I often get letters an e-mails, chastising me for being an anti-racist. I call these "nasty-grams." I get several of them each week. Some folks, it seems, are deeply offended that I look upon everyone as equals. The truth is that people should be judged as individuals. (That is one of my core Precepts.) Anyone that makes blanket statements about other races is ignorant that there are both good and bad individuals in all groups. There is no inherent superiority in any skin tone or facial feature, any more than there is in any particular hair color. I have accepted The Great Commission with sincerity. It says; "Go forth into all nations" and it means exactly that: all nations. God's elect come from every nation on earth. Skin color is a non-issue. It is also noteworthy that Christianity started out as a religion of Semitic people, and by God's grace, it spread all over the world. It is not a "white man's religion", as some racists would contend.

I'm often asked, "Aren't you proud to be a white man?" No, I'm not particularly proud to be white, any more than I'm particularly proud to have a Pronounced External Occipital Protuberance (aka "Anatolian Bump") on the back of my head. That is just a product of genetics. So what? Big deal. But neither do I feel guilty or embarrassed to be white, as some liberals seem to be. Do genetic traits make any difference in my standing with God? Certainly not. Granted, many of the scientific advances of the modern age came from some very creative deceased white guys. But again, will any of the fruits of Western Civilization mean anything when I meet my maker? No. Only one thing will matter: Whether or not I've accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. That is a distinction that I can and will share with Aborigines, Ainus, and Hottentots. I'm proud to be Christian, that just happens to be a white man.

I'm also chastised for being a supporter of Israel, and a defender of their right of that nation to exist. You should see some of my hate mail. I've been called a "Jew Lover", and a "Co-conspirator with the Mud People", and so forth. Sorry, folks but you will not convince me to change my views. The fact of the matter is that the Abrahamic Covenant hasn't been repealed. It is an eternal covenant. (Read Jeremiah 31:35-37.) It is also ground truth that Christians have been ingrafted into the same Covenant. (See: Romans 11:1-36.) So for a Christian to be anti-semitic is nonsensical. That would be turning our backs on the progenitors of our faith. Now it is true that the majority of Jews have been blinded to Christ's truth. (See: Romans 11:25) But in the days of the Tribulation, many millions of Jews will come to saving faith. They must survive as a nation, and live to see that happen. Israel must and will survive, as a nation. This was all fore-ordained, as shown in the scriptures.

The other nasty-grams that I receive the most often are about charity. Some people have said that I'm "hopelessly naive" to think that I can dispense charity in the midst of a societal collapse. Charity is not optional, it is Biblically mandated. I feel this very strongly, for several reasons. First: it is there in The Book, over and over again. There is no denying it. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. Secondly, I came to recognize that God's gift of salvation bestowed upon me, through election, and the profound realization that His gift was unmerited. I didn't deserve salvation any more than some of my neighbors deserve my charity WTSHTF. But God freely gave that gift to me, so I'm going to do my utmost to freely bestow charity on everyone that I can. Lastly, everything that I've earned and saved, I consider providential gifts from God. I intend to share it with those that are less fortunate and those that currently lack the foresight to stock up for potential bad times. And for those that say that dispensing charity will be "a security nightmare", there are indeed ways to dispense charity anonymously. With these methods you can protect your privacy and the safety of your family. Plan on sharing charitably. Stock up for it. Don't neglect it. It is our duty!

Jim, et al,

Your reader was correct about what your garbage, mail, kids, etc. say about you as a preparer for when TSHTF. But keeping everything too close to the vest has negative consequences, too. So it's very important to remain open and friendly. Not only is this the right thing to do morally, but it also offers a layer of "social protection" if needed. This is especially vital if you have no choice but to stay where you are in a compromised area. Some tips, if this is a struggle for you:

First, don't be a recluse. Everybody knows that guy, and not necessarily in a good way. Yes, it can be tough to integrate into communities that we may see as ignorant or troubled, but if you are known to be generally pleasant that will go a long way. Tip your hat or give a casual wave (whatever fits your regional culture) whenever you see someone you have even a casual acquaintance with even if you say nothing. You do not have to give up your ideals or values to become part of a community. Join something that doesn't constantly test your opinions, or get to know others through activities that meet infrequently and don't require much disclosure on your part.

Second, remember that most people don't care if you talk, they care if you listen. The most loved, most respected -- and most protected -- person is the one who always had a few minutes to hear about the latest injury, illness, family news or local gossip. So practice becoming a better listener.

Third, do something important in your community. That's not to say it has to be high profile, but is should be service or compassion-oriented. Go ahead and join the gun club, but also consider the Kiwanis, and make sure you're the hardest worker at the pancake breakfast and that you readily help the old ladies carry their trays to the table. If you are a church-goer, skip the usher job or landscaping, and help with the food pantry or the homeless shelter instead.

Fourth, as Mr. Rawles says so often, practice charity now. Purposefully plan this spring to grow extra produce to give away, and make sure the neighbors next door get at least one of your jumbo chickens after butchering, eggs from your hens, etc. Offer to help with yard or household projects (such as putting up a shed or car repair) when it comes up naturally in conversation, or you see them working outdoors. Although that shows some of your abilities to self-sustain, it also makes you the expert when others need help, instead of some prepper who hides in the house.

In general, work hard and be nice. And that goes for the family, too. Other adults will disregard children's claims if they see the parent as a sane and helpful person, rather than a "hide in them thar' hills" type. - Gretchen in Northern Illinois

Jim:
I am not sure bread is a food that is best prepared after a TEOTWAWKI situation. I consider it a luxury item. In a survival situation it all boils down to decisions. I am not saying charity should not happen but we need to get the biggest bang for our supplies. Bannock, cornbread, biscuits and tortillas take less effort and energy to produce and travel better than bread. We also need to consider OPSEC, since baking bread has to have a bigger signature than the baking of other breads. - Curtis

I can't agree with you more on the subject of charity. Watching people starve is not in the cards for me if I can help it. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, you won't be able to help very much, but for a lesser catastrophe, most of your readers could really help a lot of people by working with local authorities or church groups to feed people until help can arrive. Water is an even more urgent need, but I would like to describe my own preparations for setting up a field bakery and soup kitchen. Maybe I can help inspire others to do the same.

Unfortunately, most modern Americans don't have the slightest clue what to do with a bucket of wheat. They don't have the tools, skills or other ingredients to make it into anything but boiled wheat berries. Even that might be beyond a group of refugees on foot. Handing them unprocessed foods like grain and beans is not going to be much good.

Instead, you can set up a bakery and soup kitchen. Of course, you will need help. A local church can supply manpower and probably manage most of the grunt-work once you get them organized. You will probably need to supply all the equipment except for tables and chairs. You will also need to supply the recipe and know-how and possibly some of the basic ingredients. Wheat, yeast, milk powder, oil, and salt. Also, don't forget the wood for fuel.

Here is a very interesting link that describes a WWI army field bakery.

That is sort of what I am talking about. Using the listed equipment, a six man section could supposedly produce 2,250 pounds of bread per day. The recipes they use are not that great, but you get the idea. Each run takes about 2 hours to bake (and you have two more runs rising at the same time). You don't have to get this ambitious. You can scale this down to whatever level you are able to handle. Even if you can only bake a couple of dozen loaves a day, you could really help a lot of people waiting for FEMA to show up and save them.

An outdoor wood-fired oven with enough capacity to feed a lot of people is a good thing to own. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything for sale commercially that fit the bill. Using the old army model as a rough pattern, I designed and built my own.

My Bread Oven

First, I really need to admit that my oven is hideously ugly. The level of workmanship that went into it was terrible. Most of your readers can probably do better. For tools I used a hand drill, pop riveter, pliers, tin snips and a jigsaw with metal cutting blades.

My complete oven stands close to 6 feet tall counting the legs and maybe 2 feet wide and thick. It's a large rectangle with two oven doors on opposite sides and it stands about 16 inches above the ground on metal tubing legs. It's heated using a large hobo-stove (made from a gas cylinder) that sits underneath it. It can bake six large loaves of delicious bread at a time, and the hobo-stove uses about 10 pounds of hard wood per hour at baking temperatures.

The whole oven weighs about 80 pounds and can by carried by one man. A lot of the weight comes from the layer of tile I use to distribute heat (see below) and can be removed for transport. If you remove the legs as well, you can fit this oven into the back seat of a large sedan.

My design is really simple. It's basically two sheet metal boxes attached inside a larger sheet metal box. The inner boxes form the bread ovens (two of them). They both have doors cut through the outer box to the outside and hinged doors, also made of sheet metal. The bottom is open and a separate brazier or hobo stove is burned underneath. The hot air and smoke rises up through the open bottom, circulates around both inner boxes and exits through a hole at the top. Simple. If you make it tight enough, the smoke never touches the bread, so you can burn almost anything for fuel. (Mine leaks a tiny bit of smoke, so I have to stick with burning hard wood or untreated lumber).

I have a wire shelf just below the bottom oven that I cover with 4 inches of ceramic tiles to hold heat and insulate the bottom oven. This makes the oven easier to use and keeps the temperature in both ovens closer to the same. It works without the tiles, but it's harder to regulate the heat from the hobo stove. The object is to put some mass between the fire and the bottom oven. I use tile because I have it, but a pan of sand would work too.

The whole thing is assembled using pop-rivets. I used two largish rectangular trash bins for the outer oven casing. This can be almost any fireproof container as long as it is open at the bottom, large enough to contain the oven boxes with about 2-4 inches air space on 3 sides. A single metal box would have been better, but I found two stainless steel trash bins and simply riveted them together.

I made the bread ovens (the inner boxes) out of about 14 large cookie sheets. (Any sheet metal will do the trick. The heavier the better.) If I were doing it over, I would use pre-made boxes of some kind for the inner ovens. Building sheet metal boxes is harder than I thought it would be. If you can spot-weld, this chore is easier, but I had to use rivets, so my boxes leak a little smoke.

The inner boxes are riveted to the outer box, 4 inches above the bottom ceramic shelf, the top one about 6 inches above the bottom one. They are staggered so that the heat has to flow over both of them. The doors are on opposite sides of the oven to help with heat distribution. This gives you two smaller ovens, the top one about 50 degrees cooler than the bottom one. This works fine and gives you a lot of versatility, but it was a lot of trouble to make. If I were doing it over, I might make one large oven box. Try not to let your bread pans sit directly on the bottom, or your bread will burn. I used some little metal wire racks to keep mine about an inch above the bottom of the oven.

My oven legs are metal tubing scavenged from thrown away furniture, but I could have more easily used angle iron. They should be sturdy and hold the oven just above the hobo stove. This lets you tend the fire easily or remove it entirely. The stronger your shell and legs are, the better. More weight will help even out the heat, so heavier is better. Also, if your stove and legs are sturdy enough, you can set pots on top of the stove to heat water.

If your outer shell is large enough, you might consider building the fire-box into the oven body, like a real stove. I chose the separate hobo-stove for versatility, ease of cleanup and transportability. I made my hobo stove out of a disposable helium cylinder from a party balloon kit. Any metal cylinder with an open top will work fine. A bucket would probably work just as well. Cut one side of the container so you can add fuel from the side and several large air holes. Insulate the bottom with gravel or sand and you are finished. (A wire handle and a grate on top of the stove are nice touches, but not needed for this project.) Hobo stoves burn wood very efficiently because they form a strong draft from the bottom, so a long tube is more efficient than a short one and you need plenty of air holes. Regulate temperature by adding fuel, not by cutting off air flow. These stoves work best running hot and fast, so it's better to burn smaller amounts
of fuel fast and add more as needed. If you are doing it right, you will have very little smoke.

For fuel, I burn seasoned scrub oak sawed into 6 inch lengths and split about an inch or two wide. I have also used chopped up pine lumber and brush and dead limbs out of my yard. All of them seem to work about the same. To use this oven, simply light the hobo stove and let the oven heat up (about 10 minutes). Pop your loaves in the ovens and keep the fire burning at low to medium. (My hobo-stove is maybe 10 inches wide and can put out a lot of heat. It will overheat this oven if I get too happy throwing on wood. I think I could have gotten by using a coffee can for a hobo stove and making the stove legs shorter.)

Old School Field Baking

I am not going to insult anyone's intelligence by explaining how to bake bread, but I have some tips for doing it outdoors on a larger scale, that might be useful.

Be organized so you can quickly pass off the simple chore of baking to others. Once you get things running, there is no need for a highly-skilled survivor-type to stand there and baby-sit it. You are more valuable than that. Keep everything simple. When you set up your bakery operation, write your recipe and instructions in magic marker on whatever table you are using. That way anyone can take over and keep the bread coming while you do other useful work.

You need a good water supply. If you are carrying water from far away, you are wrong. It's much easier to carry finished bread than water. You will need lots of clean water to mix in the dough, but even more water for washing pans and bowls and utensils. You need several big water containers and a larger container for washing. (Army immersion heaters would probably work really well for washing up, but I don't have one, so I cheat and wash up inside at my kitchen sink right now. I have a large bushel size wash tub, but I have never used it for this.) Set up your washing station nearby so you can use it between batches. Bring lots of latex gloves [and non-latex for those that are allergic] and make all your helpers use them. Nuff said.

You will also need a hand-washing station wherever you are planning to feed people. Don't forget soap and paper towels. Food borne illness is a big killer after a disaster. You may save more lives with your washing point than with your bread. I recommend having disposable cups for soup and no other implements. Make them drink the soup. Washing up bowls and spoons is very labor intensive and not as sanitary as plastic cups. (You will need several hundred a day plus about 4 rolls of paper towels. Liquid soap is better than bar soap for hand washing.

You need some working space. Set up at least one large picnic table for counter space. Two is better. That will allow you to use one for cleanup and the other for dough prep. Spread a table-cloth or sheet of plastic. Keep a small pail of soapy water and a sponge nearby to wipe up flour and your area will stay clean. Lay out a cookie sheet on the table to lay utensils on so they never touch anything dirty. The ingredients should never touch anything except the utensils, mixing bowls and the bread pans. (After the bread comes out, you will need something to wrap it with after it cools a little, but odds are, the bread won't last very long!) The utensils should always sit on the cookie sheet and should be thoroughly washed between batches. Keeping everything clean outdoors is hard, but organization can really help. So can paper towels if you have them.

Mix your dough in a large metal container and don't try to knead it by the loaf. (I make six loaves at a time, which is still small enough to stir by hand). Don't knead the dough with your hands. Stir it instead with a sturdy spoon or spatula. A 16 inch length of 1x2 pine board works really well for this. Just keep it clean. For containers, stock pots work great. (You will need about six of them. It's hard to have too many.) Mix all your ingredients, stir it for about 5-10 minutes, put a lid on the pot and put it someplace warm for about an hour. (The top of your stove will be WAY too hot, but you can probably put it near the fire at the base. Another warm place is inside a car sitting in the sun). At the end on an hour, mix up another batch, punch down the first batch and transfer it into baking pans and lay these in a clean, warm place to rise again. (Clean as you go.)

Rising dough needs a clean warm place. Clean, warm place? That's the biggest problem you may face. If it's cold out, you can't use a car for a solar oven to warm your dough. Another good solution is to use a cooler. If you line the bottom with ceramic tile or gravel, you can heat up a rock or piece of metal and lay it inside the cooler to heat the air inside. I use 3 chunks of rebar and rotate them in the fire to keep the whole cooler between 80 and 100 degrees. If it's too cold for any of these methods, you are probably better off using baking soda instead of yeast for leavening. It's almost as good when you are hungry, and much easier to deal with in cold weather.

At the end of the second hour, pop your pans in the hot ovens, make another batch and fill some more pans. After this point, you will be producing one batch of bread every hour or so. My oven bakes bread in 45 minutes using my pans. Yours will be different, so you have to experiment. Remember, if you use my stove design, the top stove is cooler than the bottom stove. Let it cook a few minutes longer.

My stove body is very sturdy and the top has a single 6 inch hole for a vent. The whole top gets hot (probably 350 to 400 degrees at least. This allows me to put a stock pot and a couple of smaller pots directly on top of the stove to heat water. It will even boil small pots of water if you put them over the vent (You have to make sure you don't block the air flow). A big stock pot gets hot enough for soup. If you put a big pot of water up top, it will heat up to about 150 degrees in an hour. That allows you to add instant soup mix and serve soup with your bread for very little additional trouble and no extra fuel.

Normal bread pans can be used if you build your oven to the right dimensions. I was stupid and didn't do that, so I had to make my own pans to efficiently use the oven space available.

Every run of my oven requires about 15 pounds of flour, 2 pounds of dry milk, 4 cups of sugar, 8 cups of oil and a generous handful of salt. Figure 10 runs a day minimum at 150 pounds of flour. (60 big loaves a day is a lot of food). You will have to try your own system out once or twice using your pans and recipes to see how much it's going to cost you in supplies.

Your group can probably get flour or grain (popcorn, rice, wheat, barley or even millet) from somewhere locally to help you out. Even birdseed with un-hulled sunflower and rape seeds is usable if you grind it very coarsely at first and use a colander to get rid of the big hulls. (You can also float them away). Mix and match different flours in an emergency. You are not cooking for a 5 star restaurant and "It's all good." (Birdseed mix is not very good for bread, so mix it with wheat flour and cut down the oil you add by half.) Your life will be better if you have a flour sifter. A sifter or a course colander can also get rid of trash from dirty feed wheat. Otherwise, your finished flour will have hulls and such in it.

Flour is much easier to work with than buckets of wheat! You will need some way to grind it. I strongly recommend getting a good grain mill like the Country Living Mill and motorizing it. Even a car inverter (a big one) can run an electric grain mill. You are going to have to provide over 15 pounds of flour every hour! That's a lot different from grinding 2 cups of flour for some muffins. Grinding wheat by hand is soul-destroying work, so do anything you can to avoid having to do it the hard way!

If you are facing serious hunger and you need to add more solid food to your kitchen, rice is the natural choice. It cooks fast, stores well and is pretty filling. Simple white rice is very boring and may not be eaten by some Americans, even in a crisis. Even adding a few beans can make it more palatable. Rice and beans are probably acceptable to most Americans, but beware, beans take a long time to cook and lots of fuel. You won't be able to use a insulated cooker unless you have a lot of pots and patience. Waiting for the beans to come off might cause a riot.

Remember, any solid foods you serve are going to require clean utensils and containers.

If you store white flour, odds are, you will need to rotate a lot of it when a disaster strikes. Use it first. The extra nutrition provided by whole wheat is not that important for a healthy population. If they were well fed yesterday, they are in no danger of getting rickets or pellagra. They just need calories. You might even be able to claim it on your income taxes.

The recent earthquake in the island nation of Haiti illustrates the fragility of all societies. While Haiti is unusual in its lack of infrastructure and its high dependence on foreign aid--more than half of its annual government budget comes from foreign aid--it is still similar in many ways to other nations: From the 1960s to the turn of the 21st century, as in many other nations, Haiti became an urbanized nation. Before the 1960s a substantial portion of Haitian society still lived on rural semi-self sufficient farmsteads. But as urbanization and specialization went on, fewer and fewer people lived off the land and more and more citizens became dependent on foreign aid and a scant number of industrial jobs. This trend has been repeated around the globe, making nearly all societies increasingly vulnerable to disasters, man-made or natural. The resiliency of traditional agrarian societies has sadly become a thing of the past. Here in America, 2% of the population now feeds the other 98%. This is now something that First, Second, and Third World nations have in common. America is more like Haiti than we'd like to think. Human nature is the same in every culture and nation: fundamentally sinful.

The Thin Veneer

With a few exceptions, most notably in Oceania, traditional Christian values have slipped away in much of the western world. When times get tough the citizenry of most nations loses all compunctions about using violence to expropriate the property of others. As I've written before, modern societies have just a thin veneer of civilization that covers something quite odorous beneath. Here in modern western societies, folks like to think of themselves as highly civilized, but when the Schumer hits the fan, there's no difference between people in the First World and the Third World.

As prepared individuals, we have the opportunity to set ourselves apart with a higher standard of behavior than those who resort to their baser instincts in time of crisis. It's important that there are some of us that have both the means and the willingness to help restore order and free commerce in the event of societal disruption.

The recent events in Haiti should be a reminder that in times of crisis things can easily fall apart. What happened in Haiti was dramatic, and a naturally occurring event, but because of the vulnerabilities of all modern societies, there could just as well be a reversion to savagery in a situation such as an economic collapse. We need to have our Beans, Bullets, and Band-aids squared away, so we can focus on more important things in a disaster than just finding food and water. Not only do we need to just prepare for surviving the next day, but also to be useful in rebuilding infrastructures and free commerce. This requires preparing with logistics as well as training and practicing to be ready to step into the breach.

The Charity Imperative

First World nations have become focused on large organizations, both governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), dispensing charity. The collective psyche is geared toward watching suffering "someplace far away", and dialing an 800 number to make a contribution via credit card. While I truly appreciate people's generosity, it is something quite far removed from preparedness to dispense charity locally.

In the event of a disaster closer to home, credit cards won't do the job. It takes tangible goods in hand to solve crises in your own backyard. So, it's important that we stock up, both for ourselves, and to dispense copious charity to relatives, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. In the event of a nation-wide disaster here in America, there will be no relief from abroad. We must reconstitute internally, starting at the local level. Here is where your skills, your tools, your gear, your garden seed, and your grub will be crucial.

When it comes to knowledge you'll need to be prepared to disseminate crucial, yet simple technologies to your neighbors. These could include how to build a inertial water pump, how to build a simple 12VDC fuel transfer pump, and how to build simple solar projects, such as solar stills, cold frames and green houses, solar ovens, and solar dehydrators. And don't forget, that in the event of a crisis, your local photocopy center is unlikely to be in operation. So, it is important to prepare multiple hard copies of key pieces of information now, to have on hand to distribute when times get tough. There is a wealth of knowledge available on traditional skill and technologies in the SurvivalBlog archives and elsewhere on the Internet, from organizations such as Steve's Pages, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), The Hesperian Institute, The Peace Corps, OISM, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP), and Backwoods Home Magazine. Take advantage of these resources, and make those photocopies so that you will be able to share that knowledge with others!

Teaching for the Moment

Elementary school teachers here in the United States use the phrase "teach for the moment," to describe turning current events into teaching opportunities. I recommend that any conversations amongst your neighbors, coworkers, or church brethren be used as opportunities to spread the philosophy of family preparedness. Water cooler chit-chat should not just be "ain't it awfuling" sessions. You should instead use such conversations to encourage others to actively prepare for similar situations. And if anyone says, "Oh, but it couldn't happen here," then just remind them about the aftermath Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Not only has it happened here before, but it is likely to recur often within our lifetimes.

The Haitian earthquake of 2010 is a stark reminder of the fragility of all societies. It shows us that we need to be well-prepared and vigilant. And for those of us that are not Secret Squirrels, we should also be quietly and persistently leading public opinion, locally.

Jim,
I am offering a challenge for your readers. I will match dollar for dollar all donations made by your readers to Anchor of Hope up to a total of $20,000. If they will respond, we can raise $40,000 for Anchor of Hope Charities. So that you know that I am serious about this, I am sending my donation of $20,000 to them today. - An Anonymous Donor

JWR Replies: Thank you, Sir, very much for your tremendous generosity! The Anchor of Hope orphanage and school is a very worthy charity with hardly any overhead. I am hopeful that more SurvivalBlog readers will also make contributions! To get the ball rolling on your challenge offer, I just made another substantial donation.

Jim,
Your blog readers continue to be generous and devoted to efforts in Zambia through Anchor of Hope Charities. Your wife’s memorial fund continues to bring much prosperity to the children. [As of mid-December,] $12,692.43 has now been raised. There are several of your readers now making repeat donations. One generous check came recently for $1,000! This is amazing to me.

These donations continue to keep us busy! By us I mean two of us at Anchor of Hope Charities - and Ronnie and Kennedy Mvulo, the Zambian couple who run the orphanage. We are busy negotiating with local vendors, purchasing supplies, and coordinating the building efforts. We are also making plans for our next trip in May. Our hope is to have a medical team available to offer services to those in the surrounding communities. I would venture to say that 1,000 local people will end up camping out, waiting to see our US doctors and dentists. It should be an amazing experience for both Zambians and Americans.

It’s funny, Jim. Because of all the work that’s being done in the area, people are starting to take notice. They too want to be a part of the work. We are starting to see local donations of work and some supplies.

I cannot express to you what an impact we are making. But I’m truly grateful. My best to you and our readers. - Judy Kendall, Director, Anchor of Hope Charities

JWR Replies: I am most profoundly gratified to see such an outpouring of charity to such a worthy cause. I urge anyone that has not yet donated to go ahead and do so. For readers in the US: If you make a donation before December 31st, it will be deductible for the current tax year.

I can’t help but notice there being a correlation between preparedness and Christianity. Most people I know who are getting involved, and most of the stuff I read on line is written by Christians. The one thing I haven’t read too much about though is what it will look like to share our faith after a collapse. In the grand scheme of eternity being able to grow in your relationship with Jesus and help others do the same is the most important part of being prepared. 

A friend of mine used to own and operate a Christian bookstore. His family bought it in the summer of 2001 and did okay. They were able to make ends meet and they were satisfied knowing they were helping people get closer to God. For the rest of that year following the 9/11 attacks my friend said he was pulling in nearly $10,000 a day. That was more than they made a month during that summer. He told me that people think more about God when tragedy strikes and we are reminded why we need Him. 

Everything goes in cycles. If and when the next Crash/Collapse/Outbreak happens it will not be anything that the historical timeline hasn’t seen before. Honestly I’d say we’re overdue. One thing that you will find that comes along with almost every huge upheaval is a revival of the things of God. When the world goes to chaos people want to talk about God. They might start by railing against Him, but it doesn’t stay that way for long.
            When reading your Bible I challenge you to find a passage that even alludes to the idea that when all Hell breaks loose we are to hide and let the damned be damned and the saved be saved. Read through the prophets (especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk) and you will see what God’s chosen are called to do when the SHTF. Just because things get really bad doesn’t mean God is giving up on us. Don’t start thinking that He has unless he tells you to build an ark and two of every kind of animal show up at your retreat.
            When the SHTF we who are Christians we are called to be ever more vigilant. Paul charges Timothy to: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). I firmly believe this charge is to all of us who call ourselves believers. We are not exempt from sharing out faith just because things get really difficult.
            You are right to assume that I have never shared my faith after a serious collapse. I have been blessed to live in America and do my ministering here. The closest thing I have is ministering after 9/11. What I have more of is experience in sharing my faith with the desolate, homeless, and forgotten and when the SHTF those people will be the majority.
            From that experience I offer these points on Sharing your Faith after TEOTWAWKI:

1. Take Care of Your Family- I promised my God, family, and self that I would not sacrifice my family on the altar of ministry. In 1 Timothy 3:4+5 Paul says of leaders in the church: “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?).” It will be very difficult after TEOTWAWKI to minister to others if your life (spiritually and physically) is not in order. Our first line of ministry is to our families. We must make sure that in the days after a crash that our family is well fed, healthy, and spiritually sound. While working with teens, most coming from broken homes, I have found one of the most Christian things I can say is, “No, I can’t go hang out with you I have to spend time with my family.” This shows them a better way. Imagine how much we can show by our strong family unit after TEOTWAWKI!

1. Take Care of Physical Needs of Others- Jesus gave us many beautiful examples of how to minister to both body and spirit. Jesus healed many physically; He fed multitudes, and even made money appear in the mouth of a fish. Jesus never ignored the physical needs of those He was talking to and He never passed up an opportunity to share His faith afterwards. As we prepare, if possible, store up enough provisions for at least another person. Have more than enough ammo, food, junk silver, and supplies to give out freely. This may not be possible right away but as you grow your own food and store it make sure a reasonable portion goes into your “Charity Stash.” This will give you ample opportunity to show others what Christ has done in your life. It is very hard to for a hungry person to hear the Gospel over the sound of their own stomach growling.

1. Take Care of Spiritual Needs of Others- In the aftermath of a serious crash people will be extremely desperate and searching for answers. In times of trouble people start to turn back to God. There are examples of it in the Bible and through out history. People will be in a very open state when they are destitute. In the package you give the people who come to your door be sure to include a copy of the New Testament. A complete version of the Bible would be best, but New Testaments are considerably cheaper and easier to store and hand out. You can pick up Bibles cheaply off Amazon, or CBD.com and library book sales. They may not have a lot of the study guides and fancy stuff but it has the Word. This doesn’t mean that everybody you help will fall to their knees and accept Christ on the spot but remember we are called to proclaim the Lord not convert people. Even if somebody leaves your retreat with a bag of rice, some ammo, and a Bible and they don’t seem to care you can’t know what God has in store for them.

1. Be part of Community- One of the first things God told Adam in the Garden was: It is not good for man to be alone.  (Genesis 2:18). God knows we grow in community. After things start to settle down after the crash it would be good to be part of a community of people both Christians and Non-Christians. Hopefully at your retreat you will be surrounded by people of similar faith and will be able to have daily Bible studies and worship sessions, but after things settle it would be good to meet with others outside the retreat. This may include people from another retreat or refugees squatting in vacant houses and buildings. Starting a church wouldn’t be very hard at all and any one with a love for Jesus and good Bible knowledge could take over as head pastor.

In reading the Bible it is impossible to deny that God will at times crash our world in order to get our attention. Habakkuk prayed for God to bring the Israelites back to Himself and God’s answer was enemy invasion and seventy years of captivity.  It is our duty out of God’s love to be prepared to bring others to Christ as long as we draw breath.

Sir,
Knowing your Christian beliefs are similar to mine -- Calvinist, reformed -- I thought you'd want to know that the article you linked to is from a cult organization. It follows doctrines generally referred to as "Armstrongism" -- denying the Trinity and salvation by grace alone, and more false prophecies than can be counted.

Here's a write up from a cult watch group describing the doctrines:
Armstrongism: The doctrines and religious movement originating with Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986), who founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Armstrong rejected such essential doctrines of evangelical Christianity as the Trinity, the full deity of Jesus Christ , and the personality of the Holy Spirit. Armstrong taught British Israelism and believed that worthy humans could eventually “become God as God is God.” Teaches salvation by works predicated on Sabbatarianism , tithing (20-30%), and keeping the Old Testament feast days and dietary laws. Under the leadership of Armstrong’s successors, Joseph W. Tkach and his son Joe Tkach, the WCG has undergone a radical doctrinal transformation. Scores of splinter groups, such as the Global Church of God and the United Church of God , continue to teach various forms of Armstrongism.

Though the article may have some merit re: survivalism, [linking to] it also could also lead some into this cult and away from Christ. With this in mind, you may wish to remove it from your site. With respect, - Chris B.

Jim:
He starts by tipping his hat to survivalist foresight, but it degenerates into "Forget all that survivalist stuff, put your faith in God and God alone."

I'm in agreement with that in part, but God also told us to take care of ourselves and others.

"God actually wants us to recognize and overcome our tendency to trust ourselves. He is measuring the coming destruction of America and other nations because of our sin, our faithlessness, our self-reliance, our ignorance of Him and our belittling of His power. And if you understand the Bible’s prophecies about the severity of that destruction, you realize that no private bunker will be safe for long. No one is going to escape the coming tribulation—descending on the nation because of God’s wrath—through survivalist moxie.

Those who plan to weather the coming storms through their own foresight and ingenuity are underestimating the savageness of the time ahead. More importantly, they are misplacing their faith."

He wrapped with...

"Above all, God seeks repentance. And to those who turn to Him with supple hearts, He offers individual protection—escape—from the worst of the coming storms (e.g. Luke 21:36). That is the only sure place to invest our faith."

Okay, I'm in agreement with that too, but only after I've done all I can.

I can't imagine that God would have given me the mind I have and sent me down the paths I've gone down to just roll over and go cockroach waiting for the redemption when it comes time.

That would be a really cruel joke. I know bad things happen, I'm pretty sure it's humans at work. The duality of our souls. I don't think God is mean for the sake of it. Probably more disappointed than anything. - Jim B

Hi James -
I am sure you are aware of the recent post on the Trumpet web site detailing their particular view on preparedness. I am not a member of their denomination, nor do I agree with their viewpoint that the Bible precludes preparation and storage of food for more than a few weeks. Did not Joseph store seven years’ worth of wheat in preparation for lean times? It seems to this preparedness neophyte that the Lord has provided us with the precious gift of life and loved ones, and that for us to knowingly waste these gifts would be an affront to Him and his gifts. When the final tribulation comes and we are all called before Him, will it matter that I left behind six months of freeze dried food that will go to waste? More important is how I lived His gift, and how I shared the storage with those whom He has placed in my life. Perhaps I am missing something. Thanks for your great service, - Hunkajunk

JWR Replies: Yes, I 've seen that article. The author (Joel Hilliker) misinterprets Matthew 6:19-2 ("Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth"), in trying to apply it to food storage. Storing grain for your family's sustenance in hard times does not constitute a "treasure". In the modern context, I think that "treasure" is far more applicable to 48-inch plasma HDTVs. But it is certainly not applicable to the large quantities of wheat and rice that I have in my basement. The extra quantity (beyond my own family's needs) is there for us to distribute in charity--not something to gloat about, or run my fingers through, cackling, just to admire.

In his conclusion, Joel Hilliker also quotes a 1966 article written by Herbert W. Armstrong, as if it were authoritative. Obviously, Armstrong's writings would only be credible if he had made accurate prophecies. But in fact he had a horrible track record as a prophet, and he was fortunate that the Old Testament laws on false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) have not been enforced in modern times, or he wouldn't have lived to write that piece in 1966.

I've noticed that people tend to throw around terms like "hoarding" very loosely. Let's get something straight: Purchasing storage food before a crisis does not constitute hoarding. That is because it doesn't take food from anyone's mouth. But if someone tried to amass their supplies after the onset of a crisis, then that would be hoarding. Simple logic dictates that every citizen that is well stocked represents one less individual that will rush to the supermarket to clean out the shelves, when disaster strikes. Hence, instead of being part of the problem, preppers are part of the solution. As I've often stated in radio and television interviews, I don't consider my family's three years worth of storage food a three year supply for one family. Rather, it is a one year supply for three families. Charity is essential, and Biblically mandated for heads of households.

In September, 2008, Hurricane Ike--a Category 4 hurricane--pounded the Gulf Coast of the southern US. Some coastal communities like Crystal Beach no longer really exist. Inland, life was severely disrupted. For those of us on the South Coast hurricanes are a frequent reality. We were quite well prepared, but used the disruptions and dislocations as a test and opportunity to tune up our preparations.

1. Be ready to help others and to accept help We didn't need much during Ike, but the power went out before a neighbor finished boarding up his house. My 1 KW inverter, hooked up to his idling truck provide the juice for a Skilsaw and a few lights; allowing him to finish. Usually it is skills and not "stuff" that helps others and yourself. Besides strengthening a neighborly friendship, the number of damaged houses was probably reduced by one.

2. Keep your stuff squared away.. I repaired a few generators during and after Ike. I observed that every one suffering from lack of use; i.e. gasoline that resembled turpentine in the carburetor. People were at a complete loss to understand this. My daugher-in-law owned one of the generators that I repaired. She ignored my admonition to change the dirty oil ASAP and then once every 50 hours. Early in the next week it [ran out of oil and] threw a rod. She was in the dark for another week. Just a $2.99 quart of oil would have saved discomfort, ruined food, etc.
 
My portable genset, loaned to my daughter, was ready to go;  fresh oil, filters, valves set, exercised, load tested. It started on the first try. I came to check it and change it's oil as soon as it was safe to travel. The first thing that I did was turn it so the exhaust faced away from the house! She had placed it so that the starter rope was in a convenient spot. At least she had, like I had asked, chained and locked it to a foundation pier.

After every hurricane Darwin gets a few through accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. Don't join them. If you have a generator, get a carbon monoxide detector in case the wind changes and wafts exhaust in your windows.

Our own [permanently-installed] genset uses natural gas (a tri-fuel generator) which in the majority of cases is superior and much cheaper to operate. Over the 11 days that we didn't have power it consumed $100 worth of natural gas. I estimate that an equivalent amount of gasoline would have cost more than $300. I stopped it every 75 hours for oil and filter. If your genset doesn't have an hour meter, then add one. There are some inexpensive self contained hour meters made for lawn equipment that work very well and require no hard wiring. It's really the only practical way to keep track of operating time, without which, intelligent maintenance is impossible.

I noticed that many generators, some still in the box, on Craigslist following Hurricane Ike at bargain basement prices. I recommended to a friend he latch onto one of these and purchase a dual-fuel gasoline/natural gas carburetor] kit. Ants can profit from short-sighted grasshoppers.

It goes without saying have all your vehicles filled up and serviced so they can be depended upon with out much attention. Pay particular attention to cooling systems, oil changes, tire pressures, belts and battery terminals.

Develop a pre-event SOP: When we hear of a hurricane in the Gulf, we pick up loose items like branches that can be thrown by high winds and cause damage (aviators call this rubbish FOD), trim trees, check prescriptions, recharge everything rechargeable, treat the swimming pool with "shock" chlorine, get all the laundry and dishes done, get all the trash out for pickup, take “before” pictures, etc., etc., etc.

3. Have backups for your backups. The portable generator above was our backup to the natural gas-fueled genset. Then an inverter and ups. After that is a 100 Watt solar array I've been tinkering with to provide power for security lighting,etc.

My daughter spent up to two hours a day foraging gas, mostly waiting in lines. She found out that the problem with gasoline-fuel generators is gasoline! It's expensive, in short supply (when it is needed most), and it takes gas to go and get gas! Needless to say I rounded up the parts and the portable is now a dual fuel machine. Had it been able to use natural gas then she could have stayed home and been one less person waiting in line. And the machine still retains the capability to burn gasoline!

Since gasoline became hard to come by (it was impossible to get for a week after Rita) but diesel fuel was plentiful we did any necessary traveling in my old diesel Mercedes (which is EMP proof, BTW).

One important word on generators: Treat yours like it is the last one you'll ever get. Try and get a good one, I prefer either a Honda or Briggs Vangard engine. My Vangard portable is approx 10 years old and absolutely dependable. The difference is methodical maintenance. Keep the manuals, and read 'em ! Keep the oil changed, keep a fresh spark plug, keep spare [oil, air, and fuel] filters. Most importantly run it under load once a month. Unless it's new, pull off the cowling and clean all the dirt and dust from fins on the cylinder jug. Closely examine the starter rope, the fuel lines, et cetera. Replace 'em if they ain't perfect.

If you get a permanently installed generator carefully consider installing a manual transfer switch and other upgrades. With the exception of automatic "exercising" fully automatic generators these add a layer of complication and cost.

Don't store gasoline in the machine other than enough for one periodic test run. Develop a ritual on test runs: such as every other payday, or the last Saturday in the month, to reduce it to a ritual. I run mine monthly whilst cutting the back yard lawn. (The mower makes more noise.)

For storage between test runs: On portable gensets [with the ignition off, slowly ] pull the cord until you can feel that the engine is at the top of the compression stroke. This is where the engine feels like you are pulling it through a "detent". It puts the piston at the top of the bore and closes both valves. This protects the cylinder from moisture. If you store gasoline then use stabilizer, after six months burn it in your car and replace it. Few experiences are worse that trying to clean out a carburetor by a dim flashlight whilst being consumed alive by salt marsh mosquitoes. Trust me on this. BTW, I've had better results storing "winter" blended gas, since t has more light fractions and starts easier year round.

If you use gas cans; stick with metal, preferably safety cans. Plastics are slightly permeable and it will go bad much faster in a plastic can. On that note, [in humid climates] don’t keep spare spark plugs with the machine. This is because in outdoor storage the insulators can absorb moisture [and the metal parts can corrode]. Keep them inside or in a sealed can with some silica gel. An old one-quart paint can is ideal.

If you have a dual-fuel machine, then break the engine in on gasoline and make sure it operates properly on both fuels under load. Keep the necessary connectors for gas operation on the machine so that you don't have to go searching for that 3/8ths-inch pipe nipple with a flashlight.

Use high quality oils, and have enough. Don't forget to also store plenty of 2-stroke [fuel mixing] oil and chain oil if you intend to use a chainsaw. Maybe store some extra for your neighbors that are less prudent. I use Rotella brand synthetic oil and Wix brand filters, and have had good results with them.

Make sure you have enough oil, filters and plugs for at least two weeks (336 hours), or longer. Don't forget about your equipment after the crisis is over: There are valves to set, oil and plugs to change, etc. Even if you own two generators and have enough flashlights, automatic emergency lights, et cetera, things can, and may likely go wrong. Small children usually do not take kindly to being plunged into total darkness. Unless it is TEOTWAWKI, keep the candles in the cupboard, especially if there are small children about.

4. Double your plans for helping other people. Several relatives from coastal areas evacuated to our house (approximately 50 miles inland). I keep a 55 gallon drum of stabilized gasoline to fill up their cars to get them home. This was a lesson learned after the Rita evacuation cluster. How much food you will go through will surprise you. It finally dawned upon us that we almost always eat dinner (lunch to you Northerners) and sometimes breakfast away from home. So what we consumed whilst hunkered down seemed out of proportion.

We also sent some food home with people to hold them over. I was able to "lend" a retired neighbor enough generated power to keep his freezer, television, and fan going. He was genuinely happy. This also meant that he was one less person in line for ice, food, and so forth.

5. Keep a dial up phone line around, after 24 hours the cell phone tower generators started running out of propane, the cable modem (and the cable) went down with the power. Remember how to make that dial-up modem work.

If you're not a Ham radio operator, then find out where the local hams conduct their emergency nets, and listen on your shortwave radio (HF) or scanner (2-meter and 440 band) and you'll know a lot more that the local television news truck can find out.

If you have cable television, then keep a traditional antenna handy. If you live near a major market the local AM news station, then it is probably a good bet. Have a good UPS, plug the computer and the desk lamp into it. If you have a cordless phone, plug it into the UPS too. The UPS will take the "bumps" out of the generator's power; your computer will thank you. Make sure you test the UPS periodically by plugging in a 100 Watt lamp and pulling the plug on the UPS. I find I need to replace that UPS battery about every 2-to-3 years.

6. Plan for the guests. Have plenty of soap, have a small flashlight (preferably with rechargeable batteries) for each guest. Have things other than television to keep youngsters occupied. Try and get plenty of rest. You'll probably be plenty busy after you can poke your head out again. In this vein don't forget dishwashing supplies, laundry supplies, baby supplies, etc. If it's a predictable event such as a hurricane, have all the dishes and laundry done. before it hits.

A television in a room by itself will keep the racket contained from those who want to read, play games or just sleep. If you have the space, then a “quiet room” where  people can just rest, read, be alone, have some privacy or get a fussy to baby to sleep cuts down on contagious stress.

7. Make sure you are medically prepared. Have a rather complete first aid kit that includes a backboard and splinting materials. There will be plenty of cuts,scrapes, bruises, sunburns and sore muscles in the aftermath. Have Band-Aids, 4x4s, neosporin, peroxide etc. Have plenty of acid reducer and immodium on hand (stress and unfamiliar cooking), have at least two weeks of prescription drugs on hand [and preferably much more for any chronic health issues]. Have a good assortment of Tylenol, cold and sinus preparations, BenGay [muscle ointment], good  multivitamins, etc.

8.Be extra, extra, extra careful. You getting sick or more likely injured can really mess things up for everyone you have prepared for. Not to mention that the local fire/ambulance is probably already overtaxed. Be extremely careful handling fire and fuels. A lot of us are not entirely fluent in using chainsaws, small engines, fixing roofs, trimming trees and moving debris.[JWR Adds: safety equipment including heavy gloves, kevlar chainsaw safety chaps, and a combination safety helmet with face shield and muffs are absolute "musts"!] Don't get in a hurry unless there is a threat to life. Be hyper cautious, be very aware of your surroundings and things that can go wrong. Don’t toil alone. Make sure you have a clear path to beat a hasty retreat if things go wrong. Wear those gloves, safety glasses, boots and maybe a hard hat.

Don't overtax yourself. Getting a fallen the tree off of the roof today avails you little if it triggers a heart attack or heat stroke. Ask God's assistance and start over tomorrow.

Keep fire extinguishers near the gas generator, in the kitchen, and near the camp stove.

Avoid using candles at all costs, and absolutely prohibit smoking indoors for the duration. Have more than enough battery smoke detectors around.

9. Be ready to make temporary repairs.. The missing shingles, damaged windows, etc. Have some plywood, a few 2x4s, some Visqueen polyethylene sheeting, batting boards, duct tape, a tarp, some nails, and so forth around. If you happen to have a good cordless drill, then you'll find sheet rock and deck screws are very superior to nails. If you're squared away then you already have this stuff , but a neighbor might be in need, so buy extra.

Debris creates flat tires for quite some time after many events. Have a tire plug kit and a 12 VDC compressor in each vehicle. Repairs to structures, especially roof repairs guarantee nails in tires. Be ready for them..

Have everything rechargeable recharged. Make sure you have some traditional non-power tools, I have a handsaw that I've had for decades, a good bow saw, ax, maul, sledge and an old eggbeater style hand drill still get regular use.

10. If I had my choice of just one utility it would be running water. Fortunately where we reside is served by a well run rural utility district which has prepared well for hurricanes. Failing this, in addition to stored water I have a portable gas utility pump (Robin brand) that can pressurize our water system from our pool and has sufficient capacity for a fire line. The pool got a good jolt of shock a day before the storm hit.

11.Keep some cash money handy. For a few days [with no utility power] there were no functional ATMs, and no way to use credit or debit cards.

12. Keep a low profile. About a week after Ike a passerby indignantly asked "How'd you get your lights turned on?" This showed his ignorance on several levels. He seemed to think someone just had to flip a switch downtown and "shazam!" his lights are on. I couldn't make him understand there has to be an unbroken physical link between a power plant and consumer, this seemed to aggravate his obvious helplessness. Telling him that we had been making our own juice seemed to irritate him. I wonder who he voted for? People with this mindset (that the world owes them something) could be a genuine liability in a real catastrophe. (BTW on a news show during a piece about energy, I actually heard a lady refer to natural gas as “just another dirty fossil fuel”) and not be challenged on the facts. Little minds scare me. I think that the hyper-liberals would love to use the heavy hand of government to force the ants take care of the grasshoppers.  Keep a low profile. The best advice I ever heard on the subject (I believe it was Howard J. Ruff ) was to "keep your principles public and your actions private".

13. Keep a notebook, keep a record of what happened, but especially keep a record of preps you overlooked or screwed up, or stuff you ran out of, or skills that need to be added or honed. That's where most of the preceding information came from! Also keep tabs on what's scarce after an event. Gas was scarce, but diesel plentiful after Rita. In contrast, after Ike there was plenty of fuel, but few operating stations due to lack of power. (There was a "mandatory evacuation" during Rita which turned out to be a fatal traffic jam for a few poor souls which quickly emptied the filling station tanks.) Out our way the local Wal-Mart made a heroic effort and opened up on locally-generated power, two days after Ike. The sheriff’s department was there to “maintain order”. (Let’s just say that they actually wear brown shirts here.). This event was a lifetime opportunity to study the varied behaviors of people under stress.

There were plenty of canned goods and auto supplies. But fresh fruits and veggies were a little thin, no meat due to lack of refrigeration for a few days, batteries, Coleman fuel, trash bags, paper plates, disposable diapers, formula, and nails evaporated. The pharmacy was closed.

Even with the numerous mistakes we made, we were able to stay safe, secure and comfortable and help others while "victims" were standing or idling their car engines in lines. It was an opportunity to try things out under more or less controlled conditions. WTSHTF there will not be controlled conditions!

Before her recent death, my wife Linda ("The Memsahib") asked that any memorial donations be made to her favorite charity, Anchor of Hope Charities, the main sponsor of the Anchor Institute, a Christian school and orphanage in rural Zambia. It is a very deserving charity, with hardly any overhead expenses. You can make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal, credit card, or by check. See the via PayPal/credit card page, or the mailing address for checks at the Anchor of Hope Charities Donation Page. Thanks for supporting this worthy charity! May God Bless You.

Nearly every week, I get at least one frantic e-mail from a new SurvivalBlog reader, stating that they feel woefully under-prepared. The gist of these e-mails is: "I'm behind the power curve! How can I possibly get prepared in time?"

Fear not! Just by reading SurvivalBlog and taking some small, gradual steps at preparedness, you are miles ahead of your sheeple neighbors. And even with just modest preparedness measures, you have already substantially increased your chances of surviving most scenarios.

As I see it, here are your advantages:

Awareness
Most people are clueless. They have a naive Pollyanna outlook. But SurvivalBlog readers see the Big Picture, and plan accordingly. Because you are constantly aware of current events, you won't be one of the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) masses that invariably gets petrified in a crisis. Instead of just sitting there glued to a Crackberry, you will be taking concrete, meaningful action. While others spin in circles like beheaded poultry, you'll be busy helping to get things back to normal.

Skills and Knowledge
Unlike the folks that absorbed in the mindless American Idol television culture, you've spent your available time in taking hands-on training, and reading up on practical and tactical skills. You've also assembled a home library of useful references.

Networking
Most of you have teamed up with like-minded relatives, friends, church congregants, and neighbors. Meanwhile, your average suburbanite doesn't even know the names of all of the neighbors on his block, much less know their skill sets.

Tools
You've bought the best tools you could afford, for all foreseeable eventualities. Whether it is your Hi-Lift jack or your Glock, you've done your homework and acquired the most appropriate and durable gear. Meanwhile, your neighbors have frittered away their funds on jet-skis, Beanie Babies, Hummel figurines, and big screen plasma HDTVs.

Planning
You've developed both "stay put" and "Get Out of Dodge" plans, plus a few alternates. You keep your bugout bag and even your passport handy.

Logistics
Unlike the sheeple--who aren't prepared for even a three day power failure--you have your beans, bullets, and Band-Aids stocked away, in depth. While your sheeple neighbors are flocking to the grocery store, where they will most likely find only empty shelves, you'll be sitting pretty. And while they are pondering their two gallon gas can for their lawn mower--their only stored fuel--you have laid in enough to not only be ready for a crisis, but you cane even pick and choose your time to re-stock, when their are dips in fuel prices.

Locale
A minority of highly motivated SurvivalBlog readers have taken my advice and relocated to safer regions. I hope that more of you do the same!

Communications
You already have your commo and band scanning gear up and running. While most folks will be completely ignorant when the power grids and phone systems go down, you'll be coordinating with your Group, and keeping track of where the malo hombres are moving, and where they might be heading next.

Capacity for Charity
There is room in the hearts of most SurvivalBlog readers to dispense copious charity. We consider it our duty. And more than just the willingness to dispense charity, most of us just as importantly also have the capacity--namely, the requisite materiel. If you can't spare it, then you can't share it. As I often tell journalists in phone interviews: I don't look at my food storage as a three year supply for one family. Rather, it is a one year supply for three families.

The Bottom Line
To wax a bit metapohrical, SurvivalBlog readers are what the actuarial accountants would call "low rate qualifiers"--meaning that because we have minimized our risks and maximized our potential life spans we'd qualify for the lowest possible insurance rates. There are no absolute guarantees, but your chance of achieving room temperature at an early age is far, far below that of the average man. Pat yourself on the back, and then redouble your efforts to get squared way.

The hard economic times that I--and many others--warned you about are now here. We are clearly now in the opening stages of a full-scale depression that will last a decade or longer.

This news article (sent to me by SurvivalBlog reader Eric C.) .about an unemployed couple in Indiana is a microcosm of what we will be witnessing for the next decade. Take a few minutes to read it.

Our pampered society is in for a rude wakening. Now, at the risk of sounding unkind and judgmental, the term "white trash" comes to mind. Note that this man in Indiana had no savings, plenty of debt, and obviously no food reserves. Also note that despite his "austere" budget on unemployment insurance, he wastes hundreds of dollars per month as he smokes cigarettes, drinks soda pop, drinks beer (in large quantity), gambles, and pays for commercial car washes. His wife still carries a Blackberry with an airtime contract. Why are they buying disposable diapers, when they could be washing cloth diapers? The article also mentions that the husband has gained 40 pounds in the year since he was laid off. Did he consider planting a vegetable garden? Or washing his own car? (Both would have saved money and provided exercise.) This couple needs a serious lesson in budget priorities. They say that they are worried about their children's school grades, yet they still have a television and XBox games. It is time for a garage sale, to sell those time-wasting gadgets. Then regularly-scheduled trips to the local library, to get their children literate!

This gent is in his thirties, yet he has ruined his health with drinking, smoking, and over-eating. He and his wife seem to view military service as a last resort for their high school senior son. Well, I have a news flash for them: Both the son and the father should have enlisted! In 2006, the US military raised its maximum age of enlistment to 42. (BTW, as the economy continues to worsen, I expect the military to raise their standards considerably and eventually begin turning away large numbers of candidates, just as they did in the 1930s.)

It is also noteworthy that this man is on anti-depressants. He is not alone. Consider this article that was sent to me by Karen H.: Antidepressant Use Doubles in US, Study finds. That is alarming just by itself, but just consider what will happen if and when the Schumer Hits the Fan, and all those patients run out of their medications. (And their booze, and their cigarettes, and their marijuana, and their MTV, and their Crackberry instant messages, and their chocolate, and their American Idol, and their Dunkin' Donuts, and their porn, and their meth, and their soap operas, and their "Energy" drinks.) This could get very ugly, very quickly, once so many millions of suddenly very cranky, very desperate people start roaming the streets. My suggestion is: Don't be near then, in any significant numbers. Move to hinterboonies.

In summary: I had no idea that wallowing in self-pity was such exhausting, time-consuming work. At least they have a comfortable couch and recliner. This old quote mentioned by a SurvivalBlog reader sums up their situation: "The Lord does not bless the farmer who leans on his hoe."

Here is my advice for SurvivalBlog readers on how to survive the currently unfolding Depression:

• Work cheerfully and diligently. It is slackers that find themselves unemployed first.
• Get debt free and stay debt free. Take on no new indebtedness, and pay down the debts you already have.
• Learn to distinguish essentials from non-essentials.
• Write a budget, and stick to it. Whittle it, as necessary, to avoid debt.
• Sell off your useless Beanie babies and assorted knickknacks.
• Increase your savings
• Build up your food storage
• Diversify your investments. Don't put all your money in one bank.
• Check your bank or S&L's safety rating at TheStreet.com. Check your stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and insurers, while you are at it.)
• Hedge your investments with some tangibles
• Sell off any vacation or rental properties that don't have retreat potential
• If you move, then it should be to a place near a secure job, and preferably to a piece of farm or ranch land that provides some self-sufficiency.
• Develop a second stream of income.
• Release yourself from your addictions. Pray fervently, and if need be, seek help.
• Plant a garden.
• Stay in shape.
• Be willing to accept work that is lower paying or less appealing
• Be charitable.
• Most importantly: Get right with God. (Believe, repent of your sin, confess Jesus as your savior, and be baptized.) It is time to pray hard, folks! I believe in predestination. If you are reading this, and feel convicted to make change in your life, then you are fulfilling what God has had planned for you since "before the foundations of the Earth."

Forgive me for ranting, but that article about the unemployed family in Indiana got me a bit riled up.

One suggestion, in closing: If you get laid-off, do not move to a relative's basement in Michigan. Instead, move to where you can find work, even if it hard, "rolled up sleeves" work.

I frequently stress the importance of well-balanced preparedness in my writings. All too often, I've seen people that go to extremes, to the point that these extremes actually detract from the ability to survive a disaster situation. These range from the "all the gear that I'll need to survive is in my backpack" mentality to the "a truckload of this or that" fixation. But genuine preparedness lies in comprehensive planning, strict budgeting, and moderation. Blowing your entire preparedness budget on just one category of gear is detrimental to your overall preparedness.

Another common mistake that I see among my consulting clients is an over-emphasis on either very old technologies or on the "latest and greatest" technologies. In the real world, preparedness necessitates having a bit of both. At the Rawles Ranch we have both 19th century technology (like hand-powered tools) and a few of the latest technologies like passive IR intrusion detection (Dakota Alerts), photovoltaics, and electronic night vision. My approach is to pick and choose the most appropriate technologies that I can maintain by myself, but to always have backups in the form of less exotic or earlier, albeit less-efficient technologies. For example, my main shortwave receiver is a Sony ICF-SW7600GR. But in the event of EMP, I also a have a pair of very inexpensive Kaito shortwaves and a trusty old Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio that uses vacuum tubes. Like my other spare electronics, these are all stored in a grounded galvanized steel can when not in use.

Here is my approach to preparedness gear, in a nutshell

• Redundancy, squared. I jokingly call my basement Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR)
• Buy durable gear. Think of it as investing for your children and grandchildren. And keep in mind that there'll be no more "quick trips to the hardware store" after TSHTF.
• Vigilantly watch Craigslist, Freecycle, classified ads, and eBay for gear at bargain prices.
  
• Strive for balanced preparedness that "covers all bases"--all scenarios.
• Flexibility and Adaptability (Examples: shop to match a 12 VDC standard for most small electronics, truly multi-purpose equipment, multi-ball hitches, NATO slave cable connectors for 24 VDC vehicles, Anderson Power Pole connectors for small electronics--again, 12 VDC)
• Retain the ability to revert to older, more labor-intensive technology.
• Fuel flexibility (For example: Flex fuel vehicles (FFVs), Tri-fuel generators, and biodiesel compatible vehicles)
• Purchase high-quality used (but not abused) gear, preferably when bargains can be found
• If in doubt, then buy mil-spec.
• If in doubt, then buy the larger size and the heavier thickness.
• If in doubt, then buy two. (Our motto: "Two is one and one is none.")
• Buy systematically, and only as your budget allows. (Avoid debt!)
• Invest your sweat equity. Not only will you save money, but you also will learn more valuable skills.
• Train with what you have, and learn from the experts. Tools without training are almost useless.
• Learn to maintain and repair your gear. (Always buy spare parts and full service manuals!)
• Buy guns in common calibers
• Buy with long service life in mind (such as low self-discharge NiMH rechargeable batteries.)
• Store extra for charity and barter
• Grow your own and buy the tooling to make your own--don't just store things.
• Rust is the enemy, and lubrication and spot painting are your allies.
  
• Avoid being an "early adopter" of new technology--or you'll pay more and get lower reliability.
• Select all of your gear with your local climate conditions in mind.
• Recognize that there are no "style" points in survival. Don't worry about appearances--concentrate on practicality and durability.
• As my old friend "Doug Carlton" is fond of saying: "Just cut to size, file to fit,, and paint to match."
• Don't skimp on tools. Buy quality tools (such as Snap-on and Craftsman brands), but buy them used, to save money.
• Skills beat gadgets and practicality beats style.
• Use group standardization for weapons and electronics. Strive for commonality of magazines, accessories and spare parts
• Gear up to raise livestock. It is an investment that breeds.
• Build your fences bull strong and sheep tight.
• Tools without the appropriate safety gear (like safety goggles, helmets, and chainsaw chaps) are just accidents waiting for a place to happen.
• Whenever you have the option, buy things in flat, earth tone colors
• Plan ahead for things breaking or wearing out.
• Always have a Plan B and a Plan C

If you are serious about preparedness, then I recommend that you take a similar approach.

Jim:
Last Sunday night my family drove home to the sight of a pillar of smoke that looked like it was coming directly from where my house should be. It turned out to be the next door neighbor’s home. The blessing is that no one was home, so no one got hurt. The downside is that no one was home so everything owned was lost. I mean everything – clothes, food, water pump, furniture, bedding, cash on hand, tools, toys, games, appliances, equipment, books – everything.

The Red Cross put the family in a hotel for a few days. But after that they came home with a rented shipping container that they are sleeping in. Did I mention they lost everything? The local churches have provided clothes, the neighbors are providing meals. The local funeral home director of all people is donating an old trailer as temporary housing. They will eventually rebuild. But in the short term it is a post-SHTF situation that we can all learn lessons from. Here are the top three:

#1 for me is a profound sense of gratitude and appreciation for everything I own that might have been lost had it been my home. We shouldn’t take our blessings for granted. The end of the world as we know it could happen on a personal level at any time.

#2 This is the opportunity to share supplies meant for starting over in a post-SHTF world. You learn by doing. No matter how much I thought I was ready, I failed to think through the details. For instance one of the things I gave them was boxed mac and cheese with a kettle to boil it in. They had no stove to cook it on, or milk or butter that the directions call for. My bad. I just didn’t think it through.

#3 Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I can not get over the idea that if my home had burned while we were away – they only possessions that we would have left would be what was stored away from home. If you don’t have a couple of caches. Get them in place ASAP.

Prayers for those in need are never wasted – thanks in advance for them, - Mr. Yankee

In a recent phone conversation with one of my consulting clients, I was asked why I placed such a large emphasis on living in the country, at a relatively self-sufficient retreat. I've already discussed at length the security advantages of isolation from major population centers in the blog, but I realized that I've never fully articulated the importance of self-sufficiency, at a fundamental level.

In a societal collapse, where you are in "You're on Your Own" (YOYO) mode, it will be very important to be a net producer of water, food, and energy. This will mean the difference between being someone that is comfortable and well fed, and someone that is shivering, hungry, and thirsty, in the dark.

If you were to create computer models of a typical suburban home as compared to a small farm, they would probably present two very different pictures:

A typical suburban home is an energy pit. It generates hardly energy other than a bit of garden waste that could be used as compost, or fuel. A farm house on acreage, in contrast, can often be a net producer, especially if the farm includes a wood lot. (Standing timber that is suitable for use as firewood.) Properties with near-surface geothermal heat, coal seams, or natural gas wells are scarce, but not unheard of. I've helped several of my clients find such properties. For some further food for thought, see this article by Lester Brown over at The Oil Drum web site: The Oil Intensity of Food

A typical suburban home is a food pit. Just picture how many bags of groceries you tote home each week, month, and year. Compare than with the net volume of food produced by a small farm, or the meat produced by ranch. (For the latter, a ranch that is large enough to produce its own hay and grain is ideal.)

A typical suburban home is also a water pit, dependent on utility-piped water. But with a spring, or with well water and a photovoltaic or wind-powered pump, you can be a water exporter--charitably providing surplus water to your neighbors.

There are are of course some work-arounds for these limitations, such as installing photovoltaic power systems and rainwater catchments cisterns. But it is nearly impossible for a family to be a net producer of water, food, and energy, when living on just a small city lot.

Consider the inherent limitations of life on a "postage stamp" lot:

Limited acreage means that your house will always be a net importer of home heating fuel. Unless you live on acreage where you have a wood lot for firewood, you'll end up on the wrong side of the production-consumption equation. Photovoltaics are practical for lighting and running some appliances, but the big energy loads like space heating, hot water, and kitchen range cooking exceed what PV panels can produce, unless you are a millionaire. Yes, there are substitute energy sources, but most of those--such as propane-but those-are also "imported." Hmm... Perhaps it is worth the extra time and effort to find a retreat property that has a natural gas well, a coal seam or that is in a geothermal zone. At least buy a property with a wood lot, so you can heat your home and water with firewood.

Limited acreage and a location inside limits usually means restrictions on raising livestock. You might find a property that has been exempted or "grandfathered", but without the room required to grow animal feed crops, you will still be a net importer. (You will be forced to buy hay and grain, rather than grow it yourself.)

In many jurisdictions, it is illegal to have a private water well in a neighborhood that is served by a public water utility. This usually has more to do with maintaining a monopoly, rather than any genuine worries about a public health issue. There are of course exceptions, such as older houses with wells, that pre-dated the advent of a water utility. In many jurisdictions, the owners of these wells benefit from grandfather clauses. If buying such a property, make sure that the grandfather clause exemption is transferable. (Otherwise, you will have to cap the water well.)

One of the great ironies of urbanized life in modern-day America is that there has been a great inversion. In 1909, it was dirt poor farmers that lived on acreage, while wealthy people lived on city lots. But now, in 2009, owning acreage is something that most people only dream of, for retirement. In the more populous coastal states, the price per acre of land that is within commuting distance of high-paying jobs has been driven up to astronomical prices.

Have you ever stopped to think why there are large Victorian-style houses falling into disrepair in some Inner City ghettos? This is because at one time, those neighborhoods are where rich people lived. They were nice, safe neighborhoods, and were conveniently close to work, shopping, and schools. But times (and neighborhoods) change. These days, most of the wealthy have long-since moved to suburbs or to the country.

If you decide that you must stay in the suburbs, then I recommend that you at least relocate to a stout masonry house that is on the largest lot that you can afford. When you search through real estate listings, some key phrases to watch for are "creek", "grandfathered", "mature fruit trees" (or "orchard"), "secluded", and "well water." Another key word to watch for is "adjoins". It is advantageous to own a property that adjoins park land.

As I've often written, I recommend moving to a house on acreage in the country--that is if you can afford it, and your work and family situations allow it. But I'll close with one admonition: Don't bite off more than you can chew. There is no point on living on acreage if you have a large mortgage, and no working capital remaining to build up the infrastructure for genuine self-sufficiency. In fact, that would be "the worst of both worlds", since you would have higher commuting costs, a bigger mortgage, and perhaps even a bigger annual tax bill. Owning non-productive land may be worse than owning no land at all.

Mr. Rawles,
At the risk of turning on my local competition to the positive aspects of the free section of Craig's List, I thought I would mention a few of the things I've picked up in the past couple of weeks. These include:

A new round oak dining table and four oak chairs
Three boxes of canning jars with lids
A commercial fishing net (40' x 60'), to be used for keeping birds and other critters out of the garden
36 Concrete cinder blocks (approximate value $130)
Remington electric chain saw (yes, it works!)
30+ wooden pallets (can be used for the usual "pallet" stuff, or for use as firewood/kindling)
Commercial nursery went out of business; so I got more than 1,000 plastic seed starting pots in 3 or 4 sizes (filled my pick-up to the brim).
5 Commercial toilets (out of a church - they were remodeling; two for my current residence, and two for our retreat, plus one spare, for parts)
4 Large two-drawer cabinets
A 25 foot fifth-wheel insulated trailer for moving gear and supplies up to "der bunker", and subsequent use for weather tight storage. (Try to get insulated containers versus single wall, as there is almost no "sweating" inside)
The list goes on. . . .

As this current economic crisis gets worse, more and more folks are going to be displaced, and not having the money to move their possessions they either just abandon them, or place free ads on Craig's list or elsewhere.
In addition, Craig's List is a good source for many other items at very reasonable prices.

Keep your eyes open. On the more valuable items you have to be quick, sometimes responding within minutes. On many items we realize as survival oriented, most folks don't have a clue, so you might have more time.

One thought I had on the pallets for firewood/kindling is that while they are readily available now, in the future they may be less easily found. Now they can be cut into smaller pieces with a skill saw and/or electric chain saw, stored in fifty-gallon plastic trash cans for next winter, or whenever you might need them. Once TEOTWAWKI happens, going outside to hunt firewood may not be such a good idea.
So, if you have Craig's List in your area, keep checking the free section every now and then. There is no telling what you might find. - Chet

JWR Replies: I'm also a big believer in Craig's List. One important note: In the long run, Craig's List only works if folks "return the favor." Be charitable whenever you have things in profusion--even when it is just zucchini squash.

Many readers of Survival Blog are either in the process of moving to a lightly populated area or actively planning to bugout to such an area when the balloon goes up. Twenty years ago I moved from the edge of a large city to a fairly remote property, and have been quietly setting up the doomstead and perfecting skills ever since. In the process, I became part of the fabric of country life here and have learned some valuable lessons which may benefit the rookie country dweller.

Most full-time country residents are descendents of frontiersmen who ventured into the wilderness with little more than a rifle, axe, team of horses, and a large supply of guts. Country people hold many of the same attributes as their forebears; competence, toughness, perseverance, and a willingness to help their neighbors, be it for common defense or a barn raising. Many of these traits are at odds with modern city life supported by a specialized full-time job. Your transition to country life will be smoother if you consider the following:

Country People are Closet Doomers:
They can do lots of useful things such as shoe a horse, grow corn, weld, back a trailer, milk a goat, make tamales, catch a wild cow, troubleshoot an electrical problem, can a tomato, and shoot lights out. And that's just the women.

People here are armed every day as a matter of course. Most have been shooting all of their lives, so the level of firearms proficiency is way above average. I see lots of casual ARs and scoped bolt actions, so if my neighbors and acquaintances are any barometer, potential rampaging MZBs are in for some exceedingly tough sledding.
On a related note, there are a few bad apples in the country, but most tend to migrate to the anonymity of the cities. The outlaws who remain are generally well known to both law enforcement and the population at large, and are easy enough to avoid once you plug into the local grapevine.

Be Scrupulously Honest:
Country people don't care that much what you think or how you wear your hair as long as they can trust you. Lie or stiff a merchant one time and in 45 minutes everyone in the county will know it, guaranteed.

On the flip side, if you've been given too much change or an error is made in your favor with a bank deposit or charge purchase at a merchant, politely point out the mistake and insist on paying the correct amount. While such a gesture will usually be met with stunned disbelief in a large city, in the country it will be acknowledged with a nod and sincere appreciation. And never doubt for an instant that the country grapevine will work in your favor as the word spreads.

When I first moved here, I was able to open an account with any business in town simply by asking if I could charge a purchase. No references, no questions, no credit check, just an address so they could send a statement at the end of the month. Such an accommodating policy would most certainly not have been the case had I been late in paying those first bills.

Money is Overrated:
Country people never forget a kindness; they also rarely forget a transgression against good manners or honesty. The most valuable commerce in the country is not conducted in dollars but in trading, gifts, being owed a favor, and goodwill.

Become Part of the Community:
Self-sufficiency is a worthy goal, but in truth perhaps the most useful survival skill is contributing to a community which has a stake in your well being. To my mind, being able to call upon neighbors for specialized assistance or trade is just as important as beans, bullets, and Band-Aids.

Schools and churches are the glue which binds a country community. If you have children in local schools or choose to attend church, tapping into country networks will be greatly accelerated.
Also, small communities run largely on volunteers, so consider volunteering at the library, as a fireman, at sports fund raisers, community cleanup, or meals on wheels. JWR Adds: If you homeschool your kids, be sure to join the local homeschooling "co-op" group. You will be sure to meet the preparedness-minded folks in your community.

The Country is a Time Warp:
Time passes slower here, as it's based more on the seasons than on a clock.
Fight the city urge to hurry everywhere. Tasks are completed when time, required supplies, and any needed help are available, and not on an arbitrary schedule. Parts are generally not readily available as they are in a city, you might have to order a particular part and wait days or weeks for it to arrive, and perhaps have to improvise in the meantime.
The two main time-related lessons you’ll learn is that weather can throw a kink into any plan, and maintaining household water supply trumps almost every other concern. You’ll soon adopt a mañana attitude about most other projects, as there is always plenty more to be done while waiting for specific parts or supplies.
Slow down enough to take time to talk about the weather, trade recipes, talk gardening, help a neighbor with a project, and to watch a sunset.

Seek Out Those with Useful Skills Now:
Country life requires a generalist rather than a specialist, so trading your particular skills – whether carpentry, electrical expertise, or knowing what’s wrong with a row of beans - with neighbors in exchange for their skills just makes sense. In fact, there is even a term here, “neighboring”, which refers to a group effort of working each landowner’s livestock in turn without hiring outside help.
I have also become acquainted with various people who have huge gardens or dairy goats or sheep or hogs or teams of horses and mules or a small band saw mill for making lumber. Such people often don’t advertise and they may be hard to find, but the search is potentially of huge benefit to the astute survivalist.

As an example, there is a man here who has an old steam-powered grain mill. Another has a tiny combine for harvesting wheat and oats in the scattered small plots where it is grown in this area. Up until now, I haven’t used their unique services, but still make it a point to give these men a quart of honey from our hives every summer.
You will choose to help many of these people in time of trouble, just as they will choose to help you, but in the meantime always exercise OPSEC about your underlying motivations and preps. Country people have a wide independent streak so your desire to be more self-sufficient will never seem out of place.

Country People are Provincial:
But largely by choice, which doesn't mean they are stupid or uninformed. The vast majority are Internet savvy and many are exceptionally well-traveled and well-read. More than a few have made the decision to leave a lucrative city existence in exchange for country life. The level of overall awareness is high, so you'll hear more commonsense over a cup of coffee than you'll ever hear from Washington.
A few recent quotes I’ve heard regarding our current economic meltdown:
“I was going to sell all of my calves last fall but held back four in case my freezers start to look empty.”
“We’re breaking some new garden ground this spring, going to plant a lot more potatoes than we usually do.”
"I bought two more cases of .223 ammo, just in case the rabbits go on the warpath.” Listen and learn.

Never Underestimate the Amount of Work Involved:
Few farms or ranches here are entirely self-supporting, with one or both spouses usually working a “regular” job. The pay scale is considerably lower than in a city, so often people work two or even three jobs in order to live well. This is in addition to farming and working livestock on their own places. People work hard, and that’s in relatively good times.

If this economy continues to unravel, more subsistence-level farming and ranching may well become the norm, and that’s when the work really begins. Growing and processing most or all of your own food requires a tremendous amount of labor and expertise, with constant effort from everyone involved. Have no illusions about some idyllic country life of sitting on the porch all day, chewing on a grass stem while contemplating the vista. The trick for making subsistence agriculture work is for everyone to always be doing something constructive, whether it’s hoeing weeds in the garden, building a chicken coop, shelling beans, cleaning a firearm, playing with a toddler, or rereading one of your how-to books.

With that said, no family or survival group can possibly be competent at all of the skills required. This is when being on good terms with neighbors becomes essential; give them half of a fresh beef now for the cheese they can provide later on; the pickles you made are a fair trade for his baskets of peaches; your stash of supplies may well allow you to trade for a rooster and five hens (along with some expert advice on getting started); if you can provide the diesel, your neighbor might plow your garden plot after your tractor has thrown a rod. - Bois d'Arc

I was raised in a missionary family, on nine different mission fields around the world. At the age of nineteen, I went out to serve the Lord on my own in the former Soviet Union. I had no formal Theological training, but was accepted by the missionary societies of my denomination because of my experience under my father and my willingness to go to dangerous areas.

I married, and my wife and I have now six children. A few years ago, due to some changes in my theology, I fell out of favor with my denomination and had to return home to the USA. I was faced with a situation of suddenly having to feed and care for a large family with: 1. no formal education/training/skills of any kind and 2. very little understanding of the southern American culture that I found myself living in. I was forced to take very low-paying jobs and survive on a low-income.

With our savings we were able to buy a small rural house and 7.5 acres in the southeast. We were able to pay cash, I wanted it to be ours with no strings attached, regardless of what the future held. I figured that at the very least we would have a roof and some plantable land. I bought in the area my parents lived in to help care for them as they progressed in years.
Our income is very limited. I work at just above minimum wage. I work a full-time job and another part-time job. I am thankful that the Lord provides.

As I studied current events I became concerned about the possibility of a world-wide economic and/or societal collapse of some kind, or a societal break-down here in the USA resulting from any number of possible reasons. I had witnessed the chaos of the nineties in the former Soviet Union, had watched doctors and physicists sweep streets and live off of potatoes and bread for months on end, and I was concerned about my responsibility to feed my family should a similar collapse happen here.

What can you do when you have very limited means? Actually there is much you can do. It amounts to setting goals and getting your family on board with you. The first thing I did was (after my wife and I had many long talks and she began to see things in a similar way), I gathered the family around and explained everything to them. I explained about our limited means, exactly how much money was coming in, how much went to utilities, fuel, etc. I explained what I believed the dangers were. I explained what we needed to do as a family. Let me interject here that after being born and growing up on a third-world mission field, they were far from spoiled children! They were accustomed to living in tight quarters, washing in cold water, eating cheap, and basically just "roughing it."

My first priority was for two weeks worth of provisions. We began to buy a few extra cans of food when we went shopping. I set a goal of 20 dollars per week for prepping. Some weeks ten dollars of canned goods and/or dried foods like rice, beans or noodles, and ten dollars in ammo or medical supplies. Some weeks just food, some weeks just extra gasoline. We bought gas cans at thrift stores and garage sales for a dollar apiece, Large scented candles (better than nothing) at closeout sales and garage sales for 30 and 50 cents, and just about anything we could scrounge that might come in handy if the lights went out. It did not take us long to build up enough supplies to last two weeks in an emergency. We had enough gasoline to drive to work for two weeks (if needed), enough food for our family plus a little extra, and candles, radios, batteries and other odds and ends to get by.

I had also along the way added to my ammunition stocks for my Winchester .30-30, and my bolt-action .22 LR.
After we reached the point where we felt we had enough for a two-week catastrophe, we began to focus on the six-month time frame. This opened up many entirely new possibilities. since the food required for this amount of time was such a major expense, we had to make sure that it would last for several years. This raised the issue of long-term storage in buckets, mylar bags and oxygen-absorbers. We had to save for months to buy an order of oxygen-absorbers and mylar bags on e-bay! We found low-cost buckets and began to fill them with rice, feed corn, corn meal, noodles, beans etc. Anything that was inexpensive. We taught the children to like corn-meal mush and grits since they might get quite a bit of it one day!

Gradually we worked our way up to 30 buckets. At this point I made a strategic decision. I decided that we needed to invest our extra funds in gardening. Not entirely stopping the food storage, but reducing it in favor of procuring means and experience in growing and canning our own food. We began to buy canning jars and lids to put away in the attic for the future. My father gave us a tiller with a blown engine which we were able to get fixed, and we began to garden. The first garden was not very well thought-out. Some things grew, some did not. But we learned. We learned first-hand what pollination means and about soil fertility. We learned about bugs and blight. We gained valuable experience.

We also invested in chickens, and watched some of them die, some of them be eaten by neighbor's dogs, some get eaten by our dogs, and the hardy survivors begin to lay eggs. We watched them eat their own eggs and learned to give them calcium. We let half of them free range and half range in portable pens that we built which have an open floor that we could move each day to fresh grass. We learned how to make them roost and lay where they were supposed to.

We bought some rabbits and learned a lot, real fast! We experimented with many types of portable cages for rabbits which would allow us to move them from one grassy spot to another without giving them time to dig a burrow. Sometimes we would wake up and find rabbit carcases torn to shreds, because a neighborhood cat had gotten to them. My kids handled most of this, and they learned things the hard way.

If you haven't figured it out yet, We were totally green. I spent my life traveling and overseeing the translation of Christian literature into foreign languages. My wife is a musician. We had zero experience at any of this, and no one around that we knew to advise us. We had to learn everything from scratch. We bought a goat and promptly saw it attacked and killed by a stray dog. That hurt, financially as well as emotionally. After sending the dog to join the goat "on the other side", I bought another goat. and then another. These have survived. We have learned to care for them.

Gradually I am seeing my children grow confident in their relationship to the animals under their care. Gradually we are learning the needs of these animals and how to make them produce for us. If we had had some kind of hands-on training, it would have saved the lives of a lot of animals, but we didn't. I am happy to announce a much higher survival rate for animals that we bring home now.

I felt like I needed a greater firearms capability (what man doesn't?). I thought long and hard. At first I bought a Mosin-Nagant since they were so cheap ($75) and the ammo was dirt-cheap as well. I then began to consider what type of semi-automatic I could afford. I looked at the prices of ammo which was very critical since I would have to train my entire family to shoot. At the time the best deal for us appeared to be the SKS rifle. It was cheap (a good quality Yugo[slavian SKS] was less than $200), dependable, semi-auto and the ammo was very cheap at the time. I later added a cheap 12 gauge pump, and last but not least, a 17 round Bersa Thunder 9mm. After purchasing these guns I began to pick up ammo for them when I could find it on sale. I have gradually gotten up to about 500 rounds for each of them.

I then turned my attention to our home and it's defense. While we live in the country, we are close to our neighbors 100 yards +/-, about five miles from a small town, about 15 miles from a large town, and about 90 miles from Atlanta (upwind fortunately). My greatest concern is our proximity to the road. The house is only about 65 feet from the dirt road in front of our house. A looter or burglar/rapist could be at the door or windows before the dog barked. In response to this my next expenditure is to be fence posts, fencing, and barbed wire, along with a row of thorny bushes in front of the wire next to the road.

Our house is a soft target, offering no ballistic protection. My remedy/forlorn hope is to have plenty of sand and gravel on hand, and to start checking the thrift stores for pillow cases to buy and store. perhaps we would have time to bag up sand bags and at least harden up certain corners or rooms of the house. We also have several large piles of sandstone (we live on top of a mountain) which could be placed strategically and then perhaps sand bags on top of that. We could also cut logs and add that to the mix.

Our water supply is a [grid-powered] electric well. This is one of my biggest worries. We have made it a priority to buy a generator at least strong enough to run the well and freezers for an hour or two a day. I know that this is only a temporary solution but is about all we can handle right now. I am very thankful for the non-fiction writing contribution about the siphon pumps for wells such as mine, that offered up new possibilities which I have not had time to address yet. We also have a neighbor 1/4 mile away which has an artesian spring on his property, though it has extremely high iron content. I have purchased two 330 gallon plastic livestock watering tanks and several drums which I can fill at the first sign of trouble. I can also load them on my little trailer and pull them down to the neighbor's to fill up from his well. I just need to check on the ramifications of the high iron content.

I am also trying to fill up as many containers as possible with gasoline. I add Sta-Bil and plan to use/rotate it yearly (as long as the price stays low). I would like to keep at least 250 to 500 gallons on hand at all times. I buy old gas cans at yard sales and just found a source for cheap 55 gallon drums with sealed lids ($3). I may start using them instead.

Our immediate plans are to build more pens and raise more chickens and goats, maybe a pig or two. We also look forward to planting a much bigger garden this spring and maybe use some of our hard-won experience of last year. We also want to involve the kids in martial arts classes if we can afford it, as well as herb-collecting hikes from the local community college field school (which are free and fun). We want to spend more time with them in the woods and in the garden so that they feel comfortable there and begin to think about survival from their own perspective. We also are beginning to exploit the library for free resources for them to study on various topics.

The future of this country looks grim. As Christians we have "read the back of the Book" and we know Who wins. Our responsibility is to be good stewards of the talents we have, perform our duties as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and ultimately, to trust Him for that which is beyond our vision and power.

Introduction
This is a response to a previous article written by the esteemed Dr. Richard of the Virginia Prepper's Network. Dr. Richard and I agree completely on a great many issues but disagree on the issue of the Survival Retreat vs. Neighborhood Survival. Here are my thoughts on the issue:

Dr. Richard makes some good points with respect to the desirability of an informed and prepared neighborhood, but in the end it all depends on your particular neighborhood and neighbors. Because I saw the collapse coming in 2005 I sold my home in Northern Virginia at what the Washington Post called the absolute peak of the market and put the proceeds into physical gold and silver when gold was trading around ~$400 an ounce and silver at ~$7. BTW, the guy who bought my home tried to sell it less than a year later for significantly less and could find no buyers. My goal was to move to low cost Austin, Texas where I could be near my dad’s ranch which I could then get prepped to survive the coming economic collapse. Unfortunately my wife thought I had gone completely insane which along with other disagreements on the health of our children (She believes in vaccination, sugar, aspartame, fluoride and AMA monopoly medicine and I don’t) led to a divorce. Now I rent a single family home to be near my ex-wife and kids where I can spirit them to safety when the SHTF. While I have never been to Dr. Richard’s neighborhood the detailed description (cul de sac, all single family homes on relatively large lots, high income/ high IQ neighbors in a development of less than 400 homes in a somewhat rural area) sounds infinitely more survivable than mine.

My situation is much different. My neighborhood is a mix of single family homes and townhouses with a much greater density than Dr. Richard describes. The neighborhood is lower income / lower IQ as well. There is an apartment complex about a mile away and I once found a cocaine baggie in the parking lot while jogging through it one day. Unfortunately because I am so busy I haven’t met as many of my neighbors as I would like and the ones that I have met are essentially completely clueless to the realities of the world. My neighbor with the most raw intellectual horsepower is a software architect in IP security but he still hasn’t figured out that fire can’t melt structural steel and giggled when I tried to explain the realities of 9-11. He is morbidly obese, addicted to sugar and nicotine, and completely unarmed. Not exactly the guy you want to have your back fending off looters and brigands. My second smartest neighbor is an engineer for an IP hosting company. I spent 30 minutes one day taking him through the physics of WTC 7 and how 47 story modern steel framed skyscrapers don’t collapse completely and symmetrically into their own footprints at freefall speed defying the laws of physics. I thought I saw a glimmer of understanding but I never heard back from him. I am assuming he went back to the TeeVee set. When I jog through the neighborhood at night the street is lit up with the glow of flat screen mental prisons.

Anyone that has ever unplugged someone from the matrix understands how difficult and time consuming it can be to educate and free a single mind. I have a good friend who is an entrepreneur/small business owner and has held VP level positions at international networking companies. I have been working on him for years and even after his son had a febrile seizure 24 hours after getting vaccinated he is mad at me for trying to warn him and continues to see the same doctor that potentially crippled his son. My ex-wife has P.hD and I can’t get her to stop giving our kids fluoridated water even though the practice is opposed by 14 Nobel Laureates, 2,100+ health professionals, and the EPA’s own scientists through their union. If I can’t convince my own ex-wife to quit giving her kids water “medicated” with a chemical used as rat and roach poison which has been linked to lower IQ in 23 peer reviewed studies from around the globe then how I am going to educate and convince dozens/hundreds of acquaintances and strangers on the realities of the world.

So, since neighborhood survival is not an option for me then creating a survival retreat with a self-selected group of individuals is my #1 strategy for survival in an economic collapse. Compare some of the qualities and skill sets of our group and those we are speaking with vs. the TeeVee bums in my neighborhood.
• A general contractor who is a firefighter / EMT in his community with skills in general carpentry (framing, form, and trim), basic electrical, plumbing, HVAC, masonry, roofing, and siding. Skilled in basic small engine repair, hand tools, and appliances. He is taking classes in sustainable agriculture and automotive repair.
• A retired naval Commander (helicopter pilot) with special operation experience that has been working on his retreat for years.
• A world class software and information security architect.
• A C-level executive and former military intelligence officer.

All are completely aware, completely awake, completely armed, with good to excellent preps and are already in high gear improving their skills and doing what it takes to get ready for the coming collapse.
Now add the advantages that a remote survival retreat offers over attempting to survive in an area populated with completely clueless starving TeeVee bums.
• Security – Hidden from looters and brigands who would be more than willing to kill for your stored food and supplies.
• Rural Location – Self-sufficient agriculturally with farmers, dairymen, and cattle ranchers. Plentiful wild game and plentiful wild edible plants.
• Self-selected compatriots – Honest, trustworthy companions that are completely prepped for the collapse and have a diverse blend of excellent skills to weather the storm.
• Designed for a collapse – Wood stove, solar power, well water, fruit trees already planted, etc.

So while I wish Dr. Richard the best of luck I am headed to Galt’s Gulch with other members of the intelligentsia. It doesn’t mean that I am not willing and/or trying to help my neighbors, in fact I am having a large number of them over next week to try to explain the realities of the coming collapse but at the end of the day I must protect my family and myself and a self-selected group of intelligent people awake to the realities of the world secure in a remote retreat represents the best odds of survival.

Even if you are going to bug out here are some tips to help the folks who must prepare for themselves:
Educate, Educate, Educate - Give DVDs, send links to web sites like this, Virginia Prepper's Network, SurvivalBlog, WhatReallyHappened.com, InfoWars.com, and SteveQuayle.com. When you pass along DVDs specify that the recipient must pass it along to someone else and specify that the next recipient must pass it along as well.
Share your Bounty and Improve Your Own Chances - I am sharing some of my storable food with a neighbor with the caveat that we would share when the SHTF. If I successfully bug out then they keep all the food for themselves. If I am trapped in the neighborhood then I have improved my chances for survival with diverse food stores.
Arm Them With Knowledge - Take your neighbor to the Appleseed Project and turn a rifle owner into a Rifleman.
Plant an oversize or community garden - Share the costs of sod, seeds, and the rental of a tiller.
Store Extra Preps for Friends and Charity - I have stored extra food for charity and even stored items like diapers and wipes for a low income couple who live in my neighborhood. I have cached food, money, and silver for the employees of my business as well in a location they can access in an emergency.

Earlier this month, I posted Etienne's guest post Seeking/Starting a Survival Retreat in Virginia / Maryland / Pennsylvania / West Virginia. Today, I had lunch with Etienne de la Boetie and another prepper here in Loudoun County [, Virginia]. We had a long discussion about survival retreats vs neighborhood survival. Etienne is a big fan of the survival retreat concept. He previously had a retreat where he did not own the land but where he was able to store a travel trailer recreational vehicle in which he pre-positioned various preps and supplies. Unfortunately, his friend moved and sold the property. There are four major flaws in the survival retreat separate from your home concept:

1. There are significant liabilities and social problems with communal retreats where one does not own the property - you are vulnerable to the actions of the others, particularly the property owner.
   
2. Property left at unattended retreats is vulnerable to theft and vandalism. This is going to be a growing problem as the economic depression gets worse, especially if we have economic collapse.
   
3. Getting to the retreat would be problematic in the event that it is actually needed - particularly in martial law scenarios where the military and law enforcement block traffic at key intersections or in cases where there are fuel shortages.
   
4. Relatively undeveloped retreats with a trailer and undeveloped land may not be sufficiently developed for long-term survival and offer insufficient space for storage of the various preps and other items you need. Many of these items would likely be at your day-to-day residence and you cannot assume that you can transport everything at the last minute.

My view is that survival retreats only work if you live there full-time. Furthermore, although remote locations are further removed from the masses, they are also further removed from jobs, markets, customers, hospitals, and many other useful infrastructure and will be harder pressed to gather a sufficiently large group to cover all of the tasks needed in a true long-term survival scenario. Even the best special forces operator cannot defend his property 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unfortunately, we are rapidly running out of time and it is probably already too late to relocate - especially if relocating means trying to sell your existing home in this real estate environment -- in my neighborhood we haven't had a sale in over eight months and anyone who bought in the last four years and did the traditional 20% down payment fixed 30 year mortgage now has negative equity.

I am a big proponent of the concept that your family, friends, neighbors, and church are your survival group. Yes, I understand that many are unprepared and clueless about both the threats and what they need to do to prepare for them. However, your home is your survival retreat. Strengthen it to the extent you can, but your odds improve exponentially if you can organize your neighborhood and help everyone survive against the threat(s) you are facing in your survival situation. You and those in the group who are better prepared or who have the right skills are the cadre needed to get organized and do what is needed. The rest of the neighborhood are your foot soldiers and do'ers. My philosophy is to lead and organize but that charity starts with those who are willing to help themselves and help the group in the survival situation. In a survival situation, your first challenges are to assess the hazards/priorities/immediate needs, organize the group, secure the neighborhood, and scrounge/barter/trade for needed resources.

Be a leader. There are many things you can do to help develop your neighborhood group of family, friends, neighbors, and fellow church members and increase the odds of the neighborhood surviving:

• Get to know them.
• Have potluck dinners.
• Help them wake up and prepare.
• Start a garden club to help start victory gardens.
• Start a community watch program for your neighborhood.
• Give them a copy of Chris Martenson's Crash Course on the economy DVD. I bought a case of 30 and gave them as 2008 Christmas gifts.
• Give copies of Holly Deyo's book Dare to Prepare as gifts. I bought a case of 8 and gave them as 2008 Christmas gifts to family and several neighbors who got it and were starting to prep.
• Store extra preps for charity and be prepared to give when it is needed for survival.
• Learn about their skills, backgrounds, and interests - on my street we have a former Navy Corpsman/LEO/M16 Instructor/master scrounger/contractor/award winning barbeque chef who "gets it" and is starting to prepare, two nurses, a master gardener, an agricultural engineer / head of the 800-home neighborhood HOA, a Mormon family that does food storage, and six members of the neighborhood garden club run by our master gardener.
• Buy tools that would be useful that could be shared like tillers.
• Buy extra seed such as a seven year supply of Survival Seeds and be prepared to provide seeds for neighbors
• Build a survival library of books and skills that you can use to train them when they need survival skills.
• Buy several extra surplus rifles such as the Russian Mosin-Nagant or SKS rifles and stock extra ammunition to equip your "community watch" patrols.
• Invite them to go to a shooting range with you.
• Be prepared to give honest evaluations of whether individuals should relocate once a survival situation begins to relative's homes or even public shelters if that is the best option for them.

You will be pleasantly surprised how many of your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow church members that are starting to wake up and realize the reality and danger of our current position. This number is increasing every week. Don't simply assume that they are all clueless sheep - many simply need some education and a leader to show them the way.

Sir;

By way of profession, I am a CPA (M.S. in Taxation), economic survivalist by persuasion. One thing you may want to caution readers about is the Internal Revenue Services' position on bartering income. Always, always, always talk to a competent tax advisor regarding your particular situation. Under the current administration, self-sufficiency activities such as bartering with others for services or goods may be considered a reportable and taxable activity on the part of both parties.

Just a "heads up" to all, we all want to stay within the letter of the law. Thanks for the listen - C.

Sir,

Craigslist can be frustrating, for example, you see a super deal, you call early, have the cash and can buy now, but the seller says, "well, some guy called at 6 a.m. and is coming to buy it this Sunday. Sorry." Out of politeness, you didn't want to call at 6 am, but because you didn't, you lost the ability to buy the item because the seller is a "first call-first serve" seller, and not a "first cash-first serve" seller.

On the other hand, it is irritating when you set an appointment, spend $20 on diesel to drive to the seller's home, and arrive to find someone else loading the item in his truck. Maybe sellers ought to put a Terms-of-Service in their ads! (I personally am a First-Cash seller, but cancel later appointments immediately upon sale). - Willow, in Texas

Jim:

[Because of their posting rules], one must be very circumspect in listing or putting a "Want to Buy" (WTB) ad on Craigslist.com if it concerns guns, ammunition, or reloading.
They will delete your posting in a "New York Minute". - D.O.

JWR Replies: I've seen the same thing happen, many times. Do not mention firearms in the title line of any Craigslist post, even if you live in an ultra-conservative state like Wyoming. Some hoplophobic do-gooder will indeed zap your post almost immediately. I've heard that it is best to "bury " mention of your willingness to swap "sporting goods" in posts on other topics. For those that specifically want to trade a firearm or ammunition, I recommend advertising on a regional gun board, such as the Northwest Firearms Board. , or in one of the many local newspapers or advertising giveaway papers (such as the "Nickel" and "Penny Saver" type papers) that offer free or low-cost classified ads.

Mr. Rawles:

Even though Craigslist does not allows firearms and ammunition advertisements, it is still beneficial sure to check the Sporting Goods section. In my my local Craigslist there are "47 speed bicycles, AK brand", and similar items regularly for sale. - J.M.

Jim
I definitely look forward to reading your blog every morning as I begin my day here in Baghdad. I wanted to share some perspective on what I see on a daily basis as an American GI patrolling the streets of Baghdad on the topic of begging. I think your readers might eventually come face to face with this type of behavior and it might not be pleasant for them if not dealt with correctly. When my team stops at a project site or we conduct patrols throughout the various neighborhoods of Baghdad, we are besieged by Iraqi children asking us for items such as candy, pencils, pens, and soccer balls. There are two ways these scenarios usually play out. One, if soldiers hand out any items, the floodgates open and more children appear as word spreads that items are being given away. A mob typically surrounds the soldier and/or vehicle. Even if those children get that which they ask for, they do not leave. Rather, they continue to ask for more. Fights typically break out amongst the throng of children as they fight over what is given out. When we ask our interpreters why the children are not happy with what they've been given, we are told that because they are poor (but no longer starving, mind you, since the USA put an end to the UN Food For Oil scandal and Saddam's reign of terror) and the Americans are perceived as being rich. Another way this is dealt with is the children are told "Mako Shay" which in Arabic means "I Have Nothing". If said soldier stands firm and refuses to give in to the pleas of the beggars, they usually dissipate and go on to other soldiers to beg from or go on to playing with their friends. The key here is to stand firm and tell them that you have nothing to give them. I see strong parallels between this daily occurrence here in Iraq and that which could occur should the [American] populace flees their homes in search of food and shelter.

Just some food for thought, should the SHTF. Regards, - The Survivalist

Whilst pondering the various possibilities for the future, it is easy to get caught up in the minutiae of radio frequencies, milligram dosages, microns of filtration, calibers, and calories per ounce. (You'' read plenty of those details in SurvivalBlog. But in doing so we can easily lose sight of bigger, far more important issues such as charity, civility, community, and hope.

Charity
Most of you reading this are the heads of households that are far better prepared than your neighbors. Your deep larder, expansive fuel storage, advanced skills, and wide range of useful tools will put you in a distinctly advantageous position in the event of a catastrophe. I implore you to be charitable, even to those that stubbornly ignored your warnings and shirked their responsibility to provide for their families. My philosophy, oft-repeated, is to give until it hurts.

Civility
Going hand-in-hand with charity is civility. Hard times call for increased caution, but unless you are facing a bad element, there is no need to be mean or offensive. When dealing with neighbors, do your best to keep up he standards or normal pre-Crunch civil interaction. Be courteous, be helpful, be generous, and in all ways pitch in to be a good neighbor. Just be very circumspect about your preparations. Always keep the "need to know" rule in mind, and drill it into the heads of your family members. Unless a neighbor truly needs to know, then you should not mention--or allow to be seen--the nature nor the extent of your preparations. Just make it clear that you have "a little extra" of this or that, to help out neighbors that are in genuine need.

In contrast, when dealing with strangers, it is best to be far more firm but non-threatening. Just leave them with the subtle impression that you are not one to be trifled with.The sight of pistol on your hip or a rifle close at hand speaks volumes. If you want to help refugees that are transiting your area, then please show the foresight do so anonymously through an intermediary, such as your local church. By donating some of your storage food to your church, you'll be able to look firm and resilient to refugees, yet still have good news for them. You can honestly say: "Some people in the community have been leaving food and warm clothing at the church 1/2 mile down the road. It is at 123 Main Street. They will be able to help you. God bless you." Note that this was carefully phrased in a neutral way, not indicating that you were the donor. Parenthetically, this level of OPSEC means that you will need to carefully brief your church pastors and elders and get their solemn promise not reveal who provided the food.

Community
I've written at length about the need for a genuine sense community to achieve the best chance of survival in hard times, so I won't repeat all that here. In essence, lone wolves will not be the most likely survivors. Build a true community, and you will have friends that you can count on (and vice versa), when the Schumer hits the fan.

Hope
As a Christian, I use word "hope" in far different way than non-Christians do. In the Christian context, hope means absolute assurance of eternal life for the elect, bought and paid for by Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. With the sure knowledge of my salvation, I am willing to risk more in this life, to do what is right--that is, what I believe will please God, and glorify God. The perils in this mortal life are brief, but the promise of heaven is everlasting. That is my hope.

Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for your insightful and educational blog. I highly respect your opinion and I am e-mailing you today to ask for your advice.
My husband and I are both conservative Christians who are totally committed to being prepared. Our problem is that we have encountered other conservative Christians who believe that manna will literally fall from Heaven if famine comes upon the land. I was personally told by my former pastor that I was "stupid" for storing food and owning guns. He also told me that by being prepared I was demonstrating a "lack of faith in God". He told me that God would provide for me in the form of manna falling from Heaven if disaster ever struck. This story, unfortunately, is extremely common within the conservative Christian church. My husband and I have come across people like this over and over again. Other than telling these people that manna falling from Heaven was a one time event, quoting Scripture like Proverbs14:8, and reminding them that even Noah prepared for disaster by building the ark - how do my husband and I deal with people like this from a Christian perspective? Prayer seems to be the only answer. Can you recommend any other solutions in addition to prayer? Thank you for your time and attention. In Christ, - Heather M.

JWR Replies: I often get e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers, asking about how I can justify active preparedness in light of my Christian faith. Some cite the "Lilies of the Field" passage in Matthew 6:25-34:
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof."

In my view, people are misinterpreting these verses. These are verses about worry, not about work or preparedness. Never does the Bible teach that we should laze about and not provide for our families. Earning our daily bread is the Godly way to live. We are taught not to be lazy or dependent on others. Yes, we are to trust in God's providence, but nowhere do the scriptures absolve us of the responsibility to work or to save up for lean times. Consider these four verses from the book of Proverbs:

He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain [persons is] void of understanding.. Proverbs 12:11, KJV

In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips [tendeth] only to penury.(Poverty.) Proverbs 14:23, KJV

The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. Proverbs 21:25, KJV

The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; but of every one [that is] hasty only to want. Proverbs 21:5, KJV

Food Storage

The Bible encourages storing food. Look at Gen. 41:47-49 (KJV): "And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.Gen 41:48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which [was] round about every city, laid he up in the same.And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for [it was] without number." And then see Gen. 41:53-57: "And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy [corn]; because that the famine was [so] sore in all lands."

The preceding is a good example that illustrates the need for food storage. As I write this in 2008, a growing portion of the world is already experiencing famine. You should recognize that famine could just a well come to stalk America, Europe, the British Isles, and Australia. (The regions with the largest SurvivalBlog readership.) It is prudent and Biblically supported to stock up during good times in anticipation of lean times.

Prov. 6:6-15 (KJV): "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a forward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; Forwardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy."

The lessons from scripture are clear: Don't be lazy and lax. Store up in good times for future lean times. Consider this: "[There is] treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." - Prov. 21:20 (KJV)

And ponder this Old Testament passage: Psalm 34:9-10 (KJV): "O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for [there is] no want to them that fear him.Psa 34:10 (KJV) "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good [thing]." And then look at this New Testament passage:, from 1 Timothy 5:8 (KJV): "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

One of the many names of God is Jehovah Jireh, which means God Who Provides. As a Christian, I believe that God will provide for his covenant people. I believe that one of the many gifts that the God has provided is a conviction, by the Holy Spirit, to be well prepared. I realize that we are only on Earth for about 80 trips around the sun, and that is just the twinkling of an eye versus eternity. Where we end up after this brief life is far, far more important in the grand scheme of things. We will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. But how we spend our +/-80 year life on Earth is up to us. (And the most important thing that we do in the is life is make ourselves right with God, though his Grace, to accepting eternal life in heaven. But stepping back to this temporal world: The Bible makes it very clear that we are to be good stewards of the blessings that God provides us. I therefore feel strongly convicted to not just share the gospel of Christ, but also to physically prepare for my own family, and store extra to dispense as charity. The bottom line: I can't continue to share the gospel if I starve to the point of achieving room temperature!

Self Defense
Other readers question how I can justify owning guns for self-defense. Some Mennonites, for example, eschew all means self defense and decry even the willingness to defend oneself or one's loved ones. That, in my opinion is taking "turning the other cheek" (Luke 6:29) to an extreme that is not scripturally founded.

Exodus 22:2 provides Biblical justification for killing someone if he intends to forcibly rob or kill another man: " If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, [there shall] no blood [be shed] for him." Exodus 22:2 (KJV)

And Jesus teaches that it is wise to be armed, in Luke 22:35-36 (KJV): "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

In an article titled: What Does The Bible Say About Gun Control? Larry Pratt keenly observed the difference between self-defense and vengeance:

Resisting an attack is not to be confused with taking vengeance which is the exclusive domain of God (Rom. 12:19). This has been delegated to the civil magistrate, who, as we read in Romans 13:4, ". . . is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."

Private vengeance means one would stalk down a criminal after one’s life is no longer in danger as opposed to defending oneself during an attack. It is this very point that has been confused by Christian pacifists who would take the passage in the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek (which prohibits private vengeance) into a command to falter before the wicked.

Let us consider also that the Sixth Commandment tells us: "Thou shall not murder." In the chapters following, God gave to Moses many of the situations which require a death penalty. God clearly has not told us never to kill. He has told us not to murder, which means we are not to take an innocent life. Consider also that the civil magistrate is to be a terror to those who practice evil. This passage does not in any way imply that the role of law enforcement is to prevent crimes or to protect individuals from criminals. The magistrate is a minister to serve as "an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Rom. 13:4).

Jesus taught both to turn the other cheek and to be well-armed to defend oneself. The important factor is having the wisdom to know when to employ either approach depending on the circumstances. I pray, for wisdom, discernment, and discretion, daily. I don't seek out trouble, and in fact I have moved my family to a remote, lightly populated region in good part to avoid trouble. But if unavoidable trouble comes my way, I want to have the option of resisting force with force. And I only have that option if I am armed and trained.

Some critics of armed preparedness cite Matthew 26:52-54 (KJV), which descries how Jesus responded when Peter cut off the ear of a high priest's servant, using a sword: "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"

In context, Jesus is telling Peter that it would be suicidal to fight in that particular situation, since they were quite outnumbered. And of course Jesus knew it was in God's plan for him to be arrested, tried, crucified, and resurrected. Jesus told Peter to put his sword in its place –which was back in his belt. Jesus was telling Peter in effect that "there is a time to fight, and this, my friend, isn't it." He didn't command him to "throw that sword away", or "surrender it", or to "stop carrying it". After all, according to Luke, Jesus had just recently ordered the disciples to arm themselves. The reason for the arms was obviously to protect their own lives when traveling--not to protect His own life, which He intended to sacrifice, to pay for our sins, once and for all.

The Old testament teaches both to be armed, and to be trained. We read in Psalm 144:1:

Blessed [be] the LORD my strength,
which teacheth my hands to war,
[and] my fingers to fight:

Yes, as Christians our battles are mainly spiritual, but we must also be prepared to defend our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, against evildoers.

Charity

Charity--both in time of plenty and in times of disaster--is a Christian responsibility with its roots in the Old Testament tradition of Tzedaka. This responsibility--particularly for the support of widows and orphans--was repeated in the New Testament, such as in Acts 11:27-30: "And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul."

The Biblical approach to survivalism is to avoid trouble, but to be ready for it nonetheless. And when trouble does come, have extra stores on hand, so that you can dispense copious charity. Give until it hurts!

In closing, I'll leave you with a key verse: "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished." - Proverbs 22:3 (KJV)

Note: I've updated my original response to include all cites from the KJV translation.

Mr. Rawles;
With the current state of the country more and more people have been stepping up their preparedness. The question I get asked most is what to do with the people who say they will be over when everything falls apart.
I know you have addressed this in the past, but it is something people need to think through with the current state we are in. With my preparedness consulting I have had story after story from preparing people of family, friends and people who know they are preparing, but do not prepare themselves saying they will be there when everything falls apart.

I have used your novel "Patriots" as a guide for how to prepare for any scenarios and it mentions giving charity to those who show up and sending the unwanted on their way and keeping those who belong or can contribute to the group. For the transients or refugees this is a very good solution to the problem, but when it comes to family and people who know you are preparing it calls for a different solution or group of solutions. I hope you can give some advice to everyone facing this problem. We can go into OPSEC when it comes to not telling folks what they are doing, but there have been mistakes made and it is hard to hide from non-preparing family and for them to understand not to talk about it or you are trying to network with people to get a group together and the information spreads.

Some of the stories I have heard are:

There have been several version of this first one, but it is basically the same falling out in a group and the unwanted plan a unwelcome return.
"We had a member of our group and he turned out to be a slob, was not preparing and thought that a case of ammo and a rifle was all you needed and they would take whatever else was needed from the weak. They politely told him that he was not welcome and would not sharing in the preparations. This person is now contacting the group, saying if it hits the fan that they "will be over".
The group believes they will have to defend themselves from this former member who will bring his spouse and children with him."

"We have been preparing for several years and have been trying to get family members, both close and distant involved in a group.When things go bad they [declare that they] are all coming over.
We do not have the room for the extra people in our home. We do not have enough food for the extra people. We do not have other supplies they will need to live here. They do not have the mindset to endure a long term situation nor will they contribute to the survival of the group.We already have a small group of like-minded people we have networked with and are either leaving supplies here or will be bringing their supplies when they come and we have enough for only them."

With our networking efforts we have talked to many people and have picked up some good people to be in a group. With the economy going down the tubes we are having past contacts talking to us and they plan on showing up if it hits the fan."

"We have had someone gossip about our preparations and now we have people saying they will be over and we do not even know these people.
How may people know we are preparing and how many are going to show up and what are they going to do to us if we turn them away or will they just take our supplies?"

Respectfully, - Ron from Ohio

JWR Replies: Based on what I read in e-mails, nearly all SurvivalBlog readers--save a few that are utter recluses that have few (or no) family ties--all go through the same thing. This most commonly happens at holiday gatherings, when "Cousin Bob" first teases you for having "that mountain of storage food in your basement", but then slyly adds "...but I know where I'll go when things fall apart." This is the same Cousin Bob that has frittered away his earnings on plasma big screen HDTVs, Jet Skis, and BluRay DVDs. My advice is to be blunt and forthright. Tell Cousin Bob that he's had the same period warning that you have had, and that he's had comparable resources available to prepare. Depending on your predisposition, you might say: "You've been warned. You must make adequate preparations for your own family. Period." Hopefully that will spur your relatives into action.

Sir,

I have been checking a few other sites this morning that I frequent, and while at the Viking Preparedness Forum, I was checking the food and water storage board and came across these canned food shelves. It is a good set of shelves, making the best use of space, and allowing them automatic stock rotation.

We live in a house with a monolithic slab foundation, and the footprint, does not give us a great deal of room to work with, but I think that we can do something similar ourselves.
I liked the way that they were set against the wall, and took up very little space. I also liked the fact that they had extra space above for expanding the shelves a bit more.

Just thought that it was an all around good idea, and one that some of your readers might be able to make good use of also.

BTW, I also found these related web pages. Hope that they help.

How to Make a Self-Rotating Food Storage for Canned Goods

Food Storage Shelves, Food Storage Racks & Food storage shelving Accessories

CanRacks.com

FIFO Storage Can Rack - Canned Food Rack - Improvements Catalog

As always, may God bless you and yours in everything you do. - Dim Tim

Dear Mr. Rawles:
I read your blog frequently and enjoy the information you publish. It helps keep me informed and challenged.

However, lately I've been wondering about some of the provisions of Martial Law and Executive Orders that have been signed by past presidents.

In the event of a declaration of Martial Law, can the Federal Government go-door-to-door and confiscate food that citizens have stored for their own use? It is my understanding that farms, equipment and food can be confiscated so that it can then be controlled/distributed to the people who do not have any food.

There are anti-hoarding laws on the books in some states, but I don't know all the details. FEMA guidelines advise people to have a short-term supply of food on hand for emergencies. But in the event of martial law, how much food is one family allowed to store? If a family has made the effort to store a year or more of food, will they be allowed to keep it or will it be confiscated?

Bottom line: Why bother purchasing dehydrated or freeze-dried food for long-term storage if it will end up being confiscated by the Government to give to someone else? Is it futile to do so or should one be prudent and go forward with plans for long-term food storage? - Joan X.

JWR Replies: There is indeed a slim but nonetheless real threat of storage food confiscation in the U.S. It is one of the many reasons why I emphasize OPSEC in my blog. If you are concerned about the prospect of martial law, then I recommend that you buy the majority of your storage food with cash, without generating a paper trail. You should go pick it up in person. OBTW, there are food storage vendors that advertise in my blog that are located in several regions around the country (within reasonable driving distance for perhaps 80% of he SurvivalBlog readership in the US), and many of these are "Mom and Pop" operations that will make cash sales. With these small vendors, you don't even need to mention your name.

While keeping circumspect is important, don't become so preoccupied with secrecy that you cease being charitable. The two goals need not be mutually exclusive. You can maintain OPSEC if you dispense charity through your local church . FerFAL (formerly SurvivalBlog's volunteer correspondent in Argentina) had some interesting comments in a recent blog post at his personal blog "Surviving in Argentina". He posited that dispensing charity face to face with desperate poor people can be both risky and troubling. While I don't agree with all that FerFAL wrote, I can see the wisdom of keeping a low profile to avoid being "marked" by freeloaders. My advice: Give, and give generously (both now and in turbulent times), but be prepared give at arm's length. I recommend that you make arrangements in advance with your church elders to act as intermediaries for post-WTSHTF charity. Be sure to get their promise to maintain your anonymity. My personal philosophy is to give until it hurts.

Good Morning,
I have been reading for a couple years and I'm a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber. I have just purchased a quantity of five gallon food grade buckets and wonder if there would be any benefit to storing in vacuum sealable one gallon size bags, as opposed to the five gal metal lined bag using the dry ice and O2 absorber method? Thanks for your ministry. I have learned so very much. Also I just the purchased the "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course taking advantage of the pre-election discount, thanks. Sincerely, - John V

JWR Replies: There is indeed some utility in vacuum packing, as you described. It is, however, much more labor intensive. With most bulk foods the shelf life that you would gain with vacuum packing (versus CO2 packing) is not that great. It can also be a mess, especially with flour and other powders. In essence, the marginally longer storage longevity does does not justify the extra time or material required. The only notable exception is for foods that have a high oil or butterfat content, such as brown rice. It would also be worth doing with powdered milk, if it were not such a mess. In that case, my advice is to store only nonfat powdered milk, to reduce the risk of rancidity. (Since it is the butterfat content of regular powdered milk that contributes the most to rancidity.)

I describe a simple "do-it-yourself" CO2 packing method in the "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course. With this method, a family can pack several hundred pounds of wheat, rice, or beans in just one evening.

Sir:
I’ve been a reader of your site for only about a year and consider myself a beginner-level survivalist. I’ve got the mindset and start of some basic short-term survival gear and knowledge, but haven’t been able to convince the wife to go all out yet. A few months ago, you had posted an article about keeping your level of preparedness secret from neighbors and I wasn’t sure why until recently. I live in Middle Tennessee, and although we are hundreds of miles away from Hurricane Ike, we experienced a short run on gas and spike in prices. Probably close to a quarter of the gas stations in the city simply ran out. From past experience, I had already purchased a 50-gallon drum with manual pump (which I had filled in July), and I had three 5-gallon jugs that I used to fill up the day before [the hurricane's] landfall. I could easily make that last for a month even without changing my driving habits as long as there is electricity and I don’t have to generate. Plenty of time for capacity to return to normal.

Not only did I get some evil looks while filling up at the pump [in July], but I was also scrutinized at work by a few people that I had told about my “cache.” Most seemed to think I was the reason for the shortage (or a part of it.) And while I agree that a hype can fuel a shortage, a shortage is still a shortage. My personal preparedness plays such a miniscule role in the big picture. But the comments are enough to have made me learn my lesson. If 65 gallons of gas is enough for people to question my intentions, then what would they say if they discovered a much larger level or preparedness and the problem was much worse? Suddenly I’m not the guy trying to survive -- I’m the stingy hoarder who won’t share with people in need and in some way contributed to the shortage. Thanks for all you do. - Wes B.

JWR Replies: In my opinion, the modern American citizenry has been badly misinformed by the mass media about what constitutes "hoarding." By filling your gas drum and cans several months ago, you did not contribute to a shortage of fuel in the present day. In normal times, chains of supply are continuously replenished. By buying and storing supplies well in advance, you actually helped to alleviate the current short-term supply disruption. By having a pre-existing stockpile, you represent one less motorist queuing up at the gas station. The same logic applies to any other shortage. It is only people that attempt to buy a disproportionately large supply during a crisis that could legitimately be called "hoarders." But people in your category--that bought far in advance--are not part of the problem. In fact, by having extra on hand, you can dispense charity, which makes you part of the solution.

Maintaining a low profile is just common sense. The "need to know" rule-- that was constantly drummed into me when I was in the intelligence community--is time-proven. There are great advantages in being circumspect.

I enjoy giving charitably. But there is no reason why it has to be done with a high profile in the midst of a natural disaster or other crisis. By anonymously leaving parcels on doorsteps or by using an intermediary--such as your local church--you are far less likely to attract unwanted attention from either government officials or members of your community with a twisted sense of ethics.

The other reason for being secretive about charity is Biblical: In Matthew 6:3 (King James Version) we are taught: "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." Essentially, this means that when giving charitably, we should do it without any fanfare, lest it be a source of pride. Give generously, but do so very quietly.

Jim,
I’ve struggled with the paradigm of preparing versus having faith in God to provide for our needs and protection. There are many Biblical references/analogies regarding both. Would you be willing to share your thoughts? Sincerely, - Short-ckt

JWR Replies: For some relevant Bible passages, please see the latest additions to my Prayer page. In particular, see the sections under these headings:

Clarification on Christianity and Physical Preparedness
Food Storage
Self Defense
Charity

May God Bless You and Yours!

Jim-
As always I love your site (that's why I'm a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber), I am so sorry to hear of your wife's accident and hope and pray she returns to her normal routine quickly.

Taking your inspiration (and some info from others) my wife and I have expanded upon a concept called "365 meals". My original idea (after reading your info on "Dispensing charity from a safe distance" was to use our impulse sealer to make "quick meals" of some rice, bullion cubes and TVP to distribute in the event that we needed to dispense charitable food stuffs to others. It was also a great way to allow us to have home-made "MREs" that could be easily made by our children.

My good wife then said "Yuck, we can do better than that" and found/made several recipes that only require adding water and heat. We used our sizable stores of dehydrated vegetables, legumes and seasonings and TVP. We were originally going to make 365 (one for every day), but after testing, (and discovering that a little went a long way) we calculated that we only needed half as many. These meals are delicious, satisfying, and nutritionally balanced.

The great solace of this endeavor is that we now know for a certainty that we have at least one meal per day for our family, for an entire year. This is not our only supply of food, but an important part of it. We have made a four part, video presentation of a lecture we gave on the subject, at a recent Emergency Preparation seminar that I teach once a month. These can be seen on YouTube.
Thank you for all that you do. - Kory

JWR –
I am putting together food stores, and collecting food grade buckets for bulk storage (local store lets them go for 60 cents each), but I had a question come across as I was planning this out.
Based on my own sense of charity, as well as your comments, I thought about a self-contained package that could be handed out, some rice, wheat, dried veggies and more, all sealed with a gamma lid using your dry ice method. Not only would this be good to avoid having multiple bulk cans open at once, but also as I said if people in need come asking, you can hand of 3-to-5 days food in one package.

Then I started thinking about comfort foods, pretzels, chips, candy bars and the like, and I wondered if you can actually put all of these different food products in the same can, separated into baggies, and if so, can you keep some foods like pretzels/chips or candy in their original packaging or repackage them in baggies? - Geoff in North Dakota

JWR Replies:

Using separate clear plastic baggies--or better yet mylar bags--within a sealed container is a practicable solution.

Distributing whole wheat is only marginally workable, since most folks are used to baking with wheat flour. But this raises two issues: If distributing flour, does the recipient have access to a working baking oven or Dutch Oven? In most disaster situations, that would be a rarity. And, if distributing while wheat, does the recipient have a access to a wheat grinder. Of course you could instruct them to make wheat berries (soaked wheat to eat as hot or cold cereal). But then they must have water available and at least 10 hours to soak the wheat. Because of the much shorter shelf life of flour (versus whole wheat), you might consider packaging the wheat in the form of freshly-ground flour, only on an "as-needed" basis, after the onset of an emergency.

Mr Rawles,
I found your web site a few months ago and have been pouring through it ever since. This past week, I finished reading the SurvivalBlog archives through the end of 2007. Just six months of archives left :) I also just finished reading your excellent novel, "Patriots"

As a fundamentalist Christian who was homeschooled, I truly appreciate your willingness to unabashedly share your faith and your conservative family values through your web site and writings.

I am also a West Point graduate who became an Armor officer in 2000, so I really enjoy and relate to your anecdotes and descriptions (and military jargon & acronyms) of your personal Military Intelligence experience, as well as the fictional experiences of "Doug Carlton". Your descriptions of M1A1 tanks, Fort Knox, Advanced Camp (Camp Buckner for me), et cetera. are all spot on. Your description of tankers, down to the details about being chronically horrible on security, was exactly correct. I well remember getting a CS [tear gas] canister thrown into our perimeter at [National Training Center] NTC by the [Observer Controller] OC because we were all asleep. We received a briefing on the vulnerabilities of Abrams tanks at the Armor Captain's Career Course and, in light of that, I found your discussion of the matter in "Patriots" very interesting. As a note of interest, since the Iraq War, the training in the Armor CCC seems to place renewed importance on urban warfare and especially on combined operations with Infantry. In fact, I believe Armor and Infantry CCCs have combined now to form a single "Maneuver Captain's Career Course".

After my platoon leader time, I worked in the Fort Knox Garrison S3 shop as a planner for two years at Fort Knox's Emergency Operations Center, working on their contingency operations plans for everything from earthquakes to terrorists attacks. I took advantage of my time there in taking a lot of FEMA online courses, getting my amateur radio license, and taking a lot of civilian and military training in [Search and Rescue] SAR. That being the case, I absolutely loved the Fort Knox aspects of the plot in "Patriots" and wish to heck that I had your book during my time there to pass around to the other guys. My time there was also the point in my life when I realized that a lot can go wrong in this world and I'd better have a plan to prepare for it.

Wanting some change, I later became a Civil Affairs officer with deployments to Iraq and West Africa. Civil Affairs just became it's own branch in 2006 as the Army recognizes that "civilians on the battlefield" play an enormous role in low intensity conflicts like Iraq. The civilian dimension, both as potential OPFOR and BLUFOR, is being studied and analyzed in depth in today's Army, as it should be. However, it is terrifying to contemplate a "Patriots" type of scenario where that scrutiny, analysis, and subsequent operations would be turned towards our own populace. Double ditto for all things related to the new branch of Psychological Operations

After reading survivalblog, I've been re-examining my military experiences, especially my time in Iraq and West Africa from the survivalist viewpoint. I don't want to make this e-mail into a book, so I'll only mention a few things for now: In many of the Medical Civic Action Programs (MEDCAP) that we conducted in Africa, one of the hugely popular items was adaptive eyewear. Essentially, they are adjustable glasses where the user can modify the power of each lens to his or her needs. It works through fluid-filled lenses. You can checkout their web site at http://www.adaptive-eyecare.com/index.htm . I'm not affiliated with them, by the way, but I have handed out a lot of these things. They look like the Army BCGs, so they aren't pretty but they are effective. I went to a village last year where they told me their number one medical need was eye care. Actually, it appeared as though a large percent of the elderly people had cataracts which we couldn't fix obviously, but the adjustable glasses were a hot item for many others. I thought about it when I read some of the previous posts about eye care and about barter items. How many people would have lost or broken their glasses after a few years of TEOTWAWKI? Or their prescription changes? Glasses might be a popular barter item, but who wants to stock every prescription imaginable? These glasses can be adjusted from +6 to -6 Diopters.

The only catch is... I think this company mostly sells their glasses in bulk to NGO-type organizations for use in third world countries, so I have no idea if they are available to the normal person here in these united States. However, now that you know they're out there, you might keep a watch out for something like it. This is an example of something that is probably not currently marketable in a developed country because of lack of need. However, that could quickly change if TSHTF. I think I heard that the glasses were about $10 or $12 each, but they were trying to bring the costs down. Also, I'm no eye doctor, but I surmised that one of the reasons for the surprisingly high number of cataract and eye problems in these places is that they go through their whole life living outdoors without sunglasses or eye protection. Granted, we were in or near the Sahara Desert, where conditions are unusually harsh, but the lesson I took away is that sunglasses and eye protection are essential, especially if spending a lot of time in harsh-sun environments or anywhere there isn't an eye doctor.

On another note of interest, probably the number one ailment by far we saw were bowel problems, probably related to unsanitary conditions and unpurified water. There were also always a sizable number of people who had dental problems who were hugely grateful when our dentist pulled their problem teeth. As you've mentioned before, having a dental kit and knowing how to pull teeth doesn't sound too exciting now but if the time came when you needed it, you sure would be thankful that you could. Our dentist made it look so easy, pulling people's teeth while they sat on an Army cot or the back of a pickup, that I asked him to pull my wisdom teeth. He wouldn't do it, though, saying that there's a big difference in pulling out a malnourished person's tooth and pulling out a McDonald's fed American's teeth. Plus, he didn't want the liability in case of complications. My wisdom teeth weren't a problem for me, but I went ahead and got them pulled when I got back from the deployment. I figured it was better to get that out of the way now rather than wait until TEOTWAWKI when I'd be sitting on the back of a pickup while some goon is putting a pair of pliers in my mouth.

One huge "mistake" that we made was our method of handing out some giveaways during our MEDCAPs. Be careful of your how you hand out charity! We gave out bolts of cloth (the cloth had pro-American prints on them) to the women of one village and within a few hours, we had near-riot conditions. Several people were injured and nearly suffocated and/or trampled, the local police grew, shall we say, heavy-handed, and we shut down all operations. Your advice of giving out charity from a distance and using an intermediary like the church is exactly correct. Another lesson is that bolts of cloth are another really popular item for people who have to make their own clothes.

Thank you for all you do. My 10 Cent Challenge contribution will be forthcoming. God bless you and your family. Respectfully, - The Kansan

I often stress that a key to survival is not what you have, but rather what you know. (See my Precepts of Rawlesian Survivalist Philosophy web page.) In part, I wrote:

Skills Beat Gadgets and Practicality Beats Style. The modern world is full of pundits, poseurs, and Mall Ninjas. Preparedness is not just about accumulating a pile of stuff. You need practical skills, and those only come with study, training, and practice. Any armchair survivalist can buy a set of stylish camouflage fatigues and an M4gery Carbine encrusted with umpteen accessories. Style points should not be mistaken for genuine skills and practicality.

To expand on those precepts, consider the following:

Balanced logistics are important for everyone, but absolutely crucial for someone that is on a tight budget. If you have a three year food supply, then a quantity miscalculation for one particular food item will likely be just an inconvenience. But if you only have a three month supply, then a miscalculation can be a serious hazard. Be logical, systematic, and dispassionate in your preparations. You need to develop some detailed lists, starting with a "List of Lists." Be realistic and scale your retreat logistics purchasing program to your budget. Avoid gong in to debt to "get prepared." A friend of mine who was a Physician's Assistant went way overboard in 1998 and 1999, stocking up for Y2K. The massive credit card debt that he racked up eventually contributed to a prolonged mental depression.

Choose your retreat location wisely. If you can't afford 40 acres, then be sure to pick the right 5 or 10 acres. Finding a property that adjoins public land, and/or property with like-minded neighbors, can make a huge difference. The smaller your land-buying budget, the longer your search should be, to get the most for your money. In today's plunging real estate market, don't overlook the possibility of finding a foreclosed ("bank owned") farm or ranch at a "below market" price. Watch the foreclosure listings in your intended retreat region closely. Two foreclosure monitoring services that I recommend are RealtyTrac.com and Foreclosures.com.

Buy used instead of new. It goes without saying that your purchasing dollars will go farther if you concentrate on quality used tools, guns, and vehicles. Remember that preparedness is not a beauty contest. There are no "Style" points awarded. So owning gear with some dings and scratches is not an issue. Just be sure to inspect used items very carefully. In the case of buying a used vehicle, it is worthwhile to run a check on the vehicle's history through a service like CARFAX. This will reveal if the vehicle might have been repaired after a major collision. Also, hire a qualified mechanic to do some checks before you buy a used rig. That will be money well-spent!

Clip coupons, watch and wait for seasonal sales, shop at thrift stores, go to garage sales and flea markets, attend weekend farm and estate auctions, and learn to watch Craig's List and Freecycle like a hawk. The only thing better that finding inexpensive used items is having thing given to you. This is a common occurrence with Freecycle. For example, it is not unusual to have someone give you several dozen Mason-type canning jars. Just be sure to return the favor, in the spirit of Freecycle.

Strike a balance between quality and quantity. I'm a big believer in the old adage: "Better is the enemy of good enough." Why buy a $320 Chris Reeve folding knife when a used $30 CRKT or Cold Steel brand pocketknife bought on eBay will provide 95% of the functionality of a custom knife? Buying at 1/10th the price means that you will have money available for other important logistics and training.

Take advantage of free or low-cost training. The WRSA, for example, offers shooting and medical training at near their cost. I've discussed other such training opportunities at length previously in SurvivalBlog. In my Precepts page, I noted:

Tools Without Training Are Almost Useless. Owning a gun doesn't make someone a "shooter" any more than owning a surfboard makes someone a surfer. With proper training and practice, you will be miles ahead of the average citizen. Get advanced medical training. Get the best firearms training that you can afford. Learn about amateur radio from your local affiliated ARRL club. Practice raising a vegetable garden each summer. Some skills are only perfected over a period of years.

Learn to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials. Do you really need cable television? Eating out? snacks from the vending machine? ? Use the cash generated to buy the really important things, like storage food.

When you don't have cash, then apply sweat equity. Do you need pasture fence or garden fence at your retreat property? Don't hire someone and "have it done" Do it yourself. Not only will you save money, but you will also learn valuable skills. You might even lose some of that flab around your midsection, in the process. Also consider that people are often willing to barter their excess tangibles in trade for your skills and time. Do you have an elderly neighbor with a big gun collection? Then offer to paint his house in trade for a couple of guns or a few of those heavy ammo cans that he won't live long enough to shoot? In my Precepts page, I wrote:

Invest Your Sweat Equity. Even if some of you have a millionaire's budget, you need to learn how to do things for yourself, and be willing to get your hands dirty. In a societal collapse, the division of labor will be reduced tremendously. Odds are that the only "skilled craftsmen" available to build a shed, mend a fence, shuck corn, repair an engine, or pitch manure will be you.and your family. A byproduct of sweat equity is muscle tone and proper body weight. Hiring someone to deliver three cords of firewood is a far cry from felling, cutting, hauling, splitting, and stacking it yourself.

People often assume that because my blog and novel are widely read that I am wealthy. I actually have a very modest income. The only reason that our retreat is so well stocked is that I have been systematically stocking up for 30 years. I am not a "yuppie survivalist" as at least one fellow blogger claims. I gave up my Big City salaried job years ago, to concentrate on living self-sufficiently. Part of this was a conscious decision to raise our children in a more wholesome environment. The major drawback is that the Rawles Ranch is in such a remote area that we don't get into town very often.

The Memsahib Adds. The good thing about living so remotely is there are no shopping opportunities. Even if I had the urge to indulge in some retail therapy, I'd have to drive more than two hours to do it. The next best things you can do is cancel your magazine subscriptions. If you analyze the contents of most magazines you will realize that they are designed to make you dissatisfied with your clothes, your home decor, garden, electronics, autos because they aren't the latest, greatest, and most fashionable. I also highly recommend selling or Freecycling your television, for the very same reason. A couple of exceptions to our magazine rule are Backwoods Home, and Home Power, since they are both light on advertising and heavy on practical skills.

In closing, do the best you can with what you have. Be truly frugal. I grew up in a family that still remembered both our pioneer history and the more recent lessons of the Great Depression. One of our family mottos is: "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without." I thank my mother for passing that wisdom along to my generation, and I am doing the same, with my children.

Mr. Rawles:

[Your frequent quotes from conservatives such as Thomas Sowell and Austrian School economists] blithely ignore the reality of corporatism, authoritarianism, predation, and entrenched elites. We've had our grand experiment in deregulation and the magic of the market, and it's now perfectly clear where it got us. Why don't you look up a good quote on the definition of an idealogue [sic] -- someone who won't let go of pretty delusions even when the real world proves the idealogy [sic] wrong. This is where the right wing is today. They want yet more of what has driven this country onto the rocks.

If you're interested in applying thought, rather than [vulgar word deleted] right wing slogans, to our current economic problems, I'd recommend that you spend a little time on Nouriel Roubini's web site in the spotlight area "Do We Need to Promote Localization to Save Globalization." Inequality and the weakening of the safety net is hobbling, not freeing, the American economy. - David D.

JWR Replies: The context of the words "inequality" and "safety net" and the overall tone of your letter are indicative that you favor socialism. I am opposed to socialism, fascism, communism, and any any other other "-ism" that uses force to deny anyone else of their, life, liberty, or property. One of my dreaded "-isms" is socialism. (And, FWIW, I am opposed to it just a strongly as I am communism and fascism.) Red flags went up when I saw you use the terms "Inequality" and "safety net". Those are are both popular buzzwords of socialism. You asked me to look at a web site. So it is only "fair" and "equitable" that you do likewise: See this animation that nicely sums up my libertarian philosophy.

Ponder what socialism does: In essence, in redistributes wealth, by force. Even if that force has a friendly American face, under the color of law, with a neat and orderly system of taxation, it is nonetheless still force. The bottom line is that under the socialist model, without my consent, some of my earnings are forcibly extracted from me and eventually put into the hands of another citizen that did not earn them. If I refuse to pay my taxes, then I will pay huge fines and/or go to prison. Period.

Whenever you see a Federal courthouse, just imagine that there a dungeon beneath it. (Of course, in reality, the "dungeon" is a sprawling prison, way off in some rural county.) The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the "free" world. One contributing factor for the high incarceration rate is our system of taxation.

All of the foregoing is not to say that I don't believe in charity. Quite to the contrary, I'm part of the small Christian minority in this country that still gives a full tithe (one tenth of my gross earnings) to my church, as well as additional donations to other charities. I do so gladly, as a "cheerful giver." (And it is noteworthy that I'm not alone. Conservatives are statistically far more generous givers than liberals.) To sum up my point: To extract taxes by force to fund a wretchedly inefficient socialist wealth redistribution plan is the worst sort if tyranny. It is slavery with almost invisible shackles.

I occasionally get e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers, asking about how I can justify active preparedness in light of my Christian faith. Some cite the "Lilies of the Field" passage in Matthew 6:25-34:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

In my view, people are misinterpreting these verses. These are verses about worry, not about work or preparedness. Never does the Bible teach that we should laze about and not provide for our families. Earning our daily bread is the Godly way to live. We are taught not to be lazy or dependent on others. Yes, we are to trust in God's providence, but nowhere do the scriptures absolve us of the responsibility to work or to save up for lean times. Consider these four verses from the book of Proverbs:

He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment. Proverbs 12:11, NIV

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23, NIV

The sluggard's craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. Proverbs 21:25, NIV

The plans of the diligent surely lead to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty surely to poverty. Proverbs 21:5, NKJV

Food Storage

The Bible encourages storing food. Look at Gen. 41:47-49: "And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number." And then see Gen. 41:53-57: "And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended. And the sevens years of dearth [drought] was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.
And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.

The preceding is a good example that illustrates the need for food storage. As I write this in 2008, a growing portion of the world is already experiencing famine. You should recognize that famine could just a well come to stalk America, Europe, the British Isles, and Australia. (The areas with the largest SurvivalBlog readership.) It is prudent and Biblically supported to stock up during good times in anticipation of lean times.

Prov. 6:6-15: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a forward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; Forwardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy."

The lessons from scripture are clear: Don't be lazy and lax. Store up in good times for future lean times. Ponder this Old Testament passage: Psalm 34:9-10: "O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." And then look at this New Testament passage:, from 1 Timothy 5:8: "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

One of the many names of God is Jehovah Jireh, which means God Who Provides. As I Christian, I believe that God will provide for his covenant people. I believe that one of the many gifts that the God has provided is a conviction, by the Holy Spirit, to be well prepared. I realize that we are only on Earth for about 80 trips around the sun, and that is just the twinkling of an eye versus eternity. Where we end up after this brief life is far, far more important in the grand scheme of things. We will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. But how we spend our +/-80 year life on Earth is up to us. (And the most important thing that we do in the is life is make ourselves right with God, though his Grace, to accepting eternal life in heaven. But stepping back to this temporal world: The Bible makes it very clear that we are to be good stewards of the blessings that God provides us. I therefore feel strongly convicted to not just share the gospel of Christ, but also to physically prepare for my own family, and store extra to dispense as charity. The bottom line: I can't continue to share the gospel if I starve to the point of achieving room temperature!

Self Defense
Other readers question how I can justify owning guns for self-defense. Some Mennonites, for example, eschew all means self defense and decry even the willingness to defend oneself or one's loved ones. That, in my opinion is taking "turning the other cheek" (Luke 6:29) to an extreme that is not sculpturally founded.

Exodus 22:2 provides Biblical justification for killing someone if he intends to forcibly rob or kill another man: "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed." (Exodus 22:2 NIV)

And Jesus teaches that it is wise to be armed, in Luke 22:35-36: "Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?' 'Nothing,' they answered. He said to them, 'But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

In an article titled: What Does The Bible Say About Gun Control? Larry Pratt keenly observed the difference between self-defense and vengeance:

Resisting an attack is not to be confused with taking vengeance which is the exclusive domain of God (Rom. 12:19). This has been delegated to the civil magistrate, who, as we read in Romans 13:4, ". . . is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."

Private vengeance means one would stalk down a criminal after one’s life is no longer in danger as opposed to defending oneself during an attack. It is this very point that has been confused by Christian pacifists who would take the passage in the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek (which prohibits private vengeance) into a command to falter before the wicked.

Let us consider also that the Sixth Commandment tells us: "Thou shall not murder." In the chapters following, God gave to Moses many of the situations which require a death penalty. God clearly has not told us never to kill. He has told us not to murder, which means we are not to take an innocent life. Consider also that the civil magistrate is to be a terror to those who practice evil. This passage does not in any way imply that the role of law enforcement is to prevent crimes or to protect individuals from criminals. The magistrate is a minister to serve as "an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Rom. 13:4).

Jesus taught both to turn the other cheek and to be well-armed to defend oneself. The important factor is having the wisdom to know when to employ either approach depending on the circumstances. I pray, for wisdom, discernment, and discretion, daily. I don't seek out trouble, and in fact I have moved my family to a remote, lightly populated region in good part to avoid trouble. But if unavoidable trouble comes my way, I want to have the option of resisting force with force. And I only have that option if I am armed and trained.

Some critics of armed preparedness cite Matthew 26:52-54, which descries how Jesus responded when Peter cut off the ear of a s high priest's servant, using a sword: "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"

In context, Jesus is telling Peter that it would be suicidal to fight in that particular situation, since they were quite outnumbered. And of course Jesus knew it was in God's plan for him to be arrested, tried, crucified, and resurrected. Jesus told Peter to put his sword in its place –which was back in his belt. Jesus was telling Peter in effect that "there is a time to fight, and this, my friend, isn't it." He didn't command him to "throw that sword away", or "surrender it", or to "stop carrying it". After all, according to Luke, Jesus had just recently ordered the disciples to arm themselves. The reason for the arms was obviously to protect their own lives when traveling--not to protect His own life, which He intended to sacrifice, to pay for our sins, once and for all.

The Old testament teaches both to be armed, and to be trained. We read in Psalm 144:1:

Blessed be the Lord my rock
Who trains my hands for war
And my fingers for battle.

Yes, as Christians our battles are mainly spiritual, but we must also be prepared to defend our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, against evildoers.

Charity

Charity--both in time of plenty and in times of disaster--is a Christian responsibility with its roots in the Old Testament tradition of Tzedaka. This responsibility--particularly for the support of widows and orphans--was repeated in the New Testament, such as in Acts 11:27-29: "And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth [drought] throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea."

The Biblical approach to survivalism is to avoid trouble, but to be ready for it nonetheless. And when trouble does come, have extra stores on hand, so that you can dispense copious charity. Give until it hurts!

The mass media is currently in a frenzy about spot shortages of rice, flour, and cooking oil at COSTCO stores. I've fielded seven radio interviews in the last couple of days. The only good news is that we set an all-time record yesterday, with 22,217 unique site visits to SurvivalBlog in one day! The rationing situation is getting worse. Several SurvivalBlog readers sent me this: Wal-Mart's Sam's Club limits rice purchases. Meanwhile, we read in The Washington Times: Americans hoard food as industry seeks regulations.

Josh Gerstein, the reporter that interviewed me for the recent New York Sun piece, just got his two minutes of fame on FOX News: Food Shortage Coming? No Rice For You (It used to be called "five minutes of fame", but apparently time is being rationed, too.)

Things can get a lot worse, and they probably will, since the recent shortages and jumps in food prices are global, and were driven by increased fuel costs, the looming Ug99 wheat rust menace, and a pitiful wheat harvest in Australia. (Australia has had drought in three of the last six years, and this year they reported their smallest wheat harvest in 12 years.) A tremendous amount of US wheat and rice has been exported to east Asia in the past six months, leaving short supplies here. It was inevitable that this would eventually show up at the consumer level. Part of the current problem at the COSTCOs and Sam's Clubs is that commercial bakeries and restaurants have resorted to buying more rice and flour at the Big Box stores. It is not clear whether this is because of shortages at their normal suppliers, or because the COSTCOs weren't keeping up with price increases (making them cheaper than buying wholesale), some stockpiling in anticipation of future price increases, or a combination of these factors. What is clear is that American consumers have finally caught on, and are now likely to stock up. Yesterday, even the stodgy The Wall Street Journal jumped on the preparedness bandwagon, when they printed this editorial: Load Up the Pantry. I predict that if there is media attention that is any more vocal than this, it could induce a buying panic like the Johnny Carson toilet paper incident.

An underlying factor that is being under-reported by the mainstream media is that the modern-day Just in Time (JIT) inventory control is a part of the current problem. As I wrote in SurvivalBlog back in February of 2007, by enthusiastically adopting the Japanese kanban system, America retailers have left themselves quite vulnerable to both wholesale shortages and consumer demand spikes. Inventories are intentionally kept lean, for efficiency. This is great for cutting costs in normal times, but it is dangerously fragile whenever a disruption occurs. With JIT, every purchase is logged at the checkout counter terminal, and once a predetermined shelf threshold is reached, an automatic restocking order gets forwarded through the system. Typically, these re-supply shipments take around 24 hours. But a big spike in sales can totally overwhelm the system, leaving empty shelves.

I'm glad that most SurvivalBlog readers stocked up well in advance. By doing so, you are now part of the solution in a food crisis, rather than part of the problem. Because you stocked up many months ago, each one of you represents one less buyer rushing to the store at the 11th hour. And, by having extra on hand, you can dispense charity to your less prudent neighbors.

If the current rice shortage gets any worse, you need to be prepared to dispense charity. I assume that the average SurvivalBlog reader has about 200 pounds of rice on hand. I recommend that you identify friends, neighbors, co-workers and church brethren that are gluten intolerant. For most of us, a shortage of rice, by itself, is not much of an issue. We can simply shift to eating more wheat. But this is not an option for folks that are gluten intolerant (also known as celiac disease, or celiac sprue.) If any of your acquaintances are in this category and they report that they are running out of rice, then quietly offer to give them some. For the sake of OPSEC, just let them know that you have "a little extra" that you can share. Never hand out any of your rice stockpile in more than five pound increments, or you might start some unfriendly rumors.

Hopefully, this will be a short term phenomenon. I anticipate that the Bush administration will soon sharply curtail exports of rice and wheat. Once the current shortage is alleviated, we should both thank God for his Providence, and take this as a reminder to stock up even more, to be prepared for future shortages. Remember our motto:" Two is one, and one is none."/p>

In the past week I've had three newcomers to SurvivalBlog.com write and ask me to summarize my world view. One of them asked: "I could spend days looking through [the] archives of your [many months of] blog posts. But there are hundreds of them. Can you tell me where you stand, in just a page? What distinguishes the "Rawlesian" philosophy from other [schools of] survivalist thought?"

I'll likely add a few items to this list as time goes on, but here is a general summary of my precepts:

Modern Society is Increasingly Complex, Interdependent, and Fragile. With each passing year, technology progresses and chains of interdependency lengthen. In the past 30 years, chains of retail supply have grown longer and longer. The food on your supermarket shelf does not come from local farmers. It often comes from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. This has created an alarming vulnerability to disruption. Simultaneously, global population is still increasing in a near geometrical progression. At some point that must end, most likely with a sudden and sharp drop in population. The lynchpin is the grid. Without functioning power grids, modern industrial societies will collapse within weeks.

Civilization is Just a Thin Veneer. In the absence of law an order, men quickly revert to savagery. As was illustrated by the rioting and looting that accompanied disasters in the past three decades, the transition from tranquility to absolute barbarism can occur overnight. People expect tomorrow to be just like today, and they act accordingly. But then comes a unpredictable disaster that catches the vast majority unprepared. The average American family has four days worth of food on hand. When that food is gone, we'll soon see the thin veneer stripped away.

People Run in Herds and Packs, but Both Follow Natural Lines of Drift. Most people are sheep ("sheeple"). A few are wolves that prey on others. But just a few of us are more like sheepdogs--we think independently, and instead of predation, we are geared toward protecting and helping others. People naturally follow natural lines of drift--the path of least resistance. When the Schumer hits the fan, 99% of urbanites will try to leave the cities on freeways. The highways and freeways will soon resemble parking lots. This means that you need to be prepared to both get out of town ahead of the rush and to use lightly-traveled back roads. Plan, study and practice.

Lightly Populated Areas are Safer than High Density Areas. With a few exceptions, less population means fewer problems. WTSHTF, there will be a mass exodus from the cities. Think of it as an army that is spreading out across a battlefield: The wider that they are spread, the less effective that they are. The inverse square law hasn't been repealed.

Show Restraint, But Always Have Recourse to Lethal Force. My father often told me, "It is better to have a gun and not need it, than need a gun, and not have it." I urge readers to use less than lethal means when safe and practicable, but at times there is not a satisfactory substitute for well-aimed lead going down range at high velocity.

There is Strength in Numbers. Rugged individualism is all well and good, but it takes ore than one man to defend a retreat. Effective retreat defense necessitates having at least two families to provide 24/7 perimeter security. But of course every individual added means having another mouth to feed. Absent having an unlimited budget and an infinite larder, this necessitates striking a balance when deciding the size of a retreat group.

There are Moral Absolutes. The foundational morality of the civilized world is best summarized in the Ten Commandments. Moral relativism and secular humanism are slippery slopes. The terminal moraine at the base of these slopes is a rubble pile consisting of either despotism and pillage, or anarchy and the depths of depravity. I believe that it takes both faith and friends to survive perilous times. For more background on that, see my Prayer page.

Racism Ignores Reason. People should be judged as individuals. Anyone that make blanket statements about other races is ignorant that there are both good and bad individuals in all groups. I have accepted The Great Commission with sincerity."Go forth into all nations" means exactly that: all nations. OBTW, I feel grateful that SurvivalBlog is now read in more than 100 countries. I have been given a bully pulpit, and I intend to use it for good and edifying purposes.

Skills Beat Gadgets and Practicality Beats Style. The modern world is full of pundits, poseurs, and Mall Ninjas. Preparedness is not just about accumulating a pile of stuff. You need practical skills, and those only come with study, training, and practice. Any armchair survivalist can buy a set of stylish camouflage fatigues and an M4gery Carbine encrusted with umpteen accessories. Style points should not be mistaken for genuine skills and practicality.

Plentiful Water and Good Soil are Crucial. Modern mechanized farming, electrically pumped irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides can make deserts bloom. But when the grid goes down, deserts and marginal farmland will revert to their natural states. In my estimation, the most viable places to survive in the midst of a long term societal collapse will be those with reliable summer rains and rich topsoil.

Tangibles Trump Conceptuals. Modern fiat currencies are generally accepted, but have essentially no backing. Because they are largely a byproduct of interest bearing debt, modern currencies are destined to inflation. In the long run, inflation dooms fiat currencies to collapse. The majority of your assets should be invested in productive farm land and other tangibles such as useful hand tools. Only after you have your key logistics squared away, anything extra should be invested in silver and gold.

Governments Tend to Expand their Power to the Point that They Do Harm. In SurvivalBlog, I often warn of the insidious tyranny of the Nanny State. If the state where you live becomes oppressive, then don't hesitate to relocate. Vote with your feet!

There is Value in Redundancy. A common saying of my readers is: "Two is one, and one is none." You must be prepared to provide for your family in a protracted period of societal disruption. That means storing up all of the essential "beans, bullets, and Band-Aids" in quantity. If commerce is disrupted by a disaster, at least in the short term you will only have your own logistics to fall back on. The more that you have stored, the more that you will have available for barter and charity.

A Deep Larder is Essential. Food storage is one of the key preparations that I recommend. Even if you have a fantastic self-sufficient garden and pasture ground, you must always have food storage that you can fall back on in the event that your crops fail due to drought, disease, or infestation.

Tools Without Training Are Almost Useless. Owning a gun doesn't make someone a "shooter" any more than owning a surfboard makes someone a surfer. With proper training and practice, you will be miles ahead of the average citizen. Get advanced medical training. Get the best firearms training that you can afford. Learn about amateur radio from your local affiliated ARRL club. Practice raising a vegetable garden each summer. Some skills are only perfected over a period of years.

Old Technologies are Appropriate Technologies. In the event of a societal collapse, 19th Century (or earlier) technologies such as a the blacksmith's forge, the treadle sewing machine, and the horse-drawn plow will be far easier to re-construct than modern technologies.

Charity is a Moral Imperative. As a Christian, I feel morally obligated to assist others that are less fortunate. Following the Old Testament laws of Tzedakah (charity and tithing), I believe that my responsibility begins with my immediate family and expands in successive rings to supporting my immediate neighborhood and church, to my community, and beyond, as resources allow. In short, my philosophy is to "give until it hurts" in times of disaster.

Buy Life Assurance, not Life Insurance. Self-sufficiency and self-reliance are many-faceted. You need to systematically provide for Water, Food, Shelter, Fuel, First Aid, Commo, and, if need be, the tools to enforce Rule 308.

Live at Your Retreat Year-Round. If your financial and family circumstances allow it, I strongly recommend that you relocate to a safe area and live there year-round. This has several advantages, most notably that will prevent burglary of your retreat logistics and allow you to regularly tend to gardens, orchards, and livestock. It will also remove the stress of timing a "Get Out of Dodge" trip at the11th hour. If circumstances dictate that you can't live at your retreat year round, then at least have a caretaker and stock the vast majority of your logistics in advance, since you may only have one trip there before roads are impassable.

Exploit Force Multipliers. Night vision gear, intrusion detection sensors, and radio communications equipment are key force multipliers. Because these use high technology they cannot be depended upon in a long term collapse, but in the short term, they can provide a big advantage. Some low technologies like barbed wire and defensive road cables also provide advantages and can last for several decades.

Invest Your Sweat Equity. Even if some of you have a millionaire's budget, you need to learn how to do things for yourself, and be willing to get your hands dirty. In a societal collapse, the division of labor will be reduced tremendously. Odds are that the only "skilled craftsmen" available to build a shed, mend a fence, shuck corn, repair an engine, or pitch manure will be you.and your family. A byproduct of sweat equity is muscle tone and proper body weight. Hiring someone to deliver three cords of firewood is a far cry from felling, cutting, hauling, splitting, and stacking it yourself.

Choose Your Friends Wisely. Associate yourself with skilled doers, not "talkers." Seek out people that share your outlook and morality. Living in close confines with other families is sure to cause friction but that will be minimized if you share a common religion and norms of behavior.You can't learn every skill yourself. Assemble a team that includes members with medical knowledge, tactical skills, electronics experience, and traditional practical skills.

There is No Substitute for Mass. Mass stops bullets. Mass stops gamma radiation. Mass stops (or at least slows down ) bad guys from entering a home and depriving its residents of life and property. Sandbags are cheap, so buy plenty of them. When planning your retreat house, think: medieval castle. (See the SurvivalBlog Archives for the many articles and letters on Retreat Architecture.)

Always Have a Plan B and a Plan C. Regardless of your pet scenario and your personal grand plan of survival, you need to be flexible and adaptable. Situations and circumstances change. Always keep a G.O.O.D. kit handy, even if you are fortunate enough to live at your retreat year-round.

Be Frugal. I grew up in a family that still remembered both our pioneer history and the more recent lessons of the Great Depression. One of our family mottos is: "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."

Some Things are Worth Fighting For. I encourage my readers to avoid trouble, most importantly via relocation to safe areas where trouble is unlikely to come to visit. But there may come an unavoidable day that you have to make a stand to defend your own family or your neighbors. Further, if you value your liberty, then be prepared to fight for it, both for yourself and for the sake of your progeny.

In the next few paragraphs I'll be tackling four issues that for many years, I've labelled "The Four Gs." One of my contemporaries, Richard "Doc" Sweeny, even made the concept into and acronym: GGGG, for "God, Gold, Guns, and Groceries."

God.
I consider faith in God the cornerstone of my family's preparedness. Faith in God's sovereign control of the future gives my family hope and peace in these troubled times. If there is no hope, then why prepare? Our hope is in Christ Jesus.

Groceries.
There are continuing reports of shortages around the country of wheat flour, corn meal, rice, and cooking oil at some of the "big box:" stores such as COSTCO and Sam's Club. This phenomenon is not uniform. Some readers tell me that it is "business at usual" at their local stores, while others report "one bag per customer" rationing signs have been posted, and a few report empty shelves. With galloping wholesale prices and shortages at the wholesale level, I expect these spot shortages to continue.

I've had a half dozen anxious e-mails from readers in the past week, complaining that their storage food orders have been delayed, that they can't get a firm answer on delivery dates from the vendors, or that the vendors won't even return their calls or e-mails. In nearly all of these instances, the companies in question are not SurvivalBlog advertisers. I've heard from several vendors that the big packing and canning outfits like Mountain House and Alpen Aire are essentially sold out of stock on hand, and that their order backlogs are at least 30 days, and growing. The problem is that in "normal" times, these companies serve a "niche" clientele. They just aren't scaled to handle the order volume when more than 1% or 2% of the population places orders. I witnessed a similar situation back in 1999, just before the Y2K rollover. Some good news that I can mention is that several of our advertisers such as Ready Made Resources actually still have some storage food on hand. It is actually on the shelf ("in captivity") and ready to ship. For any of their items that are back ordered, just be patient. You may have to wait four to six weeks. The other good news I can offer is that our advertisers all have good reputations. (If they didn't, then they would not be allowed to advertise on SurvivalBlog.) The most reputable food storage vendors will not bill your credit card until the day that your order is actually shipped. Beware of small "fly by night" vendors that don't keep any inventory on hand and that will bill your credit card weeks ahead of when they know they can ship. If you buy from a vendor that is not a SurvivalBlog advertiser, my advice is simple: pick your order up in person only from stock on hand, and pay cash on the spot. If you are taking delivery personally, then there is no need to leave a paper trail. Buying with a credit card is advised, in instances where immediate delivery is not promised. In that case, your credit card's "charge back" buyer protection policy could protect you if you are defrauded. Keep in mind, however, that a charge back complaint often must be made within 30 days of the time of purchase.

Guns.
The next presidential election is huge question mark: Will the Democrats take the White House? And if they do, will another so-called "assault weapons" and "high capacity" magazine ban be legislated in the US? (Something similar to the 1994-to-2004 Federal ban.) At present, these possibilities are difficult to predict. But even if the "worst case" (namely, another ban with no sunset clause) doesn't come to pass, I still consider battle rifles, full capacity magazines, and ammunition to be good investments and excellent barter items. If nothing else, like other nonperishable tangibles, they are good hedges on the falling dollar. Stock up, but do so quietly. If it is legal to do so in your jurisdiction, make all your gun purchases from private parties with no paper trail. Keep your eye on the local newspaper classified ads, as well as ads from sellers in your own state on GunBroker.com (on-line auctions) or GunsAmerica.com (fixed price sales--usually more expensive) Search only for sellers from your own state. That way, you won't run afoul of the Federal law that prohibits the transfer of a modern (post-1898) gun across state lines, except through a FFL dealer. It might also be worth your time to drive long distances to some of the larger gun shows in your own state. Once there, you should of course buy guns only from private parties.

The upcoming Heller v. US supreme court decision should be interesting. I suspect that instead of striking down all Federal gun laws--which they rightfully should--the supreme court justices will pen a decision that is tightly worded and hence will only apply to just that one gun ban in the District of Columbia.

OBTW, for any of you that think that my advocacy of gun ownership and training is somehow un-Christian, all that I can do is direct you to Christ's words in Luke 22:36.

Gold.
I'm addressing gold last, for a reason. You've undoubtedly seen the recent headlines like this one: Gold at $1,000 on Weak Dollar, High Oil. Keep in mind that $1,000 is a psychological barrier. This might trigger some profit taking that could push the spot price of gold down as far as $920 per ounce. Take advantage of such dips. However, don't get caught up in precious metals buying fever. Your key responsibility is to provide for your family, not to be a speculator. Don't even think about investing any of your money in precious metals until after you have all of your crucial "beans, bullets, and Band-Aids" preparations well in hand. If you don't have an honest one year food supply, then stop wasting your time hitting reload at the Kitco web site! (You probably won't get the web page to load with any regularity anyway. The recent spike in gold and silver prices have generated so much web traffic that it has nearly crashed Kitco's server. You might have better luck at the Swiss America web site.)

Remember: You can't eat gold! There may come a day when you need to barter for day-to-day essentials. In such times, barter goods like common caliber ammunition or one-gallon cans of kerosene will be more sought-after than gold. Recognize precious metals for what they are: storehouses of wealth and hedges on the dollar. Think of them as a "time machine". They can be trusted to preserve your wealth from one side of an economic collapse to the other.But do not expect them to keep your family fed in the midst of a socioeconomic collapse.

An afterthought: Perhaps I should add a fifth "G"", for Ground. I have long been a proponent of buying productive farm land. The nationwide market for real estate is clearly in a tailspin, and probably won't bottom for several more years. But I firmly believe that the price declines will not be nearly as significant for good farm ground. Just be sure to be a wise buyer. Study local markets thoroughly (including soil surveys), and don't feel rushed into making a purchase. In today's market, time is on your side. I now recommend keeping a close eye on foreclosures, using services like Foreclosures.com or RealtyTrac.com.

In the Second World War, the United States had nearly two full years to ramp up military training and production before decisively confronting the Axis powers. In the late 1970s, looking at the recent experience of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Pentagon's strategic planners came to the realization that the next major war that the US military would wage would not be like the Second World War. There would not be the luxury of time to train and equip. They realized that we would have to fight with only what we had available on Day One. They dubbed this the "Come as you are war" concept.

In my opinion, the same "come as you are" mindset should be applied to family preparedness. We must recognize that in these days of rapid news dissemination, it may take as little as 10 hours before supermarket shelves are cleaned out. It make take just a few hours for queues that are literally blocks-long to form at gas stations--or at bank branches in the event of bank runs. Worse yet, it may take just a few hours before the highways and freeways leading out of urban and suburban areas are clogged with traffic--the dreaded "Golden Horde" that I often write about. Do not make the false assumption that you will have the chance to make "one last trip" to the big box store, or even the chance to fill your Bug Out Vehicle's fuel tank. This will be the "come as you are" collapse.

The concept also applies to your personal training. If you haven't learned how to do things before the balloon goes, up, then don't expect to get anything but marginal to mediocre on-the-job training after the fact. In essence, you have the opportunity to take top quality training from the best trainers now, but you won't once the Schumer hits the fan. Take the time to get top-notch training! Train with the best--with organizations like Medical Corps, WEMSI, Front Sight, the RWVA/Appleseed Project, the WRSA, and the ARRL. Someday, you'll be very glad that you did.

The come as you are concept definitely applies to specialized manufactured equipment.You are dreaming if you think that you will have the chance to to purchase any items such as these, in a post-collapse world: razor wire, body armor, night vision equipment, advanced first aid gear, tritium scopes, dosimeters and radiac meters, biological decontamination equipment, Dakota Alert or military surplus PEWS intrusion detection sets, photovoltaics, NBC masks, and semi-auto battle rifles. Think about it: There are very few if these items (per capita) presently in circulation. But the demand for them during a societal collapse would be tremendous. How could you compete in such a scant market? Anyone that conceivably has "spares" will probably want to keep them for a member of their own family or group. So even in the unlikely event that someone was even willing to sell such scarce items, they would surely ask a king's ransom in barter for them. I'm talking about quarter sections of land, entire strings of well-broken horses, or pounds of gold. Offers of anything less would surely be scoffed at.

Don't overlook the "you" part of the "as you are" premise. Are you physically fit? Are you up to date on your dental work? Do you have two pairs of sturdy eyeglasses with your current prescription? Do you have at least a six month supply of vitamins and medications? Is your body weight reasonable? If you answer to any of these is no, then get busy!

Even if you have a modest budget, you will have an advantage over the average suburbanite. Your knowledge and training alone--what is between your ears--will ensure that. And even with just a small budget for food storage, you will be miles ahead of your neighbors. Odds are that they will have less than two week's worth of food on hand. As I often say, you will need extra supplies on hand to help out relatives, friends, and neighbors that were ill-prepared. I consider charity my Christian duty!

I have repeatedly and strongly emphasized the importance of living at your intended retreat year-round. But I realize that because of personal finances, family obligations, and the constraints of making a living at an hourly or salaried job, that this is not realistic--except for a few of us, mainly retirees. If you are stuck in the Big City and plan to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) at the eleventh hour, then by all means pre-position the vast majority of your gear and supplies at your retreat. You will most likely only have one, I repeat, one G.O.O.D. trip. If there is a major crisis there will probably be no chance to "go back for a second load." So WTSHTF will truly be a "come as you are" affair.

With all of this in mind, re-think your preparedness priorities. Stock your retreat well. If there isn't someone living there year-round, then hide what is there from burglars. (See the numerous SurvivalBlog posts on caching and constructing hidden compartments and rooms.) Maintain balance in your preparations. In a situation where you are truly hunkered-down at your retreat in the midst of a societal collapse, there might not be any opportunity to barter for any items that you overlooked. (At least not for several months. ) What you have is what you got. You will have to make-do. So be sure to develop your "lists of lists" meticulously. If you have the funds available, construct a combination storm shelter/fallout shelter/walk-in vault. It would be virtually impossible to build something that elaborate in the aftermath of a societal collapse.

A closing thought that relates to your retreat logistics: The original colonial Army Rangers, organized by Major Robert Rogers during the French and Indian Wars of the 1750s had a succinct list of operating rules. The version of the "Rules of Ranging" recounted in the novel "Northwest Passage" by Kenneth Roberts started with a strong proviso: "Don't forget nothing." That is sage advice.

Jim,
My missus and I have been into "prepping" for about 15 years. Our house has a basement and it is practically wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with shelves--with just narrow aisles in between. The shelves are chockablock with storage food (all labeled and organized "FIFO"-style), medical supplies, assorted "field" type gear, tools, barter/charity stuff, ammo cans, propane cylinders (that fit our camp stove and camping lantern), reels of field phone wire, paper products, and so forth. Following the example of Mr. Whiskey (from your "Profiles") we have recently built up 27 sets of designated "charity duffles", each packed in a cheap Made-in-Taiwan nylon duffle bag. Each of these contains a Dutch Army surplus wool blanket, a Chinese knockoff of a Leatherman tool, a pair of gloves, a pile ("watch") cap, a half dozen pairs of socks, a thrift store man's jacket, room for four days worth of food (which we would pack from our FIFO inventory, as needed), a collapsing plastic water container (the type that Campmor sells), a waterproof match container, a tube tent, and a hand line fishing kit. ("Teach a man to fish...")

When we moved back to California in 1998, we picked our house specially because it was built in the 1940s. It is the oldest and sturdiest house on the block. (The neighborhood built up around the house, when the property was subdivided in the 1960s.) It has a basement and its own water well, which is now "off the books"--since the house is now on "city" [metered] water, but the well is still functional with a 24 VDC submersible well pump. I have four flush roof-mounted Kyocera PV panels (cannot be seen from the street) and six deep cycle batteries. The cables are run series-parallel to provide both 12 VDC and 24 VDC outputs.

Even though we live in a standard suburban neighborhood, none of out neighbors are any the wiser about our preps. At the core, I consider my preparations my own business. When the time comes to hand out the charity duffles, we will do so through an intermediary, like our church. (We are Methodists.)

After seeing what happened to that guy in Norco last year, I am glad that I keep a low profile. The specific measures that we have taken to keep a low profile are:

1.) We take no UPS deliveries at our house. Nearly all of our mail-ordered goods are sent to our private mail box at the local UPS Store (it was formerly a "MailBoxes, Etc.") From there, we take the boxes home in our minivan.We are always sure to unload the van from inside my garage, with the garage door shut. All of the empty boxes have the "to" and "from" address labels cut out with a box cutter knife. I discard the flattened boxes in the cardboard recycling dumpster behind the office where I work. (I'm a sales engineer for a medium-size company.)

2.) We don't subscribe to any shooting or hunting magazines. We get all of the gun information we need online. To "stay in the fight" politically, I do make regular anonymous contributions to the GOA, JPFO and CRPA [The California Rifle and Pistol Association, a firearms rights organization], via Post Office Money Orders. (BTW, I do the same for the SurvivalBlog [10 Cent] Challenge. Shame on any of you that read this blog regularly but don't pony up the 10 pennies a day!)

3.) We access all web pages via Anonymizer, with no exceptions.

4.) Most of of our preps purchases are either made F2F, with cash, or with Post Office Money Orders if ordering by mail. This eliminates the "trail of paper" from writing checks or using a credit card. We buy a lot from Nitro-Pak, Ready Made Resources, Major Surplus, and Lehman's.

5.) All of our guns, ammunition, gun gadgets, targets, and cleaning supplies are bought "private party", mainly at SoCal [(Southern California)] gun shows. Also, needless to mention, these are greenback transactions only! In California, we can still at least buy rifles and shotguns that are more than 50 years old without having to buy through a [licensed] dealer. We have two [M1] Garand rifles, and a FN.49, also [chambered] in .30-06. I'm still looking for one or two more of those, but they are scarce, and even harder to find private party. We also have three [Winchester] Model 12 pump[-action] 12 gauge shotguns, two of which have had their barrels shortened to 18.5 inches. Handgun buys in California all require paperwork, but by Divine Providence I bought several Glocks and [Colt Model] 1911s when I was living in Arizona for a couple years, back in the late '90s. [JWR Adds: That loophole was recently closed for Californians. Anyone moving into the state must now register their handguns. Drat! But at least there was a grandfather clause.] There is isn't much to do out in the desert except shoot, so I bought a lot of guns when we were there.

6.) We signed up for an identity theft and credit report checking protection plan three years ago. I noticed that SurvivalBlog just started running an ad from Comprehensive Risk Solutions. Their service has more bells and whistles and a lower subscription cost that our current provider, so we will switch [to them] when our current subscription lapses. [JWR Adds: I highly recommend this service. It is cheap insurance to prevent what would otherwise be a very costly incident.]

7.) We use a TracFone whenever calling a mail order vendor. (No calling history paper trail.)

8. ) We don't mention our preps to anyone outside of our family. We have coached our kids from an early age to keep their lips zipped.

9.) Whenever we have anybody visit our home, the basement door stays closed and locked. (It is a keyed deadbolt lock.) The basement has no windows. Most of our friends and relatives don't realize that we even have a basement. (Basements are actually rare in California tract neighborhoods.) To anybody that visits, the basement door just looks like a locked closet.

10.) We don't leave anything "suspicious" out where it can be seen in our house and garage.

These precautions might seem kinda "over the top", but put yourself in my shoes. In the People's Republic of California it pays to be a bit of a Secret Squirrel. I does cost me about $300 per year to get my mail and packages at the UPS Store, but I consider that a small price to pay for my privacy. I plan to retire to the mountains of central Nevada in nine years, but for now, I am making do in my present circumstances. - F.L. in Southern California

Start your retreat stocking effort by first composing a List of Lists, then draft prioritized lists for each subject, on separate sheets of paper. (Or in a spreadsheet if you are a techno-nerd like me. Just be sure to print out a hard copy for use when the power grid goes down!) It is important to tailor your lists to suit your particular geography, climate, and population density as well as your peculiar needs and likes/dislikes. Someone setting up a retreat in a coastal area is likely to have a far different list than someone living in the Rockies.

As I often mention in my lectures and radio interviews, a great way to create truly commonsense preparedness lists is to take a three-day weekend TEOTWAWKI Weekend Experiment” with your family. When you come home from work on Friday evening, turn off your main circuit breaker, turn off your gas main (or propane tank), and shut your main water valve (or turn off your well pump.) Spend that weekend in primitive conditions. Practice using only your storage food, preparing it on a wood stove (or camping stove.)

A “TEOTWAWKI Weekend Experiment” will surprise you. Things that you take for granted will suddenly become labor intensive. False assumptions will be shattered. Your family will grow closer and more confident. Most importantly, some of the most thorough lists that you will ever make will be those written by candlelight.

Your List of Lists should include: (Sorry that this post is in outline form, but it would take a full length book to discus all of the following in great detail)

Water List
Food Storage List
Food Preparation List
Personal List
First Aid /Minor Surgery List
Nuke Defense List
Biological Warfare Defense List
Gardening List
Hygiene List/Sanitation List
Hunting/Fishing/Trapping List
Power/Lighting/Batteries List
Fuels List
Firefighting List
Tactical Living List
Security-General
Security-Firearms
Communications/Monitoring List
Tools List
Sundries List
Survival Bookshelf List
Barter and Charity List

JWR’s Specific Recommendations For Developing Your Lists:

Water List
House downspout conversion sheet metal work and barrels. (BTW, this is another good reason to upgrade your retreat to a fireproof metal roof.)
Drawing water from open sources. Buy extra containers. Don’t buy big barrels, since five gallon food grade buckets are the largest size that most people can handle without back strain.
For transporting water if and when gas is too precious to waste, buy a couple of heavy duty two wheel garden carts--convert the wheels to foam filled "no flats" tires. (BTW, you will find lots of other uses for those carts around your retreat, such as hauling hay, firewood, manure, fertilizer, et cetera.)
Treating water. Buy plain Clorox hypochlorite bleach. A little goes a long way. Buy some extra half-gallon bottles for barter and charity. If you can afford it, buy a “Big Berky” British Berkefeld ceramic water filter. (Available from Ready Made Resources and several other Internet vendors. Even if you have pure spring water at your retreat, you never know where you may end up, and a good filter could be a lifesaver.)

Food Storage List
See my post tomorrow which will be devoted to food storage. Also see the recent letter from David in Israel on this subject.

Food Preparation List
Having more people under your roof will necessitate having an oversize skillet and a huge stew pot. BTW, you will want to buy several huge kettles, because odds are you will have to heat water on your wood stove for bathing, dish washing, and clothes washing. You will also need even more kettles, barrels, and 5 or 6 gallon PVC buckets--for water hauling, rendering, soap making, and dying. They will also make great barter or charity items. (To quote my mentor Dr. Gary North: “Nails: buy a barrel of them. Barrels: Buy a barrel of them!”)
Don’t overlook skinning knives, gut-buckets, gambrels, and meat saws.

Personal List
(Make a separate personal list for each family member and individual expected to arrive at your retreat.)
Spare glasses.
Prescription and nonprescription medications.
Birth control.
Keep dentistry up to date.
Any elective surgery that you've been postponing
Work off that gut.
Stay in shape.
Back strength and health—particularly important, given the heavy manual tasks required for self-sufficiency.
Educate yourself on survival topics, and practice them. For example, even if you don’t presently live at your retreat, you should plant a vegetable garden every year. It is better to learn through experience and make mistakes now, when the loss of crop is an annoyance rather than a crucial event.
“Comfort” items to help get through high stress times. (Books, games, CDs, chocolates, etc.)

First Aid /Minor Surgery List
When tailoring this list, consider your neighborhood going for many months without power, extensive use of open flames, and sentries standing picket shifts exposed in the elements. Then consider axes, chainsaws and tractors being wielded by newbies, and a greater likelihood of gunshot wounds. With all of this, add the possibility of no access to doctors or high tech medical diagnostic equipment. Put a strong emphasis on burn treatment first aid supplies. Don’t overlook do-it-yourself dentistry! (Oil of cloves, temporary filling kit, extraction tools, et cetera.) Buy a full minor surgery outfit (inexpensive Pakistani stainless steel instruments), even if you don’t know how to use them all yet. You may have to learn, or you will have the opportunity to put them in the hands of someone experienced who needs them.) This is going to be a big list!

Chem/Nuke Defense List
Dosimeter and rate meter, and charger, radiac meter (hand held Geiger counter), rolls of sheet plastic (for isolating airflow to air filter inlets and for covering window frames in the event that windows are broken due to blast effects), duct tape, HEPA filters (ands spares) for your shelter. Potassium iodate (KI) tablets to prevent thyroid damage.(See my recent post on that subject.) Outdoor shower rig for just outside your shelter entrance.

Biological Warfare Defense List
Disinfectants
Hand Sanitizer
Sneeze masks
Colloidal silver generator and spare supplies (distilled water and .999 fine silver rod.)
Natural antibiotics (Echinacea, Tea Tree oil, …)

Gardening List
One important item for your gardening list is the construction of a very tall deer-proof and rabbit-proof fence. Under current circumstances, a raid by deer on your garden is probably just an inconvenience. After the balloon goes up, it could mean the difference between eating well, and starvation.
Top Soil/Amendments/Fertilizers.
Tools+ spares for barter/charity
Long-term storage non hybrid (open pollinated) seed. (Non-hybrid “heirloom” seed assortments tailors to different climate zones are available from The Ark Institute
Herbs: Get started with medicinal herbs such as aloe vera (for burns), echinacea (purple cone flower), valerian, et cetera.

Hygiene/Sanitation List
Sacks of powdered lime for the outhouse. Buy plenty!
TP in quantity (Stores well if kept dry and away from vermin and it is lightweight, but it is very bulky. This is a good item to store in the attic. See my novel about stocking up on used phone books for use as TP.
Soap in quantity (hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, cleansers, etc.)
Bottled lye for soap making.
Ladies’ supplies.
Toothpaste (or powder).
Floss.
Fluoride rinse. (Unless you have health objections to the use of fluoride.)
Sunscreen.
Livestock List:
Hoof rasp, hoof nippers, hoof pick, horse brushes, hand sheep shears, styptic, carding combs, goat milking stand, teat dip, udder wash, Bag Balm, elastrator and bands, SWOT fly repellent, nail clippers (various sizes), Copper-tox, leads, leashes, collars, halters, hay hooks, hay fork, manure shovel, feed buckets, bulk grain and C-O-B sweet feed (store in galvanized trash cans with tight fitting lids to keep the mice out), various tack and saddles, tack repair tools, et cetera. If your region has selenium deficient soil (ask your local Agricultural extension office) then be sure to get selenium-fortified salt blocks rather than plain white salt blocks--at least for those that you are going to set aside strictly for your livestock.

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping List
“Buckshot” Bruce Hemming has produced an excellent series of videos on trapping and making improvised traps. (He also sells traps and scents at very reasonable prices.)
Night vision gear, spares, maintenance, and battery charging
Salt. Post-TEOTWAWKI, don’t “go hunting.” That would be a waste of effort. Have the game come to you. Buy 20 or more salt blocks. They will also make very valuable barter items.
Sell your fly fishing gear (all but perhaps a few flies) and buy practical spin casting equipment.
Extra tackle may be useful for barter, but probably only in a very long term Crunch.
Buy some frog gigs if you have bullfrogs in your area. Buy some crawfish traps if you have crawfish in your area.
Learn how to rig trot lines and make fish traps for non-labor intensive fishing WTSHTF.

Power/Lighting/Batteries List
One proviso: In the event of a “grid down” situation, if you are the only family in the area with power, it could turn your house into a “come loot me” beacon at night. At the same time, your house lighting will ruin the night vision of your LP/OP pickets. Make plans and buy materials in advance for making blackout screens or fully opaque curtains for your windows.
When possible, buy nickel metal hydride batteries. (Unlike the older nickel cadmium technology, these have no adverse charge level “memory” effect.)
If your home has propane appliances, get a “tri-fuel” generator--with a carburetor that is selectable between gasoline, propane, and natural gas. If you heat your home with home heating oil, then get a diesel-burning generator. (And plan on getting at least one diesel burning pickup and/or tractor). In a pinch, you can run your diesel generator and diesel vehicles on home heating oil.
Kerosene lamps; plenty of extra wicks, mantles, and chimneys. (These will also make great barter items.)
Greater detail on do-it-yourself power will be included in my forthcoming blog posts.

Fuels List
Buy the biggest propane, home heating oil, gas, or diesel tanks that your local ordinances permit and that you can afford. Always keep them at least two-thirds full. For privacy concerns, ballistic impact concerns, and fire concerns, underground tanks are best if you local water table allows it. In any case, do not buy an aboveground fuel tank that would visible from any public road or navigable waterway. Buy plenty of extra fuel for barter. Don’t overlook buying plenty of kerosene. (For barter, you will want some in one or two gallon cans.) Stock up on firewood or coal. (See my previous blog posts.) Get the best quality chainsaw you can afford. I prefer Stihls and Husqavarnas. If you can afford it, buy two of the same model. Buy extra chains, critical spare parts, and plenty of two-cycle oil. (Two-cycle oil will be great for barter!) Get a pair of Kevlar chainsaw safety chaps. They are expensive but they might save yourself a trip to the emergency room. Always wear gloves, goggles, and ear-muffs. Wear a logger’s helmet when felling. Have someone who is well experienced teach you how to re-sharpen chains. BTW, don’t cut up your wood into rounds near any rocks or you will destroy a chain in a hurry.

Firefighting List
Now that you have all of those flammables on hand (see the previous list) and the prospect of looters shooting tracer ammo or throwing Molotov cocktails at your house, think in terms of fire fighting from start to finish without the aid of a fire department. Even without looters to consider, you should be ready for uncontrolled brush or residential fires, as well as the greater fire risk associated with greenhorns who have just arrived at your retreat working with wood stoves and kerosene lamps!
Upgrade your retreat with a fireproof metal roof.
2” water line from your gravity-fed storage tank (to provide large water volume for firefighting)
Fire fighting rig with an adjustable stream/mist head.
Smoke and CO detectors.

Tactical Living List
Adjust your wardrobe buying toward sturdy earth-tone clothing. (Frequent your local thrift store and buy extras for retreat newcomers, charity, and barter.)
Dyes. Stock up on some boxes of green and brown cloth dye. Buy some extra for barter. With dye, you can turn most light colored clothes into semi-tactical clothing on short notice.
Two-inch wide burlap strip material in green and brown. This burlap is available in large spools from Gun Parts Corp. Even if you don’t have time now, stock up so that you can make camouflage ghillie suits post-TEOTWAWKI.
Save those wine corks! (Burned cork makes quick and cheap face camouflage.)
Cold weather and foul weather gear—buy plenty, since you will be doing more outdoor chores, hunting, and standing guard duty.
Don’t overlook ponchos and gaiters.
Mosquito repellent.
Synthetic double-bag (modular) sleeping bags for each person at the retreat, plus a couple of spares. The Wiggy’s brand Flexible Temperature Range Sleep System (FTRSS) made by Wiggy's of Grand Junction, Colorado is highly recommended.
Night vision gear + IR floodlights for your retreat house
Subdued flashlights and penlights.
Noise, light, and litter discipline. (More on this in future posts--or perhaps a reader would like to send a brief article on this subject)
Security-General: Locks, intrusion detection/alarm systems, exterior obstacles (fences, gates, 5/8” diameter (or larger) locking road cables, rosebush plantings, “decorative” ponds (moats), ballistic protection (personal and residential), anti-vehicular ditches/berms, anti-vehicular concrete “planter boxes”, razor wire, etc.)
Starlight electronic light amplification scopes are critical tools for retreat security.
A Starlight scope (or goggles, or a monocular) literally amplifies low ambient light by up to 100,000 times, turning nighttime darkness into daylight--albeit a green and fuzzy view. Starlight light amplification technology was first developed during the Vietnam War. Late issue Third Generation (also called or “Third Gen” or “Gen 3”) starlight scopes can cost up to $3,500 each. Rebuilt first gen (early 1970s technology scopes can often be had for as little as $500. Russian-made monoculars (with lousy optics) can be had for under $100. One Russian model that uses a piezoelectric generator instead of batteries is the best of this low-cost breed. These are best used as backups (in case your expensive American made scopes fail. They should not be purchased for use as your primary night vision devices unless you are on a very restrictive budget. (They are better than nothing.) Buy the best starlight scopes, goggles, and monoculars you can afford. They may be life-savers! If you can afford to buy only one, make it a weapon sight such as an AN/PVS-4, with a Gen 2 (or better) tube. Make sure to specify that that the tube is new or “low hours”, has a high “line pair” count, and minimal scintillation. It is important to buy your Starlight gear from a reputable dealer. The market is crowded with rip-off artists and scammers. One dealer that I trust, is Al Glanze (spoken “Glan-zee”) who runs STANO Components, Inc. in Silver City, Nevada. Note: In a subsequent blog posts I will discuss the relationship and implications to IR illuminators and tritium sights.
Range cards and sector sketches.
If you live in the boonies, piece together nine of the USGS 15-minute maps, with your retreat property on the center map. Mount that map on an oversize map board. Draw in the property lines and owner names of all of your surrounding neighbor’s parcels (in pencil) in at least a five mile radius. (Get boundary line and current owner name info from your County Recorder’s office.) Study and memorize both the terrain and the neighbors’ names. Make a phone number/e-mail list that corresponds to all of the names marked on the map, plus city and county office contact numbers for quick reference and tack it up right next to the map board. Cover the whole map sheet with a sheet of heavy-duty acetate, so you can mark it up just like a military commander’s map board. (This may sound a bit “over the top”, but remember, you are planning for the worst case. It will also help you get to know your neighbors: When you are introduced by name to one of them when in town, you will be able to say, “Oh, don’t you live about two miles up the road between the Jones place and the Smith’s ranch?” They will be impressed, and you will seem like an instant “old timer.”

Security-Firearms List
Guns, ammunition, web gear, eye and ear protection, cleaning equipment, carrying cases, scopes, magazines, spare parts, gunsmithing tools, targets and target frames, et cetera. Each rifle and pistol should have at least six top quality (original military contract or original manufacturer) full capacity spare magazines. Note: Considerable detail on firearms and optics selection, training, use, and logistic support are covered in the SurvivalBlog archives and FAQs.

Communications/Monitoring List
When selecting radios buy only models that will run on 12 volt DC power or rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery packs (that can be recharged from your retreat’s 12 VDC power system without having to use an inverter.)
As a secondary purchasing goal, buy spare radios of each type if you can afford them. Keep your spares in sealed metal boxes to protect them from EMP.
If you live in a far inland region, I recommend buying two or more 12 VDC marine band radios. These frequencies will probably not be monitored in your region, leaving you an essentially private band to use. (But never assume that any two-way radio communications are secure!)
Note: More detail on survival communications gear selection, training, use, security/cryptography measures, antennas, EMP protection, and logistical support will be covered in forthcoming blog posts.

Tools List
Gardening tools.
Auto mechanics tools.
Welding.
Bolt cutters--the indispensable “universal key.”
Woodworking tools.
Gunsmithing tools.
Emphasis on hand powered tools.
Hand or treadle powered grinding wheel.
Don’t forget to buy plenty of extra work gloves (in earth tone colors).
Sundries List:
Systematically list the things that you use on a regular basis, or that you might need if the local hardware store were to ever disappear: wire of various gauges, duct tape, reinforced strapping tape, chain, nails, nuts and bolts, weather stripping, abrasives, twine, white glue, cyanoacrylate glue, et cetera.

Book/Reference List
You should probably have nearly every book on my Bookshelf page. For some, you will want to have two or three copies, such as Carla Emery’s "Encyclopedia of Country Living". This is because these books are so valuable and indispensable that you won’t want to risk lending out your only copy.

Barter and Charity List
For your barter list, acquire primarily items that are durable, non-perishable, and either in small packages or that are easily divisible. Concentrate on the items that other people are likely to overlook or have in short supply. Some of my favorites are ammunition. [The late] Jeff Cooper referred to it as “ballistic wampum.” WTSHTF, ammo will be worth nearly its weight in silver. Store all of your ammo in military surplus ammo cans (with seals that are still soft) and it will store for decades. Stick to common calibers, get plenty of .22 LR (most high velocity hollow points) plus at least ten boxes of the local favorite deer hunting cartridge, even if you don’t own a rifle chambered for this cartridge. (Ask your local sporting goods shop about their top selling chamberings). Also buy at least ten boxes of the local police department’s standard pistol cartridge, again even if you don’t own a pistol chambered for this cartridge.
Ladies supplies.
Salt (Buy lots of cattle blocks and 1 pound canisters of iodized table salt.)
(Stores indefinitely if kept dry.)
Two cycle engine oil (for chain saw gas mixing. Gas may still be available after a collapse, but two-cycle oil will probably be like liquid gold!)
Gas stabilizer.
Diesel antibacterial additive.
50-pound sacks of lime (for outhouses).
1 oz. bottles of military rifle bore cleaner and Break Free (or similar) lubricant.
Waterproof dufflebags in earth tone colors (whitewater rafting "dry bags").
Thermal socks.
Semi-waterproof matches (from military rations.)
Military web gear (lots of folks will suddenly need pistol belts, holsters, magazine pouches, et cetera.)
Pre-1965 silver dimes.
1-gallon cans of kerosene.
Rolls of olive drab parachute cord.
Rolls of olive-drab duct tape.
Spools of monofilament fishing line.
Rolls of 10 mil "Visqueen", sheet plastic (for replacing windows, isolating airspaces for nuke scenarios, etc.)
I also respect the opinion of one gentleman with whom I've corresponded, who recommended the following:
Strike anywhere matches. (Dip the heads in paraffin to make them waterproof.)
Playing cards.
Cooking spices. (Do a web search for reasonably priced bulk spices.)
Rope & string.
Sewing supplies.
Candle wax and wicking.
Lastly, any supplies necessary for operating a home-based business. Some that you might consider are: leather crafting, small appliance repair, gun repair, locksmithing, et cetera. Every family should have at least one home-based business (preferably two!) that they can depend on in the event of an economic collapse.
Stock up on additional items to dispense to refugees as charity.
Note: See the Barter Faire chapter in my novel "Patriots" for lengthy lists of potential barter items.

Mr. Rawles,
My wife and I are are in our 50s, (never had kids) and we live in a four bedroom house on 80 acres (mostly leased out [for farming]), eight miles outside a town of 20,000 population, in south-central Iowa. Two of our cousins and one nephew--all military vet[eran]s--that live in town are planning to come out [and live with us], if and when times get nasty. We have now have (or will soon have) all our basic preparations in hand, including a three year food supply for five people, which we got mostly through Safecastle and Ready Made Resources, plus some extra meats from Freeze Dry Guy, and some canned butter from Best Prices Storable Foods. We also took your advice and upgraded to a propane [chest] freezer. (That took a lot of searching, believe me!) It now holds almost a a side of beefalo, and almost 15 gallons of frozen olive oil. (Thanks for mentioning [fats and] oils--that was something that we had totally overlooked!).

My wife and I plan to book the four day handgun course and the four day rifle course back-to-back at Front Sight, with some sightseeing in Vegas, on the weekend in between [the two courses]. We are going in April--before the really scorching weather starts in southern Nevada. (We've been warned about the summers there!) Per your suggestion posts, we [standardized] with Glock 21-SF .45s and FN-FAL clones. With five of each--not to mention the rest of my [gun] collection, which was ah-hem substantial before I ever started reading your blog--we should be able to hold off a small army. We have well water, but have a very reliable windmill that pumps [water up] to a 850 gallon tank with its overflow piped to a 2,700 above-ground concrete cistern for irrigating our garden. Water is not an issue.We also have oversize propane and home heating [oil] tanks. (Large enough that they've each prompted comments from visitors. I've just told them that I like to buy in bulk whenever fuel prices dip.)

Now that we have all the basics covered, we are ready to acquire some stocks for barter, assuming one of your "Grid Down" collapses. We have plenty of [storage] space, since our house has a full unfinished basement. FYI, it has never had any dampness or flooding problems.What do you suggest as the most important barter [item] to stock up on? We also want to have extra items for charity. We plan to do that through our church, so that our family name never gets mentioned. - Karl in Iowa

JWR Replies: It sounds like you are "Away squared"!

For anyone living in an inland area, I consider salt the highest priority barter and charity item. Buy a lot of salt, in several forms. As space allows, buy 20 to 30 of the 50-pound plain white salt blocks from your local feed store. These are great for barter--both for folks with livestock and for people that want to attract wild game. Buy a couple of 25 pound sacks of iodized salt for your own use. Also buy 100 to 200 of the standard cardboard one pound canisters of iodized salt for small scale barter transactions.

The second highest priority for barter and charity is fuel. If you have an outbuilding that can provide safe and secure storage, then buy at least a 20 one-gallon gallon cans of Coleman stove/lantern fuel, 30 to 50 standard propane cylinders (the size used for torches and camp stoves) and 40 to 60 one-gallon cans of kerosene. You might also lay in a few extra welding cylinders (Oxygen and acetylene.)

Also store some bulk fuel. If you can afford it, also install a 300 to 800 gallon underground gasoline tank and a 600 to 2,500 gallon underground diesel tank. (And of course make sure that you have at least one diesel vehicle.) You should carefully camouflage the filler necks and hand pumps for those tanks, as I've previously described in the blog. (In the "Search" box in the right had bar, enter the word "wine".) If you ever use any of your gas or diesel for barter, do not reveal how much you have stored, or the fact that you have underground ranks. All that your customers should be allowed to see is a few 5 gallon cans. Also, depending on the local circumstances, you might also consider getting a pair of used 80 gallon aboveground tanks (typical farm and ranch tanks on metal stands) clearly stenciled "Unleaded" and "Diesel" to leave behind your barn unlocked and nearly empty, as a decoy for burglars.

The third highest priority for barter and charity is common caliber ammunition. I have discussed this at length before in SurvivalBlog. (In the "Search" box in the right hand bar, enter the word "wampum".)

Beyond, those three categories of high priority barterables, if you still have extra cash and storage space available, see my book SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog - Volume 1 and/or the SurvivalBlog archives for dozens of other barter items that have been suggested by blog readers.

OBTW, one of my consulting clients recently suggested buying several extra pieces of inexpensive night vision gear, such as first generation Russian monoculars. These would be in demand from any folks fearing nighttime attacks from looters. Since light amplification night vision gear is still relatively uncommon it would surely be a desirable item for barter. If you are looking for night vision gear, please contact our advertisers such as JRH Enterprises and Ready Made Resources, first.

The once Almighty US Dollar got its comeuppance this week at the annual Davos, Switzerland conclave. After too many years of maxing out her credit card at Macy's, the weak sister of the currency world was strongly chided by her siblings. The Federal Reserve's unprecedented one-day 75 basis point cut in interest rates was seen as exactly what it was: a desperation measure. Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) said that there is little chance of a European interest rate cut, to match the Fed's rate cut Soon after, Steve Forbes went so far as to call the US Dollar policy 'Zimbabwe Economics'. Not surprisingly, the US Dollar Index is still bouncing along the gutter of the high street at around 75.90 (it now takes more than $1.46 to buy a Euro), and the spot price of gold spiked to over $921 per ounce in London and New York trading before settling to around $910.

What does the castigation of the US Dollar at Davos mean to the average American? In the short term, very little. But in the long term, look for a much weaker dollar in foreign exchange. This means that imported goods are going to get a lot more expensive. If you have been forestalling buying any big ticket imported items, buy them soon. That $250 British Berkefeld water that you've wanted may cost $400 or more, next year. (That is, if you really need something for preparedness, and you can pay cash.) Obviously recession is right around the corner. That means lower stock prices, big layoffs, a cascade of economic troubles overseas, declining house prices, more mortgage foreclosures, big bailout programs, and so on.

In my estimation, sometime in the next two years the economic and currencies pendulums will reach a collective turning point. Foreigners will simply stop buying US Treasuries--at least at the currently-offered rates of return In order to finance the Federal debt, the Treasury department will have to offer higher rates of return. Then they will be inextricably stuck. Higher interest rates will tank the economy. But then it may get worse: Like the Banana Republic treasury that it has truly become, the US Treasury will get into the spiral of offering higher and higher rates of return to lure overseas investors. Interest rates will start to accelerate, as they did in the late 1970s. Smelling blood in the water (pardon the mixed metaphor) the foreign investors will play the cycle for all that it is worth, pushing Treasury rates up past 20% annual interest.

What does the Federal Reserve's recent big interest rate cut tell us? It is now apparent that Ben Bernanke and his deck chair rearranging committee are subservient to Wall Street. Rather than accepting the natural outcome of a normal market cycle , they are furiously trying to pump liquidity in hopes of propping up stock prices. They cannot afford to let mutual funds and pension funds collapse. (Nor does the Republican party want to lose their soon-to-be-retiring Baby Boomer political base, in the process.) In the process the Fed is destroying the value of the dollar and making the inevitable economic dislocation of the forestalled recession even worse.

SurvivalBlog readers are hereby advised to batten down the hatches. Be ready to lose your job. (See my previous advice about starting a home-based business that you can fall back on, if need be.) Be ready to relocate on short notice. Be ready for a recession that will go on for so long and get so bad that it will be called The Second Great Depression. Be ready for substantially higher crime rates. Be ready for mass inflation. (As I've stated before, given his predisposition, Ben Bernanke will try to inflate his way out of this mess. He will monetize the debt.) Be ready for drastic measures by the government, including "soak the rich" tax schemes--that will actually target the middle class. Be ready to help out your idiot brother (the one with the matching pair of Jet Skis and the 72" plasma television), who will appear on your doorstep, pleading that he can't pay his mortgage or his credit card bills. Be ready to feed your family out of your own garden and food storage. Be ready for your employer to get suddenly bought out by a European conglomerate. Be ready for $6 per gallon gasoline and milk prices. Be ready for any stock-heavy 401(k) and pension funds to be "wiped out" overnight. Be ready, folks!

Howdy!
I appreciate the SurvivalBlog site and loved your novel "Patriots". Keep up the good work!

Let’s assume TSHTF in a long term way. Let’s further assume you have made reasonable preparations for food, both stored food, and open pollinated seeds for future gardens. How do you store all this future food?

Freezing will be iffy since the electricity may become unreliable. It only takes a few days to ruin a freezer full of meat and veggies.

Drying can be effective for some, but not all foods. It’s a very time consuming to prepare the food, and it has to be stored cool and dry, which is not always easy. This will affect flavor and texture a lot. Cooking with dried foods is also different.

Pickling works for some foods, and depends on acidity and/or salt to preserve the food. Limited shelf life if not heat sterilized. Definitely affects flavor/texture. Not everything tastes good pickled.

Canning with glass jars is very satisfactory, with good to excellent shelf life. Color, texture and flavor are often excellent for years. Recent studies suggest that
the nutritive value may be pretty good for a decade or longer, though flavor, texture, color and nutritional value does decline slowly. Shelf life varies a lot depending on the food too.

Now for the real problem with canning. Where are you going to get disposable canning lids and jars and canning equipment after TSHTF? The lids are only good for one use, though the glass jars may last for a hundred years.

The shelf life on the disposable lids is pretty good, and the jars last forever if you don’t break them. I’d bet real money that canning lids become excellent barter goods. [JWR Adds: I recommend that you stock up whenever you find lids on sale, purchasing above and beyond the supply that you anticipate needing for your own use--for barter, and for charity.]

If possible, buy a pressure canner that does not need or use a rubber gasket, but rather, uses precision machined metal surfaces to make the seal. Anything with a rubber gasket will probably be out of commission in ten years or less. A spare parts kit would also be a good idea. Here’s a nice one, though they are not cheap.

Another jar sealing alternative is using paraffin wax. It’s not nearly as reliable, but it is reusable to a point and may be more available after TSHTF.

The most up-to-date directions/instructions/recipes for canning is a product of our tax money (one of the rare good results of our tax money). This is a great book, it costs less than twenty bucks and that includes shipping to the continental U.S. If you do a bad job at canning, botulism has a pretty high mortality rate, meaning that it can kill you the first time. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

[The canning jar and lid maker] Ball also produces a nice little booklet for less money, but it’s not as extensive.

I’m sure there are other options out there, but I wanted to point out the urgent need for procuring canning lids and jars now. Finest Regards, - Troy H.

Sir;
We have what may be stupid question, however, we do not know how to grind wheat. We would like to ask how to prepare wheat for cooking and use.We have searched your great site but I did not find the answer on this. We would like to take advantage of this inexpensive food. Thanks so much . Your work is appreciated. - EG

Mr Rawles,
My family and I are doing our best to prepare for the tough times ahead. Something's brewing, I'm sure we all can feel it. One thing we'd love to keep a store of is cracked corn. The versatility, caloric and nutritional value, etc., makes dry corn a great prospect for our stores. We get it in 50 pound sacks from our local feed store for only about $6.50, where 50 pounds of wheat now costs us $50 ($15 of which is shipping). Please advise me how best to keep cracked corn. I know it won't keep long in the paper sacks. I've looked into five gallon buckets with seals in the lids, and we have a vacuum sealer. I would also like to know how dry corn holds up with climate change. Here we experience temperatures between about 5 degrees F and 120 degrees F throughout the year. Can corn be sealed and stored outside with these temperatures? For how long at best? We're striving for five plus years if at all possible, most likely not having electricity. As time is short, please try to get back to me as soon as possible or link me to where you may have already answered these questions. Thank you very much in advance for any help at all which you're able to offer. God bless you! - Mitch

JWR Replies: For someone planning ahead for "grid down" circumstances, I recommend getting a hand crank-powered grain mill. To make flour that is fine enough for bread baking, you need to run wheat through a mill twice. The best mills use stone burrs. Some of the less expansive mills use metal burrs. But these are just fine for making corn meal. The meal burr mills such as the "Corona" are less expensive but more labor intensive. With these you might have to grind wheat three times to make fine flour. Here at the ranch we use a Country Living grain mill. They are very efficient, and their crank wheels have a V-belt notch, which makes motorizing or pedal-power converting them quite easy. OBTW, I heard that this model will have a 15% price increase from the manufacturer on February 1, 2008, so if you want one, get your order in soon.

Metal burr grinders are available from Nitro-Pak, Lehman's, and several other vendors. Stone burr grinders are available from Ready Made Resources, Lehman's, and many other vendors.

OBTW, in addition to buying yourself a mill for grinding flour, don't overlook the easiest preparation method of all: soaked wheat berries. By simply soaking whole wheat for 24 to 36 hours, it plumps and softens. When then heated, wheat berries make a nutritious breakfast cereal.

Corn stores best in whole kernels. Once it is cracked, the inner germ is exposed. This decreases its storage life and nutritive value by 80%. Running whole corn through a grain mill at a coarse setting to make cracked corn is quick and easy. A finer setting will yield corn meal.

Unless you have large scale grain bins, one of the most efficient means of storing wheat and corn for small-scale animal feed or human consumption is to buy new galvanized trash cans with tight-fitting lids. If they will be on a damp floor, put the cans up on 2x4 blocks to prevent rust. When galvanized trash barrels go on sale, buy a bunch. Another good storage method is 5 or 6 gallon food grade plastic buckets with gasketed lids. These stack well, but be advised that they are not as vermin-proof as galvanized steel bins or barrels. Determined rats have been known to gnaw their way through plastic food buckets. So if you choose this method, be sure to set traps, and check the buckets once every few weeks for signs of damage. As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, do not use utility-type plastic paint buckets. Even if bought brand new these can taint food, because they are often molded using non-food-grade (toxic) mold release agents.

Grain storage is a crucial aspect of family preparedness. Grain will soon no longer be cheap or plentiful, so stock up! Readers JP and Commander Zero suggested this Financial Post (Canada) article: Forget oil, the new global crisis is food And meanwhile, we read: Japan to Increase Emergency Stockpiles of Grains, Wheat has jumped to $10 per bushel, but I anticipate that it will go much higher in the next year. Stock up, in quantity. Buy plenty for your family and your livestock. A total of 200 pounds of wheat and 50 pounds of corn per family member are good figures for planning purposes for a family without livestock. I also recommend buying plenty of extra for barter and charity. You'll soon be glad that you did

Speaking of charity, if you store extra wheat and/or corn for charity, remember that your charity recipients will need a way to process that grain. So be sure to be on the lookout for a few inexpensive used grain mills. You can often find used Corona brand mills (or similar) on eBay or on Craig's List

Jim,
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS or comminly called "The Mormons"]. I am also the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for my ward. As you know the leaders of the church constantly speak of preparedness. In April 2007 a talk was offered by Keith B McMullin in the Saturday evening session of conference titled "Lay Up in Store". This talk proclaimed again all the benefits of preparation.

While not every Latter-day Saint is fully prepared, a percentage somewhere in the mid-teens have done at least a 72-Hour Kit (Bug-out Bag). The Church's preparation web site was simplified as most were overwhelmed when trying to prioritize to prepare. The focus is now on a Three Month Supply of normal items

In support of this, the Church now offers [at cost] a Family Home Storage Starter Kit. Like everything we as the dominant two legged creatures on this orb learn..Food Storage and Preparedness is "line upon line and precept upon precept."

The following is quoted from the Provident Living web site:

"The family home storage starter kit may be used to teach family home storage principles and help individuals get started with longer-term food storage. The kit includes materials that teach the importance of a three-month food supply, water storage, and savings and 6 cans of longer-term food supply items.
The kit contains:
* All is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage pamphlet
* All is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances pamphlet
* All is Safely Gathered In: Basic Recipes pamphlet
* Financial reserve and drinking water teaching aids
* Two #10 cans of hard red winter wheat
* Two #10 cans of white rice
* One #10 can of pinto beans
* One #10 can of rolled oats
Available for shipping to United States addresses only.
Available from Church home storage centers in the Spring of 2008 with a savings in shipping and handling."

[end quote]
This kit is available for anyone--not exclusively for church members. Cheers, - Tim C.

Mr. Rawles:
Every once in a while, at topic comes up that I feel somewhat qualified to comment on. I'll offer some miscellaneous comments on Dave T's letter and your thoughts on medicine WTSHTF, as posted on SurvivalBlog. This is not meant to be exhaustive, and of course may not apply to your particular situation. Since I can't see you, its hard for me to diagnose you or give you specific advice. Disclaimers all 'round.

Chronic renal failure: It may be worth learning to do peritoneal dialysis if you may have to help someone deal with this condition in a grid-down situation. It is not as effective as hemodialysis, but it is much simpler. The risk of infection would be significant, especially in less than optimal hygienic conditions. It might, however, be a useful technique, especially as a 'bridge' for use until hemodialysis can
(hopefully) be arranged. Dialysate is introduced into the abdominal cavity and later removed (or exchanged continuously). Another thing to consider is renal transplant, if that's reasonable for the patient, but that has its own perils.

Diabetes: The key here, as many will realize, is the type of diabetes. Diabetes Mellitus ("DM") Type 2 is the most common. WTSHTF, it may be self-treating, as it can often be eliminated by weight loss. DM Type 1 is treated with insulin. Living on the edge of starvation is a brutal but somewhat effective treatment, if insulin can't be had. Islet cell transplants (often in the context of a kidney transplant) can lead to years of no insulin requirement (they make insulin), but you have to be on (often expensive, toxic, and obscure) immunosuppressants. Might be better to stock up on insulin. Be careful with Lantus (long acting glargine insulin). Potency decreases by about half , six weeks after the bottle is opened. Are you dedicated enough to learn how to *make* insulin, and confident enough to use insulin you made yourself? I did biochemistry for a while, and I'm not confident I could do so. Diabetes insipidus is fairly rare, and not what most people think of when 'diabetes' is mentioned.

Lung disease: By far, most lung disease is self inflicted. Don't smoke. Some, obviously, is not. Move lower, where there is 'more air in the air', is sound advice. If you have asthma, learn what your triggers are, and avoid them (this goes for many 'episodic' chronic illnesses). Stimulants such as caffeine can often help at least a little with an acute asthma attack. CFC-propellent inhalers are nearly gone, and the newer versions (such as Proventil-HFC) are often in short supply; plan ahead.
If someone requires oxygen, again, moving to a lower elevation may make sense. Small oxygen concentrators are a common home health item; they require electrical power but do not require a supply of oxygen from the medical supply company. Most welding oxygen is generated on exactly the same equipment as medical oxygen, but is not certified for medical use. Diving gas?

Coronary artery disease: Do you need bypass surgery? Can you arrange to get a 'cadillac' surgery with both a right and left internal mammary artery graft instead of just a left, and a bunch of venous grafts?

Other miscellaneous chronic medical conditions: these run the gamut. If your doctor put you on Toprol-XL and Diovan because your blood pressure was running 150/90 all the time, and you are sedentary and overweight, you can probably bring the blood pressure down by losing weight and exercising. It may not come down to normal, and you may still have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, but your life expectancy won't be reduced by much compared to the reduction that would accompany socioeconomic collapse. If you need to choose between blood pressure medicine and insulin for your type-1 diabetic son (who can otherwise pull his weight and then some), I'd probably go for a little extra insulin.
You might also try to change from these top-shelf meds to generic metoprolol (which has to be taken more often, but costs a lot less) and lisinopril (which might or might not make you cough, and costs a lot less). If your doctor has you on five different drugs for blood pressure and you still run 150/90, even though you're 10 pounds under actuarial ideal weight, well, you may need those medications to keep from dying from a stroke in the short term.

Alternative medicine: I have to expose my bias here. I have been practicing medicine for 10 years, and my wife worked for a 'nutriceutical' company while I was in graduate and medical school, keeping tabs on clinical studies on alternative treatments. 'Alternative' is often code for 'expensive placebo'. This is a many billion dollar a year business. Most alternative treatments, if they worked, would have been studied and would be accepted for use as medical treatments. There are no (governmental, whether good or bad) controls on what actually goes into these 'treatments'; if, for instance, a particular flower was effective, the companies could put in the stems and the leaves, and leave the flower out. Also, 'natural' does not mean 'safe and effective'. Curare is natural (and the basis for all the paralytics that are used in surgery and anesthesia). Foxglove is natural (and deadly, and the basis for the anti-arrhythmic medicines digoxin and digitoxin). Uranium (including U-235) is natural. There are water wells in north-central New Mexico that would almost qualify as uranium mines (but rarely does anyone test for it). The usual response to this is 'well, it works for me'. The fallacy here is, of course, mistaking correlation for causality. You would have gotten better anyway (or with another placebo).

Veterinary medicines: Most come from the same factories as the human equivalent. I am told by my veterinary friends that meds intended for horses may be higher purity than those intended for dogs and cats. One of our geldings, Jack, had a pretty bad, dirty laceration on his hip. Our vet sold us equine trimethoprim/sulfamethoxizole (bactrim or septra are brand names in the human medical world) -- the pills were marked exactly the same as the ones I prescribe. We put 15 of them into a syringe with some water and injected the paste into Jack's mouth, twice a day. That's a 7.5 day course for an adult human in one dose for a horse.

Expiration dates: I have heard of (not personally read) military studies that suggested most (dry) medicines would lose less than half their potency after 10 years storage in the cool and dry. I can't confirm this myself, but it has the ring of truth to it.

Dentistry: This is a black art to me, as it is to many medical doctors. There is a product called Cavit-G that dentists have recommended to me as temporary 'patch' material... I don't know how long you can stretch out its use. Oil of cloves (does that count as alternative?) is a fairly effective oral topical anesthetic for short-term use.

Eye surgery: my PRK is settling even further. I started at -5.5 and -6.0 diopters; I am now at 0 and -0.5 diopters, which works well for me. I do get some "haloing" around lights at night, and I think my contrast discrimination is slightly reduced. Now I wear glasses primarily to protect my eyes, rather than correct them. Everything is a trade off, but if my glasses get crushed, I will not be nearly as crippled as I would have prior to surgery.

Appendicitis: It is not uncommon for folks planning travel ["over-winter"] in Antarctica to undergo elective laparoscopic appendectomy. If you develop appendicitis in the back country in Colorado, you apologize to your traveling companions (for inconveniencing them). If you develop appendicitis in Antarctica, your friends may well be apologizing to you (because you're going to die). Post-SHTF, things start to look like Antarctica. Are you going to have your aching gallbladder removed? Ask your surgeon to take out your appendix at the same time. If not, maybe ask a different surgeon.

Antibiotics: Most readers will be attracted to the idea of having at least a small stockpile of antibiotics. These can indeed be lifesavers, however they are over prescribed in the extreme. Common reasons for giving antibiotics are 'bronchitis' (almost always viral, and thus unaffected by antibacterials), 'pneumonia' without any abnormal physical findings or even an abnormal chest x-ray (usually this is the same thing, a viral upper respiratory infection), 'strep throat' which may be viral pharyngitis masquerading as a bacterial infection. Some bacterial infections don't really need to be treated with antibiotics: a lot of folks come to the ER with a 'spider bite', without ever having noticed any spider. These are often abscesses caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus [MRSA], which can be cured by incision and drainage, but will be unaffected by most of the commonly prescribed antibiotics. Even urinary infections will often clear (in females) with large volumes of fluid and acidification of the urine (i.e, cranberry juice). Expert advice both on when to use an antibiotic and which one to use can be helpful! It ain't rocket surgery, but it ain't always intuitively obvious either. (I am fond of saying that, as a doctor, I don't give orders, I just sell advice).

Another thing a lot of folks don't consider is actually talking to your doctor about your concerns. The knee-jerk liberal AMA does not represent the attitudes of all physicians. The American Academy of Pediatrics' position that guns and children should not coexist on the same planet does not represent the opinion of all physicians. You can open the discussion with your doctor with questions like 'what if there was a hurricane Katrina here' (insert the natural disaster most likely to occur in your geographic area); what would I do about my medications/conditions? If your doc looks at you and blinks, then suggests a good [psycho]therapist, maybe you should find a new doctor. If he starts telling you about cheaper alternatives so you can afford a year's supply without the insurance company's help, or talks to you about sizing your solar panels and backup diesel genset to run your medical equipment, you may have found someone worth knowing outside the doctor-patient relationship.
Apologies for the length of this letter, but perhaps there are some useful tidbits in there. - Simple Country Doctor

Dear James,
In response to the medical supplies listed on your blog, I would also add that it would be a good idea to stock up on the following:
1. Over the Counter Meds: imodium (for diarrhea), laxatives (for constipation), gatorade/pedialyte for dehydration, Tylenol, ibuprofen (and children's tylenol/ibuprofen), cough and cold medicines,
benadryl, vaseline.

2. Prescription Meds: pain medication such as T3's, percocet, or hydrocodone, anti-virals such as Tamiflu or Relenza (note that there has been some recent controversy about these drugs recently with reports of psychiatric conditions and suicide amongst Japanese children on Tamiflu), Sambucol (a herbal remedy for the flu), nitroglycerin (for angina/heart disease), blood pressure meds, and very importantly, antibiotics. For skin and soft tissue infections (impetigo, diabetic ulcers, human or animal bites, etc) amoxicillin-clavulanate, 500 mg po ["by mouth"] tid ["three times a day"] for 10 days, for post nail puncture of the foot,
ciprofloxacin 750 mg po bid for 2 weeks, for most upper respiratory tract infections I would use amoxicillin 500 mg po tid for 10 days. Erythromycin is also a good antibiotic to have on hand for community acquired pneumonia (500 mg po qid ["four times a day"] for 10 days). For gastroenteritis and traveller's diarrhea I would use ciprofloxacin 500 mg po bid ["twice a day"] for 5 days. Urinary tract infections can also be treated with ciprofloxacin. Make sure to speak with your physician about any of these as this does not represent medical advice.

3. Palliative Care medication: in the event of a long term grid down situation there will be many people dying and in distress, not only from trauma but also from end stage cancer, heart disease, etc. Three of the worst symptoms to be faced with when dying are pain, nausea, and shortness of breath. Having morphine on hand can be very valuable as this can help with pain and shortness of breath. Other good narcotics include dilaudid and fentanyl. For nausea it is a good idea to have phenargen or compazine as well as zofran or kytril. These medications can be very expensive, so again, plan accordingly and prioritize. Find yourself a good family doctor that is willing to work with you.

4.Anaphylactic reactions: whether from bee stings or other sources, you must be prepared to deal with an anaphylactic reaction. Having an Epi-pen on hand can save someone's life. Also, have lots of benadryl and if possible some prednisone. (Benadryl is over the counter).

5. Burns - You will want to store up on sterile NaCl as well as silvadene and lots of gauze. If you need to sedate someone to perform any kind of debridement, versed and ativan are useful as well as morphine for pain.
Hope this helps. - KLK

James,
With regard to your suggestion that the Big Island of Hawaii might be a good place for people needing kidney dialysis, let me add a little local knowledge. The Big Island has a good percentage of alternative energy sources (wind farms, geothermal, hydropower and small scale solar) which would allow our local power company (HELCO) to direct power to a home or facility pre-designated as being for "emergency use", so in that respect, you're right.

However, the diesel powered generators that still make up the bulk of power provided have very little on-island storage (fuel trucks make the run from the port of Hilo to Kona virtually every day) and there are no projected plans to increase storage capacity in any significant way. Earthquake damages to bridges or tsunami damage to the port could literally limit or shut most of the power off for an extended length of time. As serious as that problem is, a much greater negative is the status of medical facilities on the Big Island. The hospitals are quite small and so inadequate for major medical emergencies that patients with serious injuries or conditions are routinely flown to Oahu (300 miles away) via air ambulance. It is often said (by local doctors) that the hospitals on-island are limited to an equivalent of "third-world" care, which is something that has to be seriously stressed with regards to chronic care.

This is not to say that it would be the wrong choice for everyone. In the case of CPAP machines (for sleep apnea), it could be a very good possibility, but when it comes to machines that require extensive supply replacements and constant thorough cleaning (such as dialysis machines), one might be better off looking elsewhere. The availability of emergency electricity is only one factor of the equation and when the necessity of ongoing sophisticated medical treatment (which is normally required for chronic care) is added in, the Big Island loses some of its luster as a survival retreat possibility. - Hawaiian K.

Jim,
I found it interesting that your comments about Hawaiian Electric essentially concede, without explicitly saying so, that in some situations, the chronically ill are doomed to die without medical care provided by the Establishment. This is, of course, true (unless you have unfathomable financial resources at your disposal to proactively re-create a private, parallel medical infrastructure).

Without insulin, diabetics will eventually die; without dialysis, so will kidney patients; without oxygen, so will those who need assisted breathing. These are just facts. Let me suggest that for those who are in the unfortunate situation of having to care for a loved one with a chronic condition, contingency planning needs to be broken into short- and long-term time horizons.

In the short term, all of your points are well taken re: stockpiling supplies. The plan here is to hold out on your own for as long as you can, and hope that things eventually go back to normal (e.g., Hurricane Katrina). I would add that many insurers will fill a 90-day supply of medicines, provided that you’re willing to use a mail-in service, and generic substitutes are available. If finances are tight, look into this route—it will give you an additional 60 days of stockpile for the same co-pay.

One thing you sort of skipped over was medical knowledge. All the supplies in the world won’t do you a lick of good if you don’t know how to use them. So take the time when things are good to amass a reasonable medical library. Like I mentioned in a previous letter, I own a copy of "Medicine for the Outdoors" for acute care issues, and obviously as a new parent, I own pediatric references too. But it would probably be a good idea to add books like the PDR to have information about drug interactions; a slightly out-of-date edition might be available on ebay. I’m sure real doctors out there could make recommendations.

In terms of longer-term planning, it’s going to come back to relying on the Establishment for drugs, life-saving chronic therapies, etc. My view is that if things go to hell, they may or may not go to hell all at once and everywhere. Cities will get worse before the countryside; collapse may be local before it is national. So use this time, when the internet still works, to do research. For example, how much could it hurt for a dialysis patient to have a list of every public and private dialysis center within 200 miles? The hope would be that if your locale turned ugly, an operating medical establishment could be found somewhere nearby.

The rest of your post dealt with preventative care: elective surgeries, dental care, physical fitness. I’m in wild agreement with everything you said (but now we’re far afield from the original question about chronic care, notice). I’d add that I’m a post-Lasik patient myself, and recommend it highly. I can understand budgetary constraints, but these days Lasik is no longer nearly as expensive as it used to be. Depending on the amount of correction you need, the surgery can be obtained for the cost two handguns, or one good rifle, and is probably worth more to you in a SHTF situation than another firearm in the arsenal, or an extra 1,000 rounds of .308 Winchester.

Keep up the great thinking and writing. - DCs

JWR Replies: I'd be reluctant to consider Oahu, since its population density is so high that it could not be self-sufficient in the event of an economic collapse and the likelihood of rioting and looting seems much, much higher than on the Big Island. There are at least three dialysis centers extant on the Big Island (One on the Kona coast, one in Hilo--both operated by Liberty Medical--as well as another in Hilo at the Hilo Medical Center. OBTW, I've also read that a large, new dialysis center was just recently opened on Maui.

Hello Jim,
I am a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber and have looked at your site daily -- great job!

I have a medical background and would advise readers to consider what gear they will need if a friend, relative or team member becomes ill, hurt, disabled etc. The basic first aid supplies will not provide the level of comfort et cetera needed. We are talking basic nursing care, not "first aid". Take care, stay safe and God Bless! - Dave T.

JWR Replies: Thanks for bringing that subject up again. Aside for fairly some brief mentions (such as photovoltaically-powered CPAP machines for sleep apnea patients, and refrigeration of insulin) we haven't given this the emphasis that it deserves.

Acute Care
Preparing to care for injuries or acute illnesses, is well within the reach of most middle class families. You should of course build up a large supply of bandages, antibiotics, and so forth. Also plan ahead for such mundane items as drinking straws, hot water bottles, bed pans, and diaper wipes. I also recommend looking for an older-style used, adjustable hand-crank hospital bed. Just watch Craig's List regularly, and chances are that you will eventually find one at a bargain price.

Chronic Care
It may be difficult for us to confront issue of care for the chronically ill, because it can seem so overwhelming. But for the vast majority of us that do not subscribe to the "park granny on an ice floe" (senilicide and invalidicide) mentality, these issues demand our attention, our concerted planning, and considerable financial commitment. Since there are such a wide range of chronic illnesses and disabilities, it is impossible to address them all, but I will mention a few:

Lets start with the most difficult to mitigate: Chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis. In a "grid-down" situation, dialysis patients will be out of luck once the hospital backup generators run out of fuel. To see a loved one slowly have their blood turn toxic and die would be absolutely heartbreaking. My suggested solution may seem odd, but think this through: Move to the Big Island of Hawaii, or to a natural gas producing region, or to near a refinery in an oil-producing state.

In Hawaii, each island has its own independent power generation infrastructure. For many years, the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) utility has used diesel fired generators (using crude oil that is shipped in and then fractioned at refineries), but they may soon switch over to natural gas, using imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). There are any number of different circumstances, including an EMP attack, wherein the continental US power grids will go down, but the lights will stay on in Hawaii. My only unanswered question is: how much a of crude oil supply is kept on hand? And if and when HECO switches over to LNG, will the number of months of reserve fuel increase or decrease?

As for natural gas-producing regions (such as parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and several other states), such a move would first require considerable research. You would have to find a community adjacent to natural gas fields with a kidney dialysis center that that has a natural gas-fired backup generator and that is in an area with sufficient wellhead pressure to pressurize local lines. (You can expect to be making a lot of phone calls, finding such a rarity!) As I've mentioned previously in SurvivalBlog, in the late 1990s, my mentor Dr. Gary North bought a property in Arkansas that had its own natural gas well, and two-natural gas-fired generators. To borrow the modern parlance, talk about a "sweet" set -up!

Another option might be to find a dialysis center with a diesel-powered backup generator that is within 25 miles of a refinery that is also in oil country. (Providing a local source of crude oil for resupply.) As biodiesel plants start to come on line in the next few years, this should widen your range of choices. But keep in mind that you will want to find a biodiesel plant that is independent of grid power. The key word to watch for in your web searches is co-generation. A plant that has co-generation capability is likely one that could operate without the need of the power grid.

Next down the list is diabetes. As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, relatively small and inexpensive (under $3,000) packaged photovoltaic power systems with inverters (such as those sold by Ready Made Resources) can be used to operate a compact refrigerator (such as the Engel compact refrigerator/freezers sold by Safecastle). A system of this size could also be used to run a CPAP machine or other AC-powered medical equipment with similar amperage demands.

Another category of chronic illness to consider is the care of post-surgical "-ostomy" patients--folk s that have had a colostomy, iliostomy, urostomy, and so forth. These often require keeping on hand a large supply of medical appliances, bags, catheters, and so forth. Thankfully, most of these items have fairly long shelf lives and are not too expensive to stock up on--at least compared to some of those "$5 per pill" blood thinner medications.

Yet another category of chronic disease to consider is bronchial and lung ailments. There are some ailments that can be relieved (at least to an extent) by relocating. Getting to a more suitable elevation, moving to avoiding pollen or fungi, and so forth can make a considerable difference. If this is your situation, then I suggest that you go ahead and make the move soon if you have the opportunity. Chronic asthma is quite common, and of course an acute asthma attack can be life threatening. Ironically, buying a wood stove--one of the key preparedness measures that I recommend to my clients--is not good for someone that has an asthmatic in their family. If that is your case, then consider moving to the southwest, where passive solar heating is an option, or moving to an area where you can use geothermal heating. I mention a few such locales, such as Klamath Falls, Oregon, in my book "Rawles on Retreats and Relocation".

For the many folks that now depend on medical oxygen cylinders, it is wise to at least stock up on extra cylinders. One alternative suitable for long term scenarios is to buy a medical oxygen concentrator. High volume units are fairly expensive, but owning your own would be an incredible resource for charity or barter as well as for your own family's use. Large (high volume) units can sometime be found through used medical equipment dealers such as East Tennessee Sterilizer Service. Smaller, factory new oxygen concentrators are available in the US from Liberty Medical, and in England from Pure O2, Ltd.

A much more common situation is caring for someone that requires regular medication that does not require refrigeration. The high cost of some medicines make storing a two year supply difficult. And the policies of most insurance companies--often refusing to pay for more than a month's worth of medication in advance--only exacerbates the problem. In these cases, I suggest 1.) Re-prioritizing your budget to provide the funds needed to stock up, and 2.) If possible, looking at alternative treatments, including herbs that you can grow in your own garden or greenhouse.

If you decide yo go the route of stocking up your meds to build a multi-year stockpile--all the way to their expiration dates--this will require not only lots of cash but also very conscientious "first in, first out" rotation of your supplies. I have seen a deep, open-backed cabinet used for this method. After you have bought your "all the way to the expiry date supply", you simply continue to order your monthly supply and put each newly-arrived pill bottle in the back of the cabinet and use the bottle that is closest to the front.

Alternative treatment, such as using herbs or acupuncture, is a touchy subject. Again, it is something that will take considerable research and qualified consultation, and in effect making yourself your own guinea pig. If you decide to use this approach, I recommend that you make any transition gradually, with plenty of qualified supervision. If it takes a lot of extra visits to to your doctor for tests, then so be it. Just do your best to make the transition, before everything hits the fan. Living in Schumeresque times will undoubtedly be extremely stressful, and the additional stress of changing medications might very well be "one stress too many."

I have seen some folks in preparedness circles on the Internet recommend stockpiling low-cost veterinary medications, but I could only advise using such medications in absolute extremis. (When your only other option is certain death.)

As for using meds beyond their "official" expiration dates, this requires some careful study. Some medications have listed expiries that are overly conservative. (I suspect that any of these expiration terms are driven by the advice of corporate staff malpractice attorneys rather than by the advice of the formulating chemists.) A few drugs, however, are downright dangerous to use past their expiration dates. Consult your local pharmacists with questions about any particular drug. (I lack a "R.Ph." or "PharmD." after my name, so please don't ask me. I am not qualified to give such advice!) Parenthetically, in my novel "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse", I mentioned a WHO-approved titration test that is useful for some antibiotics. This method was developed for use in Third World countries where out-of date medications seem to end up with amazing regularity.

Speaking of the Third World, there are some valuable lessons that can be learned from studying the way that chronically-ill are treated in poor countries. (I'm not taking about neglect. Rather, I'm talking about creative ways to care for people when there isn't the money or there aren't "the proper facilities.") Do some Internet research on the chronic illness that is of concern to you with search phrases that include "In Cuba", "In Africa", "in Thailand", and so forth.

Elective Surgery and Dental Work
If you have an existing problem that could be cured with elective surgery or dental work, then I strongly recommend that you go ahead and do so, if you have the means. If your condition worsens after medical or dental facilities become unavailable, it could turn a simple inconvenience into something life threatening. I've heard of several wealthy preppers that have had their nearsightedness cured by Lasik or PRK, just for the sake of being better prepared for a foreseen new era that will not have the benefit of ophthalmologists and a handy shopping mall "eyeglasses in about an hour" shop. Living free of eyeglasses or contact lenses also makes wearing night vision goggles and NBC protective masks much easier, and makes defensive shooting--particularly at long range--more accurate. Lasik is an expense that I cannot personally justify on my tight budget, but if you can afford it, then do so. (BTW, I even had one consulting client go so far as to have his healthy appendix removed, just to avoid the prospect of appendicitis. That qualifies as "going to extremes"! I would not recommend this, since new research suggests that the appendix does serve to maintain good digestive bacteria populations.)

Fitness and Body Weight
One thing that every well-prepared individual should do is to stay in shape. Good muscle tone prevents back injuries and other muscle strains, and leaves you ready for the rigors of an independent, self-sufficient lifestyle. (There surely will plenty of 19th Century muscle work involved, post-TEOTWAWKI!) Keeping a healthy diet and maintaining an appropriate body weight (or getting back down to a proper weight!) is also very important. Again, it will leave you ready for physical challenges and it falls into the prepper's "one less stress to worry about" mindset. And, notably, watching your weight will also make you less likely to become diabetic. The only thing more tragic than having a chronic illness is unintentionally making yourself chronically ill!

One important side note: Many injuries and illnesses cause difficulty chewing and digesting solid foods, because of the patient's weakness, dental problems, or jaw/palate/throat trauma. It is important to have a hand-cranked food grinder available so that you can accommodate the needs of these patients. Old-fashioned grinders (the type that clamp on the edge of a kitchen table) can often be found used, for just a few dollars at yard sales. If you want to buy a new one, they are available from both Ready Made Resources and Lehmans.com.

In Closing
The bottom line is that caring for someone with a chronic illness in a protracted emergency or in the midst of a societal collapse is something that will take plenty of research, planning, and unfortunately, expense. As previously noted, it might even require relocating.

Perhaps some SurvivalBlog readers with (or with loved ones with) chronic health conditions or disabilities would care to chime in. I'd also appreciate hearing from those in a health care professions.

Introduction
I'm a life-long Western Washington resident - except for five years in Kansas & two in Berlin while in the U.S. Army. I'm the great-grandchild of Washington pioneers. I love this state - the ocean, mountains and fertile valleys - but what it has become -- not so much.
This past weekend, (November 30 - December 1, 2007), the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state was hit by an arctic front from the Gulf of Alaska, dropping 3-6" of snow in our area. The weather folks told us not to worry, that it wouldn't last long, because we had a "Pineapple Express" blowing in from Hawaii. (If this were the other Left Coast, they'd call it a tropical depression -- but up here in the Great North Wet, we don't rate such notoriety, so they just call it a "Pineapple Express.") The West coast of Washington (and parts of the North coast) experienced sustained hurricane force winds, with gusts as high as 130 mph in places. An aircraft landing at Boeing Field in Seattle recorded gusts of 140 knots at 4,000 feet on his approach.

I took one look at weather conditions this morning, and decided that it was a good day to hunker down and take care of me and mine. I called into work about two hours later. (Days when they expect bad weather, I get up extra early.). They said "Yeah, yeah, all the roads between here and there are closed . . . Have a great day!" They were right. The embankment above U.S. 101 slid out and across both the southbound and the northbound lanes. To make the picture complete, S.R. 8 was closed by slides, as well, so going the back roads to get to 8 to go around the slide on 101 was out of the question. My supervisor was more optimistic than me, and spent about ninety minutes in traffic snarls before getting turned around to go home.
So, anyway, for those of you who might be thinking that there are parts of the West side of Washington state that might make a good retreat, here's the shakeout:
- U.S. 101 & S.R. 8 both closed by mudslides in multiple locations leaving only one route on or off the Olympic Peninsula: S.R. 3 via S.R. 16 from Tacoma, crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. (It wound up being choked down to one lane late in the day, due to flooding and mudslides.) All alternate secondary and county roads blocked by mudslides, flooding, fallen trees or washed-out bridges.
- At the end of the day, every river in Western Washington is above flood stage. The Skokomish River (always the first to flood, and the last back in its banks) is in a record flood from this event. (Mix heavy lowland snow with over 9" of rain and unseasonably warm temperatures, and you get big water!) This means that you have flooding in every county in Western Washington.
- My county (Mason County ) lost its main feed from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), putting the majority of the county in the dark for about eight hours. We had to wait for a BPA engineer to replace the blown breaker. I'm sure it's much too complex for our county PUD engineers! (Funny! I live next door to one, and across the street from another, and both seem pretty competent to me.)
- Three small towns in Lewis County evacuated due to flooding.
- 20 miles of I-5 closed South of Chehalis (Lewis County) due to flooding.
- Hood Canal floating bridge closed due to high winds
- All North-South rail corridors blocked by slides or flooding
- Tahuya & Skokomish river valleys isolated due to mudslides and flooding
- Fire district had three separate relief centers set up. The problem was, none of the people who needed them could get to them, and rescue crews couldn't get to the stranded people to rescue them. Entry into the isolated areas required a lot of chainsaw and bulldozer work.
- One beach community was evacuated by Coast Guard helicopter due to isolation by mudslides
- One death in Mason county, two in Grays Harbor. (Mudslide, falling tree, medical equipment made non-functional by power outage.)
- As of this writing, there are still about 1,000 people who are stranded and un-reachable by emergency services -- including a woman in labor. (And this is just in my mostly rural county!)
- Very few grocery stores in Western Washington have backup generators, which means that if the power is off for more than a few hours, all refrigerated foods, dairy, and fresh meat must be disposed of -- and, of course, is unavailable to feed hungry people.

Personal Actions:
- Had a breakfast of French toast so we got some warm food into us -- just in case.
- Went out and stowed anything liable to blow away, including our Christmas tree and barbecue.
- Touched base with family and close friends
- Talked to my wife's sister and brother-in-law on their return from their jobs in the Great Cesspool. (Known to the more urbane as Seattle.) They had to brave the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Always an adventure in high winds! [JWR Adds: This bridge's predecessors was the one that was made famous by the movie of its wild wind oscillation and collapse], drive to Bremerton, then back-track down S.R. 3 to get to their house and rental house that were both flooding. They reported that there were frequent encounters with water flowing over the road surface on S.R. 3.
- Talked one nephew out if taking the same route that my sister and brother-in-law came in, tried to talk another out of taking the back roads back to his house. He made it okay, but power is out and the creek is threatening. (God bless the man who designed 4-wheel drive!)
- Loaned an extra 100' extension cord to brother-in-law sister so she could get power from their genset to their house.
- The BPA breaker blew about 10 o'clock, so we munched cold rations and read by sunlight until it was time to dig out flashlights and candles.
- Listened to local news on our hand-crank radio.
- Kept in touch with my brother-in-law's siblings via hard-wire phone (No cellular service at all, which is not all that unusual here in "cell hell," and - of course - cordless phones don't work when there's no power.)
- Gave ten gallons of water to my brother-in-law's sister when she came back into town. (They're on a well and chose to power the freezers and refrigerator instead of the well. they should consider getting a second [or larger] genset.)
- Lifted our Pepsis toward our next door neighbor's house after the lights came back on an hour earlier than the last prediction.
- Checked the fridge and freezers to find everything as cold as if the power never hiccupped at all.
- Made dinner.
- Sat down at the PC to check for road closures for the morning and to compose this AAR.
This is yet another "100 year event." Funny, those "100 year events" seem to be coming up every couple years nowadays. Global warming? Over-development? (Much formerly absorbent ground is now capped by spec houses, strip malls, big box stores and the asphalt that accompanies them.) Natural weather cycles? I don't know. Could be a combination of all three.

Okay, that's the feed-back on one event. Here are my other observations on Western Washington as a potential retreat locale:

Land: Due to the real estate bubble, this stuff is pretty precious. Good luck finding good land below $10,000 per acre. Expect to pay more. Finding land of any size is getting pretty difficult as well, as anything that's twice the size of the minimum growth density (5-to-20 acres) gets sub-divided for spec houses or snapped up by conservation Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs). (Look for that to change somewhat now that the bubble has sprung a leak.) Expect unrealistic expectations from the sellers. The past 30 years have been spent in pursuit of the mythical California buyer (or green NGO) who can afford to drop multiple millions on the "right" place. Reality may set in on that front too -- eventually. If you can find good land at a decent price, buy it! It won't last long. Be careful about water -- especially out here on the Olympic Peninsula. Either buy it with developed water (a working well), or make the sale contingent on both being able to develop a good water supply and being able to get a septic permit. (Yes! You can do this. Anything in writing is legal in a land transfer in Washington state -- which means you need to read and understand all that fine print. Beware of [restrictive] covenants!)

Several things you need to bear in mind when looking for land:
- 44% of Washington's land is in Federal hands.
- This includes the vast majority of the Olympic Peninsula - there's a narrow band around the coast that's in private hands - except for the dozen tribal reservations and the National Park.

- Big timber means something out here. Most of the large non-NGO private tracts belong to one of the big three timber companies: Simpson, Weyerhauser or Louisiana Pacific.

- NGO. Learn what it means. There are a lot of them out here. One stated goal is to acquire all the private land on the Olympic Peninsula and SW Washington and "rehabilitate it." (That means get rid of the unwashed.) Which brings us to . . .

Regulatory Environment:Welcome to the Nanny state! Forget about throwing up a cordwood castle with "a little house out back." Those days are long gone this side of the hump (and from what I've seen on my too infrequent trips over the hump, fading fast on the dry side [of Washington], too). Forget about being able to put in a gravity flow septic system. This is the land of the engineered system! Almost always above ground, usually including one or more [electrically-powered] pumping systems. If you buy developed land that includes an existing gravity-flow septic system, the baby that puppy! You do not want it to fail! Because, if it does, you will be putting in a very expensive engineered system to replace it.

System capacity is calculated by the number of bedrooms in your residence, so having a wink wink "den" is not unusual around here. Get creative! You can have sewing rooms, libraries, media rooms (Children are the ultimate media, after all -- they are you writ on eternity . . . or at least the next generation.), or whatever non-sleeping purpose room you can think of -- just do not exceed the number of bedrooms that your system is designed to carry. If you decided to "second-purpose" some of those non-bedrooms, it would be wise to find out about - and make friends with - the local septic pumping guy who can keep his mouth shut! (Hint: If he's one of the County Planner's brothers-in-law, he probably ain't the guy you're looking for!)

Think that's the worst? Not hardly! Ever heard of "Critical Habitat Zones" or "Aquifer Recharge Areas?" This is new-speak for "We're taking your land, and you get to pay for it!" It's a toss-up for which is worse, because basically what it means is that the land-owner gets to pay for returning the land to some mythical "pre-aboriginal state," Whatever in God's creation that is supposed to be -- and however some pencil-neck with a PhD is going to verify it! Because - unless I miss my mark - the only ones who are going to know what this land looked like before the aboriginal peoples got here would be the bears and God! I don't think too many PhDs hereabouts confer with either. Oh, yeah . . . Once you're finished paying for restoring your land to it's long-previous pristine condition, you - nor none of your kith nor kin - may ever set foot on it again. Did I mention you do get to keep the inestimable privilege of paying taxes on said land that you were compelled to improve in a way that you might - or might not - agree with -- and may never use again? It boggles this country boy's mind, let me tell you!
I could go on and on . . . But at the risk of stretching your incredulity even further -- Let's jump to Politics!

Political Environment:
All policy is set by the Seattle set. If you think otherwise, you're delusional and should seek proper assistance. Yes, we have some real conservatives hereabouts, but not enough to matter. It doesn't help that most of the "loyal opposition" are more interested in sticking it to each other (in one sense or the other) than fighting the foes across the aisle. This state is the gold-bound proof to the theory that at least 85% of evangelical Christians refuse to register to vote or go to the polls. There are a lot of very nice Christian folk hereabouts - but either they don't vote, or there's a complete disconnect between their faith and their politics. So now that we've settled that little question, let's look at the characteristics of a typical denizen of the Great Cesspool:
o Frequently seen at the statue of V.I. Lenin in Ballard
o Is a deep ecologist
o Supports radical feminism
o Believes that animals, trees and flowers are more valuable than children
o Is staunchly "pro-choice"
o Hung out/ sat-in upon / got lucky at "Red Square" whilst attending "The U"
o Has dabbled in Wicca, Earth Mother Worship, an Eastern religion, or is "spiritually sensitive"
o Probably a union Democrat, or the spawn thereof
o Drives - or covets - a high-end Japanese or European luxury/sport sedan, SUV, or hybrid vehicle
o Thinks most Christians need re-education, or at least intense sensitivity training
o Believes that the owning property is for the privileged -- not the un-washed. (Guess which camp he/she/it falls in?)
o Rabidly anti-gun
o Radically Politically Correct (PC)
o Is certain that patriotism is a curable condition
o Voted for Kucinich and will vote for Obama
o Is convinced that Starbucks is a cultural center
o Thinks the U.N. is humanity's only hope

Public Education:
Perennially over-funded and under-performing. Case-in-point: The top-rated public school district in the state has a 44% drop-out rate for boys. Girls do much better: 36%. Most districts turn out the barely-literate as their average students. What can one expect from a system that comes up with concepts like "compulsory volunteerism" Oh yeah, your kids can get extra credit for participating in an anti-war rally or an Act-Up event. My advice to anyone moving here that has children - or expects to have children - avoid the Washington public school system like the plague! Fortunately, we still have a pretty much hands-off homeschool environment here and some very good parochial schools. Raise 'em up right, teach them critical thinking skills, and there just might be some hope for this socialist's paradise!

Media:
Bookmark your favorite conservative radio shows' web sites! Because you are not going to hear them on the airwaves around here. To give you an idea which way the wet side media leans: A cat getting shot with a BB gun will be reported with more gravity and sympathy than the beating death of a child or the gang rape of a young woman. 'Nuff said?

Culture?
- We got tons of it! As long as it's oh-so properly PC.

Crime:
- Can we say "methamphetamine?" Keep an eye on your back 40. It may sprout a meth lab. (So might the neighbor's rental property.)
- High rates of burglary and car theft
- Robberies and home invasions up
- I.D. theft on the rise

Hazards
- The Economic Bubble os due to burst. We've always had a boom and bust economy here, and it's been riding high for too long.

- Earthquake
o We're overdue for "The Big One." This is especially true for the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the Seattle fault complex.
· Either of these could spawn dramatic Tsunamis. Avoid locating in low-lying costal areas or areas prone to slippage. You really want to learn about the Cascadia Subduction Zone and plan accordingly. An event on this system will be a regional event -- from Alaska to mid-California. Outlying areas will be on their own - probably for at least a month - due to bridge collapses and land slides. Also, aid will go first to where it does the most good for the highest number. I'm thinking that means the Puget Sound Metroplex, Portland, the Oregon I-5 corridor and San Francisco.
· We're talking a magnitude 9+ event with a duration of 10-15 minutes at the slip point, which translates to a 6-8 magnitude event of the same duration in the heavy population centers, possibly followed by a Tsunami measured in the hundreds of feet.
· Historically, there's been an event on this system every 300 years or so. The last one was in the mid-1700s. You do the math.

o Volcanoes
- All the major Cascade and Olympic mountain range peaks are volcanoes. Most are active.

- The Golden Horde
o The Puget Sound Metroplex currently holds 3.5 million people. It is expected to grow to ~ 5.2 million by 2025
- Most have supplies for no more than three days - if any at all
- Most are used to an upper-middle class existence with all the urban/suburban amenities.
- Most are familiar with the Cascade and Olympic regions.
- Despite the anti-gun environment they foster and support, many will be armed.
- Many have off-road capable vehicles (The up-side is that 95% of those have never actually taken their vehicles off-road.)
- Many have boats
- Many have quads or dirt bikes
- Many have RVs
- You won't need to worry about them during a Cascadia event or a Nuclear strike, because they won't be able to get to you in the former case -- and most will be vaporized in the latter.
· All other scenarios: Plan for and expect The Golden Horde.
- One more happy thought: Here on the Olympic Peninsula we see just as many Oregon plates on the weekend as we do from Washington, so expect some of the Portland Horde if you settle on the Peninsula or in southwestern Washington.
- And yet another: Many rural Washington counties contain prisons . . . What's going to happen when the lights go out and/or the guards don't get paid?

- Terrorism
o Due to the high population and strategic location of the Puget Sound Metroplex it is a high-value/high-visibility target.
- Nuclear First-strike Target List
o Primary
- Ft. Lewis & McChord AFB (Tacoma/S Pierce County)
- Bremerton Naval Ship Yard
- Bangor Submarine Warfare Center and Base
- Whidbey NAS
- Everrett Naval Station (Everett/Marysville)
- Fairchild AFB (Spokane)
- Hanford Nuclear Energy Complex

o Secondary
- Seattle
· Boeing
· Other heavy manufacturing & high tech
· Port
· Ship yards
· Transportation & communication center
- Tacoma
· Port
· Shipyards
· Other heavy manufacturing & high tech
· Transportation & communication center
- Everett
· Boeing
· Other heavy manufacturing & high tech
· Port
- Bellingham
· Port
- Portland, Oregon
· Port
· Transportation & communication center
- East Side Corridor
· High-tech & biotechnology
· Communications center
· Transportation corridor
- Cherry Point (Bellingham, Whatcom County)
· Petroleum Refinery complex
- Padilla Bay (Anacortes, Skagit County)
· Petroleum Refinery complex

o Tertiary
- Kelso/Longview
· Port
· Rail hub
- Aberdeen/Hoquiam
· Port
- Olympia
· Seat of Government
· Minor port
- Anacortes
· Minor port
- Moses Lake
· Long runway (Fighter & Bomber capable)
- SEA-TAC (Both the City & Airport)
· Long runway (Fighter & Bomber capable)
- Tri-cities (Richland, Pasco, Kennewick)
· Brain drain Battelle, etc. (Hanford staff/researchers)
If the nukes ever fly, the Western half of this state is going to look like we had missile silos all over the place. Why? Transportation, military, high-tech & communications.

- Pandemic
o Both SEA-TAC {seattle -Tacoma airport] and to a lesser extent, PDX (Portland International) are international hubs -- and of course, Vancouver BC's airport is their Canadian counterpart. Flights originate for the Pacific Rim countries, Europe, Mexico and Central and South America.
o Washington sits in the mainstream of the Pacific Flyway for migratory fowl.
o Washington is a major poultry producer

Conclusion

So, are you wondering why I haven't run screaming for the hills of Idaho yet? Like I said in my intro: I love this state. It has its problems -- probably more than its fair share, for that matter. But, it is beautiful. One acre of good Western Washington bottom land will support a cow and her calf well -- two will support a horse at a high level of feed. It will also grow just about anything, and you are blessed with a long growing season. Rain can be a bit problematic at harvest times -- but my ancestors managed to muddle through somehow. There are a lot of nice folk, too . . . Just wish they'd let me tell 'em how to vote -- and then actually do it!
Of course, I could just be living in the state of De Nile. - Countrytek

Hard times usually result in an overwhelming number of people who:
1. Do not have a job of any kind, and
2. Have no steady income from any source, and
3. Are usually either homeless or are living with close relatives.

During hard times these individuals need almost everything, including food, shelter, clothing, and basic medical care. During really hard times the large and growing number of homeless individuals greatly exceeds the carrying capacity of the local community in terms of voluntary charitable donations. There are just not enough homeless shelters and free food/soup kitchens that provide one meal per day to accommodate everyone. To survive during hard times these homeless individuals must choose between becoming thieves or beggars or both.
Therefore, during hard times the crime rate increases significantly. Since God was expelled from our school systems and our work places many decades ago, there are now a large number of people who have little or no respect for any type of authority, or for the rights of anyone other than themselves. These individuals do not evaluate their actions on any moral or ethical principles other than whether or not their action results in an improvement in their own personal welfare.

As our current hard times tragedy continues to unfold, any family that still has a home that contains a wage earner will quickly learn that if they are going to continue to survive they must not make themselves an obvious or easy target for thieves or a target for a continuous stream of beggars.

Each individual family will need to make their own decision on whether or not they can afford to be charitable. Some families are already in such serious financial difficulty that they are barely able to meet their own basic survival needs and charity is simply not an option. Other families may be a little better off and they may be able to afford a little charity every now and then. The difficulty is that homeless families do not need help every now and then; they need it continuously.

If a person or family makes the decision to dispense charity directly from their home or apartment, then they may experience the following problems:
1. Having anyone and everyone knocking on your door at any time of the day or night.
2. Receiving verbal abuse, or something worse, when you honestly have no charity to give away at the current time.
3. Experiencing the occasional angry face-to-face confrontation with an individual or family that is not grateful for what you do offer to give to them, and they accuse you of being able to give more and they demand that you do so or suffer the consequences.

For these reasons, among others, a prudent family will need to determine how they can be charitable without putting the safety of their own family at risk.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this charity question. After determining what they can actually afford to give away, each family can make donations of money, food, clothing, and/or medicine to a local food bank, homeless shelter, orphanage, or local church with the stipulation that the gift be used to help the needy families in the local area.

The donation may be made to one of these organizations that is located close to the donating family, or to one that is a reasonable distance away if anonymity is considered a prudent course of action. The advantage of donating to a nearby establishment is that the donating family can direct any beggars to its location. The family would not have to mention whether or not they personally donated anything of value to the charitable organization; they could simply say they heard that food was available there.

During hard times the beggar (hobo) information network works extremely well and everyone knows which homes always say “no” and which ones sometimes say “yes” and which ones always “give directions to the nearest charitable organization.” A family can put a simple note and a directions map on their front door (or gate) to help reduce the number of beggars who actually knock on their door. The note could be written in English and Spanish. Without opening the door, the family could ask who is knocking and what their business is, and then give directions through the closed door. Remember that an innocent looking beggar could also be a very skilled thief and/or killer. Always keep your doors closed and bolted during hard times and ask and answer questions through the door. Do not open your door even to those who pretend to have or who actually do have hearing deficiencies. The note on your front door should be adequate to answer any question the hard of hearing may have.

During serious hard times the local churches and their leaders will be confronted with an increasing and overwhelming number of requests for help. Many churches will respond by setting up committees to oversee the collection, storing, and distribution of food, clothing, and other supplies to needy families. Some churches already perform this function in their communities on an ongoing basis. The advantage of making your charitable donations to a church or other charitable organization is that they can more equally distribute the available charity to everyone who is in need. And when the charity is all gone, those who received it will know that more will not be available until some future time, whether it is a free hot meal the following day, or a few more free groceries one week or one month from now.
A nearby local church or other charitable organization is a superior method for equitably distributing charity to everyone who is need. The reasons are as follows:
1. They will receive charitable donations from anyone regardless of whether or not the individual is a member of the organization or church.
2. They are usually located within a reasonable distance of the families who are donating the charity.
3. They are usually within walking distance or bicycle distance of the needy families.
4. They distribute charity to local residents and individuals passing through the community and therefore they help to relieve local suffering and reduce the local crime rate.
5. They minimize the chance of one family receiving more charitable assistance than another family.
6. The local charitable organization usually knows if any work is available locally and they will pass that information on to the welfare recipients. This helps those in charge of dispensing charity to identify the families who have members who could work but chose not to. Families who accept work assignments and faithfully discharge those work duties will also usually be told where they can rent a meager but simple room to live in.
7. The recipients of the charity quickly learn where the charity is being given and it helps to minimize their investment of time and energy in receiving assistance.
8. It provides everyone in the local area with an immediate and helpful answer to anyone who is in need of assistance. No one ever has to say, “No, I can’t help you.” Instead everyone can provide directions to the nearest charitable organization.
9. Beggars will quickly learn that it is fruitless to beg door-to-door in a local area because anyone who has anything to give has already donated it to the local charitable organization.
10. When the total amount of available charity in an area is not adequate to sustain all the families in that area that need charity assistance, then some of those families will realize it is time to move on to another area where the overall conditions might be more favorable.

In closing may I suggest you read the book written by Pitirim A. Sorokin called “Man and Society in Calamity.” It contains historical information about how starving individuals have actually behaved during previous hard times. A condensed summary of his book can be read at my web site: Man and Society in Calamity - Summary.
Respectfully, - Grandpappy

JWR Adds: It is noteworthy that there are many stories dating back to the Great Depression about the methods that hobos used to "mark" the property of families and businesses that were willing to give charity to strangers. The recent upsurge in "warchalking" of free wireless access locations is reminiscent of this practice.

I do recommend being charitable, but like Grandpappy, for your own safety, I recommend that you be charitable at arm's length. Working through a church as an intermediary is a time-proven method.

Jim,
I read the letter posted about showing caution when dispensing charity. I like the "give 'til it hurts" philosophy from "Patriots" a lot. I have had some training on handling displaced refugees/evacuees/displaced persons which I hope could benefit some readers. I would strongly suggest dividing charity into two distinct areas; charity to neighbors (fixed location) and charity to refugees (mobile). The main purpose of giving aid to refugees is to enable them to keep moving along. Give them water and (if you can spare it) food that they can prepare later when they stop for the night and anything they are desperate for if you can spare it, give them advice about routes and potential destinations. Do not cook for them or allow them to cook and under no conditions let them camp or sleep over, unless you want to adopt them. There is no better way to make a group stick around better then feeding them and letting them sleep! Give them what you can and keep headed down the road! To give credit where credit is due I though dealing with this situation was handled well in "Patriots".

When dispensing charity to neighbors in a long term TEOTWAWKI situation I would suggest sticking to teach a man to fish type items like fish hooks/nets, game snares, seeds, etc. Unless you are able and willing to feed the neighbor for a prolonged period of time (i.e. through winter until they can plant and harvest crops with the heirloom seeds you give them) I would not start. Telling a neighbor that you can't continue feeding his family seems like the beginning of a real nasty problem to me.

Thanks for the great work keeping this blog going. Seeing what interesting new stuff gets posted is a highlight of my day and unlike most entertainment is could someday help me out.

Jim--
Some years ago, we enjoyed a power outage when we were living near Tacoma, Washington. It occurred on Thanksgiving day, so everybody's turkeys were slowly cooling in their ovens. Our next door neighbor, knowing we were into preparedness, called over (land line phones were okay) asking to borrow our Coleman stove so they could heat up water for coffee. I sent one of my girls over with the stove. After about 15 minutes, the neighbors called again asking for help in lighting the stove. It was an old stove and I was embarrassed that it might have given up the ghost. When I got there, however, I found them in their family room (housewife, pre-teen daughter and Mom and Dad) all huddled around the stove. Several burnt matches were in and around the stove box. To my surprise, the gas tank was still in[side] the stove body. I realized that had they managed to turn the red knob on, they could well have started a dangerous fire.
Mind you, the housewife was a school teacher and her Dad a physician, so they were not uneducated people.
My point: handing these folks, educated as they were, a surplus bucket of wheat or beans would be worse than useless--you lose the food, but they don't get fed. Even if you gave them flour, honey, salt, oil, water and yeast, they still would not know what to do with it.

In a disaster scenario, they probably wouldn't even have a can opener to deal with any canned goods you might hand them.
You'd better either: (1) prepare for woebegone beggars who will need/expect your continuing generosity/expertise, or; (2) plan to order needy folks to get on their way.
Worst case scenario: they circle the block and show up back on your doorstep, hungry children in the forefront. Now it's one thing to threaten, perhaps even to have to kill a thief, but what will you do with the obviously desperate (no food/water for 24 hours) neighbors?
Thinking about all this made me realize that perhaps one charitable solution is a 6-pack or two of energy bars, plus a few liters of water as you send them on their way.
But doggone it, then they're likely to pass the word to others who are needy and you are back to numbers (1) or (2) above.
Sure looks like urbanites and suburbanites who want to and/or have made some survival preparations need to also prepare a place away from home so they can G.O.O.D. and not have to face these unhappy choices.
On a different note: Some years ago, I read an article in a Farm magazine reporting that most large-acreage farmers didn't have their own gardens. The article was praising the virtue of having a garden and quoted a few farmer's wives waxing poetic about their little plots. I couldn't believe it--farmers being encouraged to do a little self-help farming!
So, you may escape to your retreat only to find neighbors stopping by for a handout even there. Better start preaching self-reliance a little more vigorously, maybe an article in the local rag, free handouts on the local store bulletin board regarding 72-hour kit contents, etc. Maybe throw in a little scare about the economy and inflation. Good luck with that. - Bob B.

Dear James and SurvivalBlog Family:
Thank you for this tremendously vital preparedness forum. It has been the direct impetus for me to seriously prepare to survive various natural disasters that could assail the New England area, but more importantly, to be prepared for the inevitable TEOTWAWKI situation, which I expect, we will face within a decade, as soon as the oft-predicted Winter Solstice of 2012--Which still leaves us plenty of time to prepare, if we only make that crucial decision to begin (or to enhance) our preparations and remain steadfast in our intentions to survive whatever may come our way.
For the newer SurvivalBlog readers, and those just becoming interested in survival and preparedness activities, I say, do not be overwhelmed by the enormity of that which you feel you need to do to be get yourself reasonably “prepared” or anywhere near as prepared as others that have been preparing for a long time. Make the decision to prepare for survival and methodically acquire the basic food, water and equipment you will need to handle any emergency situation, short or long-term.

I am a charter 10 Cent Challenge SurvivalBlog subscriber and I enclose two $5 rolls of silver dimes to cover years two and three of my subscriptions (2007 and 2008). In addition, I have enclosed a boxed silver round medallion that commemorates the 1975 Bicentennial of the Battles of Lexington and Concord . Paul Revere is featured on the medal’s obverse with the words “American Revolution Bicentennial” and “The Shot Heard Round the World”. Please accept this coin as a token of my appreciation for all you have done for me and your other readers, in the name of survival and preparedness—for your tireless, Christian efforts as a true American Patriot--an honorific you have so justly earned. Keep up the good work and may God bless you and your family!
I have been an avid reader of SurvivalBlog for over a year and a half and have learned a tremendous amount of valuable insight from [Mr. Rawles] and the many outstanding contributors to SurvivalBlog. Not a week goes by that I do not receive valuable preparedness advice and tips to add to my store of knowledge.
I am proud to say that I have made a deep, personal commitment to change my life’s focus from a wasteful, spendthrift mode, bent on acquiring so many useless things and squandering cash on drinks, gambling and other frivolous entertainment, to a conservative mode, investing the bulk of my discretionary income in durable goods, firearms, ammo, long-term bulk food, silver and gold coins, a generator, and the like.

At the beginning of 2007, I resolved to eliminate all discretionary purchases that were patently unnecessary. Socks and underwear are okay, no CDs or movie rentals. Less fast food and daily coffee’s, and no impulse eBay buys, etc… Rather, I have been earmarking (budgeting) a substantial portion of my discretionary income for stocking my “pantry” and procuring key survival supplies and equipment. Having recently finalized my child support and alimony commitments (ensuring that my ex-wife could keep the house), I have had been fortunate to have a significantly larger amount of money to “invest” the past six months and now going forward.

Each month, I buy at least $200 worth of silver or gold coins (mostly silver). I have amassed nearly $750 in face value junk silver coins (although I do not consider them “junk” by any means) and nearly 5 ounces of [fractional] gold coins (mostly American Eagles, Maples Leafs and Krugerrands).
Each pay period I add another $100 in reserve food stores and other basic survival gear. I have a half dozen cases of #10 Mountain House cans and will continuously add to that store a few cases a month with a goal of two dozen cases by the end of 2008.

I am pleased to have finally exercised my 2nd Amendment constitutional right to purchase and own firearms. I had never been a gun owner before 2006 as my father was never a sportsman and would not (still does not) allow guns in his house. Since I do not hunt, there was never a need for a gun or guns. That 20th century mindset has changed and I now know just how crucial firearms are in this present age of uncertainly and fear. I keep the knowledge of my guns to myself (and to my two adult sons) and am now fully comfortable to own several guns and will be buying more on a regular basis.
I have respect for my firearms and keep them safely stored (but strategically loaded). If fact, I keep a loaded .40 caliber Glock in my laptop computer bag in a secure, zippered pocket. No laptop, just files and the Glock. My bag is always with me, either in my car, office or at home ensuring that I will always be close to a weapon in the event of an emergency. While I have no concealed carry permit (and am leery to obtain one), I think I will continue to look askance at my state’s laws that prohibit one from having a loaded handgun in their immediate possession without a concealed carry permit. I’ll just risk the consequences. I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I have been averaging a firearm purchase every two months or so to include two (2) Glock 23 .40 pistols, four (4) .22 pistols, six shotguns (a Remington 870) for home defense and five Mossberg 500s for home defense/target/game, and two new Ruger .22 rifles (since I must have accumulated some 20,000 rounds of that ammo so far). I will continue to buy shotguns on a regular basis so that I am able to arm as many able bodied sons, daughters and other family members as possible (with two guns each).

Here are a few of my SurvivalBlog“Pearls”:
1. Stock up on: beans, bullets, and band-aids!
2. Live by the Golden Rule, Treat others as you would like to be treated…
3. Buy two or more of everything!
4. Pray for peace and thanksgiving
5. Buy silver (pre-1965 [US 90%]) and gold coins; an excellent way to preserve wealth for the recovery period); Take physical possession of all precious metals
6. Stock that pantry! You can never have enough food! Check those expirations dates! Rotate your stock! Donate almost expired food items to the local food pantry.
7. Buy guns, ammo and multiple magazines for every firearm! You can never have too many guns, ammo, or magazines. Try to standardize weapons and ammo.
8. Pack several bug out bags (one for each person)
9. Buy “survival” presents for your family and friends (flashlights, batteries, first-aid kits, camping equipment, sporting goods (guns) bugout bags, etc…)
10. Buy a (bio) diesel pickup truck and a small SUV for a G.O.O.D. vehicle (and consider a used U-Haul (or the like) too; also buy a bicycle for everyone)
11. Exercise, get fit, go for long walks (also food for the soul)
12. As the Boy Scouts say, “Do a Good Turn Daily” and it goes without saying, “BE PREPARED”.
13. Life is unforgivingly short! Live for each moment; get the most out of life,
14. Don’t hold grudges. Forgive everybody and give thanks to God!
15. Oh yeah, please give blood!

I plan on buying several more firearms and the next several purchases will be a mix of shotguns and a series of 9mm weapons: four 9mm pistols (Glocks) and two (or three) KelTec 2000 folding rifles (super-sweet) that use the 33 round Glock magazines (which are available for a bargain at $25.99 each at Natchez Shooters Supply). I figure a dozen 33-round mags will be a good start to outfit this part of my arsenal. Those high capacity mags work in the Glock 9mm pistols too.

[Since originally writing this letter in July, I’ve bought one KelTec 2000, one Glock 19 (9mm) and one 20 gauge shotgun]

Finally, I will look to acquire two AK-47s and two then two long-range rifles. I figure this part of my plan should take another two years to accomplish, one gun per month or two.
I consider my cache of firearms as an extremely valuable store of wealth in the face of the inevitable economic collapse. These guns and ammo will be worth as much as I paid for them, or likely even more in the future. Guns and ammo are like money in the bank (except better) and will make tremendous items for barter in a post TEOTWAWKI society.
I have stocked several "But Out” bags (for my two sons, dad and I), thousands of rounds of ammunition ($100/per month at WalMart) and many other suggested items. I have been chipping away at my extensive list and ply eBay and yard sales for many of the items that I deem essential. At present, I am prepared to withstand a month or so without power, and am primed to protect my investments, but I am not so confident about surviving a really long-term societal collapse as predicted by so many learned prognosticators. My next level of preparedness will be to survive fully three months off grid, with an eye towards a more complete ability to survive any SHTF circumstance by 2012.

I live (rent-free) with my elderly dad and am committed to staying with him in a quite pleasant coastal New England town. I work for the state in a good-paying civil service position. I have no monetary resources to relocate to a tsunami resistant, easily defensible retreat in the mid west (or abroad) and am committed to my dad who was born in this community, owns his home outright, and has absolutely no inclination of moving. Further, I run into an elderly parental mindset when I suggest basic survival activities such as drilling a simple well or installing a wood stove (forget about voice mail or a dishwasher).
I have gotten away with my ostensible preparations for a hurricane (high New England possibility) but when I expound on the potential collapse of the US economy (due to any of several likely scenarios), dad disregards my exhortations. Since I am the “baby” of the family (even though I’m 50) and am the only family within 400 miles, he accepts my advice as if I were a teenager. Therein lies the actual predicament for me.

Retreat Considerations
I need to prepare for a short, medium, and long-term siege in my existing locale. I expect that most SurvivalBlog readers find themselves in a similar, structurally restricted situation. All of my family, and my fiancé’s family reside along the East coast from New Hampshire down to South Carolina . As a result, I hope to secure a farmland retreat that will be strategically located such that immediate family members could get to the retreat by bicycle or on foot in a worst case scenario. I’ve been thinking about northern New Hampshire or the northwestern quadrant of Pennsylvania .
A topic that I have yet to see discussed in SurvivalBlog is the bugout in the Atlantic region of the country. I understand that there is nowhere along the East Coast that one can escape the fallout from a nuclear detonation in the New England or middle Atlantic region but there will many people stuck along the Atlantic coast in the event of some type of cataclysmic event. I would greatly appreciate hearing from other readers about places in rural New York/New England or anywhere along the Atlantic coast that would be suitable in the occurrence of TEOTWAWKI.

I know that the world is headed for a day of reckoning and that the United States is teetering on collapse due to decades of financial and administrative malfeasance. As a student of history and social sciences, I have always been an ardent patriot but as of late, I have come to the tragic understanding why most people in the rest of the world distrust us, and in many instances, hate us. The current administration’s brainless deficit (and mostly pork-barrel) spending, the spiraling national debt, our sole world super-power mindset, insatiable consumer demand and burgeoning trade deficit will surely land this once great nation in the scrap heap of history’s supercilious, bankrupt empires. I’ll be ready, however. Thanks, JWR and loyal SurvivalBlog contributors!

At least our forefathers were insightful when they insisted that our (appropriately silver and gold-backed) monetary instruments be inscribed with the dictum, “In God We Trust”. My one suggestion would be to go back to silver and gold coins and add the alliterative phrase “…Glocks and Gold” after the word “God” to aptly symbolize our current plight.
As it was in the story of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the (preparedness) race.May peace be with you all. - David J. (in a blue New England state)

Hello Mr. Rawles,
Perhaps you and the readers could help me sort through an issue I’ve been wrestling with for some time. From what I’ve read in the archives it appears that some of your readers are struggling with it also.
For almost two decades I have been preparing for the SHTF scenario I believe is inevitable, given our country’s course. I have read about the need for Christian charity during the difficult time that will come and as a Christian I agree. Many suggest that you should store extra food and necessities and dispense them during difficult times. Good idea, but I haven’t found much agreement on precisely how to accomplish this – the mechanics of doing so, if you will. This may be because the issue seems to raise questions that have no simple answers. For example:

Say you set aside 10% of your supplies as “give away” stock. How do you deal with the former recipients of your charity when the crisis persists and that 10% has been given away? You know it was all you planned to give away, but will they know (or care)? How will you control the remainder of the supplies they are now aware of?

I live around many people I call “fivers.” (These are the people with $500,000 homes…who drive a $50,000 pickup truck…that pulls their $5,000 ATVs…on weekends they’re spending $500 to attend a pro football game…but they can’t seem to afford $50 for a water purifier…or $5 for emergency candles.) Do I dispense charity to these fools? Should I? While they’ve been living the good life, I’ve been living frugally so I can afford to purchase my preparedness items. Something about a Grasshopper and an Ant comes to mind about now…

If the crisis is truly short-lived (it ends before your shared supplies run out), what have the recipients learned? That someone else will be there to bail them out the next time this happens? That if there’s a problem they can always come to my place for supplies? Isn’t that reinforcing the entitlement mentality that’s already far too prevalent in this country?
You touched on the issue of dispensing charity in "Patriots" when the characters encountered passersby who showed up, were helped, and conveniently exited the scene, never to return. That won’t be the case when those people live down the street.

In the “City Survival” chapter in Ragnar Benson’s Living Off The Land In The City And The Country he contends (and I concur) that most people simply do not have the luxury of leaving an urban or semi-urban environment and moving to a rural retreat. For the city survivor, he suggests, “It is far better to be discreet. Don’t broadcast the fact that you are caching for survival. Keep your stores and caching places to yourself. Then, after the collapse if someone comes around, it will be a random scavenger that can be more easily dissuaded.” Another author simply stated, “In a survival situation you can’t afford charity” and went on to say that unwise (read “unprepared”) people who have nothing of value to offer you should be terminated (read: “killed”). Yikes!!!
I believe the answer lies somewhere between “doing nothing” and “doing them in,” so to speak. This 10 Cent Challenge supporter would appreciate input from you all on this issue.
Thanks, and God bless. - John in Colorado.

JWR Replies: I agree that urbanites that choose to stay put will not have much opportunity to be very charitable WTSHTF. There would be precious few practicable ways--other than perhaps anonymously leaving things on the doorsteps of widows--to be charitable without the risk of getting cleaned out by opportunistic riff-raff. But for those of us that live in the country and even for those in the suburbs, there will be plenty of opportunities to share.

But first let's address this issue at the most basic level: As a Christian, I believe that charity is not optional. It is Biblically mandated. I feel this very strongly, for several reasons. First: it is there in The Book, over and over again. There is no denying it. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. Secondly, I came to recognize God's gift of salvation bestowed upon me, through election, and I learned that His gift was unmerited. I didn't deserve salvation any more than some of my neighbors deserve my charity when things get Schumeresque. But God freely gave that gift to me, so I'm going to do my utmost to freely bestow charity on everyone that I can. Lastly, everything that I've earned and saved, I consider providential gifts from God. So I intend to share some of it with those that are less fortunate and even those that currently lack the foresight to stock up for potential bad times. It's not my stuff. It's God's stuff. I'm just the steward of a part of it.

Charity with no strings attached is a powerful witness for God's love and for the gospel of Christ. You don't need to be an eloquent speaker. Just tell them: "Its the Christian thing to do." That speaks volumes. And, BTW, it won't hurt to hand out a few gospel tracts and Bibles along with the grub.

I strongly encourage charitable giving both the present day and post-TEOTWAWKI. It is important to keep far more storage food on hand than you expect to consume. If all that you have is the bare minimum to supply your own family or retreat group, you won't be in any position to dispense charity.

In particular, I recommend that you stock up on extra wheat, rice, beans, and sprouting seeds. If purchased in food grade 5 gallon buckets they are currently still relatively inexpensive. Just an extra two or three hundred pounds of grains and legumes could save dozens of lives. God's providence is a gift. Share it. I'm sure that there will be a lot of such people wandering about when the balloon goes up. Consider yourself an ambassador for Christ, and act accordingly. Do it for God's glory rather than your own.

If the situation warrants it, give at arm's length. I describe one way to do this in my novel "Patriots". It may sound almost absurd, but you may need to dispense charity by passing it over concertina wire or even while holding the beneficiaries at gunpoint at a safe distance. If times are bad enough, they'll understand your caution.

How much of your preparedness stockpile should you set aside for charity? Generally I'd recommend at least a tenth. That is in line with the tradition of tithing, which has its roots in the Old Testament law of Tzedaka.The Bible says that you provide for your immediate family first, then your extended family, and then your local community, and so on.

What if it is a localized natural disaster and you know that the situation is likely to get back to normal with in a few months? Then you can probably afford to be more charitable than just giving a tenth. In essence, you can look at your three year food supply as a one year supply for three families, or as a six month supply for six families.

Jim,
As usual, I found this article [from London, Ontario, about national differences in charitable giving] while browsing something unrelated. I read through it, thought you and possibly the blog readers might benefit from it. I offer a small text extract, to whet your whistle:

"Brooks also found a strong and specific correlation between political ideology and charity. In both the United States and Europe, conservatives who believe in limited government are far more likely to make charitable contributions than are liberals who think government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality.
Note the irony: Liberals who support the governmental redistribution of income are apt to deride conservatives as selfish, yet these liberals are far less likely than conservatives to donate their own time and money to help the poor and needy. Of course, there are subsets within both groups: For example, religious liberals are a lot more generous than secular conservatives.
Many of the liberals who give little or nothing to charity try to justify their selfishness by saying government is more effective than private charity at redistributing income.
Brooks argues that the combination of relatively small government and high rates of charitable givings has contributed to the extraordinary economic prosperity and relatively high living standards for all income classes in the United States."

Regards, - Ben L.

For many people preparing to survive has become an obsession; a pursuit placed above all else in their lives. Others feel as if survival prep should be more of a priority if they could only afford to do more. Still others feel as if they may have already gone overboard in their preparations. Preparing for survival after TEOTWAWKI can make you feel overwhelmed, under-supplied, overspent, under-funded, over-your-head, or under-the-gun (no pun intended).
There are those who have the ability to purchase a retreat, stock it with supplies and equipment for a year or more, and have enough to share with those in need at will. They expect to support parents, siblings and spouses, nieces and nephews, grandkids, and several families of friends, and have already stocked their retreat with all the food, water, and supplies for all of them to start completely over. Most of us, however, fall far short of that ability, and hope that we can simply prepare for ourselves and our immediate family.
Please understand, I am not criticizing those who are able to prepare in this way. That’s what this country is all about – the chance to make and keep your fortunes. As Christians we don’t believe in luck, but we do believe in hard work and good fortune. We can only hope that most, many, or all of these fortunate people have the Christian outlook of sharing with those in need.
Whether you are a preparedness guru (PG) or a “newbie” (NP – for New Preparer), getting prepared to survive after any disaster, or even a total collapse, seems like a daunting task. PGs know just how expensive and time consuming preparing can be, and many NP’s have become discouraged as they begin to realize what they are facing. It is for that reason that mental preparedness (MP) is so important.
Mental Preparedness involves many aspects and the first and foremost of these is an individual’s Spiritual preparation. Are you a Christian? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you ready to die if that’s what God’s will for you is? Christianity – that is, evangelical Christianity (Christians who believe that Jesus died for their sins, was buried, and rose again as a living Savior sitting at the right hand of God) offers living hope for our future. We worship a living Savior, one Who has gone before us to prepare a place for us in heaven.
If you have not already done so, accept Jesus into your life as Lord and Savior. It’s so easy to do. Any good Christian can help you or go to www.sbc.net and click on the small green link at the top of the page “I want to know Jesus.” Until you make Christ real in your life the rest of the preparations are just going through the motions.
Once you are Spiritually prepared, the next step is prayer. Ask God to guide you in your preparation, to give you insight into the survival mindset, to lead you to the resources you need to get your mind ready for the preparation task, and to guide and help you in the decisions that must be made to prepare yourself and your family for survival. Ask Him how you can become a better Christian and person through this process – He will show you if you are open to receiving the answers. Finally, ask the Lord help you communicate the urgency and necessity to others to prepare to survive.
Is there Biblical mandate for survival? For preparation? Yes, God has given us instructions in His Word for survival and preparation. Following is a list of Scriptures for you to look up for yourself rather than quoting them here for brevity, but please take the time to look up each one and understand what God is trying to tell us, tell you, about being prepared and surviving.
Proverbs 6:6–11 – tells us that we are responsible to do the work of preparation while we are able.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 – basically says that if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Of course that does not include the sick or the aged; those should be taken care of by family or Christian charity. It plainly teaches that indolence or laziness should not be rewarded. In other words, if we could have prepared for the crisis but we didn't, we can’t expect anyone else to take care of us. It is a principle that applies in every-day-life or in crisis situations.
1 John 3:17 – 18 – exhorts us to help others in need. Yet, you can not help someone who is in need if you haven’t prepared for or can't help yourself. If we are to obey this verse then some sort of preparation is not only called for, but required.
Some great thoughts from another (unknown) Christian author:
“ With regard to fleeing from life-threatening situations - what one brother sarcastically refers to as ‘hidey hole’ theology - Both Peter and Paul escaped from life-threatening situations. Peter fled from Jerusalem after his miraculous deliverance from prison by the angel. Paul was let down over the walls of Damascus when a plot against his life was uncovered. Both of these were escapes from the physical persecution that arose against them because of their testimony and preaching of the Gospel. Are we supposed to believe that God is only interested in preserving His people if they are in danger as a result of their following Jesus? That if the shortsightedness or greed of the world, places Christians in danger, that somehow that is not sufficient reason to escape in order to continue to serve, worship and love God and those around us? I can't speak for others, but I know my purpose in preparing for eventualities. It is not merely to save my hide; it's not worth that much anyway; but to do what Christians have done throughout the centuries, namely to maintain a living witness to the redemptive love of God in Christ, and to continue nurturing the Church which God has called me.
Some Christians believe that it is wrong to leave your urban or suburban home to find a rural setting where survival would be more likely. Again, this is called, ‘hidey hole’ theology. Yet, after the stoning of Stephen much of the Church in Jerusalem dispersed precisely to preserve their lives, to continue to care for each other and spread the Gospel in the new surroundings. God called Stephen to martyrdom, but not the whole Church. The Church in Rome met in the catacombs. Some lived in the catacombs. Was that ‘hidey-hole’ theology? When Jesus began his ministry He read from Isaiah in the synagogue, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me....This day the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ They wanted to kill Him, but He ‘passed through them.’ He escaped. Was that ‘hidey-hole’ theology?
In 1 Kings 17:8 - 16, Elijah instructed the widow of Zarephath to give him her last cup of flour and last bit of oil. He told her don't be afraid, God will provide. God caused there to be a daily miracle provision of flour and oil for her survival. But another widow and her son in 2 Kings 4: 1 - 7, were instructed by Elisha to gather many containers, for God was about to provide for her needs. There was an immediate miracle of multiplication of the oil, part of which she was told to pay off her debts with, but the remainder she was to store. Thus, there was preparation, provision, and then storage in order for this woman and her son to survive. Sure, the provision was miraculous; but her use of God's provision was quite normal and mundane. Nor did Elisha criticize her for storing her oil for her family’s future needs. [This author adds: it could be that your provisions may be provided in an equally miraculous fashion.]
Am I stupid, sinful and unbiblical because I want to see that my family survives? Am I supposed to believe that God doesn't want me to do anything about the survival of those whom I love, whom He has given to me? Have I no responsibility? Do I just stand with my eyes scrunched closed and say, ‘OK God, you take care of me and mine?’ Survival is not the ultimate value or goal for me or my family. It never was or will be. ‘Glorifying God and enjoying Him forever’ is. If God wants me and mine dead, so be it, and may He be praised forever. But I don't see that glorifying God and staying alive are mutually exclusive, especially when He seems to be graciously giving us advanced warning precisely so that we may continue to survive, so that we may serve Him and others.
And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks. Ezekiel 2:6
The clever see danger and hide; but the simple go on, and suffer for it. - Proverbs 22:3.
A closing thought (on Spiritual Preparedness): "When Noah built the ark, it wasn't raining.”
Get your life right with God and prepare for tomorrow.

Many other aspects of survival require mental preparation as well. Too many people believe that because they witnessed some depravity that man had wrought on an individual, or on others, that they are now prepared to go through the hard times a severe crisis or even TEOTWAWKI can bring. Witnessing a tragic car accident, a shooting or murder, a knife fight in a bar, a shootout with the police, or even trying to help a rape victim can not begin to prepare you for the mental anguish of long-term crises. For the few who have had to kill in self-defense or seen the starvation and disease in some Third World country first hand as a missionary, these only begin to understand. If you served in combat – Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam, or WWII – and you had to kill or be killed, you had to care for a wounded and dying fellow soldier, or you had to survive as a prisoner of war, you understand some of what will be faced in an end of the world situation. Many of you may have loved ones or know someone who suffered with or still suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and can understand the mental stressors the individual endures. Unless you have been through it too you can’t really comprehend all that this individual, these individuals, is/are going through.
So how do we prepare ourselves for what is to come? Everything starts with planning! And, it all hinges on organization. If you’re a NP, start a list of preparations that need to be made. Do research on the Internet to find lists of the things you will need to do and what you will need to have on hand. Don’t be overwhelmed by the lists of supplies – all of these things can be obtained one item at a time. Remember, if you start today you’re still ahead of the majority of people. Continue to remind yourself that whatever you do today to prepare, won’t be a need tomorrow.
Prepare your mind through the research you do. Read everything you can get your hands on about preparedness and survival, but read with a “grain of salt” so that you can discern good advice from bad. Read books and articles that are recommended by friends or reliable sources. Even other people who are preparedness minded can get and give bad advice – proceed with caution, but proceed.
One reliable and trusted Internet resource is www.SurvivalBlog.com, written and maintained by Jim Rawles. He is also the author of one of the best survival preparedness books on the market called Patriots – Surviving the Coming Collapse. While the book is a novel, there are many, many good references and teachings throughout. He has numerous other resources of his own and others on the web site.
To continue mental preparations for survival the NP must understand that they are basically on their own. Of course, they may have a supportive spouse, other family members, or a friend or two who understands survival prep, but beyond that you won’t find individuals who are willing to open up their homes or retreats and say, “come see how I’ve done it.” Because of the secretive nature of our preparations for ourselves and our families, and because we want to protect those preps from those that would steal them or want to show up at our front gate when TSHTF, we just don’t let others know what we’ve got. Thus, we are on our own. It is a very difficult position to be in when a best friend refuses to recognize the importance and urgency or preparation. PGs understand this and have developed techniques and questions to discern how a person feels about preparedness and survival without really asking. Only time, practice, and mental preparedness can help in this area.
Preparing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that outline what every family member will do in a crisis will ease your mental state as your preps continue. SOPs are nothing more than written directions to cover every contingency for every person. Make sure you have instructions written for all members who will be with you in a disaster situation. Different situations call for different SOPs – try to cover all the bases for at least 72 hours. This is not something you will accomplish overnight or even in the first few weeks. As you study and prepare you will continue to rewrite and edit your SOPs. Some may take years to finish while others may never be done.
Once your lists are in order you should begin putting together a BoB (Bug-out-Bag). This is a bag – a backpack, a duffel bag, a pillow case (although I think you will discover that a pillow case just isn’t big enough) with everything in it you’ll need to survive for three days to one week (or more). Every family member should have his/her own BoB, even children (as long as they are big enough to carry it). Weight for each BoB is obviously determined by each individual’s size and ability. When you know everyone has the things they need to survive for several days, your mind is much more at ease.
The BoBs are like everything else involved with prep and survival – they will evolve through shrinking and growing for months before you are satisfied with all the preps for them. Only you can determine what is best for you to carry in the end, but there are literally 100’s of list suggestions for BoBs on the Internet. Again, be prepared to sift through and decide what is best for you.
By prioritizing your purchases you can buy a little at a time – in fact, you can buy one item at a time if that is all your budget (or your wife [I’ll address this issue further down] will allow). For instance, water must be a top priority for everyone in preparing for disaster. You can go for days without food but only hours (in comparison) without water. If you have a free-flowing spring in your yard then you are obviously covered, but for most of us water is something we must prepare for. Do we try to store enough bottled water for our family? Do we depend on our neighbors? (I think we know the answer to that one – remember, we depend on no one but ourselves) Storing bottled water is impractical for long-term preparedness. Water is needed at the rate of at least one gallon per person per day. In hot or humid conditions or if you are working outside strenuously, you will need more – maybe even twice that amount. So, a water filter, with extra filters, is an obvious priority. You may have to save for a couple of weeks or more to buy one, but since it is an important item it will clearly be worth it.
Food is a relatively easy category to begin to fill out your supply of. If you will make a list of items that you and your family regularly eat (in dry or canned items) and then begin to buy one or two extra items each time you go to the grocery store, you will find that your food supply will grow quickly. Don’t forget things like toilet paper, tissues, baby items, feminine products, and the like; if you will buy these two at a time when you need them – one goes on the shelf to be used and the other goes in the prep closet or tub. These type products will also add to your stash quickly. P. S. You can never have enough toilet paper if TSHTF (no pun intended).
Continue to move down your Priority List is similar fashion and you will suddenly find yourself short of space to store things and your mental attitude eased by the fact that you are becoming prepared much quicker than you ever thought possible. Remember, organization is the key. Once you begin to buy items for prep or survival you must be organized. Lists are required, and keeping up with them is paramount for making sure you get what is necessary. It is very easy to buy things twice (or even more) if you are trying to keep up with your purchases by memory, or to think you bought something and miss the chance to buy it. Use lists!
Lists and organization are important to your MP in other ways as well. If you have your mind cluttered with mental lists, past or future purchases, and trying to keep up with all of your preps, family, work, etc., your going to be stressed beyond belief. Good MP calls for good organization.
I mentioned above that I would address the problem of a spouse who is a non-believer in preparedness or survival. When you want to talk about prep or survival all they do is change the subject or patronize you quickly and then dismiss it as unnecessary. They don’t want to waste money on it.
Many spouses believe there’s plenty of time to get what’s needed if an emergency comes up later. Some will say that God will provide for us, so we don’t have to do that. And, the excuses and objections goes on . . .
My own wife is one of those, or was one of those types. I went ahead with some small purchases a few years ago and she would question them, but I never hid my purchases from her, lied to her about them, or dismissed her inquisitions. I simply explained that I had bought the item so we would be prepared in case of an emergency and what it was for. I would try to talk to her about it each time SHE brought something up, but she always changed the subject or said we’d talk about it another time. I never forced the issue. Whenever she would hear a news story about some crisis situation (hurricane, tornado, lost hiker, violent robbery or home invasion) I would take the opportunity to point out the lack of preparation on the part of the individuals involved or what they needed instead of what they had, and I would say, “You know, I think I’ll get one of those (whatever was mentioned that someone else needed) for us next time I get a chance so we won’t be caught unprepared.” She would usually agree we needed it, and the next day (or even that very day) I would buy whatever it was and add it to my supplies. She never questioned those purchases and eventually became (a little) more interested in our preps. I’m now trying to get her interested in a piece of retreat property by explaining the exact things I’m looking for (wooded acreage with room for house, barn & garden, a spring or free-flowing creek, isolated, defensible, etc.) and why. It has caused a few arguments (of course, the making up is fun), and she still won’t read "Patriots" or any of the other books I’ve bought on the subject, but our (my) prep supplies are steadily growing and she’s beginning to understand slowly. I’m still open to new suggestions in this area if anyone has any, but I know this has worked for me so far.
Mental preparedness for survival is very important if you are to ever feel like you’re well on the way to being prepared. I’m one of those who believes that you can never be 100 percent prepared, but you can be well prepared. You can get to a point of calling yourself prepared and feeling good about your preps as long as you continue to monitor expiration dates, rotate fuel supplies, grow and can your own crops, and have all the things needed for starting over after TEOTWAWKI. A survival mindset is the first step. Making lists, prioritizing those lists for purchase or acquisition, and organizing the lists and acquisitions will help to keep you mentally prepared for survival.

At the risk for sounding preachy, I'd like to re-emphasize the importance of storing extra logistics so that you can be charitable when disaster strikes. Charity is Biblically supported, and makes common sense. (I strongly advise it, regardless of your religious beliefs.) When the Schumer Hits the Fan (SHTF), you will want neighbors that you can count on, not people that you fear or distrust. By dispensing copious charity to your neighbors that did not have the same foresight that you did, you will solidify them as strong allies instead of envious potential enemies. In describing communities, psychologists and sociologists often talk in terms of the "we/they paradigm". Typically, this is used in a negative connotation, such as when they describe racism. (And rightfully so--I loathe racism.) But I can see something positive in building an appropriate "we/they" distinction during a societal collapse--the distinction between your local community and predatory outsiders. Just ask anyone that has ever lived "inside the wire" at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Iraq. Those soldiers will tell you that they felt a strong cohesive bond, and were absolutely determined to repel anyone that attempted to attack their FOB. Their steadfast resolve can be summed up with the words: "They are not getting through the wire. Period." Dispensing charity helps build a cohesive "we" and draws into sharp contrast the "they." (In my view of the near future, the "they" will likely be roving bands of criminal looters. Imagine a situation like in the movie The Road Warrior, and you are inside the perimeter at the refinery. Can you see the appropriate "we/they"?)

By logical extension, you can dispense significant charity only if you have it to give. Clearly, you must stock up above and beyond your own family's needs. So, for example, if you calculate that you need 300 pounds of wheat for your family, don't buy just 300 pounds. Instead, buy 600, 900, or even 1,200 pounds. That might sound expensive, but presently you can buy 50 pound sacks of hard red winter wheat for around $7 to $8 each. About 45 pounds of wheat will fit in a plastic 6 gallon food grade bucket that costs just over $2. Or even if you pay more to buy wheat that already packaged for long term storage in buckets (from a vendor like Walton Feed), a 45 pound bucket of wheat still costs just $17.15. Beans and rice are similarly priced. Consider that extra food as a key to building a "sense of community." Even for even those of you that are non-religious, dispensing charity will be part of your "we/they paradigm" insurance. If purchased in bulk quantities, it is also cheap insurance. Don't neglect buying your family that insurance! OBTW, speaking of wheat, the threat of the wheat "super-blight" is looming. This makes it urgent for families to stock up.

Where is the Biblical support for charity? It can be seen throughout the Old and New Testaments. Remember the Bible's guidance about leaving unharvested rows of crops, to benefit "gleaners"? For example, see Leviticus 23:22: "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God." (KJV)

The Old Testament law regarding charity can be found in Deuteronomy Chapter 15, verses 7-11 (KJV):

15:7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
15:8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
15:9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year [of Jubilee], the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
15:10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
15:11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

From these verses it is it clear that we will always have poor people in our community ("the poor shall never cease out of the land"), and it abundantly clear that it is our duty to help them ("Thou shalt surely give...") End of preachy mode. My apologies if this offended those of you that aren't Christians or Jews. But again, even folks that are strident atheists should see the wisdom of having extra food storage to provide for charity. It is in your own best interest.

Sir:
Seeing the discussion regarding the gentleman who loaned a flashlight and leaf blower to his ungrateful neighbors, I'd thought I'd share my method of loaning out items. First off, never loan out primary tools. I have three sets [that I've designated - mine [primary], for friends, and a lower quality set for loaning. If you've never borrowed from me before and I don't know your "borrowing character", then you get the cheap set of greasy, grimy tools or the flashlight with weak batteries. If you return them in the state that you borrowed them, you get to borrow them again sometime. If the tools come back cleaned and oiled and new batteries in the flashlight, your "borrowing character" had been elevated to trusted borrower and you may soon be ready for the set of tools reserved for friends. (Hint: When you borrow tools, always bring them back in a better state than when you took them.) If you do not return them, you will be reminded over and over of this fact and hopefully you will shamefully remember to return them. If you don't ever gain some character or have no shame, then stay outta my yard!
Also, people forget a couple of simple words: please and thank you. I don't have to loan you my tools. If you ask nicely, I may just think a bit more nicely of you. These words don't cost anything to use yet they reap huge benefits if used sincerely. - Matt B.

Mr. Rawles:
Your "The Next Pandemic" article and he responses to it that you posted really got me thinking. If it all hits the fan, how can I possibly hand out charity to refugees without them just taking it all, by force? Once a bunch of people are in your house, or even in your front yard, they have the advantage. I really want to be generous and charitable, since it is my duty as a Christian. (I have more than 2 tons of wheat, rice. and other stuff stored, for example.) But I don't want to get cleaned out and then have nothing for my own family. How do I solve this dilemma? Should I hide half of my storage food somewhere in a "cache"? Should I just leave what I earmark for charity in big white plastic buckets marked "Take just one" by the side of the road a couple of miles from my house? Thanks, Brother! - L.T.Y. in not-so-rural Minnesota

Dear Jim,
I found Bob in Georgia's letter re: The Next Pandemic both educational and unsettling. It confirms, in many ways, fears I harbor about a post-SHTF environment, and leaves a number of unanswered questions in my mind.
I have read and often thought your admonition to dispense charity, but in the event can't honestly say what I would do. I believe we who "have" are compelled morally and Biblically to voluntarily share with those less fortunate than we, who "have not." I do not, however, believe any government, anywhere has any right to force us to share through coercion and state-mandated giveaways, which is wealth distribution and communism.
That said, what should I do if/when TSHTF? I wish I knew the answer. I am close to some neighbors and would feel no compunctions about sharing with them and helping them to the greatest extent possible. I wouldn't think twice. Others remain largely unknown to me and are question marks. Still others have impaired moral compasses (or none to speak of,) whom I would avoid sharing with altogether, as I am convinced it would only invite a violent attack (repeat visits by our local P.D. to their homes give me that feeling). My family's safety trumps charity in my way of thinking.
Bob in Georgia's letter speaks volumes for the declining moral fiber of our lost society and its values (or the lack thereof), and should serve as a strong reminder to the Patriot to exercise great caution not only in sharing, but in even discussing your preps. Keep up the good work, Jim. Yours in Jesus Christ our Lord, - Scott in California

JWR Replies: In my novel "Patriots" I describe a couple of methods for dispensing charity "at arm's length." One of them is through a local church. The other would be reserved for absolute worst case situation, where you would literally keep refugees off at a distance, at gun point, while you dole out food as charity. That might not sound very Christian, but it might come down to that, in a situation where law and order has completely broken down.

At the dawn of the 21st century, we are living in an amazing time of prosperity. Our health care is excellent, our grocery store shelves burgeon with a huge assortment of fresh foods, and our telecommunications systems are lightning fast. We have relatively cheap transportation, and our cities are linked by an elaborate and fairly well-maintained system of roads, rails, canals, seaports, and airports. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's population will soon live in cities rather than in the countryside. But the downside to all this abundance is over-complexity, over-specialization, and lengthy supply chains. In the First World, less than 2% of the population is engaged in agriculture or fishing. Ponder that for a moment: Just 2% are feeding the other 98%. The food on our tables often comes from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Our heating and lighting is provided by power sources typically hundreds of miles away. For many people even their tap water travels hundreds of miles. Our factories produce sophisticated cars and electronics that have subcomponents that are sourced on three continents. It is as if we are all cogs in an enormous invisible machine, each playing our part to make sure that the average Americans comes home from work each day to find: his refrigerator well-stocked with food, his lights reliably come on, his telephone works, his tap gushes pure water, his toilet flushes, his paycheck is automatically deposited to his bank, his garbage is collected, his house is a comfortable 70 degrees, his TV entertainment up and running 24/7, and his DSL connection. We've built our fellow Americans a very big machine that up until now has worked remarkably well, with just a few glitches. But that may not always be the case. As Napoleon found the hard way, long chains of supply and communication are fragile and vulnerable. Someday the big machine may grind to a halt. Let me describe one set of circumstances that could cause that to happen:

Imagine an influenza pandemic, spread by causal contact, that is so virulent that it kills more than half of the people that are infected. And imagine the advance of the disease so rapid that it makes its way around the globe in less than a week. (Isn't modern jet air travel grand?) Consider that we have global news media that is so rabid for "hot" news that they can't resist showing pictures of men in respirators, rubber gloves, and Tyvek coveralls wheeling gurneys out of houses, laden with body bags. They report countless stories like: "Suzie Smith brought the flu bug home from school. Everyone in her family died." and, "Mr. Jones brought the flu home from work. Everyone in his family died." Over and over. Repeated so many times that the majority of citizens decides "I'm not going to go to work tomorrow, or the day after, or in fact until after 'things get better.'" But by not going to work, some important cogs will be missing from the Big Machine. Orders won't get processed at the Wal-Mart distribution center. The 18 Wheel trucks won't make deliveries to groceries stores. Gas stations will run out of fuel. Policemen and firemen won't show up at work. Telephone technicians will call in sick. Power lines will get knocked down in wind storms, and there will be nobody to repair them. Crops will rot in the fields because there will be nobody to pick them, or transport them, or magically bake them into Pop-Tarts, or stock them on your supermarket shelf. The Big Machine will be broken.

Does this sound scary? Sure it does, and it should. The implications are huge. But it gets worse: The average suburbanite only has about a week's worth of food in their pantry. What will they do when it is gone, and there is no reasonably immediate prospect of re-supply? Supermarket shelves will be stripped bare. Faced with the alternative of staying home and starving or going out to meet Mr. Influenza, millions of growling stomachs will force Joe American to go and "forage." The first likely targets will be restaurants, stores, and food distribution warehouses. Not a few "foragers" will soon transition to full scale looting, taking the little that their neighbors have left. Next, they'll move on to farms that are in close proximity to cities. A few looters will form gangs that will be highly mobile and well-armed, ranging deeper and deeper into farmlands, running their vehicles on siphoned or stolen-at-gunpoint gasoline. Eventually their luck will run out and they will all die of the flu, or of instantaneous lead poisoning. But before the looters are all dead they will do a tremendous amount of damage. Be ready to confront them. Your life, and the lives of your loved ones will count on it. You'll need to be able to put a lot of lead down range--at least enough to convince Mr. Looter that he needs to go find some other farm or ranch to loot.

In recent months, the press has shifted its attention, ignoring the continuing threat of Asian Avian Flu mutating into a strain that can be easily transmitted between humans. If and when that mutation occurs--and the epidemiologists tell us that it is more a question of "when" rather than "if"--then things could turn very, very ugly all over the globe. Be prepared. To start getting ready, you should first read the background article on pandemic preparation that I wrote last year, titled "Protecting Your Family From an Influenza Pandemic." Next, think through all of the implications of disruption of key portions of our modern technological infrastructure. Plan accordingly. You need to be able to provide water, food, heating, and lighting for your family. Ditto for law enforcement, since odds are that a pandemic will be YOYO ("You're on your own!") time. Get your beans, bullets, and band-aids squared away, pronto. Most importantly, be prepared to hunker down in "self quarantine" for three or four months, with no outside contact. That will take a lot of logistics, as well as plenty of cash on hand to pay your bills in the absence of a continuing income stream.

One closing thought: There are only about 15 large food storage dealers in the country, and even fewer firms that sell non-hybrid ("heirloom") gardening seed. How long do you think that their inventories will last, once there is news that there is an easily transmissible human-to-human flu strain of flu, anywhere on the planet? Prices are currently low and inventories are plentiful. It is better to be a year too early than a day too late. Please consider patronizing one of more of our advertisers. We have half a dozen of them that sell long term storage food and heirloom garden seed. They deserve your business.

Jim:
Well, I just got back online. I had to go up to the roof and thaw the wireless [Internet] antenna with a heat gun. It seems the ice grounds out the antenna. It was an easy fix with my heat gun for heat shrink tubing. More precipitation is on the way but colder. It will probably just be snow. We never lost power but were ready anyway. I have friends with no power and they have been without power for days and no idea when it will be back on. The further out you live, the less chance of getting back on line. Power is also out at the feed mill so feed stores are short on feed and they say that they no idea when more will com. We bought extra and can always supplement with more hay or alfalfa. We could butcher the pigs early or sell some cattle if needed but all of our preparation this Fall is paying off. Think ahead! Wall-Mart is out of propane cylinders and no extra tanks around. We have plenty of tanks and are set to fill from the bulk tank here as needed. You always need an alternative means to do everything. Redundancy is the word for survival. I have some friends with no heat. They report 46 degrees in the house. Standard fireplaces put out very little heat. [JWR Adds: Yes, in fact they have been documented to put more heat up the chimney than into a room!] We have electric heat, woodstove, and propane heat. Redundancy means you will always be warm. We lost some branches and the storm knocked down my 160 Meter loop antenna but it works almost as well on the ground. (Thanks to the design and the antenna tuners we can just re-tune and are up and running.) Repair should take about 2 to 3 hours since the antenna is set to go up and down at each pole for maintenance. Hint: the design was well thought out and therefore easy to fix. Think ahead. Of course we have 4 or 5 ways to receive and transmit, plus the mobile radio. Again, redundancy. Our [photovoltaic] solar panels were covered with ice but still function, and we have more in the barn to use that are thawed. We continue to look for weak spots and all I came up with is the need for more batteries and more power. We have tow or three ways to do everything so if one system is down we just go to the next. Sure makes you feel good that instead of driving new vehicles we [instead] have heat, power, water, and food and backups for each. No worries about heat is a big relief. One of my friends has a generator, but no heat. Although he knows the items he needs to provide heat, there is nothing available. It is all sold out. Guess that is why I take those old propane heaters and put them in storage. Backup for the backup. We are looking forward to the snow--better than ice. We have wood to pick up today at the lumber mil. (We get the slabs from the mill, load on the trailer banded together and take them home. We cut it [for fuel] as we need it. More in the woods [hereon my property] but I will leave it for more backup. Keep preparing. Do one thing each day and it will all add up. Anyone got a good milk cow? We need a new one, since even livestock gets worn out and old. God Bless, - Alphie Omega

How many times in the course of a conversation at a meeting, party, event, or whatever, has the subject of emergency preparedness come up, and you make a comment about the having done something (anything) about it in some way, and someone says "the next time [something bad] happens, I'm coming over to your place!" How do you reply? You can't invite everybody in need, you don't want to invite parasites, you don't want to piss off friends and co-workers, and you may not be able to tell if they are joking or serious.
However viscerally satisfying a "I got mine, you socialists are yer on yer own, and I'll shoot you parasites on sight in an emergency" may be in the short run, I think it is generally counter-productive on a number of levels.
I've struggled with how to reply to this comment over the years (at least since the early 1990s), because there are so many variables in each situation (how recently there has been an "event," how close of friends you are with the person making the comment, what sort of mix there is present of good friends-acquaintances-strangers, the tone of how it was said, how much you
know about the background of each one, what the relative wealth and social standing of all parties present are, location, etc.), and many times there are far to many unknowns to give a really good, tailored answer, that will get more people to become preparedness oriented and independent-minded (which is what we really want, right?).
But after reading a very long thread on the topic recently, talking it over with my other half, and in light of this specific comment being directed at me several times in the last month (I am in the Puget Sound area, so the windstorm hit where I'm at pretty good - lots of trees and branches down around here, and I had fun making lots of chain-saw-dust), I think I may have come up with a pretty good "all purpose opening response." Look directly at them, and then quietly and matter-of-factly say: "A long time ago, I made the conscious choice to not be dependant on other people, and I was willing to forgo some of the luxuries of life in order to accumulate the stuff and the skills to prepare me to take care of myself and my immediate family for any likely emergency that may occur in the region where I live. I would be happy to help you figure out how you can do the same thing most efficiently."
There are four very important things about this phrasing: you are saying some things very clearly, some things are obviously implied, a lot is left completely unsaid, and you are not being in any way threatening, arrogant, condescending, judgmental, or patronizing. You are offering them help on how to help themselves now, and you are not saying you will shoot them on sight in the future (you are helpful and non-threatening), and you are not saying you will give them a handout and implying that there are limits to what you are able to do (but don't expect free-bee's). You have stated a basic
philosophy with a fairly limited and hard-to-argue-against scope, you have not given away to much information about what or how much you have, you are alluding to a simple method for others to do the same; you are opening a conversation that puts the ball in their court on how to respond, at which time you'll have a much better idea about what to say, or not say, from there. You are serious but neutral; if you can get them to seriously consider and pursue emergency preparedness, you have expanded your "mutual-defense circle," if they don't and the need arises, you can turn them away with a much clearer conscious. You haven't given them any more reasons to hate you, target you, fear you, or depend on you (which is a good defensive move). All you need to do is ask some pointed questions, like "this area gets snowstorms regularly, why not have chains for your car and just keep them in the trunk all winter?" or "$45 a month for cable TV? That'd put up a lot of extra food in a year." Make observations like "yes, a generator is nice, but not everyone needs one, not everyone can afford a good one, and not everyone has a place for one; you just have to be ready to work without power," or "supplies aren't everything; what if the disaster you are preparing for causes your well-supplied house to burn down and it takes everything with it? Attitude and skills are just as important."
If they say "what sort of luxuries did you give up?" some possible follow-ups might be: "I don't have a new, big screen TV, I have an old 19-inch beast; but I do have a generator."
"I don't have a Rolex or a Hummer, but I am debt-free except for my house mortgage."
The first one might not be the best example to use if they were bragging about their spiffy new 55" HD 1080p wonder-vision unit [HDTV], just after freezing their butts off in an ice storm, but you get the idea. Get across the idea that it is all about making appropriate choices now, using as neutral a tone and wording as possible. Don't say "of course only an idiot would
drive a Lexus when he doesn't have a month's supply of food in snow-storm country" when talking to someone you know has a