EXTREME LONG TERM COLLAPSE
As I never tire of telling you and you never tire of ignoring me, Peak Oil could very well be the event that collapses our economy. And our society. Granted, we could very well see some kind of technological miracle such as affordable solar power. In theory one company could have out thin film solar panels in a mere two years that is $1 a watt. Currently $5 a watt is a screaming bargain. If the companies claims are true is could very well be the thing we need to wean ourselves off of petroleum. It might not run a conventional car but at least we can stretch out our oil longer ( and those of us in the boonies can be truly energy self sufficient on a budget ) or run solar to hydrogen farms out West or in Australia or north Africa. Of course, having said that, I am still waiting for a retail application of electronic ink to replace paper documents. Fifteen years after the hype promising its delivery at any friggin moment.
*
If the absence of cheap and abundant oil ends our civilization than we could very well see another repeat of several centuries of regression as happened after Rome fell and ushered in the Dark Ages where knowledge was lost and man was much worse off than before. The one thing society had after Rome was that the economy was still geared towards agriculture. Now we have very few farmers left and most are dependant on massive petroleum inputs. The politicians and bankers have slowly but surely put us into a position where very few of us are food self sufficient and all of us are 100% dependent on the money economy. In a collapse scenario this means the vast majority of us are going to die off very quickly from starvation and the diseases that accompany it. Not to mention freezing to death in the dark. All so the selfish bastards could get richer and richer off of our hard work. Come collapse plus one day it should be open season on all bankers, lawyers and politicians. I will gladly expend some precious ammunition if I can’t catch them to string them up.
*
Which means, my fine feather friends, that we are going to have to become self sufficient before our prep supplies run out. As if it weren’t bad enough that we have to put so much worry and resources into prepping, now we have to take that one step further and plan on prepping for the next Dark Age. Where we raise our own food and manufacture all of our own goods. Not that every man can become an island, very few are capable of providing all that they need. Even that Depression Era Idaho mountain man dude had to pan for gold to buy iodine, tobacco and primers. He made his own rifles and powder but needed to buy the ignition source for them. So even he was not totally able to survive on his own. But you need to become as independent as possible. And not many of us can do that right now. Almost all of the decent crop producing areas are surrounded by millions of worthless eaters. If you buy land capable of growing food you are surrounded by so many people that enough will get through and kill you for what you have.
*
One way around this is to live in a marginal area and use greenhouses and intensive growing methods to produce food. Good luck doing that on a budget. The other way is to stockpile so much grain and beans that you can live in the middle of nowhere where no one will look for you and you can survive many seasons of failed crops if need be before you become food self sufficient. And remember, there is also herding. Many areas are hundreds of square miles of no vegetation other than scrub and weeds. You can’t farm it, no matter what ( outside of oil inputs ) so cows and sheep make a lot of sense. Then you trade with farmers for grain. If you have a highly desirable skill than you can make it in a town with a trade. Chemist and munitions manufacture should do wonderfully. The point is that prepping is just the very first step. You must have plans on surviving after the supplies from the pre-collapse era run out. And they will all run out. Even mining junked cars for metal will eventually get too difficult as that supply runs out and you must start mining again.
*
This is something I myself keep putting off. Prepping has strained my budget and my patience as it is. I have no idea what skills I could have as a writer that would translate into a post collapse trade or survival skill. I have books on low tech, high intensity gardening but I can’t practice in the desert. And I have books on chemistry that make little sense to me. Or the books on ancient mechanical devices. It is all only resources, not references for a skill. But I know one thing. I had better figure something out pretty darn quick because I see little likelihood of us surviving a second Cold War. I realize my paranoia over the years has not been vindicated, but it only takes being right once to ruin everyone’s day. Just something else to be worried about.
END
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
ammo musings
AMMO MUSING
This morning on www.survivalblog.com a reader wrote in on the high cost of .308 ammunition. Apparently there is no more surplus to be had and the cost is around fifty cents a round. Jim wrote in response that perhaps you should buy ammo in bulk and then buy the gun for that round. And when he says bulk he means two or three thousand rounds or more. And that makes sense. If 7.62x39 costs fifteen cents a round instead of fifty then if you must have a semi-auto and you live in a lush area where shooting distances are short you should stick with the carbine instead of the battle rifle. This is the first crack in the once mighty “only buy military caliber weapons” argument. Although this is nothing new to my readers. Some time ago I told you about ammunition shortages caused by the Iraq war. All military ammo was either running out or getting very expensive. 308, 223, 7.62x39, 9mm. The 7.62x54R is still as cheap as ever ( ten cents a round ) as the only modern gun using it is the Russian sniper rifle ( I think I heard about a SAW using it but am not sure- no matter as there is still low usage one way or another ).
*
So here I am still buying 303B for twenty cents a round surplus while those folks that just had to have 308 are paying fifty cents a round. I say, HAH!! Mind you, I didn’t plan it this way, thinking this would happen. I had no idea. And to be fair if you compare apples to apples instead of oranges, new 303B is forty cents for new issue non-corrosive so the difference is not as great. But I have said before not to get caught up in playing military. Survivalists don’t need military weapons or tactics. We are a different animal. Our objective is to stay alive rather than win wars. Why does no one listen to me? Am I not wise beyond my years? Am I not a lone voice of reason in a sea of stupidity? If you had gone with surplus bolt actions as I recommended, you would now be able to buy cheaper ammo as a bonus.
*
The Iraq war is of course not the only reason ammunition is going up in price. As we ship over factories to China at the same rate they ship us ceramic figurines of Bush performing unnatural sexual acts on a donkey, China needs more and more raw materials. So the cost of commodities is going up. You might ask, if we use less metal and the Chinese use more, shouldn’t the price stay the same? Since the same goods where made, just in different countries. Well, no. The Chinese don’t turn out railroad box cars of goods to ship out. They turn out cargo ship loads of goods. To continue to keep their economy going they must continually grow, and continue to make more and more goods. They must turn out mountains of goods, much more than we ever did. So even though their labor is cheap they must also buy more in bulk to lower the cost of supplies they caused to rise in price due to their increased demand. It is a vicious cycle. And that doesn’t even take into account the 20% inflation they have annually ( ours and Europe’s is 10% ).
*
Now to the second half of my ammunition article. Semi-auto rifles and pistols are naturally expensive to use. They use five to ten times the ammunition as revolvers or bolt guns. The nature of the beast- when you can spray down an area with lead, you do. The myth of American Marksmanship is just patriotic propaganda leading us to believe we are all Minutemen fighting the British. In reality we are encouraged to pray and spray, much to the delight of not only the enemy but also the defense industry ( and don’t any of you Jarheads write about what great marksmen you are- you might be individually but you also have artillery, machineguns and aircraft helping you waste ammunition ). Now the cost of ammunition is making semis even more expensive. But think down the road a bit. Think of a few months after a collapse. When all your ammunition has been used up. Then you have to start reloading. And the natural tendency is going to be to use the minimum powder you need to make your round fire. You most likely will have your cases last longer than your powder or primer supply. Even if you don’t try to conserve powder you will still have that problem when you must start producing your own powder and primers.
*
And this is where you really start running into problems with having semi-automatic weapons. Without 100% reliable ammunition you start having jams. Even today with factory ammo you still have guns that just don’t like certain brands of ammunition. Think how much worse it will be when the ammo is even less trustworthy. I don’t care how fast you are with a tactical clear on a jam. You are now running a BMW on moonshine. It is not performing as it was meant to and you are overpaying for under-performance. Not to mention it would endanger your life. With bolt actions and revolvers your tactics take into account slower reloading times. With a semi your tactics are all based on faster shooting and reloading. Jams make a semi slower than a bolt action or wheel gun. I have been on the range plenty of times when folks using factory ammo have a heck of a time getting their auto pistols going again. The longer you go after trade collapses the worse time you are going to have with semi’s.
*
Even if you have ten thousand rounds of ammo for your Mattel Toy you will run out sooner or later and then have to start using sub-standard ammo. Or, the price on ammo gets so high you stop stockpiling and after a time your ammo starts going bad anyway. Stick with bolt and wheel guns. The guns themselves are cheaper. The ammo is cheaper ( for surplus bolts, anyway ). You will need less ammo. You can use sub-standard ammo, a prime consideration for after the collapse ( I understand a stuck bullet is worse in a revolver than in an auto, but this is also a minor concern- stuck bullets will happen less than rounds not cycling ). Granted, if you are only concerned with natural disasters and rampant crime afterwards a semi makes more sense than for us End Of The World types. Even then, though, a surplus bolt gun with a foot long bayonet attached would be pretty cool to have and turn away a lot of potential looters. But mostly it would just be cool. A shotgun might scare me, but a long ass bayonet would really make me think twice. A bullet hitting you, usually survivable if vital parts are not hit and you get medical care. A bayonet through the guts, though…ouch! Just something to think about.
END
Buy Bison Books www.bisonpress.com
This morning on www.survivalblog.com a reader wrote in on the high cost of .308 ammunition. Apparently there is no more surplus to be had and the cost is around fifty cents a round. Jim wrote in response that perhaps you should buy ammo in bulk and then buy the gun for that round. And when he says bulk he means two or three thousand rounds or more. And that makes sense. If 7.62x39 costs fifteen cents a round instead of fifty then if you must have a semi-auto and you live in a lush area where shooting distances are short you should stick with the carbine instead of the battle rifle. This is the first crack in the once mighty “only buy military caliber weapons” argument. Although this is nothing new to my readers. Some time ago I told you about ammunition shortages caused by the Iraq war. All military ammo was either running out or getting very expensive. 308, 223, 7.62x39, 9mm. The 7.62x54R is still as cheap as ever ( ten cents a round ) as the only modern gun using it is the Russian sniper rifle ( I think I heard about a SAW using it but am not sure- no matter as there is still low usage one way or another ).
*
So here I am still buying 303B for twenty cents a round surplus while those folks that just had to have 308 are paying fifty cents a round. I say, HAH!! Mind you, I didn’t plan it this way, thinking this would happen. I had no idea. And to be fair if you compare apples to apples instead of oranges, new 303B is forty cents for new issue non-corrosive so the difference is not as great. But I have said before not to get caught up in playing military. Survivalists don’t need military weapons or tactics. We are a different animal. Our objective is to stay alive rather than win wars. Why does no one listen to me? Am I not wise beyond my years? Am I not a lone voice of reason in a sea of stupidity? If you had gone with surplus bolt actions as I recommended, you would now be able to buy cheaper ammo as a bonus.
*
The Iraq war is of course not the only reason ammunition is going up in price. As we ship over factories to China at the same rate they ship us ceramic figurines of Bush performing unnatural sexual acts on a donkey, China needs more and more raw materials. So the cost of commodities is going up. You might ask, if we use less metal and the Chinese use more, shouldn’t the price stay the same? Since the same goods where made, just in different countries. Well, no. The Chinese don’t turn out railroad box cars of goods to ship out. They turn out cargo ship loads of goods. To continue to keep their economy going they must continually grow, and continue to make more and more goods. They must turn out mountains of goods, much more than we ever did. So even though their labor is cheap they must also buy more in bulk to lower the cost of supplies they caused to rise in price due to their increased demand. It is a vicious cycle. And that doesn’t even take into account the 20% inflation they have annually ( ours and Europe’s is 10% ).
*
Now to the second half of my ammunition article. Semi-auto rifles and pistols are naturally expensive to use. They use five to ten times the ammunition as revolvers or bolt guns. The nature of the beast- when you can spray down an area with lead, you do. The myth of American Marksmanship is just patriotic propaganda leading us to believe we are all Minutemen fighting the British. In reality we are encouraged to pray and spray, much to the delight of not only the enemy but also the defense industry ( and don’t any of you Jarheads write about what great marksmen you are- you might be individually but you also have artillery, machineguns and aircraft helping you waste ammunition ). Now the cost of ammunition is making semis even more expensive. But think down the road a bit. Think of a few months after a collapse. When all your ammunition has been used up. Then you have to start reloading. And the natural tendency is going to be to use the minimum powder you need to make your round fire. You most likely will have your cases last longer than your powder or primer supply. Even if you don’t try to conserve powder you will still have that problem when you must start producing your own powder and primers.
*
And this is where you really start running into problems with having semi-automatic weapons. Without 100% reliable ammunition you start having jams. Even today with factory ammo you still have guns that just don’t like certain brands of ammunition. Think how much worse it will be when the ammo is even less trustworthy. I don’t care how fast you are with a tactical clear on a jam. You are now running a BMW on moonshine. It is not performing as it was meant to and you are overpaying for under-performance. Not to mention it would endanger your life. With bolt actions and revolvers your tactics take into account slower reloading times. With a semi your tactics are all based on faster shooting and reloading. Jams make a semi slower than a bolt action or wheel gun. I have been on the range plenty of times when folks using factory ammo have a heck of a time getting their auto pistols going again. The longer you go after trade collapses the worse time you are going to have with semi’s.
*
Even if you have ten thousand rounds of ammo for your Mattel Toy you will run out sooner or later and then have to start using sub-standard ammo. Or, the price on ammo gets so high you stop stockpiling and after a time your ammo starts going bad anyway. Stick with bolt and wheel guns. The guns themselves are cheaper. The ammo is cheaper ( for surplus bolts, anyway ). You will need less ammo. You can use sub-standard ammo, a prime consideration for after the collapse ( I understand a stuck bullet is worse in a revolver than in an auto, but this is also a minor concern- stuck bullets will happen less than rounds not cycling ). Granted, if you are only concerned with natural disasters and rampant crime afterwards a semi makes more sense than for us End Of The World types. Even then, though, a surplus bolt gun with a foot long bayonet attached would be pretty cool to have and turn away a lot of potential looters. But mostly it would just be cool. A shotgun might scare me, but a long ass bayonet would really make me think twice. A bullet hitting you, usually survivable if vital parts are not hit and you get medical care. A bayonet through the guts, though…ouch! Just something to think about.
END
Buy Bison Books www.bisonpress.com
Monday, February 26, 2007
frugal living
THE LONG SLOW ROAD TO FRUGAL LIVING
I assume that the majority of my readers are normal folks, short on cash but longing for a quasi-middle class lifestyle. Struggling through life knowing the cards are pretty much stacked against them but still determined to give a normal life the old college try. Most likely you have had your apple cart shoved over at least once in life or you would still be going through life thinking everything was going to stay just peachy. That our friendly Uncle Sugar would almost solve all of your problems for you. Well, you had something bad happen to you and you got just a little paranoid after that. Perhaps a pink slip with no warning. An ex-wife taking everything from you. Victimized by identity theft. And my job here is to tell you how to get that little bit of safety, that life preserver that, while no sure thing, at least evens up the odds of your getting through the next Bad Thing a little easier.
*
But you have a problem. You are dirt poor. You don’t have a pot to piss in. You are so poor you can’t pay attention. And that is why you love me all to pieces. I help you in your preparations cheaply. But what if even cheap preps are beyond your budget? Hell, I was making $25k in the early nineties when gas was a buck a gallon and rent with all utilities was $600. I thought we were doing pretty good. Of course I had a typical wife so at the end of the month we never had anything left over. And folks, this was with formula and diapers for two kids in a weekly food budget of $100. I couldn’t understand why we didn’t have extra cash every month. Well, besides the Lucifer Spawn ex-wife who I attribute half of all the earths evil to, we were also living a normal existence. Trying to live a middle class life. Then the wife left me and I was supporting two households. I had to learn to live frugal pretty darn quick.
*
I had started reading The Tightwad Gazette about the time I started writing my pre-Internet paper newsletter. Luckily I retained a bit of that wisdom, plus what I remembered from being a bachelor and what Mom had taught me growing up in the 70’s. I lived on about $200 a month for awhile. But of course my health suffered. Thank goodness I was in my late twenties and able to recover. Stress will do that to you. So living frugal will do two things for you besides allow you to make it through bad financial spells. It will free up money for preparations and it will reduce your needs for a future financial upset.
*
Despite folks making a living off teaching you how to live frugally it is not rocket science or brain surgery. You simply look to reduce spending in all aspects of your life. Stopping certain spending if you can or substituting cheaper methods when you can’t. Shelter and a car are the biggest ticket items. Most of you won’t live in a travel trailer since you are spoiled rotten but you could do other things such as downsizing a home or adding passive solar or renting out the garage as a room to a college student. Or even rent an apartment instead of buying until you save enough to pay cash for a weed infested lot with a thirty year mobile home on it. And most of us commute to work. You won’t get that fat ass pedaling a bike but you can downgrade on your car choice or get a better mileage car or learn some of your own repairs. But frugal living is about changing your entire lifestyle. Inflating the car tires with nitrogen to get an extra two miles a gallon is not going to help much when you are driving a V-8. And if the only thing you do is rent out a room spending too much in other areas will still sink you.
*
If you want to start living frugally, start slow but steady. Sure, always assault a budget item if you see waste ( like a cell phone which you only need if it pays for itself like a doctor or a real estate agent ) but the real trick is to start out small and continually advance in doing away with spending. Today I can proudly say that whenever I get to know people for any length of time they say I’m so tight I squeak when I walk. You may not wish to live this cheap, but you can cut up your budget a bit. Remember when I told you I spent about $25k in ten years in preparedness spending ( to include business and retirement )? In ten years I have also saved the following amounts:
*
By cutting my own hair with a pair of clippers instead of going to the barber once a month I have saved at least $1,000. By cutting back on smoking from half a pack a day to just one cigarette I have saved $4,000 ( and that is with roll-your-owns, not store bought ). By not owning a car most of those ten years ( let’s say five ) I saved at least $2500 just in insurance cost alone. We’ll call gas a draw with my bicycle costs. Even with a car I never drove a whole lot. After figuring in trailer costs and estimating apartment rent in the ghetto, I have saved at least $3,000 on rent ( and that is being really conservative ). By buying clothes at the thrift store instead of Wal-Mart ( other than underwear ) I have saved at least $500. Shoes another $500 by buying at Payless and only on sales ( you could do shoes cheaper but also a lot more ). By not eating breakfast, or by eating it very cheap, a few thousand at least. Bacon isn’t cheap. How much have I saved by only eating out four times a year? And that includes fast food ( except the $1 salad from Wendy’s which is cheaper in my case as I eat few veggies ). I think at $7 a person, easy, at least twice a month ( it’s more, but we are being conservative ), call it at least a grand saved there.
*
I paid for at least half my prep items with the money I saved ( of course this assumes money saved rather than lack of income ). You can do the same just as easy. Try one item a month. If you are paying for a service, do it yourself. If you can, substitute cheaper items. Why go to the movie when you can rent much cheaper? Why buy from the Gap when Wal-Mart sells clothes from the same slave labor factory in some Chinese city you can’t pronounce. Cut your own hair. Wash your own clothes instead of dry cleaning. Consolidate car trips. Go to the library instead of buying new paperbacks. There are hundreds of things you can do to save money. Make a list and undertake them one at a time. Over years they will really add up. And then you will look back and wonder how you could have been so wasteful.
END
The new Chicken Little Magazines are in www.bisonpress.com
I assume that the majority of my readers are normal folks, short on cash but longing for a quasi-middle class lifestyle. Struggling through life knowing the cards are pretty much stacked against them but still determined to give a normal life the old college try. Most likely you have had your apple cart shoved over at least once in life or you would still be going through life thinking everything was going to stay just peachy. That our friendly Uncle Sugar would almost solve all of your problems for you. Well, you had something bad happen to you and you got just a little paranoid after that. Perhaps a pink slip with no warning. An ex-wife taking everything from you. Victimized by identity theft. And my job here is to tell you how to get that little bit of safety, that life preserver that, while no sure thing, at least evens up the odds of your getting through the next Bad Thing a little easier.
*
But you have a problem. You are dirt poor. You don’t have a pot to piss in. You are so poor you can’t pay attention. And that is why you love me all to pieces. I help you in your preparations cheaply. But what if even cheap preps are beyond your budget? Hell, I was making $25k in the early nineties when gas was a buck a gallon and rent with all utilities was $600. I thought we were doing pretty good. Of course I had a typical wife so at the end of the month we never had anything left over. And folks, this was with formula and diapers for two kids in a weekly food budget of $100. I couldn’t understand why we didn’t have extra cash every month. Well, besides the Lucifer Spawn ex-wife who I attribute half of all the earths evil to, we were also living a normal existence. Trying to live a middle class life. Then the wife left me and I was supporting two households. I had to learn to live frugal pretty darn quick.
*
I had started reading The Tightwad Gazette about the time I started writing my pre-Internet paper newsletter. Luckily I retained a bit of that wisdom, plus what I remembered from being a bachelor and what Mom had taught me growing up in the 70’s. I lived on about $200 a month for awhile. But of course my health suffered. Thank goodness I was in my late twenties and able to recover. Stress will do that to you. So living frugal will do two things for you besides allow you to make it through bad financial spells. It will free up money for preparations and it will reduce your needs for a future financial upset.
*
Despite folks making a living off teaching you how to live frugally it is not rocket science or brain surgery. You simply look to reduce spending in all aspects of your life. Stopping certain spending if you can or substituting cheaper methods when you can’t. Shelter and a car are the biggest ticket items. Most of you won’t live in a travel trailer since you are spoiled rotten but you could do other things such as downsizing a home or adding passive solar or renting out the garage as a room to a college student. Or even rent an apartment instead of buying until you save enough to pay cash for a weed infested lot with a thirty year mobile home on it. And most of us commute to work. You won’t get that fat ass pedaling a bike but you can downgrade on your car choice or get a better mileage car or learn some of your own repairs. But frugal living is about changing your entire lifestyle. Inflating the car tires with nitrogen to get an extra two miles a gallon is not going to help much when you are driving a V-8. And if the only thing you do is rent out a room spending too much in other areas will still sink you.
*
If you want to start living frugally, start slow but steady. Sure, always assault a budget item if you see waste ( like a cell phone which you only need if it pays for itself like a doctor or a real estate agent ) but the real trick is to start out small and continually advance in doing away with spending. Today I can proudly say that whenever I get to know people for any length of time they say I’m so tight I squeak when I walk. You may not wish to live this cheap, but you can cut up your budget a bit. Remember when I told you I spent about $25k in ten years in preparedness spending ( to include business and retirement )? In ten years I have also saved the following amounts:
*
By cutting my own hair with a pair of clippers instead of going to the barber once a month I have saved at least $1,000. By cutting back on smoking from half a pack a day to just one cigarette I have saved $4,000 ( and that is with roll-your-owns, not store bought ). By not owning a car most of those ten years ( let’s say five ) I saved at least $2500 just in insurance cost alone. We’ll call gas a draw with my bicycle costs. Even with a car I never drove a whole lot. After figuring in trailer costs and estimating apartment rent in the ghetto, I have saved at least $3,000 on rent ( and that is being really conservative ). By buying clothes at the thrift store instead of Wal-Mart ( other than underwear ) I have saved at least $500. Shoes another $500 by buying at Payless and only on sales ( you could do shoes cheaper but also a lot more ). By not eating breakfast, or by eating it very cheap, a few thousand at least. Bacon isn’t cheap. How much have I saved by only eating out four times a year? And that includes fast food ( except the $1 salad from Wendy’s which is cheaper in my case as I eat few veggies ). I think at $7 a person, easy, at least twice a month ( it’s more, but we are being conservative ), call it at least a grand saved there.
*
I paid for at least half my prep items with the money I saved ( of course this assumes money saved rather than lack of income ). You can do the same just as easy. Try one item a month. If you are paying for a service, do it yourself. If you can, substitute cheaper items. Why go to the movie when you can rent much cheaper? Why buy from the Gap when Wal-Mart sells clothes from the same slave labor factory in some Chinese city you can’t pronounce. Cut your own hair. Wash your own clothes instead of dry cleaning. Consolidate car trips. Go to the library instead of buying new paperbacks. There are hundreds of things you can do to save money. Make a list and undertake them one at a time. Over years they will really add up. And then you will look back and wonder how you could have been so wasteful.
END
The new Chicken Little Magazines are in www.bisonpress.com
Saturday, February 24, 2007
finding out too late
WHAT IF YOU WEREN”T AROUND WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED DOOMSDAY?
If you never saw the movie “Miracle Mile” you really should check out your local video store to see if they have a copy. Most likely it is not available, just like other good disaster flicks such as “Panic In The Year Zero”. That is where Netflix shines. They suck at new releases but are priceless with hard to find movies. Miracle Mile is basically about a nuclear missile attack in the middle of the night that only the few people awake find out about. They happen to include in the group a lady with contacts to secure a plane to Antarctica and the group is trying to get on it in the next few hours. It is basically a romantic Apocalypse film, where the main character chooses to pursue love before a seat on the aircraft. And a well done film despite sounding a bit lame. What that film does for me is asks the question, “What if we didn’t find out about a disaster right away?”
*
I’m not just thinking about a nuclear war. By its nature those are not announced ahead of time. But given that many of us want to escape out into the country to live, what do you think the chances are that we won’t have the radio or TV on when something happens? It was pure luck that I had the TV on before and during both the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9/11 attacks. I usually don’t watch TV during the day at all. Take for instance a soap opera as a reason daytime TV is even more hideous than that at night. My wife usually complains when she can’t watch “her show” for whatever reason. But complains even more when she does since they are absolutely larded with commercials. An hour show will literally contain half an hour of commercials. Or close to it, such as twenty five minutes. The first ten minutes of the show is a rehash of the episodes prior and the whole hour is roughly three minutes on the show then two or three of commercials. An hour show contains about twenty five minutes of actual script. What a sweet deal for the network. Talk about a freeken gold mine.
*
And while you are out hoeing your zucchini rows missing the news, do you even have a neighbor close enough that was, and that will swing by and tell you? Or is he racing into town to get last minute supplies? In my lame on-again, off-again attempts to write a fiction piece I was envisioning an opening where a semi-recluse ( getting into town once a week ) doesn’t know catastrophe has struck until a car full of hooligans shows up trying to shoot him for procession of his homestead. Only his extreme paranoia and his tendency to remain armed at all times saves him. I was thinking perhaps a few cities got terrorist nuke bombed and a few smart crooks realize the implications quicker than most folks and go robbing right away. Then after they are repulsed by the character a EMP is detonated and their car stalls and he dispatches them all. If bombs were planted in the US before the attacks and detonated by fanatics payrolled by our enemy, and they then sea launched some atmospheric EMP missiles their chances would improve they wouldn’t be detected.
*
If the US attacked Iran I would expect no immediate complications but I sure would rush into town and spend all my cash on hand on wheat and Wal-Mart bulk foods and gasoline/propane and toilet paper and ammunition and bottled water. Just in case. I would be ahead of most panic prone individuals. How long that window would remain is questionable. Days? Hours? My local feed store usually only has four to six bags of wheat at any one time. Wal-Mart usually has about 100 pounds of wheat flour in big bags and another 100 in small. Probably a bit more rice than that. And if everyone went to fill up their gas tanks the supply would be out in an hour or two ( with near full tanks we ran out of regular unleaded gas in four hours with four cars filling at a time before a hurricane hit us at a Florida service station- most stations have more pumps than we did ).
*
And if you didn’t have that warning, could you get any more supplies at all? Would it be a smart idea? If half of all households have guns your odds are at a minimum 50/50 that the psycho grabbing the same last bag of pinto beans as you is armed and very paranoid about starving. The lessons here are 1) don’t rely on last minute shopping no matter how loud that little voice screams in your head unless you know for a fact that almost no one else is going to be doing the same thing, and 2) always plan on not knowing about a calamity until after the fact. The first is easy to remedy by doing all your shopping now. The second takes a bit of planning. Always have a bug out bag if you are far from home. I always walk to work and my farthest drive is only five miles away from the house during work. I always wear boots and carry a knife and have more than enough cold weather gear or drinking water. I can walk back home during an emergency if needed.
*
Listen to the news regularly. Don’t hover over the electronic teat but don’t go days without getting in touch with the outside world. Something like the US attacking a country with nuclear armed friends or the stock market crashing or the oil supply lines from the middle east being severed or L.A. collapsing from an earthquake are not the same as a nuclear attack occurring but they could in hours or days close markets or see the disruption of gasoline or cause the economy to collapse. You need to know about these things right away and act accordingly. A five hour delay in hearing about a severe bird flu outbreak might mean you can’t get through gridlock in order to escape the city. Or if you delay after a terrorist attack the bank will close early and your money is frozen. You get the idea.
END
I was slaving away for you today in the salt mines. The Chicken Little Magazine #2 is ready to download for $1 at www.lulu.com/content/705132
And is month two of the Bison Survival Blog plus the Japanese military manual on night fighting. The Chicken Little Magazine #3 is also available for a buck and is month three of Bison Survival Blog and a reprint of the population essay by Malthus. You can download it at www.lulu.com/content/705175
and all other info is at www.bisonpress.com
If you never saw the movie “Miracle Mile” you really should check out your local video store to see if they have a copy. Most likely it is not available, just like other good disaster flicks such as “Panic In The Year Zero”. That is where Netflix shines. They suck at new releases but are priceless with hard to find movies. Miracle Mile is basically about a nuclear missile attack in the middle of the night that only the few people awake find out about. They happen to include in the group a lady with contacts to secure a plane to Antarctica and the group is trying to get on it in the next few hours. It is basically a romantic Apocalypse film, where the main character chooses to pursue love before a seat on the aircraft. And a well done film despite sounding a bit lame. What that film does for me is asks the question, “What if we didn’t find out about a disaster right away?”
*
I’m not just thinking about a nuclear war. By its nature those are not announced ahead of time. But given that many of us want to escape out into the country to live, what do you think the chances are that we won’t have the radio or TV on when something happens? It was pure luck that I had the TV on before and during both the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9/11 attacks. I usually don’t watch TV during the day at all. Take for instance a soap opera as a reason daytime TV is even more hideous than that at night. My wife usually complains when she can’t watch “her show” for whatever reason. But complains even more when she does since they are absolutely larded with commercials. An hour show will literally contain half an hour of commercials. Or close to it, such as twenty five minutes. The first ten minutes of the show is a rehash of the episodes prior and the whole hour is roughly three minutes on the show then two or three of commercials. An hour show contains about twenty five minutes of actual script. What a sweet deal for the network. Talk about a freeken gold mine.
*
And while you are out hoeing your zucchini rows missing the news, do you even have a neighbor close enough that was, and that will swing by and tell you? Or is he racing into town to get last minute supplies? In my lame on-again, off-again attempts to write a fiction piece I was envisioning an opening where a semi-recluse ( getting into town once a week ) doesn’t know catastrophe has struck until a car full of hooligans shows up trying to shoot him for procession of his homestead. Only his extreme paranoia and his tendency to remain armed at all times saves him. I was thinking perhaps a few cities got terrorist nuke bombed and a few smart crooks realize the implications quicker than most folks and go robbing right away. Then after they are repulsed by the character a EMP is detonated and their car stalls and he dispatches them all. If bombs were planted in the US before the attacks and detonated by fanatics payrolled by our enemy, and they then sea launched some atmospheric EMP missiles their chances would improve they wouldn’t be detected.
*
If the US attacked Iran I would expect no immediate complications but I sure would rush into town and spend all my cash on hand on wheat and Wal-Mart bulk foods and gasoline/propane and toilet paper and ammunition and bottled water. Just in case. I would be ahead of most panic prone individuals. How long that window would remain is questionable. Days? Hours? My local feed store usually only has four to six bags of wheat at any one time. Wal-Mart usually has about 100 pounds of wheat flour in big bags and another 100 in small. Probably a bit more rice than that. And if everyone went to fill up their gas tanks the supply would be out in an hour or two ( with near full tanks we ran out of regular unleaded gas in four hours with four cars filling at a time before a hurricane hit us at a Florida service station- most stations have more pumps than we did ).
*
And if you didn’t have that warning, could you get any more supplies at all? Would it be a smart idea? If half of all households have guns your odds are at a minimum 50/50 that the psycho grabbing the same last bag of pinto beans as you is armed and very paranoid about starving. The lessons here are 1) don’t rely on last minute shopping no matter how loud that little voice screams in your head unless you know for a fact that almost no one else is going to be doing the same thing, and 2) always plan on not knowing about a calamity until after the fact. The first is easy to remedy by doing all your shopping now. The second takes a bit of planning. Always have a bug out bag if you are far from home. I always walk to work and my farthest drive is only five miles away from the house during work. I always wear boots and carry a knife and have more than enough cold weather gear or drinking water. I can walk back home during an emergency if needed.
*
Listen to the news regularly. Don’t hover over the electronic teat but don’t go days without getting in touch with the outside world. Something like the US attacking a country with nuclear armed friends or the stock market crashing or the oil supply lines from the middle east being severed or L.A. collapsing from an earthquake are not the same as a nuclear attack occurring but they could in hours or days close markets or see the disruption of gasoline or cause the economy to collapse. You need to know about these things right away and act accordingly. A five hour delay in hearing about a severe bird flu outbreak might mean you can’t get through gridlock in order to escape the city. Or if you delay after a terrorist attack the bank will close early and your money is frozen. You get the idea.
END
I was slaving away for you today in the salt mines. The Chicken Little Magazine #2 is ready to download for $1 at www.lulu.com/content/705132
And is month two of the Bison Survival Blog plus the Japanese military manual on night fighting. The Chicken Little Magazine #3 is also available for a buck and is month three of Bison Survival Blog and a reprint of the population essay by Malthus. You can download it at www.lulu.com/content/705175
and all other info is at www.bisonpress.com
Friday, February 23, 2007
ill wind
AN ILL WIND BLOWS
I am not really happy right now to be living in Carson City, Nevada. The capital of Nevada is showing its true colors by hosting a Democratic “press the flesh/kiss the babies” meeting. That was bad enough, but they also let the Evil One in. Former President Of The United States Hillary Clinton showed up in the once fair city I call temporary home and befouled the place. I mean, how embarrassing to now be living here. We let the Voice Of Lucifer breath the same air as we do. I feel unclean. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I hate the old Commander In Chief she really couldn’t possibly do much more harm than the Texas Turd has done these last few years. It pains me to say that, but unless she really gets out of control and does something even stupider like nuking Iran ( if Bush doesn’t do it first ) she is not going to screw things up much more than he has.
*
If re-elected, Hillary will of course make gun control a top priority. If there is one thing a Communist really truly hates it is free men arming themselves to oppose the KGB forced liquidations. But you pretty much would expect worse gun control down the road, wouldn’t you? Take precautions now, whether it is burying guns or planning on home-made weapons or buying by private sale. With plenty of ammunition to go along with them. As far as socialized medicine I can’t see how that is going to be much worse than what we have now. Right now a lot of us can’t afford health care. With a government plan having to wait six months for a life saving procedure is just about the same thing. And why is health care so expensive? Because of government meddling in the industry. They screw things up whether it is through Fascist controls or Socialist ones.
*
So does it really matter who is elected? If Democrats and Republicans pretty much act the same way with minor differences, who cares who gets elected? If the votes are now rigged from the electronic voting they shoved down our throats ( pretty easily, I might add- just like the Patriot Act ) the ruling party is going to elect whoever they want, not us. And whoever becomes President will do their bidding. I think Hillary just gives us all the willies because she is the fruit of the devils loins. She doesn’t even try to hide it. If she looks the wrong way at you, you just know you are going to be the next victim of hers to die ( probably by an improbable suicide ). I mean, it is Exorcist 3 all over again. I was so afraid of her unnatural powers I stayed as far away from the part of town she was in as I could ( which wasn’t easy as it’s a pretty small town for the population size ). And I sure as hell am not going to ever visit the coffee house she went to for a photo op ( a local granola crowd hang out ). The morning front page picture showed the owner leading The Horned One through the place meeting all the gushing fans. Vomit. But I suspect Hillary rubbed a bit of Voodoo magic off on the poor girl and if she ever touched a coffee cup and then served me I might get infected.
*
So the bottom line is that greater evil is coming to the White House unless we attack Iran and a suicide bomber nukes Washington D.C. in retaliation. I don’t think we are going to be that lucky. I did say Hillary won’t do much worse, right? How can she? As much as I hate the “woman” she will just be the “front man” for the bankers in control. If they want to unleash the total evil power that Hillary is capable of they will. If they want a half breed Muslim in control, that’s who we will get. Hillary scares us more because she wears her alliance with Dark Forces on her sleeve. But others are just as evil. They just hide it better. One thing you can count on is that every administration we have is going to worse and worse for us.
*
In this administration we got our high capacity assault rifle magazines back. In return the police lost local jurisdiction to the military, we can lose our house to a corporate expansion, we are getting National ID, we doubled our debt, etc., etc. It hardly seems like a fair trade. We have truly went over the line of no return in the quest towards a massive police state. And hardly anyone cared. Perhaps Clinton is the president people deserve.
END
I whined to you about the e-book sales going down. You commented that my dumbass should write more books. Okay, fair enough. I can’t really increase my writing due to time constraints but I will be releasing more issues of the Chicken Little magazine. I had tried out the first issue and had a poor response. So I felt it wasn’t justified offering another. It isn’t easy coming up with a 20,000 plus word booklet. Especially every month. So instead of offering the Chicken with a month of the blog and then an original book I will just do the blog plus a public domain work. Issue #2 will contain month two of the blog and the book Night Moves, the Japanese military manual on fighting at night. And I’ll offer Chicken #3 at the same time ( unsure as to the book in that ). So this Saturday I’ll publish the blog article later in the day with a link to those two issues of Chicken. I hope this meets with your approval. It isn’t original writing but it is a way of supporting my blog while still getting something in return. Thanks, Jim.
I am not really happy right now to be living in Carson City, Nevada. The capital of Nevada is showing its true colors by hosting a Democratic “press the flesh/kiss the babies” meeting. That was bad enough, but they also let the Evil One in. Former President Of The United States Hillary Clinton showed up in the once fair city I call temporary home and befouled the place. I mean, how embarrassing to now be living here. We let the Voice Of Lucifer breath the same air as we do. I feel unclean. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I hate the old Commander In Chief she really couldn’t possibly do much more harm than the Texas Turd has done these last few years. It pains me to say that, but unless she really gets out of control and does something even stupider like nuking Iran ( if Bush doesn’t do it first ) she is not going to screw things up much more than he has.
*
If re-elected, Hillary will of course make gun control a top priority. If there is one thing a Communist really truly hates it is free men arming themselves to oppose the KGB forced liquidations. But you pretty much would expect worse gun control down the road, wouldn’t you? Take precautions now, whether it is burying guns or planning on home-made weapons or buying by private sale. With plenty of ammunition to go along with them. As far as socialized medicine I can’t see how that is going to be much worse than what we have now. Right now a lot of us can’t afford health care. With a government plan having to wait six months for a life saving procedure is just about the same thing. And why is health care so expensive? Because of government meddling in the industry. They screw things up whether it is through Fascist controls or Socialist ones.
*
So does it really matter who is elected? If Democrats and Republicans pretty much act the same way with minor differences, who cares who gets elected? If the votes are now rigged from the electronic voting they shoved down our throats ( pretty easily, I might add- just like the Patriot Act ) the ruling party is going to elect whoever they want, not us. And whoever becomes President will do their bidding. I think Hillary just gives us all the willies because she is the fruit of the devils loins. She doesn’t even try to hide it. If she looks the wrong way at you, you just know you are going to be the next victim of hers to die ( probably by an improbable suicide ). I mean, it is Exorcist 3 all over again. I was so afraid of her unnatural powers I stayed as far away from the part of town she was in as I could ( which wasn’t easy as it’s a pretty small town for the population size ). And I sure as hell am not going to ever visit the coffee house she went to for a photo op ( a local granola crowd hang out ). The morning front page picture showed the owner leading The Horned One through the place meeting all the gushing fans. Vomit. But I suspect Hillary rubbed a bit of Voodoo magic off on the poor girl and if she ever touched a coffee cup and then served me I might get infected.
*
So the bottom line is that greater evil is coming to the White House unless we attack Iran and a suicide bomber nukes Washington D.C. in retaliation. I don’t think we are going to be that lucky. I did say Hillary won’t do much worse, right? How can she? As much as I hate the “woman” she will just be the “front man” for the bankers in control. If they want to unleash the total evil power that Hillary is capable of they will. If they want a half breed Muslim in control, that’s who we will get. Hillary scares us more because she wears her alliance with Dark Forces on her sleeve. But others are just as evil. They just hide it better. One thing you can count on is that every administration we have is going to worse and worse for us.
*
In this administration we got our high capacity assault rifle magazines back. In return the police lost local jurisdiction to the military, we can lose our house to a corporate expansion, we are getting National ID, we doubled our debt, etc., etc. It hardly seems like a fair trade. We have truly went over the line of no return in the quest towards a massive police state. And hardly anyone cared. Perhaps Clinton is the president people deserve.
END
I whined to you about the e-book sales going down. You commented that my dumbass should write more books. Okay, fair enough. I can’t really increase my writing due to time constraints but I will be releasing more issues of the Chicken Little magazine. I had tried out the first issue and had a poor response. So I felt it wasn’t justified offering another. It isn’t easy coming up with a 20,000 plus word booklet. Especially every month. So instead of offering the Chicken with a month of the blog and then an original book I will just do the blog plus a public domain work. Issue #2 will contain month two of the blog and the book Night Moves, the Japanese military manual on fighting at night. And I’ll offer Chicken #3 at the same time ( unsure as to the book in that ). So this Saturday I’ll publish the blog article later in the day with a link to those two issues of Chicken. I hope this meets with your approval. It isn’t original writing but it is a way of supporting my blog while still getting something in return. Thanks, Jim.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
collapse hobbies
POST COLLAPSE HOBBIES
Good ol’ Jim over at www.survivalblog.com has asked his readers to respond to the question of what occupations could you hold now that also would be useful after western civilization runs out of oil and we have to fight each other with stone knives and old salvaged baseball bats with rusty nails sticking out of them. Okay, actually he said “after the collapse” but if I’m going to steal his idea I might as well lie about what he said also. I could say he recommends that every one of his readers stops patronizing his site and go over to mine and shower me with untraceable gifts of cash money sent through the mail to my address which I just so happen to have posted at my web site www.bisonpress.com but I don’t know if you will believe me. But if he doesn’t, he should. Now, two things popped into my head when I read this. One was, why isn’t porn free on the Web anymore? And the other was what possible occupation would transfer over from petrol powered economy to post collapse economy?
*
Even a doctor is going to have a hard time transferring a lot of his craft. Today, if you are so crazy, you take something like ten years to learn how to talk in Latin, cradle your chin in a cupped hand as you look thoughtful and then refer someone to more testing. That way your malpractice insurance is only half your income instead of three quarters ( which leaves you with a negative income after taxes ). Don’t get me wrong, doctors are one of the few noble career choices available today but lawyers who go through less than half that time studying to practice their evil trade graced by the state bar and Lucifer himself get paid more for you seeing a doctor than the physician does. So post collapse, how many are going to remember what is what like to practice without running dozens of high tech tests and then treat it with lots of drugs? Can doctors function without drugs to give as treatment? Or will they be in the same boat as the rest of us, reading on book on herbs to treat illnesses? I myself don’t know and hope we don’t have to find out.
*
Gunsmiths won’t be able to function without mail order spare parts, will they? Will a machinist be a better trade, able to fabricate parts? Are there any left after most of our manufacturing capacity has been shipped over to China? It will be interesting to see what his readers come up with. I myself am sometimes handicapped by my focus on social sciences and having no grounding on more practical trades. Another reason to support his site even if 90% of the focus is on high priced preps. Well, my slightly modified idea is to concentrate on hobbies rather than paying jobs. Then it is a lot easier. You might get paid a bit, just not enough to pay the mortgage and send the spawn to a liberal arts college where they can major in beer drinking and catching VD. You could live off of it if you lived really cheap but most of you won’t do that. Slackers!
*
A fun one that will pay a lot as soon as gasoline goes higher per gallon than a minimum wage worth of pay for an hour, passive solar heating. A few books in the library and puttering around with junk lumber and glass should put you in a position of being able to teach modifying homes to take advantage of the sun for heat. After the collapse that will be the only source outside of wood and unless we have a massive die-off the forests will be stripped in less time than it takes a bag of cash to disappear in a Congressman’s office. How about air gun repair? A few folks do it now through the mail and it might be worth looking into. Will the market bear another repairman? Post collapse you could travel around and offer your services, being paid a lot more ( in barter items ) than now since there will be no ability to replace the old gun with a new one. And salvaging metal from cars now and working them into something useful now might not pay much but it sure will after collapse.
*
Ceramics can pay now as a artsy fartsy sort of thing, after a collapse it will provide jugs and dinner ware and containers, etc. Leather working, a craft now and a source of boots and saddles and military gear later. Weaving now can produce rugs and pillows and such, later you will be clothing people when the cheap Chinese imports dry up. Can one learn cottage craft style bicycle manufacturing? Repairs will only last as long as cannibalized parts are around. How about an amateur chemist to turn out weapons such as nitro powder for modern gun powder? That certainly won’t pay anything now and just might get you arrested if you tried. But in the future it will pay handsomely. Glass making will be needed later and now you could make the craft glass. A sausage maker will be a good trade after the refrigerators quit. And a moonshiner will keep people drinking away their stress and keep their vehicles running.
*
Now, I shouldn’t have to say this but someone is going ask a stupid question ( although luckily for them I will forgive them since they ask from being uneducated rather than being brain dead ) so let me point out that any skill you learn now as a hobby needs to have the old fashion methods included in your instruction. In other words, you can’t send off for more edible plastic sausage casings, you must make your own from the intestines. You can’t buy pottery glaze from a supply warehouse, you need to create your own. You can’t buy a replacement blade for carpentry work but must resharpen your own. You can’t buy spools of thread for weaving but must make your own. Learn pre-petroleum, pre-plastic, pre-mail order cottage industry ways of doing things. Think of this as a self taught college course in survival trades. Pick a subject you are interested in and apply yourself to your new hobby. If it pays a little, well, you are in luck then, aren’t you.
END
www.bisonpress.com buy my books, blah, blah.
Good ol’ Jim over at www.survivalblog.com has asked his readers to respond to the question of what occupations could you hold now that also would be useful after western civilization runs out of oil and we have to fight each other with stone knives and old salvaged baseball bats with rusty nails sticking out of them. Okay, actually he said “after the collapse” but if I’m going to steal his idea I might as well lie about what he said also. I could say he recommends that every one of his readers stops patronizing his site and go over to mine and shower me with untraceable gifts of cash money sent through the mail to my address which I just so happen to have posted at my web site www.bisonpress.com but I don’t know if you will believe me. But if he doesn’t, he should. Now, two things popped into my head when I read this. One was, why isn’t porn free on the Web anymore? And the other was what possible occupation would transfer over from petrol powered economy to post collapse economy?
*
Even a doctor is going to have a hard time transferring a lot of his craft. Today, if you are so crazy, you take something like ten years to learn how to talk in Latin, cradle your chin in a cupped hand as you look thoughtful and then refer someone to more testing. That way your malpractice insurance is only half your income instead of three quarters ( which leaves you with a negative income after taxes ). Don’t get me wrong, doctors are one of the few noble career choices available today but lawyers who go through less than half that time studying to practice their evil trade graced by the state bar and Lucifer himself get paid more for you seeing a doctor than the physician does. So post collapse, how many are going to remember what is what like to practice without running dozens of high tech tests and then treat it with lots of drugs? Can doctors function without drugs to give as treatment? Or will they be in the same boat as the rest of us, reading on book on herbs to treat illnesses? I myself don’t know and hope we don’t have to find out.
*
Gunsmiths won’t be able to function without mail order spare parts, will they? Will a machinist be a better trade, able to fabricate parts? Are there any left after most of our manufacturing capacity has been shipped over to China? It will be interesting to see what his readers come up with. I myself am sometimes handicapped by my focus on social sciences and having no grounding on more practical trades. Another reason to support his site even if 90% of the focus is on high priced preps. Well, my slightly modified idea is to concentrate on hobbies rather than paying jobs. Then it is a lot easier. You might get paid a bit, just not enough to pay the mortgage and send the spawn to a liberal arts college where they can major in beer drinking and catching VD. You could live off of it if you lived really cheap but most of you won’t do that. Slackers!
*
A fun one that will pay a lot as soon as gasoline goes higher per gallon than a minimum wage worth of pay for an hour, passive solar heating. A few books in the library and puttering around with junk lumber and glass should put you in a position of being able to teach modifying homes to take advantage of the sun for heat. After the collapse that will be the only source outside of wood and unless we have a massive die-off the forests will be stripped in less time than it takes a bag of cash to disappear in a Congressman’s office. How about air gun repair? A few folks do it now through the mail and it might be worth looking into. Will the market bear another repairman? Post collapse you could travel around and offer your services, being paid a lot more ( in barter items ) than now since there will be no ability to replace the old gun with a new one. And salvaging metal from cars now and working them into something useful now might not pay much but it sure will after collapse.
*
Ceramics can pay now as a artsy fartsy sort of thing, after a collapse it will provide jugs and dinner ware and containers, etc. Leather working, a craft now and a source of boots and saddles and military gear later. Weaving now can produce rugs and pillows and such, later you will be clothing people when the cheap Chinese imports dry up. Can one learn cottage craft style bicycle manufacturing? Repairs will only last as long as cannibalized parts are around. How about an amateur chemist to turn out weapons such as nitro powder for modern gun powder? That certainly won’t pay anything now and just might get you arrested if you tried. But in the future it will pay handsomely. Glass making will be needed later and now you could make the craft glass. A sausage maker will be a good trade after the refrigerators quit. And a moonshiner will keep people drinking away their stress and keep their vehicles running.
*
Now, I shouldn’t have to say this but someone is going ask a stupid question ( although luckily for them I will forgive them since they ask from being uneducated rather than being brain dead ) so let me point out that any skill you learn now as a hobby needs to have the old fashion methods included in your instruction. In other words, you can’t send off for more edible plastic sausage casings, you must make your own from the intestines. You can’t buy pottery glaze from a supply warehouse, you need to create your own. You can’t buy a replacement blade for carpentry work but must resharpen your own. You can’t buy spools of thread for weaving but must make your own. Learn pre-petroleum, pre-plastic, pre-mail order cottage industry ways of doing things. Think of this as a self taught college course in survival trades. Pick a subject you are interested in and apply yourself to your new hobby. If it pays a little, well, you are in luck then, aren’t you.
END
www.bisonpress.com buy my books, blah, blah.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
WWWD?
WHAT WOULD DUB-YA DO? ( WWWD? )
Most of us remotely concerned with the near total elimination of civil rights and Constitutional freedoms generally shrug our shoulders, mumble something or other about the Imperial path of Rome and go about our daily business of paying the mortgage and hoping to get the Best Buy credit card down enough to charge a big screen plasma TV set on it. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The vast majority of the population is bought off by the government and seeing as how they are better paid than you they are not going to give up their big screen TV and so would rat you out in a second if you did anything against the establishment serious enough to threaten it. Why rebel against something like that? It is merely beating your head against the wall. No one wants their freedom back, they just want their cheap electronics from Asia.
*
So we content ourselves with the fact that the bastards will do themselves in sooner or later and we can start all over again ( and a lot hope their mortgages will disappear with the dollars demise ). In the meantime if we just do enough to avoid that 3am Ninja SWAT Team raid everything will be all right and we can go along peacefully preparing for Armageddon as long as we pay what Caesar demands in the way of tribute. WRONG. Big government moves in ways we can not fathom and more times than not their decisions effect us. We are like sheep, cunning at avoiding the wolf while not realizing the shepard himself is our biggest threat.
*
Winston Churchill was a merry old fat guy that everyone just loved all to peaces. He could out talk his toughest opponent. But did you know he killed a lot of Jews and quite a few Americans? No, I am not getting my news from a smeared carbon copy of Joe Bobs Klan News blaming the ills of the world on the Secret Jew Conspiracy Amongst Our Midst’s. As much as it hurts, try to follow the logic. The Germans were almost totally dependant on Swedish iron ore deposits for their steel. The deposits were around the artic circle in brutal climate. There were two routes to ship the ore south. One was through Sweden by rail and closed half the year through the winter. The other went through Norway. Germany needed to control Norway ( the Swedes were cooperative enough ) to control the iron ore shipments. Churchill knew this. He also wanted the Nazi’s and the Communists to wipe each other out. Therefore, Germany must continue to receive its ore in order to continue the war. The British effort at securing Norway was acknowledged by most to be weak and inefficient. Almost as if they didn’t want to achieve the objective of keeping Germany from its ore.
*
So if England purposely kept Germany in the war to defeat communism they were in a way responsible for more deaths resulting from a longer war. And talk about unintended consequences. Germany encouraged the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Czar so they could go from a two front war to one. It worked, and then later down the line communism really came back to haunt them. Would we even have entered the war if Britain had made nice with Germany? Dunkirk was an obvious olive branch from the Nazi’s that was ignored. And we goaded Japan into attacking us. We withheld steel and oil from them. They had little choice than to attack us. Surely be defeated by us but with a slight chance of success or allow their economy to die without energy and steel. Gee, what a choice. And as evil as the Nazi’s were, they were not as bad as Stalin. The Jews were worked to death and those unfit for labor were gassed, but Stalin killed many more in Siberia and through deliberate starvation. And were we much better, killing 300,000 at a time through firebombing cities? Killing civilians that had no choice in the countries policies. I don’t want anyone to take me the wrong way. Perhaps the lesser of evils is all we can hope for and yes, it is better to kill the enemies civilians than our own soldiers. But they all died because those in charge were moving chess pieces around a board and ignoring the pain of those whom their actions hurt. Or acknowledging it but shrugging it off with something like “ breaking eggs to make an omelet”.
*
No matter who is on the side of good and who is on the side of evil, innocents suffer. Look at the poor bastards in Iraq. To make the country safe for democracy we are killing off civilians wholesale. And our own troops through depleted uranium munitions. All to keep the government in power through a wartime economy and reward the campaign contributors of the politicians through fat defense contracts. So what would W do? Sending JBT’s to your door is the least of your problems. You need to worry about obscure decisions he will make in pursuit of a goal that comes back as an unintended consequence and bite you on the butt. Like threatening Russia by putting an anti-missile defense system in Poland and saying it is to defeat terrorist missiles from the middle east. If I don’t buy that tall tale I sure Putin doesn’t either. He seems a lot smarter than me ( it never hurts to kiss a little butt if he is to be our next supreme overlord ).
*
Was AIDS a leak from an experiment from the weapons labs of our military? Was Oklahoma City bombed by our own government? Was 9/11 engineered by W’s boys to invade the oil fields? Who cares! Small potatoes. We need to worry about the next Churchill condemning Jews to die so Communism would be defeated. Or the next FDR forcing another country to attack a naval base and we enter a war that kills off another quarter million Americans. Forget about JBT’s raiding your house or your loss of civil rights. Worry about a nuclear attack that we forced someone to make against us so that the economy could be saved when we went to a total war economy..
END
Okay people, don't make me get all pouty and start sniveling and debase myself by begging more than usual. Book sales are down 50% in January which means two things. Those who want to have already bought my books and those that ain't aren't even forcing all their friends to read my blog who just might buy my crap. I'm like PBS, I'm not going to stop fundraising so just buy my books and try to shut me up. www.bisonpress.com
Most of us remotely concerned with the near total elimination of civil rights and Constitutional freedoms generally shrug our shoulders, mumble something or other about the Imperial path of Rome and go about our daily business of paying the mortgage and hoping to get the Best Buy credit card down enough to charge a big screen plasma TV set on it. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The vast majority of the population is bought off by the government and seeing as how they are better paid than you they are not going to give up their big screen TV and so would rat you out in a second if you did anything against the establishment serious enough to threaten it. Why rebel against something like that? It is merely beating your head against the wall. No one wants their freedom back, they just want their cheap electronics from Asia.
*
So we content ourselves with the fact that the bastards will do themselves in sooner or later and we can start all over again ( and a lot hope their mortgages will disappear with the dollars demise ). In the meantime if we just do enough to avoid that 3am Ninja SWAT Team raid everything will be all right and we can go along peacefully preparing for Armageddon as long as we pay what Caesar demands in the way of tribute. WRONG. Big government moves in ways we can not fathom and more times than not their decisions effect us. We are like sheep, cunning at avoiding the wolf while not realizing the shepard himself is our biggest threat.
*
Winston Churchill was a merry old fat guy that everyone just loved all to peaces. He could out talk his toughest opponent. But did you know he killed a lot of Jews and quite a few Americans? No, I am not getting my news from a smeared carbon copy of Joe Bobs Klan News blaming the ills of the world on the Secret Jew Conspiracy Amongst Our Midst’s. As much as it hurts, try to follow the logic. The Germans were almost totally dependant on Swedish iron ore deposits for their steel. The deposits were around the artic circle in brutal climate. There were two routes to ship the ore south. One was through Sweden by rail and closed half the year through the winter. The other went through Norway. Germany needed to control Norway ( the Swedes were cooperative enough ) to control the iron ore shipments. Churchill knew this. He also wanted the Nazi’s and the Communists to wipe each other out. Therefore, Germany must continue to receive its ore in order to continue the war. The British effort at securing Norway was acknowledged by most to be weak and inefficient. Almost as if they didn’t want to achieve the objective of keeping Germany from its ore.
*
So if England purposely kept Germany in the war to defeat communism they were in a way responsible for more deaths resulting from a longer war. And talk about unintended consequences. Germany encouraged the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Czar so they could go from a two front war to one. It worked, and then later down the line communism really came back to haunt them. Would we even have entered the war if Britain had made nice with Germany? Dunkirk was an obvious olive branch from the Nazi’s that was ignored. And we goaded Japan into attacking us. We withheld steel and oil from them. They had little choice than to attack us. Surely be defeated by us but with a slight chance of success or allow their economy to die without energy and steel. Gee, what a choice. And as evil as the Nazi’s were, they were not as bad as Stalin. The Jews were worked to death and those unfit for labor were gassed, but Stalin killed many more in Siberia and through deliberate starvation. And were we much better, killing 300,000 at a time through firebombing cities? Killing civilians that had no choice in the countries policies. I don’t want anyone to take me the wrong way. Perhaps the lesser of evils is all we can hope for and yes, it is better to kill the enemies civilians than our own soldiers. But they all died because those in charge were moving chess pieces around a board and ignoring the pain of those whom their actions hurt. Or acknowledging it but shrugging it off with something like “ breaking eggs to make an omelet”.
*
No matter who is on the side of good and who is on the side of evil, innocents suffer. Look at the poor bastards in Iraq. To make the country safe for democracy we are killing off civilians wholesale. And our own troops through depleted uranium munitions. All to keep the government in power through a wartime economy and reward the campaign contributors of the politicians through fat defense contracts. So what would W do? Sending JBT’s to your door is the least of your problems. You need to worry about obscure decisions he will make in pursuit of a goal that comes back as an unintended consequence and bite you on the butt. Like threatening Russia by putting an anti-missile defense system in Poland and saying it is to defeat terrorist missiles from the middle east. If I don’t buy that tall tale I sure Putin doesn’t either. He seems a lot smarter than me ( it never hurts to kiss a little butt if he is to be our next supreme overlord ).
*
Was AIDS a leak from an experiment from the weapons labs of our military? Was Oklahoma City bombed by our own government? Was 9/11 engineered by W’s boys to invade the oil fields? Who cares! Small potatoes. We need to worry about the next Churchill condemning Jews to die so Communism would be defeated. Or the next FDR forcing another country to attack a naval base and we enter a war that kills off another quarter million Americans. Forget about JBT’s raiding your house or your loss of civil rights. Worry about a nuclear attack that we forced someone to make against us so that the economy could be saved when we went to a total war economy..
END
Okay people, don't make me get all pouty and start sniveling and debase myself by begging more than usual. Book sales are down 50% in January which means two things. Those who want to have already bought my books and those that ain't aren't even forcing all their friends to read my blog who just might buy my crap. I'm like PBS, I'm not going to stop fundraising so just buy my books and try to shut me up. www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
basic foods
BASIC FOODS
Hopefully we will never get to the point where we need to break out our storage food and live off of it. I only eat whole wheat now for the health aspects of it, certainly not for any taste treat that only a tree hugging granola eater could discern. I have reached that unfortunate time in my life where it is no longer advisable to eat a large bag of Doritos for breakfast. Instead as time passes I must pay more and more attention to eating better. While my body certainly appreciates my eating this way, it is like exercise. If you can motivate yourself to actually get started then you feel great for doing it, but you must overload your impulse centers in order to do so. It’s that little devil sitting on your shoulder, whispering in your ear that just the thing that your fat bloated pimply body needs is another Ho-Ho.
*
So while it would suck to go on a whole wheat starvation diet, there might come a time in the near future when we must out of necessity do the nearest thing. If we see a near repeat of the late 1970’s when the economy kept limping along but inflation forced prices up to levels where even middle class families had to skimp on grocery store spending, it would behoove you to know how to eat very cheaply while still eating healthy. Cutting back on meat and dairy and adapting a near vegetarian diet in order to feed the whole clan. In this scenario you would need to eat mostly grains and beans and potatoes with just a dash of animal protein. And with today’s California agriculture failures also without a whole lot of vegetables. Some of us are stuck in the city without benefit of gardens or a flock of chickens. I will assume all foods by necessity will be store bought.
*
Certainly even a small garden and some laying chickens would go a long way towards food self sufficiency. But not all of us can do that. Even those that can might see their plans are not at all secure. If gasoline is needed to get into town to buy chicken feed or a deep well is needed to water the garden then a middle east oil refinery terrorist attack could spell the end towards your “self sufficiency”. While you are busy saving up the money to buy your own land where you can grow your own food fed by a rain catchment system, you will have to be content to buy your food in bulk and save. We all crave animal protein and we all should have a plan on putting some by ( even buying 89 cent whole fryers or $1.69 a pound beef brisket and freezing them ). Here let’s concentrate on the really cheap wholesome foods. Grains and beans primarily with a few odd foods thrown in for variety.
*
A trip to the library will give you thousands of recipes using beans. I’m sure you can find a few on cooking with whole grains. I’m only going to provide a few here to get you started. My main items would be wheat, corn, beans and potatoes. Butter for cooking and a condiment with some vegetable oils. Your body needs protein and fat. Cutting back on meat is going to be bad enough, don’t go on a low fat diet at the same time. The protein can be had by combining the grain and beans ( plus the butter ). Don’t be put off by the fried foods here. Your body needs fat, especially in winter. If you avoid all processed foods ( no white flour or sugar or hydrogenated oils ) it is going to be hard to get or stay overweight. Of course your body might not crave the fat. All of our metabolisms are different.
*
A great breakfast is fried cornmeal mush. For every five cups of water add two cups of cornmeal. Place in a crockpot for three hours on low heat. Pour into a shallow pan in the fridge and let set overnight. In the morning the meal is now a very thick loaf. Slice off what you want and fry it up. A more nutritious method is to grind up dry beans and wheat and add them to the corn and prepare as above. With some kinds of beans you might need to strain the flour to remove hull parts that won’t grind up ( more of a problem with the less expensive grinders such as the Corona ). This way would be a complete protein with fat that would really stick to your ribs. I wouldn’t want to eat it every morning unless I was doing heavy manual labor of course.
*
You can make sprouted wheat cereal. Take a Mason jar with a screen on it in place of the lid. Put in four ounces of wheat and fill a third of the jar with water. Soak overnight then drain and set upside down to keep drained. Every four hours flood and then immediately drain to keep it moist. The second evening sprouts should appear. Take your grain and put it into a metal thermos. Add hot water ( when thermos cooking put hot water in first to pre-heat thermos then drain immediately before adding cooking ingredients ) and leave overnight on its side. In the morning put the thermos contents into a blender for a hot sweet nutritious cereal. Cost is five cents plus fuel. Or take your sprouts and grow longer to make them more sprout than kernel. Put them with a bit of canned tomato juice in the blender to make a V-8 juice that is cheaper and better for you. That would be about the only vegetables you would need to stay healthy- sprouts are the most nutritional vegetables there are. With today’s extremely high produce prices that blender would pay for itself in no time at all.
*
There are many ways to prepare whole wheat. My favorite is microwave flat bread. Make a dough and roll out a tortilla ( but just flour and water-no lard ) or if you are really lazy just add more water to it almost like waffle dough and spread it on the plate. Nuke until done. Usually about three minutes. Butter and eat. That takes care of breakfast and lunch. For dinner add a small amount of meat ( one quarter to one half ounce per person ) to a carbohydrate such as potatoes or rice or noodles. You could do without the meat if you had to. But that is a lot of beans and bread. Best to have a lot of recipes to help combat taste fatigue.
*
Whole wheat flour is 20 cents a pound from feed store wheat kernels. As is white flour. I would mix 50/50 if no one wants all whole wheat. Beans are sixty cents a pound in small bags at Wal-Mart. Butter and cheap meats are $2 a pound so use sparingly. But everyone could eat like pigs on a pound of flour, a pound of beans, a total of a quarter pound of butter and/or meat combo and some oil/sprouts/potatoes for $1.50 a day each. A dollar a day each if you cut portions back a bit. The pound of flour alone is 1500 calories. A stick of butter ( ¼ pound ) is 800. $1.50 a day would give you enough calories a day to dig ditches. A buck a day would be more than enough for most folks. And this is a healthy diet. Just boring. Check out those library books and compile a recipe file.
END
Haven't gotten enough of the same old crap? Order my books www.bisonpress.com
Hopefully we will never get to the point where we need to break out our storage food and live off of it. I only eat whole wheat now for the health aspects of it, certainly not for any taste treat that only a tree hugging granola eater could discern. I have reached that unfortunate time in my life where it is no longer advisable to eat a large bag of Doritos for breakfast. Instead as time passes I must pay more and more attention to eating better. While my body certainly appreciates my eating this way, it is like exercise. If you can motivate yourself to actually get started then you feel great for doing it, but you must overload your impulse centers in order to do so. It’s that little devil sitting on your shoulder, whispering in your ear that just the thing that your fat bloated pimply body needs is another Ho-Ho.
*
So while it would suck to go on a whole wheat starvation diet, there might come a time in the near future when we must out of necessity do the nearest thing. If we see a near repeat of the late 1970’s when the economy kept limping along but inflation forced prices up to levels where even middle class families had to skimp on grocery store spending, it would behoove you to know how to eat very cheaply while still eating healthy. Cutting back on meat and dairy and adapting a near vegetarian diet in order to feed the whole clan. In this scenario you would need to eat mostly grains and beans and potatoes with just a dash of animal protein. And with today’s California agriculture failures also without a whole lot of vegetables. Some of us are stuck in the city without benefit of gardens or a flock of chickens. I will assume all foods by necessity will be store bought.
*
Certainly even a small garden and some laying chickens would go a long way towards food self sufficiency. But not all of us can do that. Even those that can might see their plans are not at all secure. If gasoline is needed to get into town to buy chicken feed or a deep well is needed to water the garden then a middle east oil refinery terrorist attack could spell the end towards your “self sufficiency”. While you are busy saving up the money to buy your own land where you can grow your own food fed by a rain catchment system, you will have to be content to buy your food in bulk and save. We all crave animal protein and we all should have a plan on putting some by ( even buying 89 cent whole fryers or $1.69 a pound beef brisket and freezing them ). Here let’s concentrate on the really cheap wholesome foods. Grains and beans primarily with a few odd foods thrown in for variety.
*
A trip to the library will give you thousands of recipes using beans. I’m sure you can find a few on cooking with whole grains. I’m only going to provide a few here to get you started. My main items would be wheat, corn, beans and potatoes. Butter for cooking and a condiment with some vegetable oils. Your body needs protein and fat. Cutting back on meat is going to be bad enough, don’t go on a low fat diet at the same time. The protein can be had by combining the grain and beans ( plus the butter ). Don’t be put off by the fried foods here. Your body needs fat, especially in winter. If you avoid all processed foods ( no white flour or sugar or hydrogenated oils ) it is going to be hard to get or stay overweight. Of course your body might not crave the fat. All of our metabolisms are different.
*
A great breakfast is fried cornmeal mush. For every five cups of water add two cups of cornmeal. Place in a crockpot for three hours on low heat. Pour into a shallow pan in the fridge and let set overnight. In the morning the meal is now a very thick loaf. Slice off what you want and fry it up. A more nutritious method is to grind up dry beans and wheat and add them to the corn and prepare as above. With some kinds of beans you might need to strain the flour to remove hull parts that won’t grind up ( more of a problem with the less expensive grinders such as the Corona ). This way would be a complete protein with fat that would really stick to your ribs. I wouldn’t want to eat it every morning unless I was doing heavy manual labor of course.
*
You can make sprouted wheat cereal. Take a Mason jar with a screen on it in place of the lid. Put in four ounces of wheat and fill a third of the jar with water. Soak overnight then drain and set upside down to keep drained. Every four hours flood and then immediately drain to keep it moist. The second evening sprouts should appear. Take your grain and put it into a metal thermos. Add hot water ( when thermos cooking put hot water in first to pre-heat thermos then drain immediately before adding cooking ingredients ) and leave overnight on its side. In the morning put the thermos contents into a blender for a hot sweet nutritious cereal. Cost is five cents plus fuel. Or take your sprouts and grow longer to make them more sprout than kernel. Put them with a bit of canned tomato juice in the blender to make a V-8 juice that is cheaper and better for you. That would be about the only vegetables you would need to stay healthy- sprouts are the most nutritional vegetables there are. With today’s extremely high produce prices that blender would pay for itself in no time at all.
*
There are many ways to prepare whole wheat. My favorite is microwave flat bread. Make a dough and roll out a tortilla ( but just flour and water-no lard ) or if you are really lazy just add more water to it almost like waffle dough and spread it on the plate. Nuke until done. Usually about three minutes. Butter and eat. That takes care of breakfast and lunch. For dinner add a small amount of meat ( one quarter to one half ounce per person ) to a carbohydrate such as potatoes or rice or noodles. You could do without the meat if you had to. But that is a lot of beans and bread. Best to have a lot of recipes to help combat taste fatigue.
*
Whole wheat flour is 20 cents a pound from feed store wheat kernels. As is white flour. I would mix 50/50 if no one wants all whole wheat. Beans are sixty cents a pound in small bags at Wal-Mart. Butter and cheap meats are $2 a pound so use sparingly. But everyone could eat like pigs on a pound of flour, a pound of beans, a total of a quarter pound of butter and/or meat combo and some oil/sprouts/potatoes for $1.50 a day each. A dollar a day each if you cut portions back a bit. The pound of flour alone is 1500 calories. A stick of butter ( ¼ pound ) is 800. $1.50 a day would give you enough calories a day to dig ditches. A buck a day would be more than enough for most folks. And this is a healthy diet. Just boring. Check out those library books and compile a recipe file.
END
Haven't gotten enough of the same old crap? Order my books www.bisonpress.com
Monday, February 19, 2007
apocalypse movie
APOCALYPSE MOVIE
Sadly, apocalypse movies are in severely short supply. Even sadder, the ones they do turn out are usually pure crap. This one is no exception. There I was, in Hollywood Video ( I frown on Blockbuster, as they are more of a Mega-Evil Empire than Wal-Mart could ever hope to be ) thinking perhaps I would rent that new WWII movie from Dirty Harry himself or even a comedy if I could find one. The last good comedy I watched was Larry The Cable Guy, Health Inspector. I don’t care who you are, that one was funny as hell. And they really need to stop making Naked Pie movies. The Naked Mile had a few good jokes ( with an opening like killing your grandmother when she sees you abusing yourself you would think the movie would have been better ) and a nice rounded selection of female chest shots ( rounded, get it? ) but all in all it was pretty lame stuff.
*
I’m checking out all the new releases as I only watch movies about twice a month and don’t have much of an idea what is coming out and I come across “Apocalypse & The Beauty Queen” right away. How can I resist that? The title screams out to me and I take a look. Obviously it is low budget, but then so was “Clerks” which was friggin hilarious. The banter between the two characters is wonderful. Surprisingly, the sequel is almost as good. Something I had not anticipated. Usually too much budget can spoil a rebel film maker. Like George Lucas. He put up his own money from his one and only financial hit to get the original Star Wars made. Poured his heart into it and it was a great movie, one of the best ever made ( besides his buddies “Apocalypse Now” and “Godfathers 1 & 2 ). Then as the sequels were made he farmed out the work and while not bad they weren’t great. And the last three were mixed. Number one was a showcase for state of the art computer work. Number two was forgettable and number three was merely a political piece. I love him for his libertarian like message that we are sinking into Empire, but it wasn’t Star Wars, per se.
*
So, since Apocalypse & The Beauty Queen ( ABQ ) was at the start of my shopping it kind of spoiled it for the rest of the movies available. I wished I had gotten Flags Of Our Fathers. AQB was a horrible stinker. Not because it was low budget. I can live with that. It was the fact that the makers could have done much better with the story. The low budget didn’t really seem to hurt things. All told I think less than a box of ammo ( blanks ) was used from all guns combined. The setting was a few junk yards, a mobile home and one large room. Or nearly so anyway. Very few costumes were used. Three or fours guns. I mean, I could have almost done as much with what was lying around myself. But all that was secondary to the story, which sucked. A better story would have really made this a winner. And the acting was good from such a cast. For the most part. But God!! The story. Vomit.
*
The film starts with a narrative from the main female character. No nukes, or asteroid. No, civilization collapsed because the electrical grid went down. No reason was given and the film was made six years after Y2K anyway. Its not like this film was a cheap thrown together exploitation film which changed its title and added a minute of voiceover to take advantage of a coming disaster, instantly going from a vigilante flick to a post-apocalypse film ( I saw one like that for Y2K which was admirable from their technique if nothing else ). And then they go on to say that a former super model somehow got control of all the guns and food and had her own army to control their own county. No explanation, no details. We were just supposed to assume this was possible. And no one is later seen farming or manufacturing anything. Just sitting around with their thumbs up their butts getting rationed food. Like there would have been enough to go around.
*
Even that would have been alright. It is understandable that a non-survivalist would have little idea of what to do after a collapse. Which the script writer obviously was. My main fault is that the story line was just a mixture of Sleeping Beauty and The Prince. A lame combination. The Queen is jealous of other women being beautiful and so tortures them and uses their blood as a facial cream. And the townspeople find out and revolt. And her army is like two guys that are introduced as bounty hunters ( of all things- sheesh! ). Well, as it turns out the former boyfriend of the Queen ( she lets him hang around and kidnap young girls for her ) is just after what every red blooded American male is and wants a bit of strange on the side. And he is lying about the blood part. So in the end everybody dies except the lead female character who was a servant for the queen and a receptacle for the boyfriend. It is a little more involved than that, but not much. Hell, it even sounds like a rip off of Shakespeare but I’m not sure never having wanted to read through so many “tho art” and other such fruity language which is okay because I would never want to be confused with someone who was cultured.
*
They had a few good parts, other than the totally gratuitous sex scenes. The queen had a cool SKS that she had covered with all kinds of feminine crap like sparkles and fabric and such. And the makings of interesting back and forth between the two “bounty hunters” which was unfortunately cut short. But there was so little to do with a post apocalypse world. Hell, even the competing warlord the next county over didn’t make a military move on the Queens territory even though it was obvious she had no real defenses. That made no sense. And, as if to further insult us the middle of the movie had no sound. I would say I missed ten or fifteen minutes of the movie but what really happened was I was unable to see the middle part. I didn’t miss anything.
*
Save your $3.99. Or spend it for a used post apocalypse novel from a used book dealer. The worse one ( outside of the pot boilers like Outrider or The Survivalist )is going to be better than this movie.
END
A short follow up. It was pointed out to me I didn’t include plans to mount a grain grinder in the van in my “junk van” article. Oops! My bad. That would have been awkward. Go to the rear door. At the same height as the top of your buckets ( when the door closes this unit fill fit between the buckets and the mattress ) mount two L brackets ( if the door has an exposed frame it will be easy- you might need to reinforce behind the bolts ) that holds a piece of wood that you can clamp things on, such as a grain grinder or a reloading unit. You might have a better plan, the point is to do this prep while getting the van ready. Not trying to figure it out after you need it.
Buy my books NOW http://www.bisonpress.com/
Sadly, apocalypse movies are in severely short supply. Even sadder, the ones they do turn out are usually pure crap. This one is no exception. There I was, in Hollywood Video ( I frown on Blockbuster, as they are more of a Mega-Evil Empire than Wal-Mart could ever hope to be ) thinking perhaps I would rent that new WWII movie from Dirty Harry himself or even a comedy if I could find one. The last good comedy I watched was Larry The Cable Guy, Health Inspector. I don’t care who you are, that one was funny as hell. And they really need to stop making Naked Pie movies. The Naked Mile had a few good jokes ( with an opening like killing your grandmother when she sees you abusing yourself you would think the movie would have been better ) and a nice rounded selection of female chest shots ( rounded, get it? ) but all in all it was pretty lame stuff.
*
I’m checking out all the new releases as I only watch movies about twice a month and don’t have much of an idea what is coming out and I come across “Apocalypse & The Beauty Queen” right away. How can I resist that? The title screams out to me and I take a look. Obviously it is low budget, but then so was “Clerks” which was friggin hilarious. The banter between the two characters is wonderful. Surprisingly, the sequel is almost as good. Something I had not anticipated. Usually too much budget can spoil a rebel film maker. Like George Lucas. He put up his own money from his one and only financial hit to get the original Star Wars made. Poured his heart into it and it was a great movie, one of the best ever made ( besides his buddies “Apocalypse Now” and “Godfathers 1 & 2 ). Then as the sequels were made he farmed out the work and while not bad they weren’t great. And the last three were mixed. Number one was a showcase for state of the art computer work. Number two was forgettable and number three was merely a political piece. I love him for his libertarian like message that we are sinking into Empire, but it wasn’t Star Wars, per se.
*
So, since Apocalypse & The Beauty Queen ( ABQ ) was at the start of my shopping it kind of spoiled it for the rest of the movies available. I wished I had gotten Flags Of Our Fathers. AQB was a horrible stinker. Not because it was low budget. I can live with that. It was the fact that the makers could have done much better with the story. The low budget didn’t really seem to hurt things. All told I think less than a box of ammo ( blanks ) was used from all guns combined. The setting was a few junk yards, a mobile home and one large room. Or nearly so anyway. Very few costumes were used. Three or fours guns. I mean, I could have almost done as much with what was lying around myself. But all that was secondary to the story, which sucked. A better story would have really made this a winner. And the acting was good from such a cast. For the most part. But God!! The story. Vomit.
*
The film starts with a narrative from the main female character. No nukes, or asteroid. No, civilization collapsed because the electrical grid went down. No reason was given and the film was made six years after Y2K anyway. Its not like this film was a cheap thrown together exploitation film which changed its title and added a minute of voiceover to take advantage of a coming disaster, instantly going from a vigilante flick to a post-apocalypse film ( I saw one like that for Y2K which was admirable from their technique if nothing else ). And then they go on to say that a former super model somehow got control of all the guns and food and had her own army to control their own county. No explanation, no details. We were just supposed to assume this was possible. And no one is later seen farming or manufacturing anything. Just sitting around with their thumbs up their butts getting rationed food. Like there would have been enough to go around.
*
Even that would have been alright. It is understandable that a non-survivalist would have little idea of what to do after a collapse. Which the script writer obviously was. My main fault is that the story line was just a mixture of Sleeping Beauty and The Prince. A lame combination. The Queen is jealous of other women being beautiful and so tortures them and uses their blood as a facial cream. And the townspeople find out and revolt. And her army is like two guys that are introduced as bounty hunters ( of all things- sheesh! ). Well, as it turns out the former boyfriend of the Queen ( she lets him hang around and kidnap young girls for her ) is just after what every red blooded American male is and wants a bit of strange on the side. And he is lying about the blood part. So in the end everybody dies except the lead female character who was a servant for the queen and a receptacle for the boyfriend. It is a little more involved than that, but not much. Hell, it even sounds like a rip off of Shakespeare but I’m not sure never having wanted to read through so many “tho art” and other such fruity language which is okay because I would never want to be confused with someone who was cultured.
*
They had a few good parts, other than the totally gratuitous sex scenes. The queen had a cool SKS that she had covered with all kinds of feminine crap like sparkles and fabric and such. And the makings of interesting back and forth between the two “bounty hunters” which was unfortunately cut short. But there was so little to do with a post apocalypse world. Hell, even the competing warlord the next county over didn’t make a military move on the Queens territory even though it was obvious she had no real defenses. That made no sense. And, as if to further insult us the middle of the movie had no sound. I would say I missed ten or fifteen minutes of the movie but what really happened was I was unable to see the middle part. I didn’t miss anything.
*
Save your $3.99. Or spend it for a used post apocalypse novel from a used book dealer. The worse one ( outside of the pot boilers like Outrider or The Survivalist )is going to be better than this movie.
END
A short follow up. It was pointed out to me I didn’t include plans to mount a grain grinder in the van in my “junk van” article. Oops! My bad. That would have been awkward. Go to the rear door. At the same height as the top of your buckets ( when the door closes this unit fill fit between the buckets and the mattress ) mount two L brackets ( if the door has an exposed frame it will be easy- you might need to reinforce behind the bolts ) that holds a piece of wood that you can clamp things on, such as a grain grinder or a reloading unit. You might have a better plan, the point is to do this prep while getting the van ready. Not trying to figure it out after you need it.
Buy my books NOW http://www.bisonpress.com/
Sunday, February 18, 2007
reader reply
Jim wrote about his black out kit and that is a subject that the local Edison Company has made sure I am well versed in. My last power outage was for four days. I get at least one a year and most times two. Some are in spring and some are in winter. Each becomes a mini survival class.
I am from the school that says most survival items should perform two or more functions. For heat and light I prefer the propane lantern. The light is bright enough for my tired old eyes to see by and the glow is accompanied by heat. Even in spring the cool evening is more tolerable with a little warmth.
Jim likes the one pound propane bottles. I prefer the 20 pound tanks. Again two functions from them. If not used to power my survival light they can be pressed into duty to grill up a nice dinner. The cost is a little more, but I feel well worth the cost. I can buy a used, reconditioned 20 pound tank, filled for around $30. Since the tank is refillable the cost for more propane is of course less, right now around $12 a fill up. A 20 pound tank works well for a light stand with the addition of a “tree”. You can screw the lantern on the top of the tree and it will burn for a long time on 20 pounds. In addition, the tree allows you to hook up a hose for a stove also (or a heater.)
The “tree” is a long tube that screws into the valve of the tank and stick up in the air about two feet. They cost about $30, which is damn pricey for what they are. I managed to pick my up on special coupled with a “sign up for a credit card offer and get more off” and it cost under $20.
Jim stated that the small bottles were $2.25 for 20 pounds you would need to spend $45. I still think the 20 pound tank at $30 is a better deal. Even with the one time cost of the tree it makes more sense to have the extra options.
For the record, we do use an LED light for those nights when we just are sitting and talking, it is quieter and we don’t always need the heat. I also have kerosene lamps for light without a lot of heat. Like all things survival, you have to decide what works for you in your situations. My farm in Michigan is a lot different from the desert that Jim resides in.
Wolverine
Jim's two cents- he's got a point. Good article. If you have one, e-mail me and ask to have it posted for Sunday, the day I don't publish an article of my own.
I am from the school that says most survival items should perform two or more functions. For heat and light I prefer the propane lantern. The light is bright enough for my tired old eyes to see by and the glow is accompanied by heat. Even in spring the cool evening is more tolerable with a little warmth.
Jim likes the one pound propane bottles. I prefer the 20 pound tanks. Again two functions from them. If not used to power my survival light they can be pressed into duty to grill up a nice dinner. The cost is a little more, but I feel well worth the cost. I can buy a used, reconditioned 20 pound tank, filled for around $30. Since the tank is refillable the cost for more propane is of course less, right now around $12 a fill up. A 20 pound tank works well for a light stand with the addition of a “tree”. You can screw the lantern on the top of the tree and it will burn for a long time on 20 pounds. In addition, the tree allows you to hook up a hose for a stove also (or a heater.)
The “tree” is a long tube that screws into the valve of the tank and stick up in the air about two feet. They cost about $30, which is damn pricey for what they are. I managed to pick my up on special coupled with a “sign up for a credit card offer and get more off” and it cost under $20.
Jim stated that the small bottles were $2.25 for 20 pounds you would need to spend $45. I still think the 20 pound tank at $30 is a better deal. Even with the one time cost of the tree it makes more sense to have the extra options.
For the record, we do use an LED light for those nights when we just are sitting and talking, it is quieter and we don’t always need the heat. I also have kerosene lamps for light without a lot of heat. Like all things survival, you have to decide what works for you in your situations. My farm in Michigan is a lot different from the desert that Jim resides in.
Wolverine
Jim's two cents- he's got a point. Good article. If you have one, e-mail me and ask to have it posted for Sunday, the day I don't publish an article of my own.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
barter box
BARTER BOX
I can’t remember the name of the book that was probably the first to come up with this concept. It is of course famous and a classic, which I guess is all the more reason for me to forget it. Written in the fifties. Folks down in Florida surviving a nuclear war. Not that they would nowadays with almost twenty friggin million people living down there. I imagine back when it was written Florida was still an economic backwards Deep South state. Now it is a colony of New York and New Jersey. Which one is worse? I think I would rather be poor than have Yankees for neighbors. As if I have room to talk, living in the once rural cow pasture of Nevada that was acquired in a hostile takeover from those parasitic bastard landowners from California. Outside of a few “freezer” state such as Wyoming, Alaska or the Dakotas ( or “oven” areas such as southwest Texas ) there are few rural states left untouched to a large degree by affluent retirees from the coasts. On our dime they are now infesting all areas like dung beetles on a mound of horse droppings. It is bad enough you now must pay high land prices in areas with little employment but now you must put up with a bunch of gimpy old farts who take ten minutes to cross the road and plow through crowds when they mistake the gas for the brakes even after driving ( badly ) all their lives.
*
And I know it wasn’t called a barter box. “Hope Chest”? It was a box full of items later turned priceless luxuries. Such as pipe tobacco. I remember the characters had smoked the last cigarettes and then started in on the pipe tobacco for their nicotine habit. So as I am one to always steal a good idea when I remember it, I figured we could talk about a few barter items today. I have already written on cheap mass produced items such as sewing pins and matches and such. Stuff you can buy at the dollar store now and not care about spending a few bucks here and there and before you know it having quite a collection. This deals more with items which are more costly. Anyone can buy a thousand toothpicks for a buck and put it away. Here we are more concerned with three to ten dollar items. You will have less of them and so this will be much more valuable as trade items. And as such it is recommended that you fill a box, tape it up and hide it. If you are tempted to raid your barter items after prices in the market shot up you would have nothing left.
*
Coffee prices have lately shot up quite a bit. For whatever reason, retail prices are crazy ( my theory is that as grocery store chains acquire each other in mergers the price of non-perishables skyrockets to pay for the takeover ). You can still buy 32 ounce cans of Wal-Mart brand for under four bucks, but I don’t think that will last for long. And they are almost always out of stock. Look for the blue can on the bottom shelf. They are also cheaper than the 39 ounce generic version per ounce ( that one is $5 and change ). Buy it when it is in stock and increase your stash. You will see unrelenting price inflation for some time. Buy while you can while it is cheap. Sure, eventually prices could fall. As we enter a worldwide Depression and everyone under fifty is drafted to fight over in Iran since military spending will be our last economic industry left in this country except Hollywood movies and agricultural commodities.
*
Rimfire ammunition is dirt cheap right now, ten bucks a box of 550 rounds after tax. Buy the heck out of it. You can never have enough. Especially if you shoot every weekend and rotate your stock. Well, okay, you can’t rotate your stock if you seal up your barter goods. Unless you have just 22’s in the box and nothing else. And buy the whole amount as rotational stock. It does keep for about twenty years without much problem though. Figure out whatever system works best for you. I know I have been guilty of dipping into my rimfire stockpile without replacing it. You really should seal it up tight. Two boxes worth taped up in plastic might be the discipline you need to buy replacements beforehand. One box by itself is too easy to pilfer. Sealed up multiple boxes are a different story.
*
Tobacco is now like pistols or ladders. Half the cost goes to liability. The bastard puke lawyers have so crippled certain industries that most of what you pay just goes to insurance or other lawyers to protect against the first lawyers or to pay for past settlements. This is evident in tobacco by looking at the cost of cigarettes. A carton of smokes at the store is thirty bucks. At Federal Indian reservation stores it is twenty. But to buy the same amount of tobacco to make your own cigarettes it cost about $8.50. Big difference.
*
Before Hilary Clinton made a ten thousand percent profit from one real estate deal and got hubby elected by selling both their souls to Lucifer and other special interest groups, a carton of cigarettes was $12 for brand name. A bit more than ten years ago. And roll-your-own was half the price it is now. But still, with inflation taken into account eight bucks ain’t bad. It is ten and change if you buy the pre-rolled paper tubes with filter. Buy just the tobacco with the papers already in them. The papers use the machine that rolls an unfiltered cigarette that you lick the gummed edge to seal. The other type stuffs the leaf into the tube. If tobacco disappears they will be more than happy to smoke unfiltered again. Buy several back-up machines. They are two or three bucks each. Then roll them and sell them one at a time. You are sitting on a gold mine. At least until tobacco starts getting back on the market. Sell while transportation is disrupted, before that happens.
*
Stay away from booze. It is a more “iffy” market. Homemade hootch will very quickly make an appearance. Stockpile for yourself, not for trade. I’m sure you can come up with a few more ideas. But with silver now at $14 an ounce, it is cheaper to invest in trade goods instead of precious metals. And it is smart to trade worthless Greenbacks for something of value while you can.
END
I can’t remember the name of the book that was probably the first to come up with this concept. It is of course famous and a classic, which I guess is all the more reason for me to forget it. Written in the fifties. Folks down in Florida surviving a nuclear war. Not that they would nowadays with almost twenty friggin million people living down there. I imagine back when it was written Florida was still an economic backwards Deep South state. Now it is a colony of New York and New Jersey. Which one is worse? I think I would rather be poor than have Yankees for neighbors. As if I have room to talk, living in the once rural cow pasture of Nevada that was acquired in a hostile takeover from those parasitic bastard landowners from California. Outside of a few “freezer” state such as Wyoming, Alaska or the Dakotas ( or “oven” areas such as southwest Texas ) there are few rural states left untouched to a large degree by affluent retirees from the coasts. On our dime they are now infesting all areas like dung beetles on a mound of horse droppings. It is bad enough you now must pay high land prices in areas with little employment but now you must put up with a bunch of gimpy old farts who take ten minutes to cross the road and plow through crowds when they mistake the gas for the brakes even after driving ( badly ) all their lives.
*
And I know it wasn’t called a barter box. “Hope Chest”? It was a box full of items later turned priceless luxuries. Such as pipe tobacco. I remember the characters had smoked the last cigarettes and then started in on the pipe tobacco for their nicotine habit. So as I am one to always steal a good idea when I remember it, I figured we could talk about a few barter items today. I have already written on cheap mass produced items such as sewing pins and matches and such. Stuff you can buy at the dollar store now and not care about spending a few bucks here and there and before you know it having quite a collection. This deals more with items which are more costly. Anyone can buy a thousand toothpicks for a buck and put it away. Here we are more concerned with three to ten dollar items. You will have less of them and so this will be much more valuable as trade items. And as such it is recommended that you fill a box, tape it up and hide it. If you are tempted to raid your barter items after prices in the market shot up you would have nothing left.
*
Coffee prices have lately shot up quite a bit. For whatever reason, retail prices are crazy ( my theory is that as grocery store chains acquire each other in mergers the price of non-perishables skyrockets to pay for the takeover ). You can still buy 32 ounce cans of Wal-Mart brand for under four bucks, but I don’t think that will last for long. And they are almost always out of stock. Look for the blue can on the bottom shelf. They are also cheaper than the 39 ounce generic version per ounce ( that one is $5 and change ). Buy it when it is in stock and increase your stash. You will see unrelenting price inflation for some time. Buy while you can while it is cheap. Sure, eventually prices could fall. As we enter a worldwide Depression and everyone under fifty is drafted to fight over in Iran since military spending will be our last economic industry left in this country except Hollywood movies and agricultural commodities.
*
Rimfire ammunition is dirt cheap right now, ten bucks a box of 550 rounds after tax. Buy the heck out of it. You can never have enough. Especially if you shoot every weekend and rotate your stock. Well, okay, you can’t rotate your stock if you seal up your barter goods. Unless you have just 22’s in the box and nothing else. And buy the whole amount as rotational stock. It does keep for about twenty years without much problem though. Figure out whatever system works best for you. I know I have been guilty of dipping into my rimfire stockpile without replacing it. You really should seal it up tight. Two boxes worth taped up in plastic might be the discipline you need to buy replacements beforehand. One box by itself is too easy to pilfer. Sealed up multiple boxes are a different story.
*
Tobacco is now like pistols or ladders. Half the cost goes to liability. The bastard puke lawyers have so crippled certain industries that most of what you pay just goes to insurance or other lawyers to protect against the first lawyers or to pay for past settlements. This is evident in tobacco by looking at the cost of cigarettes. A carton of smokes at the store is thirty bucks. At Federal Indian reservation stores it is twenty. But to buy the same amount of tobacco to make your own cigarettes it cost about $8.50. Big difference.
*
Before Hilary Clinton made a ten thousand percent profit from one real estate deal and got hubby elected by selling both their souls to Lucifer and other special interest groups, a carton of cigarettes was $12 for brand name. A bit more than ten years ago. And roll-your-own was half the price it is now. But still, with inflation taken into account eight bucks ain’t bad. It is ten and change if you buy the pre-rolled paper tubes with filter. Buy just the tobacco with the papers already in them. The papers use the machine that rolls an unfiltered cigarette that you lick the gummed edge to seal. The other type stuffs the leaf into the tube. If tobacco disappears they will be more than happy to smoke unfiltered again. Buy several back-up machines. They are two or three bucks each. Then roll them and sell them one at a time. You are sitting on a gold mine. At least until tobacco starts getting back on the market. Sell while transportation is disrupted, before that happens.
*
Stay away from booze. It is a more “iffy” market. Homemade hootch will very quickly make an appearance. Stockpile for yourself, not for trade. I’m sure you can come up with a few more ideas. But with silver now at $14 an ounce, it is cheaper to invest in trade goods instead of precious metals. And it is smart to trade worthless Greenbacks for something of value while you can.
END
Friday, February 16, 2007
blackout kit
BLACKOUT EMERGENCY KIT
A few months ago the northeast was having an extended fall. Instead of snow and freezing temperatures they were getting highs during the day of fifties or even sixty degrees. And back at high desert headquarters we were freezing our butts off. The day after Thanksgiving we went into a uncharacteristically cold weather spell and it stayed that way for a solid two months. I’ve been here almost four years and I was used to mild winters. The guys living here thirty or more years said it was unlike any they had seen. Not record setting lows but unusually low temperatures for an extended period of time. And back East the Yankees were hootin and hollerin and in general lording it over us and calling us names and making pests of themselves. Well, winter finally hit them and did it hard. And it serves them right for enjoying themselves while my testicles retracted into my body cavity in search of warmth.
*
While you and I look at each other and smirk and whisper what cool dudes we are for preparing, try to get a friend or two to read this and learn how darn cheap it is to put together a minimalist frugal blackout emergency kit. Anyone can easily have heat and lighting for a few weeks for under one hundred dollars. And half of that cost can be postponed. It really makes no sense that anyone shouldn’t have this kit. Any moron within driving distance of Wal-Mart can have a unit to cook on that also provides heat and a source for lighting. An emergency food source costs five bucks for two people for two weeks. There is no need to buy a woodstove or replace the electric stove with a gas model. All that needs to be done is to buy a few camping tools and then over time slowly stock up on fuel ( if the financial means are stretched after the initial cost of the tools ).
*
You could survive without heat in a house. But how fun is it to sit around on the couch and stare at a silent TV set while wearing a bulky parka? You could buy a generator to keep your heating oil furnace running, or you could install a wood burning stove with several cords of wood. I would recommend the wood stove, but for now we are focused on financially stressed households and the minimum that they can do. It doesn’t matter how smart it is to do something if you can’t afford it. It has been thirty years since our nation faced a true fuel crisis and we have to relearn how to do without the grid humming along to keep us warm. So when you bought the house or rented the apartment you were focused on school districts and the mortgage cost. Supplemental warmth was secondary. I will just assume you are in an all electric dwelling and don’t have a propane furnace. Or you are too poor to buy a generator. Or a woodstove. They are affordable until it is time to actually install the unit under code.
*
A small propane camp stove costs about $15 in Wal-Mart for a single burner unit. Look in the camping section. This will cook your simple meals and help to heat a single room in the house ( with some intake for air so you don’t kill yourself ). It ain’t much, but it is better than nothing. Far better. A disposable propane canister is about $2.25 and will last about eight hours on low. Two a day will heat during waking hours. It would be cheaper to run the unit off of a five gallon unit but unless you already own one ( say, from a BBQ ) they are an expensive up front cost. Plus then you need to buy an adapter to go from the big tank to the small canister size, which is what the camp stove uses.
*
A LED lantern costs $10 and it is another three bucks to supply three changes of batteries to it. That will supply more than the light you will need for two weeks. You are not buying a bright light here. You are buying the unit that uses the least amount of power to run. Those would be LED units. Forget candles and conventional flashlights, they don’t come close in longevity. For your food, just buy a twenty five pound sack of white flour. That will provide bulk and calories to be supplemented by whatever meager canned goods or freezer items you already have.
*
So far you have spent $15 for the stove/heater and $13 for light. $5 for emergency food. That is $43. Now spend $4.50 for each days supply of propane. If you buy one set of canisters you have spent under $50. Now, each week that you go to Wal-Mart buy another set. It is almost spring. Even if you only buy one set every other week going shopping by next winter you will have stockpiled over forty canisters of propane. You won’t notice $5 gone every other week and next winter you will be prepared for the power to be out for about three weeks. I realize I have glossed over a few items. You will need extra blankets to stay warm at night. If you are buying them after winter they will be on sale. The same with caps and gloves and wool sweaters ( two wool sweaters will keep you toasty to about 40 degrees and is more comfortable than a bulky coat ).
*
You will already have pots and pans for cooking. Store up on disposable plates and cups and flatware. For bathing, prepare to be cold. Put the heater in the bathroom and sponge bathe as quick as possible. Have water stored were it is going to stay thawed, baring extreme conditions. If nothing else, store water in two liter soda bottles. Be sure to have enough for drinking, minimal washing, a few flushes of the toilet a day. You should position yourself where you like and want electricity, but don’t absolutely need it. And you can prepare yourself cheaply. The trick is to minimize needs. Warm a room, not the house. Provide minimal calories, not tasty food. Etc. You get the idea.
END
buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
A few months ago the northeast was having an extended fall. Instead of snow and freezing temperatures they were getting highs during the day of fifties or even sixty degrees. And back at high desert headquarters we were freezing our butts off. The day after Thanksgiving we went into a uncharacteristically cold weather spell and it stayed that way for a solid two months. I’ve been here almost four years and I was used to mild winters. The guys living here thirty or more years said it was unlike any they had seen. Not record setting lows but unusually low temperatures for an extended period of time. And back East the Yankees were hootin and hollerin and in general lording it over us and calling us names and making pests of themselves. Well, winter finally hit them and did it hard. And it serves them right for enjoying themselves while my testicles retracted into my body cavity in search of warmth.
*
While you and I look at each other and smirk and whisper what cool dudes we are for preparing, try to get a friend or two to read this and learn how darn cheap it is to put together a minimalist frugal blackout emergency kit. Anyone can easily have heat and lighting for a few weeks for under one hundred dollars. And half of that cost can be postponed. It really makes no sense that anyone shouldn’t have this kit. Any moron within driving distance of Wal-Mart can have a unit to cook on that also provides heat and a source for lighting. An emergency food source costs five bucks for two people for two weeks. There is no need to buy a woodstove or replace the electric stove with a gas model. All that needs to be done is to buy a few camping tools and then over time slowly stock up on fuel ( if the financial means are stretched after the initial cost of the tools ).
*
You could survive without heat in a house. But how fun is it to sit around on the couch and stare at a silent TV set while wearing a bulky parka? You could buy a generator to keep your heating oil furnace running, or you could install a wood burning stove with several cords of wood. I would recommend the wood stove, but for now we are focused on financially stressed households and the minimum that they can do. It doesn’t matter how smart it is to do something if you can’t afford it. It has been thirty years since our nation faced a true fuel crisis and we have to relearn how to do without the grid humming along to keep us warm. So when you bought the house or rented the apartment you were focused on school districts and the mortgage cost. Supplemental warmth was secondary. I will just assume you are in an all electric dwelling and don’t have a propane furnace. Or you are too poor to buy a generator. Or a woodstove. They are affordable until it is time to actually install the unit under code.
*
A small propane camp stove costs about $15 in Wal-Mart for a single burner unit. Look in the camping section. This will cook your simple meals and help to heat a single room in the house ( with some intake for air so you don’t kill yourself ). It ain’t much, but it is better than nothing. Far better. A disposable propane canister is about $2.25 and will last about eight hours on low. Two a day will heat during waking hours. It would be cheaper to run the unit off of a five gallon unit but unless you already own one ( say, from a BBQ ) they are an expensive up front cost. Plus then you need to buy an adapter to go from the big tank to the small canister size, which is what the camp stove uses.
*
A LED lantern costs $10 and it is another three bucks to supply three changes of batteries to it. That will supply more than the light you will need for two weeks. You are not buying a bright light here. You are buying the unit that uses the least amount of power to run. Those would be LED units. Forget candles and conventional flashlights, they don’t come close in longevity. For your food, just buy a twenty five pound sack of white flour. That will provide bulk and calories to be supplemented by whatever meager canned goods or freezer items you already have.
*
So far you have spent $15 for the stove/heater and $13 for light. $5 for emergency food. That is $43. Now spend $4.50 for each days supply of propane. If you buy one set of canisters you have spent under $50. Now, each week that you go to Wal-Mart buy another set. It is almost spring. Even if you only buy one set every other week going shopping by next winter you will have stockpiled over forty canisters of propane. You won’t notice $5 gone every other week and next winter you will be prepared for the power to be out for about three weeks. I realize I have glossed over a few items. You will need extra blankets to stay warm at night. If you are buying them after winter they will be on sale. The same with caps and gloves and wool sweaters ( two wool sweaters will keep you toasty to about 40 degrees and is more comfortable than a bulky coat ).
*
You will already have pots and pans for cooking. Store up on disposable plates and cups and flatware. For bathing, prepare to be cold. Put the heater in the bathroom and sponge bathe as quick as possible. Have water stored were it is going to stay thawed, baring extreme conditions. If nothing else, store water in two liter soda bottles. Be sure to have enough for drinking, minimal washing, a few flushes of the toilet a day. You should position yourself where you like and want electricity, but don’t absolutely need it. And you can prepare yourself cheaply. The trick is to minimize needs. Warm a room, not the house. Provide minimal calories, not tasty food. Etc. You get the idea.
END
buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, February 15, 2007
national ID
wow! Look at how time flies. If you exclude the three posts submited by readers, I just passed the 100 article mark yesterday. I respectfully submit to you my 101st article below. Enjoy.
NATIONAL I.D.
Remember when I told you almost a year in advance to hurry up and declare bankruptcy before the new laws went into effect? I don’t know how many of you actually did although I hope it was a lot. In effect, the new law says that you are now a wage slave for the rest of your life. On the one hand you did borrow the money and should pay it back. On the other hand things happen beyond your control and you should be allowed to file bankruptcy, regardless of many other people misusing the system. The other day as I got off of work I actually sat down and watched a little of Judge Judy with the wife. Normally I hate that crap, ranking it up there with most “reality” shows that are scripted and fall into the category of “Dumbass TV”. I had to do something while waiting for the hot water to heat up ( we only run the heater four hours a day and the wife forgot to turn it on in time ). But it did have a segment where a renter stiffed the landlord and they were forced to declare bankruptcy. But under the new law they could only declare if their wages fell. It wouldn’t matter if they had five months of mortgage bills on a rental unit that was not paid to them and with bills from the unit being trashed in the process.
*
And perhaps a few of you remember me telling you to beware the coming National Identification. If you weren’t around sucking off my Radiant Vast And All Knowing Wisdom then do not delay ordering the Bison collection at http://www.bisonpress.com/ and reading that article. For those of you too smart to send money every time I ask for it, let me recap for you. Perhaps not the day after implementation, but shortly thereafter, the National ID is going to be used to track all of your purchases. Sure, right now they could do it. But it takes a lot of Jack Booted Thug clerks and is rather involved with the postal authorities being involved and the need to watch your credit cards and perhaps even surveillance. That will do when trying to nail someone in court. But to track everyone they need to have a computerized system to see what you buy. Thus the beauty of national ID.
*
With an identification card that can be monitored by the Federales regardless of which state ( or, more to the point, regardless of which Federal Administration Territory ) issued the ID, now any behavior pattern can be automatically tracked by computer and whole segments of the population can be filed into threat levels. Let’s say that the Feds assumed that you housing and feeding other citizens after a natural disaster was your patriotic duty. Since you had to show your ID to buy groceries in order for the government to protect you in the event of a food illness outbreak ( to combat killer spinach, lets say ) they know how much extra food you should have on hand. Now they don’t care if you buy with cash, they know you are a food hoarder anyway.
*
Or lets say that in order to protect you against terrorists they require an ID swipe every time you buy reloading supplies. Now you are a militia member whether you realize it or not. If you live in town but buy wheat or corn in kernel form you are not a farmer but a survivalist. You will be monitored by the requirement that livestock is registered and thus feed will now be a controlled item. If you buy any one ingredient that could be used for improvised explosives you will be included in a round up any time there is a IED used against the Stormtroopers. If you buy a night vision device you are a terrorist, since no one would legitimately deny the Army the ownership of the night. And if you bought camping gear you must be planning on becoming a rebel hiding out in the boonies. And let’s say that no one really knows where you live due to your paying cash and/or using a mail address on your drivers license. Even if you use cash they can track you in real time by your purchases. If a constable is nearby they can arrest you if wanted.
*
And just using cash may be the excuse they need to require you to show your new and improved ID. Why, you must be a drug dealer if you want to use cash. Expect to see that magical use of logic. As I said, this may not happen immediately after the new ID is required. But it is the logical outgrowth. Why put cameras everywhere if you can get everyone to announce their every move by participating in the economy? Britain may be a security camera haven, but with Yankee ingenuity we can make their Big Brother society look tame by comparison. Computers can free you, or enslave you. Or at least make it a lot easier to know where you are when the time comes to load you into the freight cars.
*
It is pathetic, but the cry and anguish arising from the various states over the coming ID law has nothing to do with Socialistic control. They have no problem with that. They are only upset because it is going too cost so much to implement and they want the Feds to pick up the tab. Friggin Commie Bastard Pukes.
*
Buy what you need now. Don’t wait for it to monitored by our fearless leaders. Buy all your self-sufficiency equipment and supplies before the new law goes into effect. I have warned you. You won’t listen, but I have done my part.
END
NATIONAL I.D.
Remember when I told you almost a year in advance to hurry up and declare bankruptcy before the new laws went into effect? I don’t know how many of you actually did although I hope it was a lot. In effect, the new law says that you are now a wage slave for the rest of your life. On the one hand you did borrow the money and should pay it back. On the other hand things happen beyond your control and you should be allowed to file bankruptcy, regardless of many other people misusing the system. The other day as I got off of work I actually sat down and watched a little of Judge Judy with the wife. Normally I hate that crap, ranking it up there with most “reality” shows that are scripted and fall into the category of “Dumbass TV”. I had to do something while waiting for the hot water to heat up ( we only run the heater four hours a day and the wife forgot to turn it on in time ). But it did have a segment where a renter stiffed the landlord and they were forced to declare bankruptcy. But under the new law they could only declare if their wages fell. It wouldn’t matter if they had five months of mortgage bills on a rental unit that was not paid to them and with bills from the unit being trashed in the process.
*
And perhaps a few of you remember me telling you to beware the coming National Identification. If you weren’t around sucking off my Radiant Vast And All Knowing Wisdom then do not delay ordering the Bison collection at http://www.bisonpress.com/ and reading that article. For those of you too smart to send money every time I ask for it, let me recap for you. Perhaps not the day after implementation, but shortly thereafter, the National ID is going to be used to track all of your purchases. Sure, right now they could do it. But it takes a lot of Jack Booted Thug clerks and is rather involved with the postal authorities being involved and the need to watch your credit cards and perhaps even surveillance. That will do when trying to nail someone in court. But to track everyone they need to have a computerized system to see what you buy. Thus the beauty of national ID.
*
With an identification card that can be monitored by the Federales regardless of which state ( or, more to the point, regardless of which Federal Administration Territory ) issued the ID, now any behavior pattern can be automatically tracked by computer and whole segments of the population can be filed into threat levels. Let’s say that the Feds assumed that you housing and feeding other citizens after a natural disaster was your patriotic duty. Since you had to show your ID to buy groceries in order for the government to protect you in the event of a food illness outbreak ( to combat killer spinach, lets say ) they know how much extra food you should have on hand. Now they don’t care if you buy with cash, they know you are a food hoarder anyway.
*
Or lets say that in order to protect you against terrorists they require an ID swipe every time you buy reloading supplies. Now you are a militia member whether you realize it or not. If you live in town but buy wheat or corn in kernel form you are not a farmer but a survivalist. You will be monitored by the requirement that livestock is registered and thus feed will now be a controlled item. If you buy any one ingredient that could be used for improvised explosives you will be included in a round up any time there is a IED used against the Stormtroopers. If you buy a night vision device you are a terrorist, since no one would legitimately deny the Army the ownership of the night. And if you bought camping gear you must be planning on becoming a rebel hiding out in the boonies. And let’s say that no one really knows where you live due to your paying cash and/or using a mail address on your drivers license. Even if you use cash they can track you in real time by your purchases. If a constable is nearby they can arrest you if wanted.
*
And just using cash may be the excuse they need to require you to show your new and improved ID. Why, you must be a drug dealer if you want to use cash. Expect to see that magical use of logic. As I said, this may not happen immediately after the new ID is required. But it is the logical outgrowth. Why put cameras everywhere if you can get everyone to announce their every move by participating in the economy? Britain may be a security camera haven, but with Yankee ingenuity we can make their Big Brother society look tame by comparison. Computers can free you, or enslave you. Or at least make it a lot easier to know where you are when the time comes to load you into the freight cars.
*
It is pathetic, but the cry and anguish arising from the various states over the coming ID law has nothing to do with Socialistic control. They have no problem with that. They are only upset because it is going too cost so much to implement and they want the Feds to pick up the tab. Friggin Commie Bastard Pukes.
*
Buy what you need now. Don’t wait for it to monitored by our fearless leaders. Buy all your self-sufficiency equipment and supplies before the new law goes into effect. I have warned you. You won’t listen, but I have done my part.
END
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
business cost
THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS
This morning on www.survivalblog.com Jim was talking about the Just In Time Inventory problem. Almost every business has reduced inventory to the point of absolutely no cushion for extra demand. Inventory has been reduced to a unwanted, dirty practice. Excess inventory is a great way to get fired from a management position. As a result survivalists had better have their own inventory on hand since disaster plus one minute will see all shelves stripped bare. I have seen relatively new buildings with a modest back room designed to hold a lot more than they do now, the trend is taken to such extremes. A lot of building was constructed and is being climate controlled that holds nothing but pallets during off-loading. They are immediately put on the shelves. The back room was recently constructed to hold a very modest back stock and is now absolutely empty. When Jim states grocery store shelves are the entire inventory he is not kidding.
*
Which brings me to today’s rant. The cost that customers and workers must bear to keep businesses afloat. The fact that we are now forced to act as our own warehouse is bad enough. Do you know how many times I have gone to Wal-Mart and found their cheap generic toilet paper out of stock? Or gone to Dollar General and found the cat litter gone? At least 50% of the time. I am forced to stockpile my own consumer items whether I want to or not. I of course try to stockpile everything I need. That is just being a good little prepper. But the fact that businesses force me to do it is just plain rude. I want a cheap item, not the next cheapest and so I stock up on it when I can, which means I create another shortage in it for the next guy. I mean, I’m not shopping at Target or Costco here. I am shopping at the Poor Bastards Mart. They have taken Just In Time too far. There is no margin for error. No one is allowed to stock up, no emergencies are allowed to occur.
*
On top of acting as our own warehouse we must also now do all our own labor. The big guys ran the small businesses out of town during the Arab oil embargo in the seventies. And all went to self serve gas. And insultingly high food items in the store to add on to the profit. I realize there is a lot of environmental cost in running a gas station. I realize also that the oil companies make a heck of a lot of profit. It ain’t all going into double walled fiberglass gasoline tanks at the station. Now we have to do all the payment processing at the check out counter. Everyone now has a self serve debit/credit card machine. They trained us quick for that, those things took over in a matter of a few years. Now they are pushing for the radio transmitters for all products so that we won’t even have a check out person at the store. Just a low brow security guy at the exit door to make sure you paid. It wasn’t enough you did self serve food shopping, now you have to bag it too. I’m sure not too far into the future they will only sell in bulk and you will need to provide your own containers for everything from laundry soap to Gummi Bears.
*
So stores are not expected to stockpile much more than display models anymore. I went to a computer store yesterday to buy a dial up modem for the old computer ( as a back up- I wouldn’t dream of making you wait an extra day for this Walter Mitty soft porn if my computer breaks ). It was ordered. If you order a on sale computer from Office Depot you have to order it and pay extra shipping charges ( and they are now pretty bad about having enough different items in stock- ink replacement inventory is about half and there is no damn excuse as they are not cheap ). What is the point in having a retail store if it is just an outlet for a mail order firm?
*
Now you are also expected to be your own expert when buying an item. Remember when Radio Shack used to employ experts in electronics? You had only a vague idea of what you needed but those guys could figure it out. The high prices were worth paying for the help. No more. The last time I went in there was a slack jawed idiot that couldn’t help with the simplest question ( I knew it was simple since I could have done the research myself online ). I will not be going back. And Office Depot used to employ geeks to help you out. Used to. What am I paying high prices for? I guess so the CEO can go home with ten million bucks in bonuses this year.
*
And what about working for these idiots? You don’t get paid crap. You work Sundays and holidays. You don’t get any benefits and you can be laid off at any time. The last time I ordered from Sportsman’s Guide I got a sticker that it was packed by some guy ( or gal, what the heck do I know? ) with a very Hispanic name. An example of immigrants putting a downward pressure on wages. Workers are definitely getting the short end of the stick also. So you are screwed as you go to work and as you stop by the store on the way home. All so a few parasites can live lives of luxury while the masses struggle along. The days of Unions leveling the playing field only lasted a few generations. They are long gone.
*
Do not misunderstand me. I am an anarchist. I believe in free market economies. But that is not what we have. We have either mercantilism ( the government protecting business ) or Fascism ( business being controlled by government ) or both at the same time. It varies by industry. But no where do we have a totally free market economy ( and never have- the robber baron era was mercantilism ). So while I am all for a true market, I am opposed to our current bugger-thy-worker/consumer economy. It isn’t just business acting badly. They are joined by bankers and lawyers and politicians. All class A bastards.
*
Do I have a point here? I don’t know, this was a rant. Basically, don’t trust businesses. Not for emergency supplies and not for a secure job and not for good customer service ( despite higher prices ).
END
bravo-buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
This morning on www.survivalblog.com Jim was talking about the Just In Time Inventory problem. Almost every business has reduced inventory to the point of absolutely no cushion for extra demand. Inventory has been reduced to a unwanted, dirty practice. Excess inventory is a great way to get fired from a management position. As a result survivalists had better have their own inventory on hand since disaster plus one minute will see all shelves stripped bare. I have seen relatively new buildings with a modest back room designed to hold a lot more than they do now, the trend is taken to such extremes. A lot of building was constructed and is being climate controlled that holds nothing but pallets during off-loading. They are immediately put on the shelves. The back room was recently constructed to hold a very modest back stock and is now absolutely empty. When Jim states grocery store shelves are the entire inventory he is not kidding.
*
Which brings me to today’s rant. The cost that customers and workers must bear to keep businesses afloat. The fact that we are now forced to act as our own warehouse is bad enough. Do you know how many times I have gone to Wal-Mart and found their cheap generic toilet paper out of stock? Or gone to Dollar General and found the cat litter gone? At least 50% of the time. I am forced to stockpile my own consumer items whether I want to or not. I of course try to stockpile everything I need. That is just being a good little prepper. But the fact that businesses force me to do it is just plain rude. I want a cheap item, not the next cheapest and so I stock up on it when I can, which means I create another shortage in it for the next guy. I mean, I’m not shopping at Target or Costco here. I am shopping at the Poor Bastards Mart. They have taken Just In Time too far. There is no margin for error. No one is allowed to stock up, no emergencies are allowed to occur.
*
On top of acting as our own warehouse we must also now do all our own labor. The big guys ran the small businesses out of town during the Arab oil embargo in the seventies. And all went to self serve gas. And insultingly high food items in the store to add on to the profit. I realize there is a lot of environmental cost in running a gas station. I realize also that the oil companies make a heck of a lot of profit. It ain’t all going into double walled fiberglass gasoline tanks at the station. Now we have to do all the payment processing at the check out counter. Everyone now has a self serve debit/credit card machine. They trained us quick for that, those things took over in a matter of a few years. Now they are pushing for the radio transmitters for all products so that we won’t even have a check out person at the store. Just a low brow security guy at the exit door to make sure you paid. It wasn’t enough you did self serve food shopping, now you have to bag it too. I’m sure not too far into the future they will only sell in bulk and you will need to provide your own containers for everything from laundry soap to Gummi Bears.
*
So stores are not expected to stockpile much more than display models anymore. I went to a computer store yesterday to buy a dial up modem for the old computer ( as a back up- I wouldn’t dream of making you wait an extra day for this Walter Mitty soft porn if my computer breaks ). It was ordered. If you order a on sale computer from Office Depot you have to order it and pay extra shipping charges ( and they are now pretty bad about having enough different items in stock- ink replacement inventory is about half and there is no damn excuse as they are not cheap ). What is the point in having a retail store if it is just an outlet for a mail order firm?
*
Now you are also expected to be your own expert when buying an item. Remember when Radio Shack used to employ experts in electronics? You had only a vague idea of what you needed but those guys could figure it out. The high prices were worth paying for the help. No more. The last time I went in there was a slack jawed idiot that couldn’t help with the simplest question ( I knew it was simple since I could have done the research myself online ). I will not be going back. And Office Depot used to employ geeks to help you out. Used to. What am I paying high prices for? I guess so the CEO can go home with ten million bucks in bonuses this year.
*
And what about working for these idiots? You don’t get paid crap. You work Sundays and holidays. You don’t get any benefits and you can be laid off at any time. The last time I ordered from Sportsman’s Guide I got a sticker that it was packed by some guy ( or gal, what the heck do I know? ) with a very Hispanic name. An example of immigrants putting a downward pressure on wages. Workers are definitely getting the short end of the stick also. So you are screwed as you go to work and as you stop by the store on the way home. All so a few parasites can live lives of luxury while the masses struggle along. The days of Unions leveling the playing field only lasted a few generations. They are long gone.
*
Do not misunderstand me. I am an anarchist. I believe in free market economies. But that is not what we have. We have either mercantilism ( the government protecting business ) or Fascism ( business being controlled by government ) or both at the same time. It varies by industry. But no where do we have a totally free market economy ( and never have- the robber baron era was mercantilism ). So while I am all for a true market, I am opposed to our current bugger-thy-worker/consumer economy. It isn’t just business acting badly. They are joined by bankers and lawyers and politicians. All class A bastards.
*
Do I have a point here? I don’t know, this was a rant. Basically, don’t trust businesses. Not for emergency supplies and not for a secure job and not for good customer service ( despite higher prices ).
END
bravo-buy bison books www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
iran invasion 2
Before we begin today, I would like everyone to please do something for me. Don't worry, it is free. Please clink on this link I am about to give you. I have a heck of a time trying to modify the Blogspot site, so in order to get a visitor counter I added a page to my own website to get an idea of how many reader I have. At this point I have little idea. Please visit this link once so I can find out http://bisonpress.com/counter.html
Thank you.
*
A big hearty THANKS go to DW over in MN for sending me a copy of the paperback "Wolf and Iron". I hadn't read that in at least ten years and look forward to it. You people could take a clue and also shower me with gifts. Boxes of 303 ammo might run into shipping restrictions so just send me one ounce silver coins. I am seriously holding my breath here people!
*
MORE ON THE IRAN INVASION
I know what you are all thinking. Half are thinking, I wish he’d shut the heck up. The other half is thinking, I wish he’d stop writing two part articles a week apart and really confusing me. My apologies on both accounts. I might do nothing but over analyze everything, but it is a slow process sometimes. I only fire up the neurons after a half a pot of coffee and then since you all refuse to support my ex-wife I have to go to work which really interferes with a proper flow of logic. So sometimes it takes more than one morning to think out a subject. Okay, actually to be fair if you took an answer to a problem and wrapped it in a lead block and put it front of the door I would stumble over it and after cussing over a bloody shin I would continue on my way none the wiser. If I stumbled over it and then bumped my head on it I might, just might look at the darn thing and achieve a split second of enlightenment. This was one such moment.
*
Last week I’m beating my head against the rubber walls and I can’t come up with one good reason why we would be silly enough to invade Iran since it is a course of action so obviously full of danger. Well, I was reading www.urbansurvival.com this morning and he’s throwing around oil reserve numbers and a dim light bulb wearily struggles to life over my head. Take the low ball oil reserve figures for several nations ( high numbers are politically motivated because of OPEC production quotas, a leftover from when there was plenty of oil to pump thirty years ago ) and the picture does become a little clearer. Not crystal clear, as reserves are always off using hindsight. But perhaps enough of a picture to help us see the way. Iraq has about ten percent of the globes oil reserves left. We have 2%. Russia has about 8%. Saudi Arabia has 25%. And our buddy Iran has 10%. What does this tell us?
*
If we control 2% and our neighbors Canada and Mexico have a few more percent supply, and we have 10% from Iraq then we are in a very good position of controlling 15% of the globes oil supply. But, wait. We use 25% of produced oil. This is what keeps our economy going, what keeps the bankers and politicians living in Fat City. Once we invade Iran and control another 10% we have our 25% pretty well sewn up regardless of whether other nations withdraw as our suppliers. And if you take into account Saudi Arabian oil we now have pretty much a guaranteed control of half the remaining oil in the world. That will keep us in power, keep our economy alive, keep our society from the Dark Ages. The bankers and corporate elite and politicians can continue to live in luxury. The mass of civilians will just have to be content that they are alive and still have food on the table.
*
Now I am not saying this is not without risk. We could experience severe blowback by invading a Russian/Chinese semi-protectorate nation. We could see terror attacks ( although one reason I have my suspicions about who actually caused 9/11 is the lack of more attacks after we invaded the Middle East ). The oil supply from the region could stop. Whatever. I am not really focused on that here. We covered that last time. I am not saying an attack is a good idea, just that it might sound feasible to our powers-that-be. If you are making millions of dollars a year as a parasite you could care less about long term consequences. That’s our bankers/CEO’s/lawyers/politicians. We could avert Peak Oil or we could enter a nuclear conflict. I can see the downside as an unimportant cog in the vast machine. I doubt those in power see much downside at all.
*
So having finally thought of a good reason why we will be invading Iran, I can now place more of a mathematical probability in it happening. As a result I have decided to order a bit more ammo through the mail and start buying up some more wheat and other foods. I went out Saturday and picked up a hundred pounds total of a combination of white flour/rice and canned beans. That was about forty bucks. And I spent another forty at the feed store. I couldn’t believe the whole wheat price. Nine months ago it was about $8 retail price for fifty pounds. It is now slightly over ten bucks for the same bag. A twenty-five percent increase in less than a year. I know the twin droughts in the plains and in Australia are not helping the price, but global supplies must really be down for that kind of price increase. In the past retail always stayed the same throughout commodity price fluctuations. I think this is a good time to buy the heck out of it, regardless of a Iran problem. If it stays high like ammo and silver have there will be no better time to buy than now.
*
It is never a bad time to increase your basic supplies. But just in case Iran is invaded, buy more now than you had planned on. Inflation alone will keep the price from falling. And increased oil prices don’t help. And any military scare will dry up all supplies. It is a no lose situation for stockpiling now. You can never have enough grain and legumes, ammunition and water filters, solar panels or rechargeable batteries. The prices will only increase ( except perhaps solar panels, but perhaps not a quick enough decrease to justify not buying before a crises ). If you are already in a lot of debt, just get into some more. If not, squeeze the budget for a month or two to get the extra cash. Even if I am 100% totally wrong the supplies will not go to waste. You will save on future price increases. And start sleeping sounder immediately. Good luck.
END
Thank you.
*
A big hearty THANKS go to DW over in MN for sending me a copy of the paperback "Wolf and Iron". I hadn't read that in at least ten years and look forward to it. You people could take a clue and also shower me with gifts. Boxes of 303 ammo might run into shipping restrictions so just send me one ounce silver coins. I am seriously holding my breath here people!
*
MORE ON THE IRAN INVASION
I know what you are all thinking. Half are thinking, I wish he’d shut the heck up. The other half is thinking, I wish he’d stop writing two part articles a week apart and really confusing me. My apologies on both accounts. I might do nothing but over analyze everything, but it is a slow process sometimes. I only fire up the neurons after a half a pot of coffee and then since you all refuse to support my ex-wife I have to go to work which really interferes with a proper flow of logic. So sometimes it takes more than one morning to think out a subject. Okay, actually to be fair if you took an answer to a problem and wrapped it in a lead block and put it front of the door I would stumble over it and after cussing over a bloody shin I would continue on my way none the wiser. If I stumbled over it and then bumped my head on it I might, just might look at the darn thing and achieve a split second of enlightenment. This was one such moment.
*
Last week I’m beating my head against the rubber walls and I can’t come up with one good reason why we would be silly enough to invade Iran since it is a course of action so obviously full of danger. Well, I was reading www.urbansurvival.com this morning and he’s throwing around oil reserve numbers and a dim light bulb wearily struggles to life over my head. Take the low ball oil reserve figures for several nations ( high numbers are politically motivated because of OPEC production quotas, a leftover from when there was plenty of oil to pump thirty years ago ) and the picture does become a little clearer. Not crystal clear, as reserves are always off using hindsight. But perhaps enough of a picture to help us see the way. Iraq has about ten percent of the globes oil reserves left. We have 2%. Russia has about 8%. Saudi Arabia has 25%. And our buddy Iran has 10%. What does this tell us?
*
If we control 2% and our neighbors Canada and Mexico have a few more percent supply, and we have 10% from Iraq then we are in a very good position of controlling 15% of the globes oil supply. But, wait. We use 25% of produced oil. This is what keeps our economy going, what keeps the bankers and politicians living in Fat City. Once we invade Iran and control another 10% we have our 25% pretty well sewn up regardless of whether other nations withdraw as our suppliers. And if you take into account Saudi Arabian oil we now have pretty much a guaranteed control of half the remaining oil in the world. That will keep us in power, keep our economy alive, keep our society from the Dark Ages. The bankers and corporate elite and politicians can continue to live in luxury. The mass of civilians will just have to be content that they are alive and still have food on the table.
*
Now I am not saying this is not without risk. We could experience severe blowback by invading a Russian/Chinese semi-protectorate nation. We could see terror attacks ( although one reason I have my suspicions about who actually caused 9/11 is the lack of more attacks after we invaded the Middle East ). The oil supply from the region could stop. Whatever. I am not really focused on that here. We covered that last time. I am not saying an attack is a good idea, just that it might sound feasible to our powers-that-be. If you are making millions of dollars a year as a parasite you could care less about long term consequences. That’s our bankers/CEO’s/lawyers/politicians. We could avert Peak Oil or we could enter a nuclear conflict. I can see the downside as an unimportant cog in the vast machine. I doubt those in power see much downside at all.
*
So having finally thought of a good reason why we will be invading Iran, I can now place more of a mathematical probability in it happening. As a result I have decided to order a bit more ammo through the mail and start buying up some more wheat and other foods. I went out Saturday and picked up a hundred pounds total of a combination of white flour/rice and canned beans. That was about forty bucks. And I spent another forty at the feed store. I couldn’t believe the whole wheat price. Nine months ago it was about $8 retail price for fifty pounds. It is now slightly over ten bucks for the same bag. A twenty-five percent increase in less than a year. I know the twin droughts in the plains and in Australia are not helping the price, but global supplies must really be down for that kind of price increase. In the past retail always stayed the same throughout commodity price fluctuations. I think this is a good time to buy the heck out of it, regardless of a Iran problem. If it stays high like ammo and silver have there will be no better time to buy than now.
*
It is never a bad time to increase your basic supplies. But just in case Iran is invaded, buy more now than you had planned on. Inflation alone will keep the price from falling. And increased oil prices don’t help. And any military scare will dry up all supplies. It is a no lose situation for stockpiling now. You can never have enough grain and legumes, ammunition and water filters, solar panels or rechargeable batteries. The prices will only increase ( except perhaps solar panels, but perhaps not a quick enough decrease to justify not buying before a crises ). If you are already in a lot of debt, just get into some more. If not, squeeze the budget for a month or two to get the extra cash. Even if I am 100% totally wrong the supplies will not go to waste. You will save on future price increases. And start sleeping sounder immediately. Good luck.
END
Monday, February 12, 2007
boony business two
MORE BOONIES BUSINESS
At least once a week while at work I get really friggin bored and wander from the food pantry over to the thrift store and check out the book section. It is not the best thrift store book selection in town, but it is a close second. By religiously checking in with both stores I can barely keep ahead in books. Fiction, anyway. This week I got lucky and by a stroke of luck I came across two hardback books by S.M. Stirling. “Conquistador” is a alternate history book, actually one of his best ones in my humble opinion. And, prize of all prizes, the sequel to “Dies The Fire”, “The Protectorates War”. I was so giddy when I spied them it almost made up for it being a rainy Friday where almost no business was there to help along a very slow day.
*
I know I have been less than pleased with Stirling in the past, guessing at a hint of Communism in his writing. I could be wrong but perhaps he is a bit too much against guns. Now, I understand he used to be a lawyer and that accounts for a lot of socialistic mindset ( Lincoln was a lawyer- ‘nuf said ). Unfortunately, as time goes on and I read more of his work I find myself unable to remain too dogmatic. This guy can really write a great story! I also didn’t like “Dies The Fire” with its Celtic mysticism mumbo-jumbo and complained to you about it. However, I did check it out from the library again and much to my surprise found I was unable to put it down and enjoyed it much more the second time around. I guess the Celtic part took me by surprise the first time and by the second I was able to really enjoy the story as a whole since I knew what to expect. I am now going to pay it my highest respect by actually buying a new copy to give the author royalties ( and I only do that when I think they are worthy ).
*
I’ll do a book review on “Protectorates War” when I’m done reading it, but I bring it up here for a reason. One, it wastes at least one third of a page. And, two, it brings me to today’s subject. Another Boonies Business, selling used books on Amazon’s web site. I think selling crap on E-Bay is a losing proposition to a lot of people as the gold rush era has been underway for a time. But Amazon books allow you to sell a known product to a passionate audience rather than fighting with others to low ball prices of new Chinese plastic crap. And unlike, say, real estate on E-Bay it doesn’t require much capital. In fact, the beauty of this is that you don’t even need to love books. Just by investing a few bucks ( literally ) and doing a bit of surfing online should bring in a small but steady income.
*
Chances are that you will not get rich doing this. But it is a great “mirco” business. If you can live dirt cheap this might be all the income you need. You could live in town out of your van, parking near Starbucks for an Internet wireless connection and only needing to keep your laptop charged up. If you are eating at a homeless dining room your only expense is gas and insurance. If you are living in your trailer out in the boonies your only concern would be the Internet connection. I usually dislike going to the library for that but in a recent development that others might mirror our local library just went to wireless. You wouldn’t need to wait in line and could stay connected past the usual half hour. Something to check out. It might be you need a satellite Internet connection, so perhaps selling the books would at least pay for that.
*
I should say here that this is only going to work if you have a source of cheap books. If you don’t live in an area with a number of thrift stores, or ones that see little turnover, you need to try other ideas such as advertising in those free throwaway ad papers that you will buy used books. If it was convenient for you to have people come to your house you could look up the competitors prices and offer a certain fraction of that to the seller. If you don’t make it worth their while they will just give the book to a friend or the thrift store. Treat them right and they will come back after they finish reading the next one. If you can’t see what the online market will bear you will need to settle on a fixed low fee to buy your books. I guess you could also do this with CD’s but I would worry about illegal copies from Asia being offered for less than you can buy the legit stuff for.
*
Find out what fees are charged by Amazon, their policies, etc. I think it is $1 fee and ten percent of the selling price. A lot of books are sold for one cent, so the $3.49 shipping and handling fee is their costs plus profit. And it most likely will involve a trip to the post office each time, unless you can figure out book rate for your package ( a 600 page book weighed in at ten ounces, too high for first class ). And you need to find cheap packaging for the books. I know not all of the books are sold for as low as a penny, but I would think you would want to structure your costs to allow this kind of transaction to make you a profit. Selling twenty items at a fifty cent profit is better than one item for a four dollar profit ( taking into account a mostly paperback market it won’t get any higher than the full retail price of $7.99 and you’ll hardly ever see that ).
*
So, since policy is to ship no later than two business days you will need to go into town Monday, Wednesday and Friday to mail your books. And to check on the thrift stores. And perhaps stop by peoples houses to look over the books they have to sell. It could get quite complicated where you need a cell phone to take sellers calls and a wireless connection to check online for what prices are. And a lot of driving around. I would advise against that unless you are getting a lot of like new books just offered to where you could get near retail price to cover that kind of overhead. Remember, it usually won’t make sense to customers of Amazon to buy your used book at retail. They can buy from Amazon and get their book quicker. You usually must offer the book for $3.49 under what Amazon is selling it for. So what. Even at a two buck profit you are being handsomely paid for your time. If you keep your costs low.
*
I myself would pedal my bike into town to save on gas and vehicle wear and tear. I would only offer a buck per like new book recently printed on paperback and a quarter for others. Unless a seller in town e-mailed me and I checked my selling price and hence profit so as to allow me to offer them more. That would negate the cell phone need at least. If you can cut out all unneeded expenses you could sell those older books for a penny plus shipping and handling and still make money. You are going to need to get a bit of volume going here to make a decent amount of money. One book a day five days a week at only a buck each is only twenty five a month and not worth the effort. Don’t expect to start out at even that amount but there should be the real possibility of future profits. Not enough to get rich, but enough to live on a casual income if you have no bills. Say one or two hundred a month. At least eventually after you get the business going. Crunch the numbers, it might be doable for you.
END
and with your first profits buy my books www.bisonpress.com
At least once a week while at work I get really friggin bored and wander from the food pantry over to the thrift store and check out the book section. It is not the best thrift store book selection in town, but it is a close second. By religiously checking in with both stores I can barely keep ahead in books. Fiction, anyway. This week I got lucky and by a stroke of luck I came across two hardback books by S.M. Stirling. “Conquistador” is a alternate history book, actually one of his best ones in my humble opinion. And, prize of all prizes, the sequel to “Dies The Fire”, “The Protectorates War”. I was so giddy when I spied them it almost made up for it being a rainy Friday where almost no business was there to help along a very slow day.
*
I know I have been less than pleased with Stirling in the past, guessing at a hint of Communism in his writing. I could be wrong but perhaps he is a bit too much against guns. Now, I understand he used to be a lawyer and that accounts for a lot of socialistic mindset ( Lincoln was a lawyer- ‘nuf said ). Unfortunately, as time goes on and I read more of his work I find myself unable to remain too dogmatic. This guy can really write a great story! I also didn’t like “Dies The Fire” with its Celtic mysticism mumbo-jumbo and complained to you about it. However, I did check it out from the library again and much to my surprise found I was unable to put it down and enjoyed it much more the second time around. I guess the Celtic part took me by surprise the first time and by the second I was able to really enjoy the story as a whole since I knew what to expect. I am now going to pay it my highest respect by actually buying a new copy to give the author royalties ( and I only do that when I think they are worthy ).
*
I’ll do a book review on “Protectorates War” when I’m done reading it, but I bring it up here for a reason. One, it wastes at least one third of a page. And, two, it brings me to today’s subject. Another Boonies Business, selling used books on Amazon’s web site. I think selling crap on E-Bay is a losing proposition to a lot of people as the gold rush era has been underway for a time. But Amazon books allow you to sell a known product to a passionate audience rather than fighting with others to low ball prices of new Chinese plastic crap. And unlike, say, real estate on E-Bay it doesn’t require much capital. In fact, the beauty of this is that you don’t even need to love books. Just by investing a few bucks ( literally ) and doing a bit of surfing online should bring in a small but steady income.
*
Chances are that you will not get rich doing this. But it is a great “mirco” business. If you can live dirt cheap this might be all the income you need. You could live in town out of your van, parking near Starbucks for an Internet wireless connection and only needing to keep your laptop charged up. If you are eating at a homeless dining room your only expense is gas and insurance. If you are living in your trailer out in the boonies your only concern would be the Internet connection. I usually dislike going to the library for that but in a recent development that others might mirror our local library just went to wireless. You wouldn’t need to wait in line and could stay connected past the usual half hour. Something to check out. It might be you need a satellite Internet connection, so perhaps selling the books would at least pay for that.
*
I should say here that this is only going to work if you have a source of cheap books. If you don’t live in an area with a number of thrift stores, or ones that see little turnover, you need to try other ideas such as advertising in those free throwaway ad papers that you will buy used books. If it was convenient for you to have people come to your house you could look up the competitors prices and offer a certain fraction of that to the seller. If you don’t make it worth their while they will just give the book to a friend or the thrift store. Treat them right and they will come back after they finish reading the next one. If you can’t see what the online market will bear you will need to settle on a fixed low fee to buy your books. I guess you could also do this with CD’s but I would worry about illegal copies from Asia being offered for less than you can buy the legit stuff for.
*
Find out what fees are charged by Amazon, their policies, etc. I think it is $1 fee and ten percent of the selling price. A lot of books are sold for one cent, so the $3.49 shipping and handling fee is their costs plus profit. And it most likely will involve a trip to the post office each time, unless you can figure out book rate for your package ( a 600 page book weighed in at ten ounces, too high for first class ). And you need to find cheap packaging for the books. I know not all of the books are sold for as low as a penny, but I would think you would want to structure your costs to allow this kind of transaction to make you a profit. Selling twenty items at a fifty cent profit is better than one item for a four dollar profit ( taking into account a mostly paperback market it won’t get any higher than the full retail price of $7.99 and you’ll hardly ever see that ).
*
So, since policy is to ship no later than two business days you will need to go into town Monday, Wednesday and Friday to mail your books. And to check on the thrift stores. And perhaps stop by peoples houses to look over the books they have to sell. It could get quite complicated where you need a cell phone to take sellers calls and a wireless connection to check online for what prices are. And a lot of driving around. I would advise against that unless you are getting a lot of like new books just offered to where you could get near retail price to cover that kind of overhead. Remember, it usually won’t make sense to customers of Amazon to buy your used book at retail. They can buy from Amazon and get their book quicker. You usually must offer the book for $3.49 under what Amazon is selling it for. So what. Even at a two buck profit you are being handsomely paid for your time. If you keep your costs low.
*
I myself would pedal my bike into town to save on gas and vehicle wear and tear. I would only offer a buck per like new book recently printed on paperback and a quarter for others. Unless a seller in town e-mailed me and I checked my selling price and hence profit so as to allow me to offer them more. That would negate the cell phone need at least. If you can cut out all unneeded expenses you could sell those older books for a penny plus shipping and handling and still make money. You are going to need to get a bit of volume going here to make a decent amount of money. One book a day five days a week at only a buck each is only twenty five a month and not worth the effort. Don’t expect to start out at even that amount but there should be the real possibility of future profits. Not enough to get rich, but enough to live on a casual income if you have no bills. Say one or two hundred a month. At least eventually after you get the business going. Crunch the numbers, it might be doable for you.
END
and with your first profits buy my books www.bisonpress.com
Saturday, February 10, 2007
junk van 2
MORE JUNK VAN
Never one to allow a good idea to escape without beating the hell out of it, I figured I would blather on some more about our newest project, the junk van. If you had been paying attention instead of propping open a book and sleeping behind it, thinking you could fool the whole class into believing you were studious instead of a lazy slacker, you would know that the junk van is a good way to have an escape vehicle and emergency shelter while still using it to get to work or start a hauling service to actually make money off of the vehicle instead of just having another money pit where you throw all of your preparation supply money. You got a two-fer. A money maker that doubled as an emergency shelter after you lost your house because the wife wanted a fancy two thousand square foot house in the suburbs and you wanted to put a plasma TV in the living room and a riding mower in the garage. Then the mega-corporation you worked for laid you off and hired a bunch of Indian nationals to digitalize your job.
*
Since it took me most of the article to get you warmed up to the idea, having to hint around and laying the groundwork to my newest brain fart rather than just coming out and blurting the idea on you cold, out of the blue like, I only covered the solar heating aspect of it. Place a dozen water filled 2 liter bottles in the south facing windshield all day and use them for a bit of warmth at night. Much better than a tent as it kept you warmer and kept out roving lions and tigers and bears ( not to mention weird guys in hockey masks with knives and other sharp instruments ). I am still patting myself on the back for having racked my brain for hours to come up with the idea of living out of your vehicle. You don’t pay me the big bucks for nothing.
*
Today I’ll expand on the idea to give you more ideas on camping out of the van. Not just, “use warm water bottles at night to stay warmer”, but other nifty ideas such as “store wheat in the back” and even “drive to your retreat area”. I tell you, I’m full of great ideas like this. This is not an article on bugging out to a retreat. Or bugging in at your house. I assume you are too poor to have a retreat. And staying put is also a bad idea. You just need to get out of town, away from the crowds. If you are like most of us you live in a city and there will be too many non-farmers and non-hoarders that will try to prey on you. Getting out of town is a good idea. Not too far. The roads will be crowded and gas supplies non-existent. Perhaps to a nearby wilderness area or off a logging road. This is the idea of backpacking out of Dodge that lost credibility awhile ago. It was an easy way to escape the city but you had no supplies once you got somewhere. At least this way you have a years supply of food and guns and ammo and water filters. It is far from a perfect plan, granted. But any plan has flaws. Unless you live in a small town far away from everyone and have stockpiled enough wheat to feed the town, you are living with a flawed plan. Or are able to assure enough trusted folks will show up at your retreat to help defend it. Most of us are poor and out of necessity must adapt flawed survival plans.
*
Bugging out of town not too far away decreases your changes of danger on the road. It doesn’t allow you to escape enough city folk but it is better than staying put. It takes into account the possibility of major Interstates being controlled by the Feds to reduce refugee flow ( such as during a flu outbreak ). It takes into account your gas tank might not be topped off. It takes into account the fact that you will know your immediate area better than far away lands. And most importantly it knows you are poor and have limited funds to plan for bugging out. If you budget a van for the above given reasons you are not actually out any extra money. And the supplies inside are most likely what you already have for preparedness supplies.
*
Take your buckets of wheat and stack them two high and place a mattress on top of that. If you don’t have enough space between the mattress and ceiling then use four gallon poly buckets instead of five gallon, or just place a single layer on the floor. The only problem there is the resulting lack of floor space. Buckets are one foot square in floor area so a standard van can put 24 in about half the floor area. If you doubled the bucket height you only use a third of the van as a bed. I assume here a couple is bugging out and you need two dozen buckets for a years supply of food each. With kids you had better build a trailer out of an old junked pick-up bed and enclose it to haul all the food. If you are going to encounter bad weather and must bath inside the van, plan on a shower. I would include a small galvanized tin bucket you can squat in. Easier ( if more bulky ) would be a kids plastic swimming pool. You can take a hoola-hoop and hang it from the ceiling by magnetic hooks and use it for a shower curtain ring. The magnetic hooks are at Wal-Mart for 75 cents each. The plastic shower curtain is at the dollar store. Use a hand held “weed sprayer” to shower with. Pump it up and spray off. A half gallon will do the trick except for really long hair. In that case shampoo one day and body bathe the next, alternating. Store the pool/pan underneath the van when not in use.
*
For cooking have a Zip wood stove. You can use a propane stove for $20, using a $50 tank ( filled ) with a $20 adapter ( big tank to small disposable tank valve ) for about the same price as a Zip stove ( the battery powered fan for high temperatures ) with extra electric motors, a solar charger and some rechargeable batteries ( right now Harbor Freight has some good deals on NiCads ). I think a Zip stove is best for long term cooking. Place the stove in some cooking pots for easy stowing. Place a comforter or wool blankets on the bed for warmth. Your rifle should always be on hand. The ammo can be stashed behind the front seats. The poly buckets and water filter staying on the seat. Spare clothes can stay outdoors as they are likely to be left undisturbed. Just have several plastic totes to keep them in. Have your pick and shovel for digging a latrine. Basic utensils such as the grain grinder and iron skillet. Entertainment items such as playing cards.
*
You should now have enough for a basic camping trip into the woods for an extended period. Very primitive but sufficient to keep you alive for awhile. Less than perfect but better than staying in town as it burns down during riots. Obviously having friends in their own van follow you would add security if feasible. Beforehand take detailed BLM maps and find a good spot in time of troubles. The worse the road there the better for you. Then go out in person to check it out and try weekend camping. Which is another advantage of bug out areas close by. An hour or two is far enough to discourage most people from discovering you but close enough to get there without any trouble. I realize this is less than perfect. But if it is better than your situation now, why not go for it? It is almost free and is an improvement.
END
if you buy my books right now I will be the only one that really loves you www.bisonpress.com
Never one to allow a good idea to escape without beating the hell out of it, I figured I would blather on some more about our newest project, the junk van. If you had been paying attention instead of propping open a book and sleeping behind it, thinking you could fool the whole class into believing you were studious instead of a lazy slacker, you would know that the junk van is a good way to have an escape vehicle and emergency shelter while still using it to get to work or start a hauling service to actually make money off of the vehicle instead of just having another money pit where you throw all of your preparation supply money. You got a two-fer. A money maker that doubled as an emergency shelter after you lost your house because the wife wanted a fancy two thousand square foot house in the suburbs and you wanted to put a plasma TV in the living room and a riding mower in the garage. Then the mega-corporation you worked for laid you off and hired a bunch of Indian nationals to digitalize your job.
*
Since it took me most of the article to get you warmed up to the idea, having to hint around and laying the groundwork to my newest brain fart rather than just coming out and blurting the idea on you cold, out of the blue like, I only covered the solar heating aspect of it. Place a dozen water filled 2 liter bottles in the south facing windshield all day and use them for a bit of warmth at night. Much better than a tent as it kept you warmer and kept out roving lions and tigers and bears ( not to mention weird guys in hockey masks with knives and other sharp instruments ). I am still patting myself on the back for having racked my brain for hours to come up with the idea of living out of your vehicle. You don’t pay me the big bucks for nothing.
*
Today I’ll expand on the idea to give you more ideas on camping out of the van. Not just, “use warm water bottles at night to stay warmer”, but other nifty ideas such as “store wheat in the back” and even “drive to your retreat area”. I tell you, I’m full of great ideas like this. This is not an article on bugging out to a retreat. Or bugging in at your house. I assume you are too poor to have a retreat. And staying put is also a bad idea. You just need to get out of town, away from the crowds. If you are like most of us you live in a city and there will be too many non-farmers and non-hoarders that will try to prey on you. Getting out of town is a good idea. Not too far. The roads will be crowded and gas supplies non-existent. Perhaps to a nearby wilderness area or off a logging road. This is the idea of backpacking out of Dodge that lost credibility awhile ago. It was an easy way to escape the city but you had no supplies once you got somewhere. At least this way you have a years supply of food and guns and ammo and water filters. It is far from a perfect plan, granted. But any plan has flaws. Unless you live in a small town far away from everyone and have stockpiled enough wheat to feed the town, you are living with a flawed plan. Or are able to assure enough trusted folks will show up at your retreat to help defend it. Most of us are poor and out of necessity must adapt flawed survival plans.
*
Bugging out of town not too far away decreases your changes of danger on the road. It doesn’t allow you to escape enough city folk but it is better than staying put. It takes into account the possibility of major Interstates being controlled by the Feds to reduce refugee flow ( such as during a flu outbreak ). It takes into account your gas tank might not be topped off. It takes into account the fact that you will know your immediate area better than far away lands. And most importantly it knows you are poor and have limited funds to plan for bugging out. If you budget a van for the above given reasons you are not actually out any extra money. And the supplies inside are most likely what you already have for preparedness supplies.
*
Take your buckets of wheat and stack them two high and place a mattress on top of that. If you don’t have enough space between the mattress and ceiling then use four gallon poly buckets instead of five gallon, or just place a single layer on the floor. The only problem there is the resulting lack of floor space. Buckets are one foot square in floor area so a standard van can put 24 in about half the floor area. If you doubled the bucket height you only use a third of the van as a bed. I assume here a couple is bugging out and you need two dozen buckets for a years supply of food each. With kids you had better build a trailer out of an old junked pick-up bed and enclose it to haul all the food. If you are going to encounter bad weather and must bath inside the van, plan on a shower. I would include a small galvanized tin bucket you can squat in. Easier ( if more bulky ) would be a kids plastic swimming pool. You can take a hoola-hoop and hang it from the ceiling by magnetic hooks and use it for a shower curtain ring. The magnetic hooks are at Wal-Mart for 75 cents each. The plastic shower curtain is at the dollar store. Use a hand held “weed sprayer” to shower with. Pump it up and spray off. A half gallon will do the trick except for really long hair. In that case shampoo one day and body bathe the next, alternating. Store the pool/pan underneath the van when not in use.
*
For cooking have a Zip wood stove. You can use a propane stove for $20, using a $50 tank ( filled ) with a $20 adapter ( big tank to small disposable tank valve ) for about the same price as a Zip stove ( the battery powered fan for high temperatures ) with extra electric motors, a solar charger and some rechargeable batteries ( right now Harbor Freight has some good deals on NiCads ). I think a Zip stove is best for long term cooking. Place the stove in some cooking pots for easy stowing. Place a comforter or wool blankets on the bed for warmth. Your rifle should always be on hand. The ammo can be stashed behind the front seats. The poly buckets and water filter staying on the seat. Spare clothes can stay outdoors as they are likely to be left undisturbed. Just have several plastic totes to keep them in. Have your pick and shovel for digging a latrine. Basic utensils such as the grain grinder and iron skillet. Entertainment items such as playing cards.
*
You should now have enough for a basic camping trip into the woods for an extended period. Very primitive but sufficient to keep you alive for awhile. Less than perfect but better than staying in town as it burns down during riots. Obviously having friends in their own van follow you would add security if feasible. Beforehand take detailed BLM maps and find a good spot in time of troubles. The worse the road there the better for you. Then go out in person to check it out and try weekend camping. Which is another advantage of bug out areas close by. An hour or two is far enough to discourage most people from discovering you but close enough to get there without any trouble. I realize this is less than perfect. But if it is better than your situation now, why not go for it? It is almost free and is an improvement.
END
if you buy my books right now I will be the only one that really loves you www.bisonpress.com
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