Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

It is with some trepidation that I write this article, since what I write will be controversial and will alarm some members of the public as well as your readers. Some of my colleagues have urged me not to bring this subject into the open or to even discuss it in public. However, I think the topic is important and needs to be brought to the attention of the public. The issue is the effect that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, or for that matter, even a great geomagnetic storm created by a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun, would have on a nuclear power plant. Personally, I believe that an EMP attack from a rogue nation such as Iran or North Korea or even a terrorist organization is perhaps the most serious security threat that we face as a nation today.

As many readers may know, nuclear power provides about 20% of the electricity generated in the United States. It is an important component of our energy mix, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and although some people are concerned about what to eventually do with nuclear waste, nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases and are generally quite benign. [I would rather live next to a nuclear power plant than say a chemical plant. How may people recall the incident in Bhopal, India? Over 6,000 people died or were maimed in that tragedy. No member of the public has ever been killed (or even injured) by a commercial nuclear power plant in this country.]

Many readers (if they are old enough) will remember both the Three Mile Island incident (where a Babcock and Wilcox reactor actually partially melted its core) as well as the Chernobyl accident, where an explosion damaged the core of a Soviet-era RMBK graphite-moderated reactor and spread radioactive fission products over a large portion of Europe. We in the nuclear power industry have been saying for years that a Chernobyl-type accident could never happen in the USA. All of the commercial reactors in the USA have concrete and steel containment structures that would prevent (or at least greatly reduce) any release of radioactive fission products to the public. The reactors at Chernobyl had no such containment structure, and the explosion literally blew the roof off of the reactor building.

As a nuclear engineer who has worked in the industry for nearly 30 years, I have agreed with this premise – that all of the US commercial reactors are very safe. Under normal circumstances, I still believe this. However, as I have been studying the effects of EMP for the last several years, my concerns have grown.

I have recently been in contact with a member of the intelligence community who is highly knowledgeable in the area of EMP. I have communicated my fears regarding the effects that an EMP attack might have on nuclear power plants, and this person has confirmed (through independent sources) that my concerns are well founded. I have also gotten concurrence from eight other engineers of various disciplines at my power plant (such as transient analyses, simulator, reactor engineering, a Shift Technical Adviser and nuclear analyses) that the scenario that I describe here is accurate.

Nuclear power plants are not isolated electrically. They are tied into the power grid and are also dependent upon it. There is a postulated accident for nuclear power stations called “Station Blackout,” where all off-site power is lost. Every nuclear power plant must prove to the NRC that they have the ability to withstand this event without core damage. Every US nuclear power plant has emergency diesel generators just for this purpose. These are designed to start automatically in the event of the loss of off-site power. This kind of event has actually happened before in the USA, and the systems responded as designed, and off-site power was restored within a reasonable period of time.

However, in the event of an EMP attack, the grid will come down, and it may not come up for many months, if not years. It is likely that a substantial number of transformers that are used to link power plants (and this applies to all power plants – coal, gas, oil and nuclear) to the grid will be “fried.” There will be no way to obtain off-site power to restart the nuclear power plants. Most station blackout events are assumed to be concluded (i.e., “over”) within 24 hours. No one that I know of has seriously analyzed the effects of prolonged station blackouts.

Assuming that the emergency diesel generators will start after an EMP event (and this is up for debate), most power plants only have enough diesel fuel on site to keep them running for about one week (though some may have up to 30 days of fuel). If they don't start, or if the controls systems do not operate, then everything that I describe here will still come to pass, only much more rapidly. The power from the diesel generators is needed to operate the pumps that circulate the water in the reactor (called the “primary side”) and that also feed the steam generators with water (part of the “secondary side”). If power to the reactor coolant pumps in the primary side is lost, the reactor will likely begin what is known as “natural circulation.” However, in order to remove heat from the reactor core, water still needs to be continuously pumped through the steam generators so that the heated water in the secondary side can be cooled either via cooling towers, spray ponds or some other ultimate heat sink. If these secondary side (feed water) pumps will not operate, then the steam generators will dry out and then the cooling effect for the core is lost. (A steam generator is just a very large heat exchanger. Think of the steam generator as the “radiator” in your car. If your water pump goes out, water will not be able to flow through the radiator, and your car will overheat.) The result is that the reactor core will heat up, pressure will build to the point that the reactor coolant system (RCS) will not be able to withstand the pressure. Special spring-loaded valves will automatically lift and vent steam to the containment building to reduce the pressure in the primary system. Loss of pressure control will occur eventually, the coolant inventory in the RCS will drop to the point that the core becomes uncovered. Charging pumps normally would pump additional water into the primary system, but without power, these will not be available. Essentially, this event is similar to what is known as a Loss of Cooling Accident (LOCA). Again, all power plants are designed to “survive” this type of accident with minimal fuel damage. However, that assumption is based on having power available to operate the safety systems, including the High Pressure and Low Pressure Safety Injection (HPSI and LPSI) pumps to pump additional water into the primary system. There are other emergency systems, such as Safety Injection Tanks (SIT), which are passive and will inject water into the core when the pressure is reduced enough such that the SIT tank pressure is greater than the RCS pressure and then the check valves will open automatically. [It should be pointed out here that there are also steam-driven auxiliary pumps that will still function for a while to run the auxiliary feed water system to feed additional water into the steam generators (until there is no water left in the secondary system to turn into steam).]

The HPSI and LPSI pumps are designed to ensure that the core remains covered (as much as possible) by injecting water into the core so that the core can still be cooled. If these pumps are not working due to lack of electrical power, then no additional water is being injected into the core. When the water level in the reactor drops below the top level of the fuel, the core will begin to melt. This is what happened at Three Mile Island. However, the containment structure prevented large releases of radioactive fission products to the public.

You might ask, “well, if the containment structure can contain the melted reactor core, is there a real danger to the public?” The answer is, “yes,” but not from where you think. The reactor core may well be the focus of most people, but the real concern is somewhere else.

What many people don't know about nuclear power plants is that when spent fuel is off-loaded from the reactor core, the fuel is then placed into what is essentially a large, very deep swimming pool called the “spent fuel pool.” Fuel that has been removed from an operating reactor core is still very hot (both in the sense of temperature and radiation level). In fact, if you were to stand within even 50 feet of a spent fuel assembly with no shielding, you would receive a lethal dose of radiation in just seconds. The water in the spent fuel pool, in addition to cooling the fuel assemblies, acts as a biological shield. In fact, water is an excellent shielding material. You can stand at the top of the spent fuel pool in virtually any nuclear power plant in the US and receive virtually no dose of radiation, so long as the fuel assemblies are covered by about 25 feet of water.

The building that houses the spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants in this country is usually a simple building, with concrete sides and floors but usually with nothing but a thin, corrugated steel roof. This is the root of the problem. Just like the fuel in the reactor, the fuel assemblies in the spent fuel in pool must also be cooled. These pools have their own independent, multiply redundant systems for cooling, separate from the systems that cool the reactor core. However, these pool cooling systems can be cross-tied with the reactor cooling systems in an emergency. The water in the spent fuel pool must be continuously circulated through heat exchangers (again, like your car radiator) to reject heat. Loss of off-site power will also cause a loss of spent fuel cooling. Normally, the temperature in these spent fuel pools is somewhere around 100 to 110 degrees F or so (similar to a typical suburban “hot tub”). When the spent fuel cooling system pumps stop operating, the fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool will immediately begin to heat up. These fuel assemblies will continue to heat the water in the spent fuel pool until it boils. The best case scenario of “time to boil” for these spent fuel pools is perhaps 90 hours. The worst case, such as just after a core offload, would be much shorter, perhaps as little as four hours or even less. At that point, once the fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool become uncovered because the water has boiled off, the effects mirror what would happen in the reactor core. The spent fuel assemblies will heat up until the fuel cladding starts to melt. As bits of the melting fuel fall into what is left of the water in the pool, the process will just accelerate as the heat source is now more concentrated since it has fallen back into the water and the water may flash to steam and this may cause the pressure in the building to increase, and radioactive steam, carrying radioactive particles, will now begin to exit the building through the non-sealed penetrations, portals or doors in the building.

Of course, there are usually multiple sources of water than can be called upon to re-fill the spent fuel pool before the water all boils off. But virtually all of these systems are dependent upon working, electrically operated pumps to move this water. If control systems have failed due to the EMP and there is no power to operate the pumps (either to add additional water or to pump water through the heat exchangers), then the fuel will ultimately become uncovered. Exposing the hot zirconium fuel cladding to air and steam causes an exothermic reaction, and the cladding will actually catch fire at about 1,000 degrees C. Even the NRC concedes that this type of fire cannot be extinguished, and could rage for days (Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 58, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 2002).

The bottom-line is that if the spent fuel cooling pumps cannot be operated or the system cannot be cross-tied with the reactor shutdown cooling system, then the fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool will melt, catch fire, and radioactive fission products will be released into the atmosphere and much of the countryside downwind of the nuclear power plant will be contaminated for many years. Thus, an EMP attack has the potential to cause a Chernobyl type accident at every nuclear power plant in the country!

There are a lot of “ifs” to this scenario. IF there is an EMP attack or solar event. IF the emergency diesel generators will function (or not) and IF the spent fuel pooling system can get power from the diesels or be cross-tied to the shutdown cooling system. Perhaps the emergency diesel generators will still function, but what happens when they run out of fuel? In the event of an EMP attack, can tanker trucks with diesel fuel get to all of the nuclear power plants in the US in time to re-fuel them before they stop running? Will tanker trucks even be running themselves?

I think it also bears noting that the volume of fuel in the spent fuel pools is many times greater than that in the reactor cores. Most nuclear power plants have 10 to 20 years or more of spent fuel stored in their spent fuel pools. Therefore, the consequences of a spent fuel pool melting down and subsequently spewing radioactive fission products into the air is potentially worse than if just the reactor core were to melt and its fission products releases into the air. Assuming all of the spent fuel in the pool melts, catches fire and the radioactive isotopes are released into the atmosphere, lethal dose rates may be accumulated even 5 to 10 miles from the plant site (>500 REM), with dose approaching 50 REM even out as far as 50 miles. Since Cesium-137 would be the largest released isotope in terms of curies (which the body preferentially uptakes over potassium), it will be about 300 years before the area might be habitable again. This is because Cesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years, and the “rule of thumb” is that you need to wait ten half-lives before the isotope has decayed away to a negligible level. (Results for dose were calculated for a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent fuel pool using the RASCAL radiation dose code from Oak Ridge National Laboratory assuming 100% release over two days, winter conditions, calm winds at 4 mph.)

I urge anyone living within 50 miles downwind of a nuclear power plant to be prepared to bug out in the event of an EMP attack. You will likely have a few days to pack and leave, but no more than a few. If the reactor near you has just refueled, and the emergency diesels do not start, you may have less than one day (since the heat load in the spent fuel pool immediately after a refueling is much greater than normal, and boiling will occur much faster). Many people have already expressed here the importance of having a G.O.O.D. bag and a plan to leave their current location if required. However, many people may need to evacuate on foot or by bicycle if the EMP attack renders their vehicles useless. I think this puts added emphasis on having a G.O.O.D. vehicle that is not reliant on computers or complex electronics.

For those of you who commute long distances to work I would also suggest that you have and maintain a G.O.O.D. mini-bag. (Nutnfancy on YouTube has produced an excellent series of videos on this – he has called it an “Urban Survival Kit” or “USK”). If your primary commute vehicle fails due to an EMP (or if your train or bus fails to function) while you are at work, then you may have a long walk home. It is wise to have pre-positioned (if you are able), a bag or backpack which contains items that may help you to get home more comfortably and safely.

I will cover what is in my mini-bag that I have pre-staged in the event that an EMP happens while I am at work at my power plant. (I would need to walk more than 30 miles to get home) in another letter. But I certainly hope that I never have to use it! - B.Z.     

JWR Adds: At a minimum, in addition for G.O.O.D. and "get me home" kits, I recommend stocking up on potassium iodate pills, for thyroid protection, in the event of a nuclear accident. These are available from several SurvivalBlog advertisers. In some locales, they are made available free of charge to down-wind residents.

Good Morning Mr. Rawles,
Last year my former boss--with whom we used to have a Bible study--and who is a former Marine, called me up on a Saturday morning, and inquired about a firearm that I would recommend for a semiautomatic sidearm that he and his wife would be able and to shoot comfortably. Without knowing much about what he had in mind, I told him about the top companies, and that a 9mm would be sufficient for his wife, as long as they used +P or +P+ defensive hollow-points with a heavy bullet weight, and if even this was too stout for his wife you can always get a heavier recoil spring for those loads. There is no magic bullet for handgun ballistics, none are moving fast enough to create hydrostatic shock, and a 9mm in the head or center-mass is better than .40 S&W, 10mm, or .45 ACP in the shoulder or arm. He then proceeded to tell me about "Patriots" and gave me the run down.

I was away from home at the time but I purchased the book when I got back. My wife read it, and we purchased three copies and have passed them on to friends and family to plant the preparedness seed. Due to a limited budget, we have not been able to move to a rural area yet; however we are currently planning to move after my wife finishes out this semester. After being laid off this summer, she went back to school for web design so she could work from home, wherever we live. Amongst all of our current planning and preparations, my wife and I found out that we are pregnant with our first child. This adds a unique dimension to how we think about preparedness now. (Seriously understated.)

We began prepping with a three-tiered system: Alpha - essentials, may have to be carried to our family’s place in the mountains on foot. Bravo - things to G.O.O.D. with in our small SUV, such as tools, spare gas, weapons and ammo cans, and our current “hurricane kit” full of canned goods, medical supplies, and water. Charlie- If we have any room left in vehicle, non-essentials such as books. I have a nice set of the classics I want my kids to read someday.

If TEOTWAWKI were to happen tomorrow, we could no longer bug out on foot. In addition to being nauseated, my wife is fatigued and takes long naps in the afternoon. Food and rest is key for her right now due to the nature of the many things that are growing. She is also very hormonal and I don’t think she could cope with the stresses of combat or fatigue. She cries during commercials now too instead of just the cheesy love story.

We keep our G.O.O.D. bags ready on top of kit in master closet. I don’t know if she could fit into any of her cammies, or body armor--God forbid she took a round to the chest--the blunt force trauma would kill the baby] and I am wondering what we are going to do during the last trimester when it won’t fit at all. Hopefully we will be moved to our mountain home in January (she’s due in April). Then she won’t have to bug out to anywhere (far) and her duties would be concentrated in a LP/OP capacity and not in the field.

If we were not able to “bug out at the eleventh hour” and get the jump on the golden horde, I am sadly looking at what we would have to do to dig in. It certainly would not be ideal, but I am looking at all options. We have friends who could eventually make it to our place, but I would never be comfortable in the small condo we occupy. We would have to go somewhere. We have a state park a few miles away, that I believe we could melt into with a small group of us for security, and it is passable on foot from the condo to there. It would be like a permanent camp-out.

My former boss who told me about "Patriots" lives on the far side of this state park with animals and a little land. In order to thrive in a TEOTWAWKI scenario he would need a good group of workers and guys who are familiar with security, weapons, and field medicine, just to keep what he’s got. You cannot secure a retreat with 3-5 people. We would bring our own supplies and hunt the plentiful game I have seen in this state park. As an aside it personally offends me when I speak to people- friends or even family, who insist that if the SHTF they will “come to my house”. A friend and I were joking that A). I probably won’t be there, B.) if you haven’t prepared you aren’t leeching off of me, and C.) I might shoot you and take whatever you have in your pockets. I would never assume that I could go to anyone’s house without my own supplies and invitation to stay.

A third option is to survive until after the baby is born if we are still here in this state, and then hump it out to family in the mountains. This seems the most dangerous and you always have to factor in Admiral Murphy. (Of Murphy's Law.) He will throw multiple monkey wrenches into your plans. I cannot imagine keeping an infant quiet is easy, but somehow the Indians did it. Even using small unit tactics in a ‘V’ formation with wives at a good interval behind us, stray rounds will still kill. This is not an option I would be looking forward to at all.

The conclusions I am approaching are to be Semper Gumby ("Always flexible"). Adapt to any situation- even a hormonal, pregnant wife. Use my head, the solution is usually there, I just have to have the presence of mind to see it. Plan for a worst-case scenario and I will never be caught with my pants down. It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Last but certainly not least is prayer. Praying a lot is no substitute for good planning and due diligence; but without it, you will not be in constant communication with the real Commander in Chief, and thus will not be as effective as you can possibly be. By the way, I loved the movie Gods & Generals as it portrays General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson as a superb commander and pious man, who also loved his wife well. - “Jeremiah Johnson” in Florida

Reader B.B. recommended this piece at Washington's blog: Government Economic Leaders Surprised that Real World Isn't Responding to their Magic Pixie Dust

Dagong sounds the gong on U.S. debt; China's credit rater downgrades America's economic future. (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)

This piece by Maurizio d'Orlando ran in Asia News: This year, US public debt could reach end game.

Items from The Economatrix:

Service Sector Grows at Slower Pace in August

Watch Those Gas Pumps; Prices Expected to Fall

FDIC Holding Banking System By a Thread

Dizzy and Confused? Hunker Down!

Deflation Delusion Continues As Economies Trend Towards High Inflation

Reader Kimberly S. notes: "I noticed a dramatic increase in the cost of butter at Costco. Last summer the combination package of 4 one-pound boxes of butter was about $4.49. That was the lowest that I had ever seen butter at Costco. Today, the same 4 pound package was $8.99."

UN calls meeting on food price concerns

How Hyperinflationary Hell--And Commodity Heaven--Will Happen Before the End of 2011

Christchurch, New Zealand Mayor: Quake hit city 'like an iceberg'

   o o o

KAF flagged this item: Harnessing the Power of Gym Rats

   o o o

Bill N. found this great Analytical Survival video tutorial: Bug Out Vehicle - Re-Inventing the Car Trunk

   o o o

Ooh, ooh! I want one: The KamAZ Armored Car. (Not that I can afford to buy one, but it makes a nice daydream.) OBTW, I assume that these are built on one of the assembly lines at the sprawling Kama River truck plant--the product of some Yankee ingenuity from the Pullman-Swindell company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Pullman-Swindell was formerly a subsidiary of M.W. Kellogg Company, but after some more recent re-conglomeration, M.W. Kellogg is now a subsidiary of KBR.)

"Candles. I have a thing for candles anyway - so I love them. My theory is 'buy them cheap, stack them deep'." - Enola Gay, from her hands-on preparedness blog Livin' The Dream.

Today we present a guest article by John Durfee, of Airsplat.

You see the open field coming up, and the only way to access the bridge to cross the river is to also traverse the field. You've been following them for several miles now and certainly don't to reveal your position. You've trained extensively for this, and you decide to cross using the stalking crawl also known as the Sniper crawl. If you don', then you'll surely lose all the ground you have gained on them. You successfully make it to the other side, and much to your delight, they are resting on a fallen tree on the other side. You carefully bring your rifle to your side, load it and aim in their direction. With the utmost care, you release the safety, and use the scope to zero in on the main target. Crack! Crack! "Hit" You run in their direction, celebrating your victory, it's the last day of this adventure and you won!

What I've just described isn't the latest Hollywood action film: it's the sport of Airsoft, and while fun, can be a valuable tool in teaching real world skills for emergency preparedness and survival.

In the United States, Airsoft had only had a small following until the late 1990s. This was because the only Airsoft manufacturers were from Japan and Taiwan, and importing Airsoft guns on a small scale was expensive due to high initial prices and the need for specialized knowledge. In the past decade however, the sport has developed from a small niche in the sporting market to a very popular sport and tactical simulation tool. The recent robust and more affordable designs coming out of neighboring China, has made Airsoft widely accessible to the public. There are fields and stores nationwide that are helping to spread the excitement and knowledge of this fun and safe sport.

Airsoft is different from air rifles and pellet guns in that they use standardized 6mm plastic BBs that weigh far less than metal pellets or sabots, and are perfectly safe in a controlled play environment [with adequate eye protection].

There are an increasing number of Airsoft clubs and organizations that organize multiple day events that can be attended for a set fee. They're run on weekends, usually centered around military scenarios, and the core skills practiced there are valuable to real world preparedness. There are varying degrees of immersion, varying from "play and go back to the car for a snack" to full milsim, where one acts, functions, and performs like a real military force for the entire duration. These latter are great for testing out survival skills. You'll make camp and have to spend one or two nights in the wilderness. You can practice making your tent or sleeping area using local materials and tarp. You'll have to bring your own food and water. Since these games are full immersion, even when you're ready for bed you have to stay alert for surprises coming at a moment's notice. If there are local sources of water around, like a stream, you can put your portable water filtration devices to the test so you know its reliable when needed.

On a recent excursion, we arranged night watch shifts--nothing feels greater than being the only one awake in your unit, keeping an eye out for moving shadows. In the day you'll work with your group or squad and practice maneuvers such as stalking, advancing, assault, and defense. Make sure to ask the event planner if you can practice first aid on "injured" soldiers with faux sprained ankles, cuts, and broken bones using a real First Aid Kit. You're allowed to become familiarized with firearms and learn how to use them properly. Airsoft teaches proper weapon usage, maintenance, and safety precautions. Most Airsoft guns in the mid-range price look, feel, and function as close to the real steel guns as possible. Some Airsoft pistols even disassemble the same way as the real thing! Real firearms training is great for becoming accustomed to the physical feel of shooting a gun, but Airsoft simulation events teach valuable self-defense tactics.

The most important skills these events teach is mindset. You can put all your survival gear through real world paces, know what works, and take out what doesn't. Working in a team, you're depended upon and you depend on them. Trust is crucial to any kind of worst-case world scenario. You have to be constantly aware of your surroundings, and learn to distinguish between friend and foe. You'll hone your aiming and marksmanship skills on real targets who will react and move. You'll train yourself how to respond - rather than merely react to surprises and potential threats. And if you're "killed" you can learn from your mistakes, and do better next time.

There are also indoor and outdoor fields that have an open entry policy, you can play for a few hours, and go home. One can definitely learn survival combat methods there. But I've found that extended outdoor events test and teach the widest range of abilities and skills related to preparedness.

Try web searching the term 'Airsoft' and the name of your state, you'll find forums where people get together and arrange outings. Airsplat has a web page with a comprehensive listing of training fields across the US.

About the author: John Durfee is a Gulf War veteran and works for Airsplat, the nation's largest retailer of Airsoft Guns and apparel.

JWR Adds: As I've mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, Airsoft and paintball are fine for learning some aspects of camouflage and small team tactics. The fatal flaws of both, however, are that:

1.) Since paint balls and Airsoft pellets have hardly any penetration beyond five yards, players start to subconsciously equate concealment with cover.
2.) Because Airsoft pellets and paint balls only have limited range, people start to subconsciously think of anything beyond that range as "safely out of range" (for maneuver in the open.)

If you can regularly remind yourself about those shortcomings and adjust your training regimen accordingly, then you'll find that they provide somewhat worthwhile training. But it is essential that you integrate high velocity ballistic realism. This means declaring anyone that blatantly stands up in the open at 50+ yards "dead meat." Ditto for anyone that mistakenly takes "cover" behind bushes. I've said it before and I'll say it again: concealment is not cover!

Jim:
Today, I'm writing about Purslane, also known by farm folk as "Pigweed", (because pigs just love it). It's one of the earlier wild herbs, (wild edible) found in springtime , but thrives throughout early and mid-summer. By most people, It's considered a nuisance weed that pops up everywhere in late spring. It grows well in disturbed soils, and can be found mostly in old garden plots, meadows fields and along trails, stone walls and fence rows.

It's a small inconspicuous looking weed [see photos] that grows to about 6 inches to a foot tall, sometimes lying down to assume a creeping ivy like plant. It's dark green, wedge shaped leaves are thick and succulent as they are rich in juice and nutrition high in Vitamin C. The entire plant, (including the stems and roots) can be used as an wild edible and as a medicinal plant. Tasting tangy with a slight sour taste similar to sorrel, (often mixed with Sorrel as a pot herb to make the French Sorrel Soup call Bonne Femme). Purslane can be used raw in salads or just to chew on right out of the garden or trail. Purslane can also be cooked and use as you would spinach.

Medicinally this little gem has the ability to pull 'Heat' from the body. On a hot day blend some fresh picked Purslane, stems and all, with a stalk of celery and an apple in a juicer for a very refreshing and highly nutritious drink to allay thirst quicker than lemonade. Just a purslane leaf crushed or bruised and placed under your tongue can relieve thirst while hiking or working in the garden or yard. During bouts of heat exhaustion a poultice of macerated leaves and stems placed over the eyes and temples will pull heat out of the body making recovery quicker.

As long as you have your juicer out, by making a juice of Purslane and strawberries, (even wild Strawberries) and used as a mouthwash and or gargle that reputedly will help fasten loose teeth. Use and swish briskly in the mouth then carefully spit, trying not to dislodge the loose tooth further. A few application will help 'Set' the loose tooth.

Purslane, including leaves, stems and roots when cooked down and strained through a sieve or collander, then adding honey to the liquid or sugar to make a simple syrup to taste, can be used as a very effective cough syrup. Native American have used Purslane for dry non-productive coughs.?

Keep an eye out for this little inconspicuous and little known wild weed as it's healthful value is little appreciated now. - TinMan, Editor of the Belfire Botanicals Blog

Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.6%. That is the official figure from the BLS. But the really telling number is for under-employment. That is buried down in line U-6 in Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization. And again, that is the official figure. A 2004 article suggested that the real world numbers are probably substantially higher. (Somehow I doubt that this under-reporting has been rectified.)

120 Days to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in History.

Items from The Economatrix:

Global Collapse of the Fiat Money System: Too-Big-To-Fail Global Banks Will Collapse Between Now and First Quarter 2011

Complete List of Bank Failures

Where The Banks are Failing

Investors Bracing for Dreaded "September Effect"

Pearl wrote me to mention: "We homeschool and therefore I stock up on supplies when they go on clearance after public school children have started. I still have boxes of Papermate pens left over but couldn't resist picking up a couple packages when I noticed they were on sale. When I got home I compared the clearance tags... Last year, I purchased boxes of 12 Papermate pens for $.35. This was 30% off the original price of $.50. This year, I purchased packages of 10 Papermate pens (no box) for $.70. These were also 30% off the original price of $1.00. Twice as much for fewer pens."

My cousin sent this: The Incredible Shrinking Package.

Patrick N. noted: "We are a family of ten, and long ago got in the habit of buying the "bulk" package of most everything. Many people buy the bigger boxes ostensibly "to save money." However, we have been noticing a price shift - making the smaller sizes cheaper per unit. Be sure to check the "cost per pound [or other unit]" info on the shelf [or calculate it yourself] because bigger is not always cheaper."

Rourke recommended the Patriot Nurse video blog. Rourke says: "She has done many videos on several survival topics. Check this one out in particular.

   o o o

"Your Agonizer please, Mister Kyle.": Inmate-frying microwave pain blaster turret installed in US jail. This news really bothers me on several levels. To start: This isn't at a prison. It is a County Jail, where I assume a good portion of the population is awaiting trial, and presumed innocent. This sounds like "cruel or unusual punishment", to me.

   o o o

I spotted this over at TSLRF: Talk about adrenaline powered feats of strength! Real American Heroes #1. Unless he went back to make separate carries, that's at least a 250 pound load, carried under heavy small arms fire. Staff Sgt. Jarrett D. Brown has a standing invitation to come hunt or fish at the Rawles Ranch, whenever he'd like!

   o o o

Cyber-squatting reaches a new low. Reader Roger S. mentioned jameswesleyrawles.com. Apparently, part of the Epik company's business model is to take the name of anyone notable enough to have a Wikipedia biography, "scrape" the biography content from Wikipedia, and automagically add a few video clips from YouTube. They then try to sell the domain name to its rightful owner, or even auction them, presumably to even more ambitious cyber squatters. (The "Greater Fool Theory" is alive and well.) Sorry, but I'm not buying it. I certainly don't want to encourage them. Some of these domain names sell for for big bucks. For example, the domain "howardstern.info" recently sold at auction for $15,000. These bottom feeders even have a convention planned, where they will schmooze and scheme more money, selling "developed domains." (With similar scraped content.) The only good news is that there will soon be huge number of new Top Level Domains. The ".co" domain just opened up, and ".blog" is planned. Within a couple of years, there will be ".inc" , ".movie" , ".film" ".radio", ".store", ".shop", ".book", ".news", ".poll", ".travel", and so forth. With this profusion of new domain naming options, the cyber-squatters will soon be overwhelmed, and lose their traction. OBTW, don't get me started about how Facebook hijacks people's names, without their consent. I loathe Facebook! Oh, and likewise don't get me started about the so-called "publishers" that are leeching Wikipedia biographies into books.

   o o o

M.&W. suggested: Watermelons: What happened to the seeds?

"The preparation which Hezekiah prudently made against this storm that threatened him: He took counsel with his princes what he should do, what measures he should take, v. 3. With their advice he provided, 1. That the country should give him a cold reception, for he took care that he should find no water in it (and then his army must perish for thirst), or at least that there should be a scarcity of water, by which his army would be weakened and unfitted for service. A powerful army, if it want water but a few days, will be but a heap of dry dust. All hands were set immediately to work to stop up the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, turning that (it is probable) into the city by pipes under-ground. Such as this is the policy commonly practised now-a-days of destroying the forage before an invading army. 2. That the city should give him a warm reception. In order to this he repaired the wall, raised towers, and made darts (or, as it is in the margin, swords or weapons) and shields in abundance (v. 5), and appointed captains, v. 6. Note, Those that trust God with their safety must yet use proper means for their safety, otherwise they tempt him, and do not trust him. God will provide, but so must we also." - Mathew Henry, Commentary on 2 Chronicles 32, from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. (Emphasis added.)

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The biggest reason most of the folks we come across in our daily lives have no idea what is coming (the basic collapse of the American infrastructure) is the fact that they are “still sleeping.”  The iPods, Lady Gaga, American Idol, and You Tube silliness all work well to keep the masses sleeping.  This might be a good thing, in a way.  If nothing else, it buys the rest of us time to continue to prepare.  And if enough people do wake up, it will actually accelerate the inevitable.  But that is okay, since it is going to happen anyway.  And perhaps more people will survive to rebuild our nation.      

I personally believe it is too late to turn this sinking ship around.  The Euro will crash literally any day.  The Dollar and Yen will fall right behind it.  The best we can hope for is that the crash and subsequent reset won’t last too long.  I think at least one generation, maybe two, will really be in the hurt locker.  I believe the current administration wants a partial crash so they can more fully seize power and instill their way of life. 

But I think they underestimate how bad the collapse will be.  Even if they thought of calling Chinese Troops to quell rioting, the rest of the world (probably China, too) will have there hands full. 

I still find myself reeling (mentally) when I contemplate the probable loss of life that will occur in such a scenario.  I’ve been trying to plant seeds with folks I come in contact with.  But it seems to have little effect.  But I am also careful not to sound like a right-wing nut job.  Not because I care what people think about me, but I don’t want to make myself a target. 

It is my hope that those of us who survive will keep some historical records, so when the country (world?) rebuilds it can be on a more mature, more stable foundation.  I have hundreds of hours of lectures on CD about world history, religion and philosophy that I acquired from a company called “The Teaching Company”  And while I am not an overly religious man (I’m nearly an atheist but enjoy Buddhist-style meditation, my wife is a Christian.) I do see the positive aspects of Christianity on a society.  Or, as is the case these days, the negative effects of its absence. 

But my point of today’s piece is how I became awake of the dangers coming our way.  In the process of talking about that, I will point out why I think most people remain asleep.  It’s worth noting that radio and TV personality Glenn Beck is a great source of information.  It seems he knows what is going on.  And I wish to point out, I developed my opinions about the world before I had even heard of Glenn Beck.  Once I woke up, I began searching the AM  radio dial to see if anyone was talking about this sort of stuff.    

My life has been an interesting one.  Heck, I could (and hope to) write a book about it.  But I’ll try to keep the background info brief.  My biological father abandoned our family of five when I was seven (and the oldest of the kids).  I started cutting grass and washing cars at 8 years old.  I’m sure I wasn’t very good, but I made lots of “pity” money.  And it helped install a good work ethic.  I was also a scared kid who turned to drugs and alcohol to try and quiet my mind at a young age.  By 28 years of age, I was a washed-out bum who couldn’t get (or hold) a job.

So I cleaned up my act, and by 41 years of age had mortgages on four properties in Southern California.  One being a beachfront condo, the other being a cabin in the mountains (Yes a “cabin in the mountains”.  But don’t get ahead of the story.).

All was going well, not a cloud on the horizon.  Aside from the two above-mentioned properties, our other two properties were preschools.  Our flagship operation had been full, with a waiting list, since 1978.  I was dabbling in Restaurant Consulting and Real Estate.  We rent out our beach condo weekly to folks who want to vacation on the beach in Southern California. 

As a part-time Realtor, I knew the housing bubble was going to pop.  But hey, I was not going to be selling anything for 15 to 20 years, so I wasn’t worried.  I had no idea of the world-wide consequences the bubble bursting would have. 

Then September of 2008 came along.  My previously full school was now 20 children under-enrolled.  At an average of $800 per month, per child, I was losing $16,000 a month!  Needless to say, we tanked badly.  We just barely stayed afloat. 

Now believe it or not, this didn’t wake me up!  I still had no idea of the world I really lived in.  My view of Washington and Sacramento had always been this – “Oh, they are all crooks.  As long as they leave me alone and let me make a living, what do I care?” 

But now that my life had fallen apart (financially speaking), I found myself searching for answers.  I couldn’t understand how I had been so blind-sided.  How did I not see the collapse and recession coming?  What else didn’t I know?  It was really this exact sort of fear and worry that had led me to drugs and alcohol when I was 13 years old.  Obviously that wasn’t an option now, but still I had to figure it out. 

In August of 2009, my wife and I needed a break (A few years back we had been going on two cruises a year.  My how times change.  At least I can say I saw a lot of the Northern Hemisphere, Hawaii and some of the Caribbean.)  So we took a week to drive through the beautiful state of Nevada. 

Well, the night before the trip I had been reading an article about the [then] upcoming movie 2012 with John Cusack.  The article was about “survival nuts” in Montana and Texas and their radiation suits and all the other survivalist stuff.  At the time, I thought of them (now me) as fringe nut-jobs.  But one sentence caught my attention.  It was a fellow in Texas who was telling the interviewer how he was stashing gold and silver to barter with “when the economy collapsed.” 

Since my own “economy” had collapsed 14 months before, I knew all about that. 

So as my wife and I hit the road, over our Starbucks Coffees I said, “So honey, if the U.S. and/ or world economies collapsed, what would we do?”  She didn’t answer for a long minute, maybe two.  Then she said, “Well, we’d just go to the cabin.”  To which I answered, “Yeah, then what?” 

For the rest of our week driving through the beautiful, but desolate and remote state of Nevada we began to talk-out all of the things we would need to live a life even remotely like the one we live now. 

Fast forward to now.  We are nearly set.  We’ve spent $2,000 or so on canned goods at Costco.  Our deep-freezer is full of meats I’ve gotten on sale.  At my current residence I have 20 gallons of frozen citrus juice from my orchard ready for bugging out.  We have vitamins for 12 people to last a year.  We have enough non-hybrid seeds to plant four acres.  We’ve had solar power installed at the cabin.  We even have a couple of portable solar generators.  Since I am not handy, I’ve gotten a carpenter and an electrician to join my tribe.  I also have a friend who hunted a lot in his youth.  He provided all the “lead rations” and “high-speed delivery systems” that we’ll need.  We are still a little light on medical / first-aid stuff.  But I’m working on that.  And we did all of our prep a little at a time, on a shoestring budget.  The solar was the only thing I had to max out the credit cards for.  Unfortunately I couldn’t afford gold, but I found a coin shop that sells silver at a buck over spot, so I’ve gotten 200 ounces of that.  I also have about 10 gallons of cheap store-brand liquor that I have bottled in little pint-size water bottles for bartering.    

But none of that could have happened if I had not “woken up”.  I hope this article might wake up someone who hasn’t had the rug pulled out from under them yet.  Because those are the people who are still sleeping.  And the main-steam media isn’t going to wake anyone up.  The current administration certainly isn’t going to do it.  In fact, they need us to stay asleep. 

Now, you might be saying, “But Lew, I don’t have a mountain cabin to flee to.”  Most don’t, so you’re not alone.  I would recommend getting some canned food, bottled water, and some firearms for defense.  Look at how you can best fortify wherever it is that you call home.  Gently “feel out” your neighbors to see where there heads are at.  A small, tight community of a few houses will fair better than trying to go it alone. 

In closing, I hope I have at least caused someone to “wake up” to the dangers that surround our current Western Society.  And don’t just take my word for it.  Do your own research.  The web is full of info on this subject.  I like SurvivalBlog.com and OffTheGridNews. Take care, and good luck to you.  Thanks, - Lew B.            

May I recommend the article titled The Correlation Curse by Howard Hill? Mr. Hill explains in very simple terms why, during a meltdown itself, it is critical to not be in debt. His thesis is simple - during a collapse, the primary asset at the center of the collapse simply cannot be sold so people begin selling everything else to cover their debts. This includes gold, silver and precious metals and is precisely why precious metals will ultimately fall when the final collapse comes. Now the good point is that precious metals will rapidly regain their value on the other side of that crash so you are only in trouble if you must sell gold or silver during the downturn. And you only have to sell if you are in debt and need to cover those debts. Hence the reasoning becomes clear - get out of debt!

I highly recommend Mr. Hill's article as a brief explanation of why prices of everything fall when a deflationary collapse ultimately hits. Note that you can still have a hyperinflationary blowoff after a deflationary collapse and in fact might have that if the politicians panic in their typical fashion. The key, though, is not being forced to sell to cover debts when everything is falling in price. Afterward is when you see the real value of your precious metals so it is vital to hold them through the collapse.

Thanks for a great blog! - David R.

G.G. sent this from Forbes: Bernanke Out Of Bullets But Not Bombs: Federal Reserve's ability to buy assets and spark inflation is unlimited.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports: Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for 'global collapse'

G.G. mentioned this guest article posted over at Zero Hedge: A Termite-Riddled House: Treasury Bonds

Buried down in the fine print of the New York Times we read that the FDIC is $15.2 billion in the hole. But gee, who's counting, and who cares, when Uncle Sugar can create unlimited money out of thin air?

The Daily Bell asks: Bank Run 2011? (Thanks to Shawn S. for the link.)

Bank run in Afghanistan: Karzai urges Afghans not to panic as bank withdrawals accelerate

Items from The Economatrix:

The US Economy is Not Getting "Better" -- It's Dying!

Gold Rallying to $1,500 as Soros' Bubble Inflates

Stock Investors Brace for Another Ugly September

Cash-poor Local Governments Ditching Public Hospitals

FDIC's At-Risk Bank List Grows

It's Impossible to "Get By" in the US.

How Hyperinflation Will Happen

The Federal Reserve reported that the M2 Money Supply expanded 5.3% in just three months from April 2010 to July 2010. And the M3? Who knows. They stopped compiling that data 2006, after it had become too embarrassing.

Meat price surge fuels fears of food inflation

News from Bangladesh: Food prices push inflation up again

"I think people are beginning to realize that this downturn in the economy has just begun. We are about three years into what will turn out to be a 20 year crisis, with no guarantee what survives. But something will survive, and a new day will dawn on this planet." - From discussion forum post by The Unrepentant Cowboy (posted at Collapsenet)

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Many times I’ve read on these pages the prognostications of my fellow preppers as to the current direction and ultimate destination of our nation, government and way of life. Of these possible outcomes one of the most common themes that crisscross the apocalyptic visions of the future is the grid-down situation. The author’s often refer to the mid 1800s as a reference point to orient the reader to the reality of what life would be like without the precious electrical current that so directly (and alternately) influences our everyday life. Today we can read about the lives of people living then but wouldn’t it be convenient to hop in a time machine and travel back to the 1800s and interview them about what their lives were really like. Alas, time machines do not exist but a very good alternative does.

Five years ago while searching for a part time job I found a position that seemed to fit me perfectly. I’d be teaching history, one of my favorite subjects, in an hands on environment. The only requirement was that I actually had to wear replica clothes from the 1840 time period. A living history museum, in need of an interpreter had hired me on. The term “interpreter” is actually very accurate because, though I spoke English, I was interpreting a time period and a culture that was so radically different that most people simply could not grasp the way the people of that time lived, worked and thought without a specially trained person “interpreting” the culture. It was in this context that I began to realize the skills, information and historical wisdom that living history museums contained.

If you want to know what life was like before electricity then go to a living history museum and see it with your own eyes. At the museum where I work there is a working farm with heritage breed animals. The farmers plow with oxen which they have trained from birth. In the fields they grow grains that are harvested, threshed and winnowed by hand and with 1840s style tools. Hops are cultivated by hand, an important cash crop for our region of central New York during the time period. These skills are, for all practical purposes, extinct in our modern world.

In the small farm house the ladies of the farm cook every day over an open fire with recipes from the mid 1800s. They preserve their own meat by heavily salting it and then smoking it for several weeks in a brick smoke house. This meat now desiccated and covered with black creosote, can be stored indefinitely in a cloth bag hanging from the wall. Another form of meat preservation is submerging the meat in salt water brine. Checked regularly to make sure the brine has the proper amount of salt, the meat will still be very usable the next year for the ladies to cook with. Having consumed the meals from the farm house many times I know that tastes were different in the 1800ss but the food is filling and certainly would fortify you for a day of farm labor.

Much has been written lately on this fine blog about herbal remedies for illness. The pharmacy at the museum is staffed with experts on herbs and their historical and modern day preparations and uses. At the museum that I work at a beautiful herb garden is there to put a “face to a name” for the herbs, so to speak.

Here is a short list of everyday things taught by local living history museums that you could find an application for in a grid-down scenario:

1. Blacksmithing - creating blades, nails, hinges, hammers, hooks etc.

2. Gardening - open pollinating plants that have historically done well in your area

3. Animal Husbandry/ Bee keeping

4. Cooking and Baking - how to create meals using a fireplace or bake bread in a brick oven

5. Rope making

6. Food preservation

7. Cloth creation - shearing sheep, spinning wool, weaving, sawing

8. Pottery

9. Wild edibles

10. Making shoes

Living history museums don’t pay a lot and thus draw employees that are retired or in need of a second job. These “interpreters” bring a lifetime of skills and knowledge to the table that can be almost impossible to find in modern day world. The vast majority of these good people are talkers too. If you arrive at the right time, with a smile and a question they will gladly bend your ear for an hour or more on some arcane topic like barrel construction or dying wool with walnut [husks]. Workshops are often available as well for those who would like more hands on experience with a topic that interests them. You could also seek employment at a local museum. The museum where I work is extremely flexible in its scheduling and I and my family can come and go at our leisure. Networking with other interpreters has provided me with a number of very valuable resources to increase my own self sufficiency.

A couple of hints for those of you who may be interested in mining living history museums for potential information and resources. At least in the northeast, July and August are tourist season. You will not have the undivided attention of the interpreter and other then general site seeing and the information you may garner from the signs hung around the village you will not walk away with very much in the way of useful information. The time to come to a museum in the northeast is after Labor Day to the end of October. The tourists are gone and the interesting work of harvest and preservation has begun. This is the time to visit and bring a note book. Interpreters will be glad to actually reach some depth in their conversation with you after two months of 60 second conversations with hot, impatient tourists.

Secondly, most museums offer a yearlong membership. These are generally much more economical then paying each time to get in. I can assure you that you’ll be back.

Living history museums are fascinating places with significant amounts of practical wisdom and skills. You won’t discover the key to surviving a nuclear holocaust or how to do small unit tactical training but make friends with the interpreters and query them for the skills, information and resources they possess and you’ll walk away better prepared to live in a world that no longer enjoys the security provided by basic utilities.

A good web site to start your search for a local living history museum is OutdoorHistory.org/

Oil Should Be Around $10 a Barrel: Analyst. here is a quote: "I honestly think that if there were no investors using oil as an asset that the price of oil right now would be $10 or $15 or $18, but
it wouldn't be anywhere near where it is," Beutel said.

Jeff Nelson opines at The Street: U.S. Government Prepares for 'Crisis'. (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)

The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions. Its all about maximizing tax revenue.

G.G. suggested this by Martin Hutchinson: Combining the Worst

A bellwether event? Harrisburg, Pennsylvania defaulting on its bonds. (Our thanks to Jason R. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Fed Officials Discussed Further Stimulus Steps

Americans' Economic Confidence Ticks Up Slightly

World Markets Fall Again on Economic Fears

Oil Falls Below $74 as Global Markets Slump

Manufacturing in US and Aboard Lifts Economy

US Auto Sales Turn Frail in August

July Unemployment Up in About Half of US Cities

US Auto Sales Turn Frail in August

US Markets Suffer Worst August in Almost a Decade

Mozambique Police Fire At Crowds Protesting Prices

The National Inflation Association reports: The U.S. Path to Collapse

Russian Panic Buying Fuels Food Price Speculation

Joshua H. sent a link to a nifty homemade hand crank flashlight, over at Instructables.

   o o o

In celebration of Labor Day, JRH Enterprises is offering full mil-spec AN/PVS-14 Gen 3+ night vision weapons sight monoculars at a special sale price. These are autogated and complete with soft case, head mount, head mount adapter, operators manual, batteries, lens paper, de-mist shield, sacrificial window, and ITT tube data record, et cetera. The price is just $2,895, which is less than most dealers charge for a standard Gen 3 scope. (As I mentioned before, these are the much more sought-after Gen 3+ variety.) This sale ends at midnight Sunday, so don't miss out!

   o o o

Cheryl N. forwarded a link to the Collapse theatrical trailer. I noticed that "Collapse" is available via NetFlix.

   o o o

An old discussion thread over at TMM Gulching and Self-Sufficiency Forum has been revived: When Your Family Thinks You're Crazy.

   o o o

No comment necessary: Obama Administration Reverses Course, Forbids Sale of 850,000 M1 Carbines and Rifles

"There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe." - Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Roman sent us to a web page with some "outside the box" thinking: How we turned an old backyard swimming pool into a self-sufficient garden in a desert city.

   o o o

Following her recent training with Louis Awerbuck, Tamara weighs in about Tacticool Mall Ninja fashion consciousness. And she's right. Looks don't kill. Well-aimed projectiles do.

   o o o

‘Don’t tread on me’ flags start disputes around the country. (Thanks to Judy T. for the link.)

   o o o

Pastor Chuck Baldwin (former Constitution Party presidential candidate) is wisely relocating his family from Florida to Montana.

James:

Being married to an accountant, former government financial inspector and a finance director for a company opened my eyes to the concept of getting a return for my investment. For large tangible items, that concept is important. Oh, I certainly could fill a wall with a 55 inch plasma television, but what do I get in return for that investment? A wannabe movie screen that has a limited lifespan and sucks a chunk of energy? Will it help my long term bottom line of being financially independent and ready? The idea of investing in tangibles in a serious downturn made sense to me, even as described in Mr. Rawles’ novel, "Patriots". By no means is our family wealthy or “super preppers,” but we believe in the need to be prepared for any major disaster or incident, whether natural or man-made. We wanted to not be a drain or liability on what will be a fragile infrastructure and be able to independently stand. While not religious, we believe in the need to be there to help our neighbors when possible. It is our moral obligation.

In 1998, my wife and I invested in our second house after our first was declared to be in the way of a future realignment of a state highway (that explained why we could not get natural gas piped to the house). I was developing into a neophyte “prepper” due to my active duty and National Guard service as well as being a cop and living in earthquake and volcano zone. As a result, my focus was shifting into a more sustainable type of house. We found a great house about a mile away on just over an acre of land, with a year round salmon stream in the back part of the property. Of course there were some drawbacks: it was much older and needed work, sat on a reasonably busy road and with the salmon bearing stream buffer rules enacted by the federals, we were space limited. But the positives were that is was close to my work, the house was solid, had copper piping throughout (we preferred copper to PVC or similar), a septic system, detached shop, natural gas throughout, “legacy” type 60-100 year old cedar and fir trees backed by a greenbelt and a real, working fireplace with a first generation Heat-a-lator type system big enough to heat the 1,500 square feet of house if the power should go out or there was a gas disruption. We re-invested the money received from the state buying our other house into the current one and were already into the positive equity side. We knew we would invest some sweat equity in fixing things so that dropped the house price even more. In our eyes, the return on our investment in this house (our largest tangible asset) was big. In fact, during the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001 in the greater Seattle area, our house survived with nothing more than items knocked off some shelves in the garage while newer homes in the area suffered wall and chimney damage. Very good for a house that was initially built in 1938!

As time progressed and we added children to our family unit, we began to discuss moving to a better location, one that had more room and further away from concentrated urban and suburban cores as well as meeting our growing preparedness mindset. However, all of that came to an abrupt halt in 2007. It was at that time that my youngest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease (as discussed several years ago on SurvivalBlog). I had to take a hard look at my dream of moving away and faced the reality that I would be looking at suburban preparedness. My wife and I discussed our options and realized that due to my daughter’s needs, our proximity to the local Children’s Hospital as well as various food vendors that catered to “Celiacs” weighed the greatest. We needed to stay where we were at and make the very best of the location. We began to look back at our largest investment and realized that it was time to invest some more in tangibles to improve the house now that we would be remaining.

My wife and I have been and continue to be blessed to be in what are essentially recession proof jobs. We also saved what we could, received a small inheritance and began to make our list. Over the last several years, we invested in big ticket house items that as little as six years ago, would have been nearly impossible to afford due to the “hot” economy and housing/remodeling market. I am not ashamed to state that we took advantage of hungry remodelers and contractors to get fair but reasonable prices on projects we weren’t able to tackle ourselves. We shopped dealer scratch and dent sales, Craigslist and other places to get new (but cosmetically damaged) appliances and fixtures. We upgraded the septic system to a gravity fed long life drain field and tank, allowing for our family to have a system that not only would meet our needs in the future but in a grid down situation, would function while the sewers failed (and could act as a privy with a portable outhouse that could sit on top of the tank). We replaced our decaying torch down roof with a sturdy metal roof while also improving the insulation in the ceiling while the surfaces were exposed. While the metal roof was nearly two-thirds more than a comparable torch down or commercial roll roof product, the return on that investment was a 40 year roof, fireproof to prevent possible roof fires and sturdy to prevent damage from the limbs of the trees surrounding our house. It met severe wind requirements due to the anchoring system.

Windows were replaced with new energy efficient designs that would work to better insulate and protect the house. We upgraded some of the electrical in our home, adding a connection point for a like new generator I received from a deceased family member. We learned through testing based upon ideas at SurvivalBlog and other sites that with the use of natural gas or propane in all of our major appliances as well as low energy lighting and energy efficient appliances, the 7,500 watt generator we had could easily power everything but the washer and dryer at the same time. All were immensely valuable tangibles that added to our return on the investment in our house.

My family and I continue to make some final investments in our house as well as our overall sustainability in nearly any situation save a nuclear strike directly over our house. But the idea of returns on our investments by investing and buying tangibles right now have made us more secure and in a much better preparedness position. With the mortgage payoff only a few years away, we will be in an even stronger position. When that biggest balloon pops, we will be all the better for it. - MP in Seattle

Hi,
I just recently found your blog, and it's really useful. I've recently become interested in self-sufficiency, and it's a great resource.

I wanted to share a book recommendation that I think might be interesting to your readers, a book series called The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It is a trilogy of young adult novels about a little girl who lives under a completely authoritarian state. The state requires 'tributes' from all 12 districts, children from age 12-18, one boy one girl. All are put in an arena to fight to the death, to show how much power the state has- they can force you to put children of your district to death. The story follows a tribute who has learned, in her poverty, to hunt, snare, scavenge, etc.

I don't want to ruin any of the story, but it fits so deeply into what you write about that I think you might want to check it out. It's definitely aimed at the young adult market but it still a riveting read as an adult, and would be a very good gift for teens you know.

Thanks for all your resources and writing. - Brian M.

Gold Rallying to $1,500 as Soros's Bubble Inflates. (Thanks to B.B. for the link.)

From The Daily Bell: WSJ Discovers the Austrians & Boettke - but not the Mises Institute

Mort Zuckerman bemoans BHO's band of fools: The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History. (A hat tip to Patrick S. for the link.)

Oregon man pleads bankruptcy fraud, hiding gold. Apparently, he failed Cache Construction 101.

From K.A.F.: Problem bank list climbs to 829

Items from The Economatrix:

Top Economists: The Second Great Depression Has Arrived

Struggling Cities Shut Firehouses in Budget Crises

Mish: 10 Leading Retailers Close Stores; Exodus of Small Retailers Amidst Signs of "Free Rent"

Blockbuster to File for Bankruptcy in September

Bernanke Says Economy Remains Vulnerable

Record 1-in-6 Getting Government Aid

Jobs Data to Show Severity of Economic Malaise. Wells Fargo: 'Our view is that the recovery is petering out, not sliding into a double dip'

Obama: No Magic Bullet for Struggling Economy

More Million-Dollar Homes Falling to Foreclosure

HUD: No Decision on Reviving Homebuyer Tax Credit

You'll pay 6 to 7% more this weekend for your steak and hamburger.

This one is from Pravda (so my usual jaundiced eye proviso applies) Doomsday Scenario: Food Prices to Shoot Through the Roof.

Some more about the CPI hedonics trickery that I mentioned: Chris Martenson on fuzzy numbers.

Reader Jim P. mentioned that his local politicos in the Shenandoah Valley are doing away with a decal but keeping the fee! County Decals No More; $20 Fee Will Appear On Personal Property Tax Bills

JP Morgan: Food Prices Are Actually Rising, It's Just That Retailers Haven't Passed It On... Thanks to Don W. for the link.

My recent interview on Doc and Reginald Kaigler's Watchmen podcast is now available via YouTube.

   o o o

LVZ in Ohio notes that there is a home brew Pelton wheel project described here: Micro-hydro Power Bucket.

   o o o

Rod McG. pointed to the BBC's Dimensions web page as a useful tool for visualizing disasters.

   o o o

N.R.S. mentioned this opinion piece from a as Northern California newspaper: Maybe the NRA's right to be paranoid.

   o o o

I noticed that Darrell Holland's Long Range Shooting video is now available on YouTube. Buy a copy on DVD for your group's training library!

"A wayfaring man, traveling in the desert, met a woman standing along and terribly dejected. He inquired of her. "Who art thou?" "My name is Truth " she replied. "and for what cause, " he asked, "have you left the city, to dwell alone here in the wilderness?" She made answer, "Because in former times, falsehood was with few, but is now with all men, whether you would hear or speak." - The Fables of Aesop, Henry Altemus Company, 1899

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

No one has to tell a prepper that land is expensive, and purchasing suitable retreat property without financing it is difficult or impossible for most. Worse yet, as things continue unraveling a rural alternative seems to become more necessary by the day. Here are two seldom-considered options.

Option 1: A Retreat May Be Looking For You

Country people, who own and live on vast swaths of rural America, are used to dealing with assorted disasters, ranging from crop failure to blizzards to droughts. That makes many of them closet preppers, at a minimum, and some have gone much farther with long-range disaster planning and preparations. So there is very likely an ideal retreat already set up in the general area you would like to use for your Plan B.
All that remains is the difficult part, hooking up with an aware landowner. But getting a seat at a well thought-out rural refuge may be one of the most important security measures you could take for you and your family.

As the owner of a fairly large Texas ranch with extensive self-sufficiency infrastructure in place, here is what I, and a lot of landowners with a similar situation, will be looking for:

Skills

Rural landowners are for the most part generalists, as they have to be to keep their operation running. It is the rare farmer or rancher who can’t weld, doctor livestock, run heavy equipment of some sort, fix a water well, keep an old pickup running, field dress and butcher game, plow a field, and two dozen more essential country tasks. Most also range from good to excellent shots, having grown up with firearms and shooting. They respect capable people, and know that nothing can replace skills and experience.

Being generalists, what we often lack are specialized skills. Here is a partial list of possibilities:

• Medical professional
• Communications/ham radio operator
• Pharmacist
• Combat veteran
• Electrician
• Machinist
• Blacksmith
• Small animal husbandry; dairy goats, sheep, or poultry.
• Home crafts expertise such as spinning, weaving, knitting, or canning.
• Experienced horseman
• Mechanic
• Wine maker/beer brewer
• Veterinarian

Any practical expertise you have might well fill a void in a landowner’s plans and existing group. So much the better if you know an area from top to bottom; shearing, cleaning, carding, spinning, and knitting wool, for instance, or have a portable ham radio setup complete with wire dipole antennas for each band.

And it doesn’t matter so much whether you’re an experienced prepper with a deep larder or a rookie who has just become aware of a need to provide for his family. The important thing, from a landowner’s perspective, is having the specialized knowledge along with experience and whatever tools or materials you need to practice your particular skill. As long as a rookie skilled in a specific area was willing to acquire basic food and supplies, as far as I’m concerned being a newcomer is not a drawback.

As an example, here on our place with our existing people we have virtually every conceivable base well-covered, except for one. Though we’ve all had advanced first aid and have fairly extensive med supplies, we know our limitations and would consider adding a compatible medical professional, from an RN to an MD. And in our case, such a professional being a preparedness rookie would not be a drawback, as long as there was a willingness to store some basic supplies.

Help

Aside from specific skills, another thing always in short supply in the country is help. Many have the idea that country life is an idealized existence with a great deal of time spent gazing at sunsets and contemplating nature. Country life is great, but have no illusions about the amount of work involved. Most country people work extremely hard, often at two or three jobs just to keep things afloat economically. Sometimes one spouse works a “real” job with benefits while the other works the farm or ranch. With a never-ending list of projects, few landowners would turn down willing help. This is especially true of older landowners, who might welcome younger help willing to learn.

Most landowners actively preparing for hard times likely have a core group of family and friends already in place. An important reason they may consider adding you to their mix is that they might feel shorthanded in the event of social disruption, and so would especially welcome additional skilled help.

A landowner with hundreds or even thousands of acres, along with infrastructure, might well have property worth several million dollars on paper. Not to mention perhaps a lifetime spent working it and building it up. As could be expected, he might well be particular about who he invites to share in his hard work and foresight. But if you can be an asset to him and his family with your expertise and help, then he might be willing to make a seat available at his table.

Infrastructure

Hand in hand with help goes infrastructure. I guarantee that any preparedness-minded landowner has ideas for a project or two or three which would add to his place’s self-sufficiency. It could be that he hasn’t had time or the specialized knowledge to pursue it. Could be that he doesn’t have the extra funds available. So if you get to the point that you’re certain you want to join forces with a rural landowner and his existing group, the magic words go something like this, “If you had your choice, what are the main projects that would add to the long-term viability of our place?” A non-grid dependent source of water, such as a solar-powered well, might be high on his list. If so, be prepared with time, effort, and perhaps dollars to follow through and help make it happen.

Making contact with strangers can be a daunting task. Preppers are by nature reserved about discussing these topics with outsiders, observing OPSEC as naturally as breathing. So where to begin?

If you want to make contact with like-minded landowners, you will have to come out of your shell to some degree.

For communication purposes, the first thing you should do is set up a yahoo or gmail account specifically for preparedness email correspondence, along with a pseudonym. Never give out your real name or location initially.

Preparedness forums are one place to post an interest in a particular area of the country. Many such forums are nationwide in scope, while others focus on particular states or regions. Homesteading or skills related forums are another place to find potential landowners. One of my best friends I initially met online on a beekeeping forum. Being a beginning beekeeper, I asked questions of an experienced poster who was less than a hundred miles away. We corresponded for awhile and he finally invited me to his place to help work his hives. After meeting, it quickly became apparent that our mutual interests extended a lot further than just bees; intensive gardening, orchards, vineyards, hunting, small livestock, and much more. He and his wife are now a trusted part of our group, and would relocate here if the balloon ever goes up.

Another possibility is to run classified ads in county newspapers, a regional livestock magazine, or the co-op magazine from the electric company in an area in which you have an interest. Or perhaps run an ad in magazines such as Countryside & Small Stock Journal or Backwoods Home. Your ad should be low-key, and might go something like this:

“Licensed electrician and Army veteran seeking alliance with landowner in rural Colorado. With current storms brewing, would like to have a potential safe harbor for myself and two dependents.”

Most likely you will have numerous contacts which don’t pan out for some reason. The hurdle may be religion, politics, geography, demographics of the group, or nothing more than a personality conflict. Don’t get discouraged, press ahead and keep your eyes open. As the old saying goes, ‘the teacher will appear when the student is ready.’

If you find someone online or through ads who appears to be a possibility, after enough correspondence that you feel the property fits your needs and you will be comfortable with the landowner and his group, set up a meeting at a neutral, public site and go from there.

I’ve found that the best way to keep from having a misunderstanding is to have an understanding to start with, so these are areas you’ll likely want to cover in depth:

Things to ask the landowner:

• Does he own his property free and clear.
• Does he or a member of his group live there full-time.
• How many other people are part of his group.
• What are their specialized skills.
• What supplies do they require members to have.
• Length of time their stored preps will support them.
• Can supplies be pre-positioned.
• How many people will his property support.
• How is water supplied for household and food growing.
• What infrastructure is in place for housing you and your dependents, or will you have to supply your own.
• Are there scheduled meetings of his group for work days or training.
• Does the group have shortcomings in areas that you or your dependents could learn, i.e. herbal medicine, cheesemaking, gunsmithing, canning, etc.
• What can you do to help improve his property. This is a polite way of asking what he views as the weakest aspects of his place for long-term self-sufficiency.

Things the landowner will ask you:

• Your credentials and experience in your area of expertise.
• Supplies you have stored to practice your particular skill.
• Number of dependents.
• Is your spouse/significant other on board.
• Medical issues or prescription drugs taken.
• Amount of preps you currently have on hand.
• Do you have a criminal record.
• What other practical skills do you or your dependents have.

Additional things that you should discuss:

• Who is ultimately in charge, how decisions are made.
• Under what circumstances a bug-out occurs. What are the triggers - TEOTWAWKI or simply losing your job.
• Who will have ownership of items you pre-position: food supplies, travel [or house] trailers, bulk propane storage tank, etc.
• Precisely who you are allowed to bring. The landowner will likely be very specific on this point, having thought through the supply and group dynamics implications of members showing up with unannounced in-laws, friends, or co-workers.

It’s no secret that there are some real nutjobs out there, especially on the web, so exercise plenty of caution while searching. But there are lots of good, honest people too, everything from prepped landowners to complete rookies, who are trying to do nothing more than provide for their families in troubled times. And to my mind, if the storms do come, security for your family will certainly be easier and much-improved with a skilled group in a rural setting. So making the effort to find a suitable property and building trust now, before the need, only makes sense.

Some additional thoughts:

• Never advocate or do anything illegal.
• Be very wary of people with extreme positions on religion, politics, or race.
• Be very wary of people who talk about nothing but firearms and ammunition.
• Be completely honest about your capabilities, experience, and level of preparedness.
• The majority of people are all talk and no action, don’t be one of them.

Option 2: Leasing

Leasing property is another seldom discussed retreat option. Land is leased all the time, for timber, grazing, hunting, or farming, so why not consider this alternative for a retreat?

Naturally, you probably don’t want to approach a landowner by saying you want to lease his property in case the wheels fall off of the economy. But a lease is far cheaper than buying land, usually not much more than the actual property taxes. And a lease gives you a legal right to use the land for the stated purpose.

A hunting lease is probably the simplest and most obvious choice, as a game-rich area is a big plus. A hunting lease framework and price structure likely already exists in most places, so searching for one through newspaper ads or contacting local realtors, chambers of commerce, or feed stores will raise no eyebrows.

Here in the Texas Hill Country, a hunting lease will run about $5 to $10 per acre per year, so 500 acres would lease for between $2,500 to $5,000 per year. Far cheaper than purchasing the same property, and very reasonable if divided among numerous people in a family or group.

You should make sure that the lease is structured so you have access year around, not just during hunting season. Ideally, the landowner would be absentee and not live on the property, which would give you pretty much free rein during a full scale bugout. There should be a reliable source of water, be it spring, lake, or well. Some type of accommodations would be nice, but travel trailers or campers would suffice.

It might be possible to include a lease provision so that you could move in a [CONEX] shipping container. As far as the landowner was concerned, this was to store your camping gear, four-wheelers, etc., but could also be used to store non-perishable bulky items like barrels of wheat, rice, ammo cans, etc. If such a storage option is not available, consider renting a storage unit in a nearby town to store bulky, hard to move survival items.

The down side of a lease is that you can’t improve the place like you could if you owned it. No garden plots, no solar wells, no permanent structures. But a lease also has none of the restrictions of land ownership, giving you much more flexibility. If your economic situation changes for the better, for example, or if your marital status changes for the worst. The composition of your survival group may change drastically, either getting larger or smaller. Your job or family situation may require a move halfway across the country. With a lease, no problem, but if you own the land, especially if it has a mortgage, then it could be a major headache.

Preppers should pride themselves on thinking outside the box. A paid-for and fully functional homestead is the ideal situation, but is not a realistic option for most people. So hopefully these thoughts on retreat alternatives will give you ideas for putting together a Plan B for you and yours.

JWR Adds: One other possibility is a lease option/purchase on a piece of retreat property that you'd like to buy, but that you cannot presently afford to buy outright. This is an advantageous strategy for inflationary times. If you can lock in a set purchase price now, while inflation is low, then you might have the opportunity to exercise the purchase option at later date, when inflation is rampant. (In just a few years you may have the chance to buy the property with cheap dollars.)

Hello Mr. Rawles,
A report on the political and economical impacts of Peak Oil by a think tank of the German Army was recently leaked to the Internet. It is, of course, in German. The think tank draws pretty drastic conclusions. I currently do not have the time to translate the essence of it, but this might be useful or interesting at least to your readers who are fluent in German.

Here is a summary: Bundeswehr-Studie warnt vor dramatischer Ölkrise, [also in German] by Der Spiegel.

Kind regards, - Chris K. in Germany

JWR Replies: Thanks for alerting us to that article. Here is a link to a very rough automated English translation: Bundeswehr study warns of dramatic oil crisis.

Bernanke: Fed Will Take "Unconventional Measures" If Needed. "...the Fed will consider making another large-scale purchase of securities if the slowing economy were to deteriorate significantly and signs of deflation were to flare." (A hat tip to Deborah M. for the link.)

Its Official: China is Unloading its Treasury Bonds

John Williams of ShadowStats Says Economic Data Will Get Much Worse.

Trapper Mike sent this: Ron Paul questions whether there's gold at Fort Knox, New York Fed. To clarify, part of his concern is that physical gold may indeed be stored there, but that it might actually belong to other parties!

Items from The Economatrix:

Government Set to Confirm What Many Feel: Economy at a Standstill

Stocks End a Brutal August with Meager Gains

Snapshot of an Economy About to Get a Lot Bleaker

Youth Employment Lowest Since 1948

Fed Seeks Delay of Bank Data Release

US Warned by S&P its AAA Credit Rating at Risk

Democrats Face Economic Facts: Updraft Unlikely

In 2008, shortly before the currency was effectively abandoned, the inflation rate in Zimbabwe hit a ludicrous inconceivable 897,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 percent per year. (An 89 sextillion percent inflation rate!) So now instead of Zim dollars for practical currency, they are using the South African Rand, the Botswana Pula, the British Pound Sterling and the United States Dollar for most transactions. It will be ironic, if and when the US Dollar begins to inflate. Like us, Zimbabweans may soon feel "stuck", holding withering US Dollars. OBTW, some bad news from Zimbabwe, that came to us by way of Cathy Buckle's blog: "Enter into all of this the pending compulsory 51% indigenous shareholding of companies and the waves start flooding in over the edge of the floundering boat. Last weekend the Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, threatened to close down 9,000 companies because they hadn't yet submitted indigenisation plans to his ministry. Apparently only 480 out of 9, 557 companies had put in the paperwork that effectively gives control of their companies to complete strangers."

Reader Gina A. wrote to mention that the cost of her prescriptions medicines (some of them fairly exotic) had skyrocketed in the past 18 months. She asked for some solutions. My advice? Read this book: 101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care.

Carla P. notes: "I usually watch the sale papers when buying groceries. I noticed a great price at one of our stores for one of the major brands of peanut butter: $1.39. The trouble is, the jar had gone from an 18 oz. size to a 16.3 oz. size. About a 10% decrease."

SurvivalBlog reader "Booth" chided me for harping about inflation, when the government's key inflation figure--the Consumer Price Index (CPI)--is currently at just 1.94% (in figures calculated through June, 2010). The problem with the CPI is that it is so heavily manipulated that it has hardly any useful meaning. The methodologies used for calculating the CPI are fundamentally flawed. For example, it uses hedonic "adjustments" to the price measures to "allow for quality changes." For some details, see the analyses by economist John Williams (of ShadowStats) and Barry Ritholtz. In my estimation, the real rate of cost of living inflation in the US is somewhere north of 5%. And if you are saying to yourself, "Well, 5% isn't so bad", then consider the Rule of 72. At 5% currency inflation, you are robbed of half of your purchasing power every 14.4 years. So it is no wonder that so few people now keep money in banks in passbook savings accounts. Those provide a negative rate of return, when you consider the real world inflation rate. Inflation is orchestrated theft and a hidden form of taxation, plain and simple.

Reader Kevin J. mentioned this opinion piece: Looters and the lessons of Katrina. It has some typical liberal hand-wringing, but it is nonetheless a thought-provoking piece.
|
   o o o

D.T.D. pointed us to this interesting article: Man has lived without money since 2008. Apparently, he also swore off wearing shirts.

   o o o

Cheryl N. suggested this essay: Collapse Survival Will Be Tribal: Begin Recruiting Now

   o o o

Did you ever wonder why you might want to add a .50 BMG rifle to your battery? Watch this.

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success, than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair." - Alexander Hamilton, a.k.a. Publius, The Federalist Papers, Number 28.

Did you ever feel as if you predicted the future? Read this: Investors Head for Bunkers, Driving Up 'Shelter Shares'. Here is key quote: "If it's the end of the world, what do you buy? Canned foods, guns and the generators," said Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services. "There are a huge number of people who feel this is the end of the world."

To stay ahead of the next market trend, my advice is to move out of dollar-denominated investments and into tangibles, such as productive farm land, guns, ammo, and precious metals.

---

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

As a regular reader of SurvivalBlog, I have found a fountain of information to be gleaned from the many great writings posted on here and wanted to quickly say thank you to all those who write in with their thoughts and experiences. 

What I wanted to share was something that I experienced recently.  I found in all my prepping and plans something I had not realistically considered.  I have considered the possibility of many scenarios for a long time but I think it has been in just the past few years that I have felt that things are rather precarious.   I guess one of the biggest things to influence me was my Grandmother, she would tell me stories of the Great depression and how the family managed to get by during the “lean years”.   Keeping her words and stories close to my heart I began more recently to really get my preps in line.  I have a very rural retreat property that someday I hope I can move to but in the mean time, I try to keep things on track here at home.  I have a small farm and I think it is coming along nicely toward being self sufficient but I actually feel we live a bit too close to a big city for me to view it as the retreat I would like it to be.  We raise chickens and goats and have a nice garden that I can most of the things out of it.  I put up a pretty nice amount of stored food. 
I thought I had already taken into consideration many scenarios and issues that might arise during tough times including family and close friends that might appear on my door step in an emergency, and while; some I am certain will come with some supplies, there are others… they are the scoffers that would undoubtedly show up just in time knowing we were prepared.  I thought I had covered all of this with my calculations and figures.   I thought about those I know and who would travel a great distance to arrive here and how much food would need to be stored.  I have lots of calculators to tell me how much of what I would need to sustain these extra people and I was seriously thinking I was in pretty good shape as far as being on a good track.
Until a few months ago, when all of a sudden we had a house full of people, all of whom were unemployed which meant they brought into the house little to nothing in the way of help for food, utilities or even in some cases labor around the farm. 

The first few weeks we would just make due and I would make what I could for meals with much of what I had here in the house augmented by frequent trips to the grocery.  Even still it was difficult to keep food on the shelves, things started to get sparse real fast and much to my chagrin I found that my preps were suffering under the strain of the added mouths to feed, Not only  could I no longer afford to add to my preps but they were dwindling at an amazing rate.  But the most frightening thought that came to me was if it all went this quickly all the while augmenting our needs with grocery store runs, what would happen when we could no longer do this? When there was nothing to be had at the grocery store?   This thought was very troubling for me and I began to feel woefully unprepared and foolish at thinking that this could be so easily a task to prepare for.  I found that this issue is much more complex than just putting up a few extra things for the unexpected house guest.

In my panic at watching my years of work disappear right before my eyes, I began to ferret away supplies to other parts of the house, I had a trunk which held my wedding gown for years, I moved the gown to a box and this trunk now became my new food storage area, my bedroom closet now held my liquor cabinet and ammo and even behind books on the bookshelf you might find a can of soup or box of Jell-O.  I at that moment realized the “why” of having some caches, I recalled that I had read in Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. The protagonist, Randy Bragg, had put away a trunk full of things and this motivated me to think more about how to put up these “Extra” things.  So as I began my hide and seek with food stuffs, I began to try to put things into these places but now with a clear organizational pattern.   I considered what each person was doing to contribute to the house  but when I spoke with our “guests” about our feelings with regards to the current state of things and the need for them to pitch in even if it were to only weed the garden, it turned out that often times they would scoff at our “doom and gloom” and avoid us or turn up missing when it was work time, but they never failed to be present when it was dinner time or when it came time for us to go to bed.  This is when they would “raid” the cupboard, which is how I discovered what was happening to the food.  There were a number of offenders that would pilfer from the cabinets when everyone was sleeping.  This brought me to my next realization, that you can’t expect that these guests will be honest.   If someone feels like they are not getting enough they will steal it.   I first thought I should lock the cupboards but that is so harsh.  It was then that I decided I would simply keep it all out of the cupboards and pull out what I needed as I needed it.  Having experienced this I have decided to permanently keep most of my food preps in stashes about the house noting the date the stash was established and in using these would completely empty the stash into the cupboard and replenish with a new date (rotating the food in larger quantities).  This is actually working well as I replenish an entire week or two’s  worth of food in an instant and it is just part of my regular shopping (which always includes a few extra of this or that as well) but now as I shop, I take all that I just purchased to the trunk or box, remove the contents of the cache and insert the “new” groceries and place the cached items on the pantry shelf, I then note the date of the switch and move the cache to the bottom of the list.

Add to all of this the little idiosyncrasies that come with cohabitation.  If you can, just imagine how annoyed I was that a whole roll of toilet paper that was used by only two people took only a matter of a day or two to disappear, I began to wonder what they are doing with it.  Eating it? Thankfully No, but  I came to find that my son’s girlfriend was using it to take off nail polish, makeup, wipe the sink off and anything else she wanted to wipe or dab.  Before I had even realized it twelve big packages of toilet paper were missing!  All I could think was: "Have any of you ever heard of a rag?"

This is but a small example of the usage and the lack of knowledge, but there are other things to ponder that we never thought of until it was staring us right in the face.  Like the septic system, ours, which is okay for about 4 people could not sustain with 9.  We were selling eggs from our 35 chickens but now we could not keep enough eggs in the house for some reason, all of these things made me think of the resources and strain additional people bring into the picture.

 Where this brought me was the realization that while one might think about the thief that comes to take your preps after the SHTF, whom we would of course promptly run off with our defenses.  And this is because we have taken a good bit of time thinking about how to keep these unsavory types out and how to keep our location safest.  But, how do we deal with freeloader family members?  The ones that show up on your door step tattered and sad looking, who will it be?   Your brother?  Your mother?   Your child?  These people will assume you have it all going on and will be looking to you to “fix” things for them. 
At some point in all this it dawned on me that this is a lesson I am to learn, that in all likelihood this is something that not might happen but will happen.  We will be overrun with friends and family that will be looking for what they view as salvation.  Granted there will be those who show up and you are glad to see because you know they will be less of an inconvenience and more of an asset.  But really, do any of us think that if our freeloader child shows up we will turn them away?  How could we?  So now what do we do with this dead weight?  Not to mention that after reading “"Patriots" by James Wesley, Rawles, I and few others realized that a group of like minded individuals would better weather such storms than those going it alone.  Well now, what is the rest of the group going to think of your freeloader relative?

I have taken some time to think these things through and a few conclusions came with amazing clarity.  First, I have discovered that, no, I do not believe that I or my fellow group members could turn away family.  So I began to think about how to handle the “freeloader”.  And a verse from 2nd Thessalonians comes to mind, from the New International Version Bible: For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”  (2 Thessalonians 3:10.) Going on that premise, I began a chore list where each person had chores to do each day, everyone was assigned a laundry day (which incidentally we removed the washer from the septic to a gray water area that we used to irrigate the garden) if a person failed to be bothered with laundry that day you were to either go dirty or go to the laundry mat.  Everyone had indoor chores as well as farm chores and this really made a difference in my irritation levels.  I would cook a generous meal we would all sit at and eat and then at the end of the day, everyone was locked out!!  Okay, okay I know this sounds awful, but we have the extra bedrooms in the basement which has a separate entrance and bathroom so they were only locked out of the kitchen, thus prevented the pilfering during the night.

It was amazing how quickly they began to get jobs and even moved out. Since this time I have thought about how to accommodate these people without alienating others in our group that will help to establish a set rule when it comes to the dynamics of a group and how to handle these unexpected persons.
|
We discussed ways to assign levels to each grouping of individuals that would best accommodate these people and the needs of the group while maintaining a clear hierarchy or chain of command.  Which I believe is important not only for the smooth running of things but also for each person to understand their role in things (no need for the alpha male or female instinct to take over).  While it is a bit cut and dry and I think in need of more work as there is always the exceptions to these things, here is what we are doing to best outline these persons, their needs and what they can offer in such times.
Level 1: the operations level this level is our main group!  These people have been working on our preps and skills for some time and are the ones with supplies and a specific skill set.  These people are the ones that we chat with, work with and plan with for the inevitability of SHTF.  Each person in this level has a clear idea of their role and expectations in the eventuality of bad days.   No expectation need be set.

• The property owner
• The skilled expert

Level 2: this level is the persons that have not actually become part of the group but are still well ahead of the curve with their preps and needed skills.  Each person in this level is most likely the "go-it-aloner" who did not want to get together, but found that for any number of reasons they need to ally themselves with a group.  While these people will most likely be an asset a skills assessment and work allotment will be necessary.

• Family member with skill & prep
• Other persons with skill and prep

Level 3: This level is the persons that show up with either some kind of preps or skills but not typically both, minimal need or very willing to work.  Each person in this level has something they can offer even if it is to weed the garden and while a family member will be given preference, there are no guarantees the other persons can be accommodated or integrated.

• Family member
• Other persons

Level 4: comes knocking with neither skills nor preps but is family, this person is typically the freeloader and will not work or offer anything.  While I believe it is necessary to do for ones family, it will also be the family members that must pick up any slack or share their food and things with this person.

Level 5: comes knocking with neither skills nor preps  - a refugee (frankly this level, would most likely be sent on their way with a couple of cans of food and some water. )

Each person will need to be assessed to determine where they can best fit in with the group and if they want to eat they will work. Anyone can weed a garden.  Everything is to be done using the level system.  However you choose to utilize it, the insurance that those who “show up” will do their share is important to the whole group, no one wants to just give away their hard work and will resent it if they have to especially if it is not even their family. 

I found that while we had our “guests” visiting there were some things that I could recognize as qualities that would be useful, my other son’s Girlfriend could eat more than anyone I had ever seen before in my life and was sneaking food all the time and this was profoundly distressing for me, however I began to see she loved to work in the garden, tending it fastidiously.  Once I locked up the food I began to see her as an asset more than a liability.  I believe that everyone can pull their own weight if they have to but I would hate to have my sister arrive on the door step with family in tow barking out demands to someone simply because her family owns the land.  With a system that clearly defines a role of each person, each person can be a useful integral part of the community without the strife the can often follow!

Dear Jim:

Amid decisions about planning to weather the storm after TSHTF I see people dangerously narrowing their strategy options. They are putting all their eggs in one basket when conditions could require them to abandon those plans. The typical options are flight, fortress, and community and any of the three could wind up being best... or worst! Let me share a few thoughts on the flight option.

Flight usually involves bug-out bags, bug-out vehicles, defensive armaments, haste, maybe stealth, with hopefully one or more pre-stocked destinations. But what if a hazard has affected a huge region, making your pre-stocked bug-out location unusable? What if the entire hemisphere becomes too dangerous?

I bought land in Ecuador that I could flee to if needed. At 25 acres for $5,500 it was feasible for someone of very modest income. Besides being some distance from home it has good survival potential: plenty of rainfall, perfect temperature range at 6,500 ft. elevation (no heating or cooling season), year-round growing season, low population density, self-sufficient neighbors, above the tropical diseases and poisonous snakes of the Amazonian lowlands, rivers teeming with trout, good streams for hydro-power, small government, no building permits required for the countryside, almost negligible property taxes, peaceful changes in government. You can see the possibilities.

I recommend having pre-stocked bug out locations nearby, even for those who are full-time residents on a survival retreat property, as well as distant retreats in some other part of the world. Be prepared to leave at all times. My passport and other needed travel items are part of my every-day-carry kit.

What if you are suddenly driven from your home by fire, home invaders, or other calamity and you have nothing but your pajamas, slippers, and maybe a jacket? What if civil order has broken down and there is no-one you can turn to for help? In that case you would be well served by one or more secure buried caches, giving you what you need to bug out, shelter, clothe, and feed yourself, as well as a weapon or two. I chose the buried, large-diameter, hermetically sealed PVC tube with heat-sealed Mylar liners for my buried caches. I buried them away from my house but within easy walking distance, using as much stealth as possible to avoid being seen and to avoid leaving tell-tale traces of my activity. Another use I have yet to employ: a string of small food and water re-supply caches en route to my bug-out destination in case I need to make the week-long trek by foot.

A network of buried caches would enable the owner periodic access to food, ammo, etc. while appearing to have little worth stealing. This could be the ticket to escaping plunder by roving gangs or government during the first year or so of violence following a full-blown SHTF event. There are many possible approaches and anyone handy in the workshop can fashion suitable buried cache containers. Those without the time or ability can buy various-sized pressure-tested cache tubes online through SafeCastle, a trusted SurvivalBlog advertiser. - J. in New Hampshire

Dear Jim and Family,
I can understand why [the gentleman that writes Laptop and Rifle, a blog recently mentioned in SurvivalBlog] should go forthrightly into the wilderness this way. Its taking control of his life, with his own hands. But it is a pity that some important stuff got overlooked. There's a wonderful (and necessary) book called the "Uniform Building Code" (UBC) that all contractors know and love as their bible of legal building laws, which also happen to be good engineering. The google programmer is doing the equivalent of writing bad code by ignoring this book. His second hut has no poured concrete footing, so the first time it rains, its going to sink/tilt and no longer be level. Considering the area he's building is heavily volcanic, the soil will also be composed of swelling clay, which means its also going to tear apart his concrete block foundation, something it would also do to a poured concrete footing. In that territory, you have to build in spring after heavy rains or water down the site for 30 days in order to allow the clay to swell to saturation. Thus, once the foundation is poured the concrete is put under compression, the only way its physically strong. Most homes in California are built this way due to the common prevalence of swelling clay soil that formed subsequent to the lengthy volcanic system that predated the San Andreas fault line. If he'd asked the county building department in Chico, he'd know that. Or ditto if he had just looked it up with a web search. Cheers, - InyoKern

Hi Mr. Rawles.
I hope that everything is going well for you. You might want to pass this on to your readers. As of a couple of minutes ago, Janice Dean, the Weather Lady on the Fox News Channel, was discussing Hurricane Earl. They are urging all residents from the Outer Banks to the Canadian Maritimes to review their Hurricane Evacuation Routes and be ready to "Bug Out" within the next few days. Computer Modeling shows no weakening of the Hurricane, the only question is just how close Hurricane Earl will get to the Eastern Seaboard. God's Blessings on you and yours, - "Bubblehead" Les

S.C. flagged this: Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fears Grow. S.C's comment: "Wow, even the New York Times gets it!"

Chris P. sent this New York Times article: Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth.

G.G. sent this: S&P Says US Should Act to Protect AAA-Rating.

G.G. flagged Part 2 of Gonzalo Lira's excellent essay: Hyperinflation, Part II: What It Will Look Like

My hero, Dr. Walter Williams comments: Avoiding the Looming Disaster of Social Security (Thanks to Don W. for the link.)

Sue C. sent this: Economy slows to 1.6 percent as trade gap widens

Items from The Economatrix:

Why US Treasury Notes Will Eventually Yield Nothing

Stocks Rise After 2Q GDP News, Bonds Slip

Consumer Spending Rises 0.4% In July

Stocks Drop as Investors Enter Week Cautiously

Gasoline Prices Fall Ahead of Labor Day Weekend

Bernanke Calls For Help to Revive The Stuttering US Economy

Joel Skousen: Inflation: What it Takes to Get There

Stock Markets Face "A Blood Bath," Warns SocGen Strategist Albert Edwards

Jim Quinn: The Age of Mammon

Bancor: The Name of the Global Currency that a Shocking IMF Report is Proposing

Investors Embark on Treacherous Month

UK: Graduates Warned of Record 70 Applicants for Every Job. "Class of 2010 told to consider flipping burgers or shelf stacking to build skills as they also compete with last year's graduates."

Deflation Delusion Continues as Economies Trend Towards High Inflation

Reader Bret F. notes that in August, his local structural steel prices increased as follows: 1” x 1” x 1/8” angle iron from 42 cents per foot to 47 cents per foot, 4” x .237 wall steel pipe increased from $5.26 per foot to $6.26 per foot.

A 20% rate hike for Health Insurance in California? Yikes!

Susan C. in Texas sent a link to a web site that has all sorts of mixes you can make yourself to save money. Susan notes: "Many of these mixes are healthier than store bought ones. OBTW, I find that these recipes call for too much salt."

   o o o

The big sale at Ready Made Resources on Mountain House freeze-dried foods began last night, and runs for just one week. Don't miss out!

   o o o

Reader N.I.M. sent this: H1N1: A Bullet, Dodged. Meanwhile, we read: XDR-pH1N1 Raises Pandemic Concerns

   o o o

Richard H. forwarded this link: Why You Need a Zombie Apocalypse Phone.

"America is the land which fought for freedom and then passed laws to get rid of it." - A. Neuman

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

When I was 18, I spent six weeks in the Sakha Republic (or Yakutia) of Siberia. It is roughly three times the size of Alaska yet has a population of less than 1 million. With the Arctic Circle bordering the north of the Sakha Republic and the Lena River winding its way through it is a largely rural population of self sufficient farmers, fishermen, and reindeer herders. My time there was spent living in a soviet era apartment in either Yakutsk (its capital) or Moxogolloch (a small port town along the Lena River) or traveling to nearly isolated villages around the Sakha Republic. It was while living in Siberia that the wool began to be removed from my eyes regarding America’s imperfect government that I once though infallible. While discussing growing up under soviet rule with one person I realized just how effective the propaganda machine can be and how the methods used by Soviets were being used currently in America. But what I really want to focus on is what I learned about survival. The most important things I learned were the values of adaptability and community. The Sakha people had their religion, culture, and language almost entirely stripped away from them during the 70 years of Soviet rule and yet these three things survived. They live in a harsh and unforgiving climate with almost no growing season and manage to raise crops, livestock, and keep warm.

One example of adaptability is the extent to which they use the animals they're able to raise. There is a breed of horse that is able to survive the extreme winter temperatures and in the small villages everyone has at least one milking horse which they use for milk along with making their own butter, cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, a rather interesting fermented milk drink, etc. And when it comes to the meat of the horse, absolutely every part is eaten, some parts of the horse were a little interesting to my standard American palate but I was still amazed at how diverse each horse dish that I ate was. Even the fat is eaten, and is actually a prized part of the horse during the winter months (which lasts from September to May in most parts of the Sakha Republic). The horse bones are then carved into various tools and jewelry and the hide is used the same way cowhide is used in the US. One woman I stayed with after showing me her prized milking mare, brushed its mane and tail, gathered the hair that was brushed out, washed it, and wove it into a bath loofah for me as a thank you gift. It was much more durable than any loofah than any I've ever had. Though this specific breed of horse would be impossible to keep at mine and my husbands retreat because of the climate difference, we have tried to use some of their methods with our livestock, trying to make sure none of the animal goes to waste and trying to accustom ourselves to eating the parts of the animal that don't normally appeal to us because in the end without food there is no survival. Another thing regarding their food is the extremely short growing season combined with permafrost makes gardening difficult, but the people in the villages know that without a garden in the summer they could starve in the winter so they plant. A villagers garden isn't full of exotic vegetables because if a crop fails, they starve. They stick to the basics that they know will grow and everyone is very proud of their garden. With most people lacking electricity and running water canning is difficult so they preserve food in much more primitive ways. One thing you'll find in every Sakha garden is potatoes, they're hardy vegetables and don't need any work to preserve, just a place in the house that doesn't get too cold to store them. All other vegetables are dried or pickled. In fact one of my favorite dishes is a sort of cabbage and carrot kim chee, made by shredding cabbage and carrots, coating with salt and storing for a year.

Another clear example of adaptability is in the construction of their homes. Remember, this is a part of the world where winter lasts for 9-10 months out of the year and schools are closed once it hits -40 because of the danger of children walking to school in such a cold temperature. Along with that extreme winter most villagers have no running water or electricity. Because of this they've had to create houses that will keep them warm throughout the winter, figure out how to store food, use the bathroom etc. basic things Americans take for granted and basic things we'll all have to be prepared for in case of a long term TEOTWAWKI situation. To keep warm the house is built around a large wood burning stove. Those with larger houses will actually seal off any room that's separated from the wood burning stove even if that means moving all bedrooms into the living room/kitchen area. When it comes to refrigeration the Sakha people use the permafrost to their advantage. A simple hole dug below the house provides a well refrigerated cellar. As far as using the bathroom, everyone has an outhouse, nothing fancy, just a plain wooden stall with a wooden floor and hole carved out. During the coldest months of winter an indoor chamber pot is used and emptied into the outhouse regularly, the cold keeps down the smell. When it comes to showers most villagers have built themselves a simple banya (or Russian steam bath). I've used the lessons I learned from them on building their homes to be sure to take into account my climate when working with my husband to design our retreat property. Our retreat is located in a part of the US with extreme summer temperatures so we're looking at how homes were built prior to central air to make sure that we build a home survivable and comfortable during those hot summer months. Remember, your generator won't last forever.

An example of the importance of community I saw was at a wedding I attended, and helped with, in a small village. Weddings are done very differently in that part of the world than in America. The happy couple announced to their community that they wished to be married the following day, immediately everyone got to work. One person took the bride to find her dress while someone else took care of the getting the groom a tuxedo. Everyone else banded together to gather up food and decorations for the wedding feast. On Saturday the church was standing room only as everyone gathered together to watch the couple take their vows. It's also important to note that even though this was 10 years after the Russia's transition from communism the Christian church is still very small, especially in rural Siberia so the community of Sakha believers spans the entirety of the Sakha Republic and guests traveled from all corners of the province just to attend this wedding. After the ceremony was the wedding feast, a variety of food gathered from the pantries of the community and served off of what most Americans would consider disposable dishes (part of my duty as a new member of the community was to help wash the dishes afterward) and then once all the festivities were through everyone once again banded together gathering cots, sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows to set up sleeping quarters at the church for all the people who weren't able to travel home that night. The most incredible part is that throughout the weekend no one complained and no one panicked. Everyone saw that something needed to be done and immediately began working together to make sure it got done. Using that lesson my husband and I have made sure that when working with our retreat group we're all aware of each individual’s strengths and weaknesses and do our best to uplift each other and work together effectively.

I also got a lesson in how to make money using whatever (honorable and legal) talents you have which is very important in these current economic times, especially since our economy is steadily getting worse not better. Not a lot of people own their vehicle in the rural areas so anyone with a car immediately adds taxi driver to their resume. Handicrafts, baked goods, and produce are also sold usually by people willing to travel from their village to a slightly larger town to set up shop on a sidewalk. During the religious festivals anyone with a homemade barrel barbecue and a freshly slaughtered animal will be selling shish kebabs.

One of the most important things I learned on that trip though was being able to look at past experiences to move forward with my prep work now. I didn't really become a prepper until my mid-20s but I can still look back on that trip and glean knowledge relating to building up a retreat property that works, being able to pay the mortgage no matter what (not all of us are lucky enough to own our retreat outright), and making sure my family survives no matter what happens. It's important to realize that though you may not have been a prepper when you were in girl scouts, took that backpacking trip across Europe, or spent the summers camping with the family doesn't mean that you can't learn from those past experiences. And even if the SHTF tomorrow and you've just now stumbled upon SurvivalBlog being able to look back on the experiences you've had in life and learn from those will still put you ahead of the game.

Hello James,
I recently stayed with a friend in a little German village northeast of Frankfurt . My friend is restoring his family’s 350+ year old Tudor-style home. I was amazed at the ballistic mass involved. The old walls are 6-8” (15-20cm) thick timber and clay/loam brick, covered in plaster/cement. As part of the restoration, they are adding an additional 6” (15cm) of timber reinforcement on the inside and filling it with 6” of lighter loam bricks for insulation. This results in a total thickness of at least 12” (30 cm) of solid wood and brick. Compare that to our standard 4-6” wall filled with fiberglass insulation and sheetrock! Many first-floors are built of sandstone or basalt. Furthermore, the modern homes that perhaps half of the villagers live in (built in the ‘50s-60s) are 10-12” of solid concrete block. Roofs are fire-proof tile or slate. Most windows have full rolling security/privacy covers that can be actuated from inside.

Additionally, the layout of the village struck me as very defensible and survivable. It’s been established around a reliable water source. Homes are clustered together for protection, and are interspaced with small kitchen gardens, workshops, dairies, wood-fired bakeries, and barns. The fields surrounding are filled with crops. Property lines are a mess (everyone owns little plots of land intermixed with everyone else – an acre here, two acres over here…). In the back of most barns you can see the old hand-tools, still in excellent condition, waiting to be used once more.

It really struck me how ill-prepared our homes and lifestyles are in America . My current home certainly won’t last 300 years and how long can a solitary family farm hold out in uncertain times? The one saving grace we have over them: the second amendment. Firearms are heavily restricted and licensed in Germany. - Isaac S.

A reader asked me clarify what was meant by "exiting the market." It's important to know the difference between exiting the stock market and taking distributions from their tax-deferred retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k) accounts, and so forth.) It is possible in most cases to exit the stock market without taking distributions from those accounts. They can simply change ("re-allocate") the investments inside those accounts. For example, an employee might re-allocate her 401(k) at work from a stock mutual fund into a money market fund. This is not a taxable event, as long as the money remains in the 401(k) plan.

G.G. sent this: Roubini Says Q3 Growth in U.S. to Be `Well Below' 1%

Another from G.G.: U.S. Heading for Currency Destruction Debt Default Great Depression

A Daily Bell Interview: Steve Forbes on Overseas Wars, the Coming Gold Standard and the Rise of 'Citizen Agitation'

B.B. recommended this piece by D. Sherman Okst: Why We are Totally Finished.

Also from B.B. comes this piece in The Wall Street Journal: Existing-Home Sales Plunged in July.

Items from The Economatrix:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Fresh Flight to Swiss Franc as Europe's Bond Strains Return

Tarpley: China Buys Euros as Fear of World Depression Grows

Another Blow to US Housing Market

Why There are No Jobs in America

Repent: The End as Near

The Dollar Bubble

Sen. Bennett: Trillions in Debt, Nothing to Show for It

The Housing Collapse: We Ain't Seen Nuthin' Yet!

Bob Chapman: The Economy When Debt is Everywhere

Financial Expert Warns of Economic Collapse

Plunge in Home Sales Stoke Economy Fears

Obama Needs Your 401(k) to Balance His Budget

The National Inflation Association recently posted this article: Decoupling Now, Currency Crisis Soon

Reader J.D.G. notes: "The County Landfill had a punch card system that equated to $3.83 per load for household trash. If you went every week, it would cost you approximately $200 a year. The County did away with the punch cards at the end of the fiscal year with about six months notice. All the folks who bought extra punch cards to "lock in" the price rightfully howled. The new fee is $7.00 per load, an 82% increase. Going every week will now cost you $364 per year. The County also provided recycling pickup every other week without cost. Now, that service costs $25 per year, billed conveniently on your property tax bill."

Sid, near Niagara Falls related this tale of woe: "I bought a box of 500 .358" diameter hollow base wadcutter [projectiles for reloading] a couple years ago. They were around $20. I just bought another one, exactly the same product, and it cost $79, plus tax. Ouch!"

Bacon Prices Sizzle. Consumers Feel the Heat. Here is a quote from the article: "Last week, prices of pork bellies -- from which bacon is cut -- jumped to an all-time high of $1.42 a pound. Prices have soared more than 200% from a year ago."

Brian H. suggested a Scientific American interactive web page: "How Much is Left?"

   o o o

I've previously mentioned the JBM Ballistic calculators in the blog. But now there is a new Backup Ballistic Calculator --a circular slide rule--created by Todd Hodnett of Accuracy 1st. These will soon be available from LaRue Tactical. They are taking pre-orders now, and expect to starting shipping them in mid-September.

   o o o

Reader Travis B. recommended the blog Laptop and Rifle. Travis gave quick summary of the blog's content: A guy that used to work for Google (a smart guy) buys vacant land and blogs his experiences living there full time. It includes setting up a Hut, toilet, outdoor shower, and solar power. He fails miserably in many areas but it is interesting, regardless. It might make a good case study or would generate interesting responses from your readers."

   o o o

The folks at Directive 21 are now stocking the new version of the Berkey Light Water Purification System, which can now hold up to four Black Berkey Elements. The price is now $220, or $315 when ordering one with four Black Berkey elements. They also mentioned that they still have just a few of the older versions available $209, while supplies last.

"Despair is most often the offspring of ill-preparedness." - Don Williams, Jr.