vendor. Johnson County, KS is #53 in the nation for income per capita, so there should have been plenty of people available to spend money.

1. The tenor of the show has turned into a cross between a flea market and a garage sale. I am a class 7 FFL (can manufacture firearms). There were two other Class 3 FFLs (can retail firearms) that had ANY firearms – they were 98% C&R bolt guns still packed with cosmoline. Numerous T-shirts, China junk tools, window vendors, gel packs for your aches, etc.. One significant AR accessory vendor selling colored aluminum furniture. Not a Glock to be found, very few ARs.

2. The show promoter gave me an extra table to fill the row. It was obvious that they struggled to get enough vendors to hold the show.

3. I had $5,000 worth of powder with me and sold only about $1,000. People still won’t buy reloading components at market price due to lamenting over the “normal” prices/believing that the old prices will return. I had people repeatedly ask how much I could reduce my prices. I can’t – if I have to buy at retail from the vendor that I can find powder at by scanning the Internet at 2300 each night, limited to 5 lbs. at a time, spreading the HAZMAT fees over 5 lbs. vs. 50 lbs,, it will drive the price of the powder up. In addition, Hodgdon recently started [breaking the price barrier of] $50/lb. for powder.

4. I had two men come to me with primers they wanted to sell. Two weeks prior, the only vendor with primers sold them for $200/1,000 at a show in Independence, MO. The first person with primers stated his price for the 1,000 was $150. I bought them and put them out on the table. Some show-goers were angered with me for the price of the primers. I sold only 1/2 of the primers, with 1/2 of the total sales going to friends I called and offered them to.

5. Since the ATF prohibits me from selling any of the rifles I build in KS (my FFL is in MO), then I could not sell any firearms. So despite my FEDERAL license, I was restricted from conducting commerce in KS. (The state line between KS and MO goes through the metropolitan area of Kansas City, so this is ridiculous, as is any “feeling of the day” coming out of the ATF regulations are.) This law cost me several sales, harming my business. I took down the info to prepare four quotes for potential Clients.

6. This will be the last show I display at. The man-hours, cost for the table, cost for the stock just do not produce any profit. Maybe the Tulsa show is still large enough to overcome this inertia, but then the cost of a hotel room for three nights and the additional gas costs would stack up against profits also.”

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Reader H.L. mentioned the piece behind the paywall at The New York Times: Plague of Mice in Australia Overruns Farms, Shops and Bedrooms.

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Brad L. wrote:

“A few comments on the two recent articles by Joe Dolio. As rate would have it, I finished reading TW-01 right before reading his article on Survival Blog. I would highly recommend the book for those who frequent this site. While not an exhaustive review, the following will give readers a good idea of what to expect. Exactly in line with the article by Joe on this site.

What you will NOT find in the book;

Lists or recommendations of specific gear you MUST have.

Lists or recommendations of how much “_________” (you fill in the blank, food, ammo, etc.) you MUST have.

What you WILL find in the book;

Biblical references for each specific subject matter.

A practical overview of the Baseline you should be arriving to establish prior to upcoming festivities.

A well thought out progression in the book of logical, practical steps to take in order to achieve the Baseline that Joe believes is a minimum requirement (with which I agree fwiw).

For a particular subject, recommended goals, available resources and suggested steps & methods to achieve those goals.

And in closing some sage advice that essentially says, once you achieve the Baseline, you are NOT DONE! Skills are perishable and require ongoing practice. And this is just the first level, more to come.”

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Over at FrankSpeech: Bombshell Study Claims to Prove That Chinese Scientists Manufactured COVID.

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Tunnel Rabbit authored this useful information:

“Salt, A Method of Preservation:

This process will preserve any kind of meat, including bear. How long this will preserve meat depends on temperature. I have also have salt peter that will greatly extend to storage life, but I did not use it on this bear as it was canned, and it only needed to be preserved for several weeks to one month. Storage temperature determines how long the brine method works. We can either use a salt brine, or dry pack it in salt and then saturate with a brine to make sure no part of the meat is not preserved. The dry packing method can preserve meat for 6 months to a year, and easily over a winter. I recently and successfuly used a salt brine to preserve 100 pounds of Spring bear meat for two weeks while it was jarred up. The brine was replenished after one week to ensure that the meat remained fresh. To make a salt brine, simply bring water to a boil and add salt until it will no longer go into the solution. If the salt accumulates on the bottom of the pot and will not dissolve when stirred, then the water is supersaturated, and the brine is ready to use.

Having salt and this knowledge can be a good option. Most folks have a freezer full of meat. However, it is good to know our options. If the power goes out we can also ‘super’ insulate the freezer immediately to keep the cold in. If enough insulation is used, it will keep the meat frozen for at least one week. I’ve had to do this to keep 110 pounds of frozen trout frozen or very cold in near 100 degree summer temperature. A large sheet of mylar from a savaged HVAC system was placed on top of layers of fiberglass batting worked wonders. Had there been 200 pounds of trout, I would have had to use salt to preserve the second 100 pounds. Therefore I will always have lots of inexpensive salt to preserve meat.

$5 for 40 pounds of salt is a good and cheap option to have. Back up the truck. One 40 pound sack of water softener salt–that is pure sodium chloride–fits nicely into a 5-gallon bucket. It is about one fourth the cost of table salt, and better for the purpose. To reduce the salt in the meat that was preserved using salt, simply soak in simmering water for several hours and then add it to the pot. This video has some good advice: Preparing Salt Pork – 18th Century Cooking Series S1E. It works well.”

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Punishment pricing: Florida Concert Venue Charging $1000 Per Ticket If You Aren’t Vaccinated. (A hat tip to J.L. for the link.)

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Toby and Freedom Loving Texan sent this to Avalanche Lily, a must listen for all : Dr. Peter McCullough on COVID-19.

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And, finally, from reader D.M.C:

“Similar to other readers, we have noticed a crashing in crypto-poultry market. Absolutely crazy prices we saw for hens last fall are being replaced by chicks for a dollar and laying hens for $5 or $10. This is good because the raccoons figured out our electric fence wasn’t working right and cleaned me out of about 10 hens…then they somehow busted into Fort Clucks (through the egg door I think) and cleaned out my brand new order of meat birds and turkeys! It’s enough to make a guy want out of the poultry ‘business’ real quick!

The good news is goat prices have been insane around here and we pretty much doubled the size of our herd this year with little ones. Man those bottle babies are a PITA!

Just got a quote for 3000 ft of goat fence installed with steel corner posts and several 10 ft gates….$10,000!”