TIRED TIRE TRAUMATIC TALE
Okay, try not to start celebrating just yet. I'm back, but not daily. It will be at a minimum once a week, but I can't promise much more than that ( and most likely the day of the week will not remain constant ). So far my only Internet connection is at the library, and so far I am stuck writing the article there also. Their computer doesn't have a floppy port so I can't write ahead of time and upload it. I'm still going to shoot for a return to normal but I don't want you to count on it.
*
Over two weeks ago I started out on my grand adventure. I can now tell you that I'm positive that Baby Jesus himself took a personal delight in taunting me every step of the way. The move was indeed meant to be ( why else would the main exit in town from I-80 be # 303? ), but the journey was far from easy. After saving as much money as possible for six months I was not worried about paying for the move. I should have been. One hour on the road and my rear tire on the truck blew out. Walk into town, cringing fearfully to the concrete barrier on the side of the state highway as every idiot in creation was on the road that day, flaunting their wealth in the face of $4.25 a gallon gasoline, trying to run me over as they zoomed by at twenty miles over the speed limit. AAA soon arrives to my rescue. No rescue, I have to disengage the trailer from the truck ( not as easy with a fifth wheel ). Forever thereafter as traffic flies by within inches of me, it is finally done. Another trek into town and soon AAA arrives again. Spare tire barely road worthy. Many hours later and a mere $500 and the truck has new tires. We are once again on the road eight hours after we start.
*
Three or four hours later, the trailer has a tire blow out. Long story short, four hours later the spare is on. And then I notice the tire next to it is now flat. I give up and we sleep poorly in the cab of the truck ( the trailer is rocking too much from passing semi's ). In the morning I walk to the nearest gas station for Fix-A-Flat ( this proves the deity involvement since they are close to our disabled vehicle but nothing else is within fifty miles ). The newest flat had a metal piece from the blowout in it. I pumped it up by hand and limped away. Twenty miles later, pull into the rest stop, pump more air into the tire. Limp into town an hour later. All tire places in town closed on Sunday. Except Wal-Mart, but they have no trailer tires ( this is where I learn the difference between car and trailer tires- information I would have liked to know earlier ). We camp out in Wal-Mart until the next day and get tires. Only another four hundred bucks.
*
So, rather than the original $500 budgeted for the move ( two trips for both vehicles, rental car and gas for all three ) we spent $1500 to move. All of 330 miles. And that is not a rental van, just my own Hippy Bread Van. It's not like I needed that money for anything else, like, oh, friggin propane this winter. Oh, well. We are here at last. And I love it. Peaceful, quiet. No more landlord. I am very content. Even in the face of my inability to get a job after a week and a half. And let's not forget, the tires continue to plague me. Yesterday my bike tire. It was only a six mile walk.
*
Until next time ( I'll talk a bit about the city and area and trailer lot ).
END
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
the future of your job
THE FUTURE OF YOUR JOB
By now most of us are used to the idea that we will not be hired at one company, work there for forty years and retire with a pension. That concept of work was short lived and declared dead years ago. We know that we will need to change occupations several times in our career. Any job that has a bit of skill to it will require constant addition to our education. In short, the world keeps changing and we had better keep up.
*
A couple of decades ago, those bright boys at the top of the corporate food chain discovered computers. A few decided that middle managers whose sole job was to convey information up and down the hierarchy were obsolete. Thus began the flattening of the classic pyramid command structure. It took awhile, most companies are still to this day befuddled as to what a computer chip can do. But by and large, we see the death of middle management. And with it a trend towards the reversal of the bell curve of wealth. In Americas mythical golden days we saw a small poor class, and a small wealthy class with the bulk as middle class. Even those not officially in the salary range were on the way up economically and could be considered middle class. Any immigrant family could work hard, send their offspring to college and in two generations arrive in the suburbs. Middle management was of course not the sole means of this. Unions gave an escape clause to those uneducated poor. The government actually ran good schools way back when, college grants were easy to get. But for many reasons this era is over and today the wealth curve is reversed. You are either poor or wealthy and the middle ground continues to shrink.
*
One could point to the Vietnam War as the beginning of the end. The incredible cost of that conflict along with the War On Poverty tipped the scales from a economically balanced Federal government to a perpetually crisis-prone leviathan. Of course today that cost seems trivial, but the die was cast and we have yet to look back. Today we have so much wrong with our economy it is a wonder we are still going. But rather than starting again on the many problems of our system, lets take a look at the future of our job market.
*
We are in trouble, folks. The economy is shredding manufacturing jobs. Soon, they will constitute no more of a percentage of workers than does farming. This is unstoppable, and there is no going back. The future is information and services. But wait!! If that wasn’t bad enough, losing the traditionally good paying jobs, we have another problem on our hands. Information Technology jobs are starting to be exported. Those jobs that were supposed to replace the manufacturing work are also being sent overseas. Knowledge work is going to India, the Philippines, Russia and Eastern Europe to name a few. Major tech parks are going up around the big cities in India. Bank of America, Texas Instruments, Intel, Lehman Brothers, HP, AmEx, Dell, Kodak, IBM, GE, Microsoft, P&G and Citibank have Indian workers there doing our “new economic age” work. Mortgage lenders, hospitals and architectural firms are farming out work.
*
Radiologists interpret CT scans, engineers design mobile phone chips for T.I., Biologists do research for pharmaceutical companies. An Indian engineer starts at $5,000. At first it will be just like manufacturing. The overseas work will be substandard, but cheap enough for some applications. Then, over time, quality will improve. Our jobs disappear or our wages come way down. Companies are under tremendous pressure to cut costs. Lawyers and governments are sucking off their profits, as are pensioners and competition. Henry Ford might have raised workers pay to enable his workers to buy the product they made, but don’t expect that kind of far-sighted business sense in this century. To remain competitive long term our economy must shred government, curb litigation, plow money into education ( real training, not P.C. brainwashing ) and research and development, and stay on the leading edge of technology. We can keep our farming jobs with bioengineering, our manufacturing jobs with value added high tech and our information jobs with leading edge R&D. But will we? If we do we will remain at the top. If not we go the way of the last Empire, Great Briton. They have yet to recover from World War One. WWII just did them in for good. Of course we may not go the way of defeated empires. If we get out of the empire business. Lets wait and see about Iran and Syria. If we attack on another weak premise I fear we are stepping into deep kemshi.
*
If you are going to get a private sector pension, be very careful. If enough companies go bankrupt over unfunded pension liabilities ( it is that serious of a problem right now ) we might see bankruptcy courts forced to deny future pension payments either because of the sheer numbers of companies or the inability of the government to pick up the obligations. Public sector pensions are in just as much trouble, but with a printing press and the power to tax, they will last a bit longer. But even there watch out. The news as of late is full of local and state governments cutting back on vital services because of budget problems. And you ain’t seen nothing yet.
*
I am not offering any solutions here. The path ahead is really unknown, too many factors can go too many ways to tell how it will all turn out. But you may wish to consider your job and ask yourself if it is in danger of being exported. Can a foreign college graduate with a second language of English do your job? Just off the top of my head I would say that the only safe short term job is in the creative field ( foreigners don’t do our culture well ) or cutting edge tech. I sure would not spend money on one of those private school courses teaching computer programming or some such. You know the ones, daytime TV is full of them hawking an instant good paying job. Danger, Will Robinson!! Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it is. These schools are selling obsolete skills.
*
Live below your means, and keep an avenue open for another career. When you change jobs more than likely your income will decrease. Stay out of debt, try for no mortgage if possible. A house might be a sucker bet for a few years at least. If your standards must remain high at least consider a modular home on your own land. Half the cost of a regular house and most zoning boards are kind to them, unlike manufactured homes. If your area is declining economically and you feel a move might be in order down the road, buy a cheap mobile home in a park- the payments and lot rent most times beat an apartment in cost and you can resell for something ( though not much ). Learn to cut your costs now, if possible. Trial and error now is better than when it is forced on you later.
*
We may just be in a slump, but we might also have started a long term decline. The life of conspicuous consumption should be over for those of us remotely concerned with the future. A few years of hardship now and later, with no debt, you can spend frivolously. Broad trends can seem worse than they are, but it never hurts to plan for the worse. END
Written five years ago. I might have been TOO optimistic. Reprinted from my Bison Newsletter e-book, available at http://www.bisonpress.com/
Reprints just on Sunday until I get back to posting more often, due to my move to the New And Improved Dakin Compound.
By now most of us are used to the idea that we will not be hired at one company, work there for forty years and retire with a pension. That concept of work was short lived and declared dead years ago. We know that we will need to change occupations several times in our career. Any job that has a bit of skill to it will require constant addition to our education. In short, the world keeps changing and we had better keep up.
*
A couple of decades ago, those bright boys at the top of the corporate food chain discovered computers. A few decided that middle managers whose sole job was to convey information up and down the hierarchy were obsolete. Thus began the flattening of the classic pyramid command structure. It took awhile, most companies are still to this day befuddled as to what a computer chip can do. But by and large, we see the death of middle management. And with it a trend towards the reversal of the bell curve of wealth. In Americas mythical golden days we saw a small poor class, and a small wealthy class with the bulk as middle class. Even those not officially in the salary range were on the way up economically and could be considered middle class. Any immigrant family could work hard, send their offspring to college and in two generations arrive in the suburbs. Middle management was of course not the sole means of this. Unions gave an escape clause to those uneducated poor. The government actually ran good schools way back when, college grants were easy to get. But for many reasons this era is over and today the wealth curve is reversed. You are either poor or wealthy and the middle ground continues to shrink.
*
One could point to the Vietnam War as the beginning of the end. The incredible cost of that conflict along with the War On Poverty tipped the scales from a economically balanced Federal government to a perpetually crisis-prone leviathan. Of course today that cost seems trivial, but the die was cast and we have yet to look back. Today we have so much wrong with our economy it is a wonder we are still going. But rather than starting again on the many problems of our system, lets take a look at the future of our job market.
*
We are in trouble, folks. The economy is shredding manufacturing jobs. Soon, they will constitute no more of a percentage of workers than does farming. This is unstoppable, and there is no going back. The future is information and services. But wait!! If that wasn’t bad enough, losing the traditionally good paying jobs, we have another problem on our hands. Information Technology jobs are starting to be exported. Those jobs that were supposed to replace the manufacturing work are also being sent overseas. Knowledge work is going to India, the Philippines, Russia and Eastern Europe to name a few. Major tech parks are going up around the big cities in India. Bank of America, Texas Instruments, Intel, Lehman Brothers, HP, AmEx, Dell, Kodak, IBM, GE, Microsoft, P&G and Citibank have Indian workers there doing our “new economic age” work. Mortgage lenders, hospitals and architectural firms are farming out work.
*
Radiologists interpret CT scans, engineers design mobile phone chips for T.I., Biologists do research for pharmaceutical companies. An Indian engineer starts at $5,000. At first it will be just like manufacturing. The overseas work will be substandard, but cheap enough for some applications. Then, over time, quality will improve. Our jobs disappear or our wages come way down. Companies are under tremendous pressure to cut costs. Lawyers and governments are sucking off their profits, as are pensioners and competition. Henry Ford might have raised workers pay to enable his workers to buy the product they made, but don’t expect that kind of far-sighted business sense in this century. To remain competitive long term our economy must shred government, curb litigation, plow money into education ( real training, not P.C. brainwashing ) and research and development, and stay on the leading edge of technology. We can keep our farming jobs with bioengineering, our manufacturing jobs with value added high tech and our information jobs with leading edge R&D. But will we? If we do we will remain at the top. If not we go the way of the last Empire, Great Briton. They have yet to recover from World War One. WWII just did them in for good. Of course we may not go the way of defeated empires. If we get out of the empire business. Lets wait and see about Iran and Syria. If we attack on another weak premise I fear we are stepping into deep kemshi.
*
If you are going to get a private sector pension, be very careful. If enough companies go bankrupt over unfunded pension liabilities ( it is that serious of a problem right now ) we might see bankruptcy courts forced to deny future pension payments either because of the sheer numbers of companies or the inability of the government to pick up the obligations. Public sector pensions are in just as much trouble, but with a printing press and the power to tax, they will last a bit longer. But even there watch out. The news as of late is full of local and state governments cutting back on vital services because of budget problems. And you ain’t seen nothing yet.
*
I am not offering any solutions here. The path ahead is really unknown, too many factors can go too many ways to tell how it will all turn out. But you may wish to consider your job and ask yourself if it is in danger of being exported. Can a foreign college graduate with a second language of English do your job? Just off the top of my head I would say that the only safe short term job is in the creative field ( foreigners don’t do our culture well ) or cutting edge tech. I sure would not spend money on one of those private school courses teaching computer programming or some such. You know the ones, daytime TV is full of them hawking an instant good paying job. Danger, Will Robinson!! Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it is. These schools are selling obsolete skills.
*
Live below your means, and keep an avenue open for another career. When you change jobs more than likely your income will decrease. Stay out of debt, try for no mortgage if possible. A house might be a sucker bet for a few years at least. If your standards must remain high at least consider a modular home on your own land. Half the cost of a regular house and most zoning boards are kind to them, unlike manufactured homes. If your area is declining economically and you feel a move might be in order down the road, buy a cheap mobile home in a park- the payments and lot rent most times beat an apartment in cost and you can resell for something ( though not much ). Learn to cut your costs now, if possible. Trial and error now is better than when it is forced on you later.
*
We may just be in a slump, but we might also have started a long term decline. The life of conspicuous consumption should be over for those of us remotely concerned with the future. A few years of hardship now and later, with no debt, you can spend frivolously. Broad trends can seem worse than they are, but it never hurts to plan for the worse. END
Written five years ago. I might have been TOO optimistic. Reprinted from my Bison Newsletter e-book, available at http://www.bisonpress.com/
Reprints just on Sunday until I get back to posting more often, due to my move to the New And Improved Dakin Compound.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
rimfire arsenal
THE RIMFIRE ARSENAL
While not exactly an earth-shattering new-and-exciting topic, I felt the need to once again dwell into the topic of the lowly rimfire as survivalist arsenal. This is more of a “devils advocate” article than a personal endorsement, but as you will see I do find merit in the idea.
*
In general terms there are several kinds of survivalists. One is the camping in the wilds, making primitive weapons, eating grubs and plants, getting back to nature as we hug a tree type. This includes the nothing can ever go wrong with our wonderful society, big daddy government will protect me, the only thing bad that will ever happen to me is that I will be lost in the woods types. Two is the self sufficient, geodesic dome living, no pesticide organic gardening, by God why can’t I play in the dirt and make a living at it, neo-Luddite, can’t stand the city types. Three is the all I need to survive is guns, Jerry Ahern is my favorite author, when millions flee the cities there will still be enough deer for me to hunt, I never met an assault rifle I didn’t love, I never was in the military but I watched Rambo twenty three times types. Fourth is the I am going to prove end times by reading the bible, an asteroid is just waiting to hit us and wipe out everyone, mankind was repopulated by aliens after a nuclear war ten thousand years ago, TEOTWAWKI will happen against all logic and kill most people except me even though I live in a big city at my folks house and only own an extra case of cream of mushroom soup and a sling shot types.
*
I’m having a bit of fun here, for you anal retentive types. I for one view survivalism as a fun hobby that contains an element of humor because way too many folks take it much to seriously. The odds are that nothing serious is ever going to happen to any of us. Most of life’s stressful events are going to gradually work their way into our midst and we will be able to process them and deal with them. Now, I am not saying that riots and wars and dictatorships and natural disasters and climate changes and technological changes do not happen and I certainly am not saying that they won’t have serious impact on us. What I am saying is that by and large mathematically speaking the odds are good that we will pass through life with nothing more traumatic than the usual job loss, divorce, death in the family type of disaster that is pretty widespread, understood and adaptable. I am not saying that preparations are a bad idea. I am saying that we should prepare, but at the same time have a little fun with it and don’t take ourselves seriously enough to cause an ulcer.
*
I don’t think that getting back to the land and being “self-sufficient” is the be all and end all it is made out to be. I can see being fed up with our current system and wishing to minimize it’s impact on our lives. I can see wishing to plan on minimizing a disruption in our system. I can see the advantages in not planning on our electric grid or food distribution system being going through a disaster unchanged. What I question is the thinking that living in the country will shelter you from the ills that befall us. First, living by yourself out in the boonies is an invitation to day by day criminals now, and roving bands of outlaws after a collapse. Plus, self sufficiency is a myth. You are still dependant on our complex system for spare parts to your vehicle or solar power plant or water well or what not. You still need to purchase kerosene or gasoline or propane. You will need to replace ammunition or plumbing or electrical parts. Living in the country only makes you less dependant, not self sufficient.
*
I see little use for wilderness survival skills. If this is your hobby, fine and dandy. Otherwise, unless you camp in the deepest wilds, when are you going to need to start a fire with friction, or identify edible plants, or fashion primitive weapons? In a end of the world type situation, how can more than a few people survive off the wilderness in any given area. Using figures from primitive hunter-gatherers, each person needs literally many square miles to subsist in the woods. Now, how many fugitives from the cities are going to be competing with you for the same land area? Realistically, more than the carrying capacity of that land. This also applies to the “ I got a gun and when things go to hell I’ll go hunting Bambi” types. The deer, bear, squirrel, rodent population will be decimated about two hours after a major TEOTWAWKI event. And that includes about half the hunters going after that game.
*
Next up are the “guns solve all problems” folk. I do appreciate the problem solving capabilities of firearms. When you have a shotgun, a shovel and an opponent that no one will miss, certain problems take care of themselves. However, in today’s society lawyers have all but replaced dueling and vigilante action. In a disaster of epic proportions guns will again reign supreme as a problem solver, but they are only one tool for your survival. Storage food is just as important. Water filters, cooking fuel, clothing to include footwear, these things can’t be substituted with firearms. A fine collection of firearms is great, except most folks of modest means than can’t afford the required items that go along with these arms. Nifty items such as way more ammunition than you thought you would need, more magazines than you could afford, a complete spare parts kit for every single firearm you own. A sexy new H&K91 is just the thing to show off at the shooting range. To bad you only have three mags for it along with a thousand rounds of 308. Assuming your enemies will allow to reload those few magazines, that thousand rounds of ammo will only last you a couple of firefights. Assuming that you will also live through them. Even if you have plenty of mags and ammo for your primary battle weapon, what about the other twelve guns you own? You need to minimize the number of firearms you own and maximize their accessories. Guns are a needed survival tool. Don’t neglect the other ones.
*
Last up we have the “Lucifer’s Hammer” folks. The greatest survival fiction ever printed. And the thought pattern of a great many survivalists. The world will somehow end tomorrow and kill most people and I’ll survive as king of the hill. And any scenario will do. An asteroid strike. Y2K. Ice age, global warming, solar flares, environmental catastrophe, nuclear war, whatever. I myself worry about these and wonder about the possibilities. I also take it all with a grain of salt. It is fun to theorize and ponder, even to fantasize a bit. Remember, survivalism is a hobby and supposed to be fun. Just try not to get carried away. You could max out your credit cards, refinance the house, learn a skill useful for telecommuting to stay in your shelter and still work, stockpile tons of wheat and scores of thousands of rounds of ammunition along with dozens of surplus rifles, work a second job, build a fallout shelter, get a divorce from your non-survivalist wife, move to the state least likely to be in the path of fallout. And then, not a damn thing happens. Oops. Read up on the old works from Tappan, Saxon and Ruff. They all ( along with others ) screamed that the sky was falling and demanded that you move to a small community out of harms way. Now. Immediately. Before all was lost. Before the cities went up in smoke. And nothing happened. Good advice, bad timing. I hope no one met with financial ruin listening to them. They could still be right. Just use good judgment instead of panic.
*
Now, having said all that, lets look at an arsenal from the point of view of a TEOTWAWKI survivalist. If you are contemplating a fight with the Federal government, this is not what you wish to consider. For that you will need to consider military tactics and equipment. The end of the world survivalist must do the exact opposite. By its very nature, military planning and execution calls for casualties, death, and vast equipment expenditure. The difference between conventional armed forces and guerrilla forces are ones of degree, in as far as equipment is concerned. The tactics are different. Obviously. Yet, casualties are still expected and equipment is in the same category. To defeat an enemy you must engage in battle. You will minimize your own casualties if for no other reason you have fewer troops. You will use booby traps and sniping and other non direct methods to inflict death on your enemy. However, you still need conventional weapons to fight that battle. You need explosives and assault rifles and vast quantities of ammunition. Therefore, a survivalist who is more along the lines of a militia member needs to prepare with semi-auto weapons, magazines, ammunition and spare parts. If you wish to only prepare for self defense in a social collapse scenario, you must look at things from an entirely different perspective.
*
Combat weapons can be survivalist weapons. But not in a TEOTWAWKI situation. The over riding consideration would then be resupply. That is your main concern. While a few could easily stockpile 50,000 to 75,000 rounds ( probably the average life of your semi-auto ) I doubt the average survivalist could afford that. Sure, most of modest means could if they didn’t own a car. Not that they would make that trade-off. A car, as expensive and wasteful as it is, still provides a means of transportation to work. Thus it is more an investment than a consumable. Of course, so is ammo if you consider it an investment in your life, as most survivalists do. I am saying that on this scale of investment, immediate justifiable expenses overrule risky and possibly unnecessary ones. Lets say that buying in bulk you could spend as little as ten cents a round, even after shipping. Perhaps on the unrealistic low side, but it makes for a nice round figure. 50,000 rounds will cost $5,000. Perhaps you think this is reasonable. I certainly do not. After gun and part purchases you will spend another $500 ( an SKS ) to $1500 ( about everything else with detachable mag ) at a minimum. If I had that money I would buy an acre of land with a trailer or mobile home. This, since I regard the likely future to include an economic meltdown more than an asteroid strike.
*
Since we might be in agreement that when it all falls apart you will be limited to only the supplies you have on hand, let us rule out the use of semi-auto rifles as a means for your survival weapon. Yes, they are superior in combat. Yes, they consume a dreadful amount of ammunition. If you are not financially able to supply this ahead of time, you need to look at a weapon that is cheaper to feed. Please forget about finding or stealing enough ammunition to get you through. It will of course help. But will it be enough? Even with using the same round as the military in time your supplies will dry up. Of course you will need to buy, steal and find more ammo. You will have to unless you plan on manufacturing your own. By which I mean primitive industry, not reloading. Those supplies run out too. The simple fact is that assault rifles use too much ammo and you can’t match today’s resupply methods in a feces hits the fan world. Lets look at the alternatives to a semi auto assault weapon survivalist arsenal.
*
I have advocated a World War Two surplus rifle survival weapon in the past. I still think this has merit. Alas, it also has its problems. Not that you shouldn’t consider them. They do have several things going for them. First, they are real cheap. Both the rifles and the surplus corrosive ammo is so cheap it enables even the poorest down on his luck minimum wage earning slob the opportunity to prepare to survive. This is no small thing when there are too few of us survivalists out there and we would do better to add to our ranks. The more people that prepare ahead of time, the less the pain and suffering there will be. And, the fewer who will try to steal our supplies. Two, bolt action rifles use far less ammunition than their semi-auto brethren. The difference between one thousand rounds of oddball caliber and ten thousand rounds of current military caliber is about $900. Minimum. At the extreme, an HK91 with ten thousand rounds of 308 and twenty mags will cost you about $2000 ( if you use a clone, not the real McCoy- and using crap corrosive ammo ). A Turkish Mauser and one thousand rounds will cost about $110. Both are jobber price without shipping costs. This compares a Cadillac to a moped, but if you don’t want to walk and are poor, a moped will do. I am not saying that it is a great idea to buy the currently available Turkish rifle, as they are reported to be real crap. But if you are truly, desperately financially challenged you can, with that purchase and another $90 for wheat and grinder ( see issue #29 ), become prepared for survival for $200-250.
*
I have covered bolt actions previously, so let me just say that if you can overcome their limitations of inaccuracy, corrosive ammo and recoil you could do a lot worse. Such as the AR15.
*
Relying on a rimfire round to put down an enemy soldier is close to using a .38 to stop a grizzly. If you are close enough to accurately hit the correct spot you will put him down. Otherwise you are just going to piss him off and become his lunch. He might later die from the wound but it would be too late for you at that point. However, that also misses the point of this article. If a .38 is all you have and if you are skilled with it, it can ( barely ) do the job. A piece of duct tape can repair just about anything, as long as you realize its limitations. Realize what this round can and cannot do, and you could use it to your advantage. The number one selling point to a .22 is that the ammo is so cheap you can literally go out and shoot every week and not even hurt your budget. Even the cheapest 8mm for your Mauser is going to run ten cents a round after shipping and as cheap as that is you are still going to have a problem shooting on a regular basis. If you were to go out every week and shoot 30 rounds from your bolt action ( about all the recoil your shoulder can handle unless you are built like line-backer ) you would spend a whole $12 a month. Not bad, and all of us can handle that cost. Will that allow you to become proficient? That is for you to decide. If you feel that this amount of practice will allow you to hit what you are aiming at, you have got yourself a winner. Stick with your surplus bolt action.
*
However, if you need a lot more practice to remain an acceptable marksman than for a grand sum of $2 a week you can shoot 100 rounds of ammo in practice each time you go to the range. I would think that this would be enough for anybody to become very good at hitting their target. And that really is what the main concern is here. If you are not able to practice on a regular basis you will not be able to engage the enemy and win. If you can’t hit your target you are useless. This was once understood over 75 years ago when hunting was the only way to put meat on the table. Then came World War Two and although officially marksmanship was encouraged once on the battlefield common practice was to lay down suppressing fire at any opportunity. Not that I blame the troops one bit. If it was me and I could keep the enemies head down so they wouldn’t fire at me and I knew that there was plenty more ammo available I would have done the same thing. The only problem with this practice is when you are cut off from resupply you are suddenly forced to switch practices and conserve ammo. Not that easy to do under the stress of battle. The German forces on the other hand were trained with and issued a five round bolt action that loaded slowly. The doctrine was to take your time, aim, and fire only at a target. How much both these practices had to do with regards for the soldiers lives and how much it had to do with the military-industrial base of their respective countries is open for debate. But the point being that since that point our militaries practice if not official training has been to Spray and Pray. That is what the M16 does best ( when it is working ) and why we are in no hurry to replace it. If we were dependant on the infantry to inflict most of the enemy casualties we would have a much better rifle for them to use. But tactics have been for almost 100 years that the real killers are artillery and machine guns. The ground pounders just help protect those systems ( tanks being mobile artillery ).
*
In a End Of The World scenario it is assumed that industry ceases to exist. When that happens you cease to have resupply. Without resupply you cease to have artillery or machine guns or assault weapons. What is left is what you have in your personal supply. This is where the rimfire also shines through. You can stockpile enough. Lets say you call the bore life of a semi-auto 50,000 rounds. A 7.62x39 supply using surplus ammo is $5,000. A .22 supply is $1,000. It is going to cost you more to buy a .22 and magazines, but the initial investment is a couple of hundred dollars difference. The ammo cost difference is several thousand. Another consideration is ammo weight. You can carry a lot more .22s with you than conventional rifle ammo. Now, I realize that this is the same argument that was used to replace thirty caliber rounds with the puny ineffective .223, but the end goals must to entered into the equation. With the 30-06 and .308 it was assumed that all rounds were aimed at long distances. The .223 was used as a high volume short range shock weapons system. The two rounds were for totally different objectives. The .22 is ideal only for its low cost. It has very little else going for it unless all you ever kill are squirrels. You must realize that a .22 is only considered a compromise. You must stockpile rounds cheaply, and be able to practice a lot cheaply. Only the .22 rimfire is cheap enough for these two criteria. Its performance as a man stopper is pathetic and must be compensated for.
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Remember, the rimfire arsenal is only meant for End Of The World survival use. I do not recommend it for any other survival scenario, be it looters after a natural disaster, a government insurrection or other conventional combat plans. Regular warfare, be it guerrilla or conventional troops, needs a lot of firepower of medium to high caliber. A rimfire is ludicrous in that case. But when you are looking at the end of our industrial supply base, it makes perfect sense. The only other choices are to start your own industry or use black powder, or both. They are better choices, but require more organization than the loner survivalist has. For a go-it-alone after TEOTWAWKI scenario, stay with the .22 if you foresee long term industry collapse. But what if you are unsure which scenario will unfold? Well, that’s not so easy. You can compromise such as I have. A bolt action and a thousand rounds will be sufficient for conventional confrontations and as a backup plan I bought a cheap .22 arsenal with another 1000 rounds. It is nothing to brag about, being a single shot rifle and an old beat up revolver, but at a total of $125 after ammo it is damn cheap insurance against an asteroid or nuclear strike. You could just take the plunge and buy a complete arsenal and at least ten thousand rounds ( twenty would be better ) and then justify the cost by calling it your weekend plinking gun. But even a used rifle with tube magazine bought for $75 at a pawn shop and two thousand rounds of ammo for $40 will run you under $120 and is a small enough purchase to perhaps slip under the spouses radar screen or at least become a gift request. Most of us make enough to supply ourselves splendidly for survival but have a really high maintenance family that selfishly consumes all of our discretionary income. That is the main reason I write on surviving fugally, not because we are all living on minimum wage. At times those poor people are the ones who have better survival supplies. It is a lot easier to save when you don’t have a car payment, a house payment, college tuition or retirement plans. But I digress.
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If you have the money I would seriously stress the need for the best .22 rifle you can get. The difference between the best and worse .22 is perhaps $75. Not enough to worry about in most cases. The difference between the best and worse battle rifle is $750. A big difference and why I stress getting war surplus bolt actions instead of new assault rifles. But with a .22 it is not quite the same thing. Even if truly poor, $75 is only another months of savings. True, the final cost with magazines will bring this difference higher.
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The final cost of a tube magazine rifle will be about $100. The final cost of a $150 Rugar 10/22 after twenty magazines ( at $15 each ) is just under $500. Add $500 for 25,000 of ammo and the final cost is $600 verses $1000. If you add a decent scope for $50 this will encompass your total cost for your survival arsenal. You could get a SKS carbine and 5,000 round of ammo just as cheaply, but remember that we are concerned here with stockpiling a lot more than 5k rounds and also with practicing on a regular basis. You can’t just look at the immediate purchase.
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Another reason why you might wish to spend the additional $500 is tactics. In an ambush you are already at a serious disadvantage using the .22. The last thing you want is to handicap yourself further by lack of a detachable, quickly loaded magazine. I understand that most of us will go with the $120 minimal .22 package. In that case you are going to be restricted to a hit and run, three shot maximum ambush. Which is fine and dandy. For those who wish to go the extra mile and raise the rimfire battle tactics to a fine art, stick with a Rugar 10/22, get plenty of magazines ( even more than twenty if possible ) and practice a lot. Let us say that you only have the tube magazine rimfire. With a decent scope ( I would buy a moderately cheap two or three rather than one expensive one in case of damage ) and a reasonable amount of practice you can set up an ambush, shoot off two or three shots and get the heck out of there. You must obviously select your site with care. With a two or three man team all equipped with Rugars, you can ambush a fire team ( if you have the guts ) and with multiply hits per enemy you can defeat an enemy with superior weapons. This assumes a concealed site with cover and the skill to take down the enemy before he can find you.
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The rimfire arsenal is for a specialized scenario for those financially hindered in their preparations. The thing you must have or develop is skill. You must practice enough that under the stress of combat acquiring your target is second nature. If you can’t hit a two inch circle at one hundred yards under rapid fire you will not be able to hit critical areas on an enemy such as the throat, crotch or ankle. The goal is to incapacitate. If I am on the ground screaming like a girl because I have a round through my foot I will not be shooting back at you. Even if I was to shrug off that wound another one two seconds later to my skull and then my neck would put me out of the action. The wounds would then fester and I would die a horrible death due to lack of medical care. This is not for everyone. Be sure of your limitations and skills before you undertake these preparations. END
Reprinted from my e-book Bison Newsletter, available at www.bisonpress.com
Until I start posted again after I move I will be posting these reprints on Sunday. Hopefully I will get back to normal by August.
While not exactly an earth-shattering new-and-exciting topic, I felt the need to once again dwell into the topic of the lowly rimfire as survivalist arsenal. This is more of a “devils advocate” article than a personal endorsement, but as you will see I do find merit in the idea.
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In general terms there are several kinds of survivalists. One is the camping in the wilds, making primitive weapons, eating grubs and plants, getting back to nature as we hug a tree type. This includes the nothing can ever go wrong with our wonderful society, big daddy government will protect me, the only thing bad that will ever happen to me is that I will be lost in the woods types. Two is the self sufficient, geodesic dome living, no pesticide organic gardening, by God why can’t I play in the dirt and make a living at it, neo-Luddite, can’t stand the city types. Three is the all I need to survive is guns, Jerry Ahern is my favorite author, when millions flee the cities there will still be enough deer for me to hunt, I never met an assault rifle I didn’t love, I never was in the military but I watched Rambo twenty three times types. Fourth is the I am going to prove end times by reading the bible, an asteroid is just waiting to hit us and wipe out everyone, mankind was repopulated by aliens after a nuclear war ten thousand years ago, TEOTWAWKI will happen against all logic and kill most people except me even though I live in a big city at my folks house and only own an extra case of cream of mushroom soup and a sling shot types.
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I’m having a bit of fun here, for you anal retentive types. I for one view survivalism as a fun hobby that contains an element of humor because way too many folks take it much to seriously. The odds are that nothing serious is ever going to happen to any of us. Most of life’s stressful events are going to gradually work their way into our midst and we will be able to process them and deal with them. Now, I am not saying that riots and wars and dictatorships and natural disasters and climate changes and technological changes do not happen and I certainly am not saying that they won’t have serious impact on us. What I am saying is that by and large mathematically speaking the odds are good that we will pass through life with nothing more traumatic than the usual job loss, divorce, death in the family type of disaster that is pretty widespread, understood and adaptable. I am not saying that preparations are a bad idea. I am saying that we should prepare, but at the same time have a little fun with it and don’t take ourselves seriously enough to cause an ulcer.
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I don’t think that getting back to the land and being “self-sufficient” is the be all and end all it is made out to be. I can see being fed up with our current system and wishing to minimize it’s impact on our lives. I can see wishing to plan on minimizing a disruption in our system. I can see the advantages in not planning on our electric grid or food distribution system being going through a disaster unchanged. What I question is the thinking that living in the country will shelter you from the ills that befall us. First, living by yourself out in the boonies is an invitation to day by day criminals now, and roving bands of outlaws after a collapse. Plus, self sufficiency is a myth. You are still dependant on our complex system for spare parts to your vehicle or solar power plant or water well or what not. You still need to purchase kerosene or gasoline or propane. You will need to replace ammunition or plumbing or electrical parts. Living in the country only makes you less dependant, not self sufficient.
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I see little use for wilderness survival skills. If this is your hobby, fine and dandy. Otherwise, unless you camp in the deepest wilds, when are you going to need to start a fire with friction, or identify edible plants, or fashion primitive weapons? In a end of the world type situation, how can more than a few people survive off the wilderness in any given area. Using figures from primitive hunter-gatherers, each person needs literally many square miles to subsist in the woods. Now, how many fugitives from the cities are going to be competing with you for the same land area? Realistically, more than the carrying capacity of that land. This also applies to the “ I got a gun and when things go to hell I’ll go hunting Bambi” types. The deer, bear, squirrel, rodent population will be decimated about two hours after a major TEOTWAWKI event. And that includes about half the hunters going after that game.
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Next up are the “guns solve all problems” folk. I do appreciate the problem solving capabilities of firearms. When you have a shotgun, a shovel and an opponent that no one will miss, certain problems take care of themselves. However, in today’s society lawyers have all but replaced dueling and vigilante action. In a disaster of epic proportions guns will again reign supreme as a problem solver, but they are only one tool for your survival. Storage food is just as important. Water filters, cooking fuel, clothing to include footwear, these things can’t be substituted with firearms. A fine collection of firearms is great, except most folks of modest means than can’t afford the required items that go along with these arms. Nifty items such as way more ammunition than you thought you would need, more magazines than you could afford, a complete spare parts kit for every single firearm you own. A sexy new H&K91 is just the thing to show off at the shooting range. To bad you only have three mags for it along with a thousand rounds of 308. Assuming your enemies will allow to reload those few magazines, that thousand rounds of ammo will only last you a couple of firefights. Assuming that you will also live through them. Even if you have plenty of mags and ammo for your primary battle weapon, what about the other twelve guns you own? You need to minimize the number of firearms you own and maximize their accessories. Guns are a needed survival tool. Don’t neglect the other ones.
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Last up we have the “Lucifer’s Hammer” folks. The greatest survival fiction ever printed. And the thought pattern of a great many survivalists. The world will somehow end tomorrow and kill most people and I’ll survive as king of the hill. And any scenario will do. An asteroid strike. Y2K. Ice age, global warming, solar flares, environmental catastrophe, nuclear war, whatever. I myself worry about these and wonder about the possibilities. I also take it all with a grain of salt. It is fun to theorize and ponder, even to fantasize a bit. Remember, survivalism is a hobby and supposed to be fun. Just try not to get carried away. You could max out your credit cards, refinance the house, learn a skill useful for telecommuting to stay in your shelter and still work, stockpile tons of wheat and scores of thousands of rounds of ammunition along with dozens of surplus rifles, work a second job, build a fallout shelter, get a divorce from your non-survivalist wife, move to the state least likely to be in the path of fallout. And then, not a damn thing happens. Oops. Read up on the old works from Tappan, Saxon and Ruff. They all ( along with others ) screamed that the sky was falling and demanded that you move to a small community out of harms way. Now. Immediately. Before all was lost. Before the cities went up in smoke. And nothing happened. Good advice, bad timing. I hope no one met with financial ruin listening to them. They could still be right. Just use good judgment instead of panic.
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Now, having said all that, lets look at an arsenal from the point of view of a TEOTWAWKI survivalist. If you are contemplating a fight with the Federal government, this is not what you wish to consider. For that you will need to consider military tactics and equipment. The end of the world survivalist must do the exact opposite. By its very nature, military planning and execution calls for casualties, death, and vast equipment expenditure. The difference between conventional armed forces and guerrilla forces are ones of degree, in as far as equipment is concerned. The tactics are different. Obviously. Yet, casualties are still expected and equipment is in the same category. To defeat an enemy you must engage in battle. You will minimize your own casualties if for no other reason you have fewer troops. You will use booby traps and sniping and other non direct methods to inflict death on your enemy. However, you still need conventional weapons to fight that battle. You need explosives and assault rifles and vast quantities of ammunition. Therefore, a survivalist who is more along the lines of a militia member needs to prepare with semi-auto weapons, magazines, ammunition and spare parts. If you wish to only prepare for self defense in a social collapse scenario, you must look at things from an entirely different perspective.
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Combat weapons can be survivalist weapons. But not in a TEOTWAWKI situation. The over riding consideration would then be resupply. That is your main concern. While a few could easily stockpile 50,000 to 75,000 rounds ( probably the average life of your semi-auto ) I doubt the average survivalist could afford that. Sure, most of modest means could if they didn’t own a car. Not that they would make that trade-off. A car, as expensive and wasteful as it is, still provides a means of transportation to work. Thus it is more an investment than a consumable. Of course, so is ammo if you consider it an investment in your life, as most survivalists do. I am saying that on this scale of investment, immediate justifiable expenses overrule risky and possibly unnecessary ones. Lets say that buying in bulk you could spend as little as ten cents a round, even after shipping. Perhaps on the unrealistic low side, but it makes for a nice round figure. 50,000 rounds will cost $5,000. Perhaps you think this is reasonable. I certainly do not. After gun and part purchases you will spend another $500 ( an SKS ) to $1500 ( about everything else with detachable mag ) at a minimum. If I had that money I would buy an acre of land with a trailer or mobile home. This, since I regard the likely future to include an economic meltdown more than an asteroid strike.
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Since we might be in agreement that when it all falls apart you will be limited to only the supplies you have on hand, let us rule out the use of semi-auto rifles as a means for your survival weapon. Yes, they are superior in combat. Yes, they consume a dreadful amount of ammunition. If you are not financially able to supply this ahead of time, you need to look at a weapon that is cheaper to feed. Please forget about finding or stealing enough ammunition to get you through. It will of course help. But will it be enough? Even with using the same round as the military in time your supplies will dry up. Of course you will need to buy, steal and find more ammo. You will have to unless you plan on manufacturing your own. By which I mean primitive industry, not reloading. Those supplies run out too. The simple fact is that assault rifles use too much ammo and you can’t match today’s resupply methods in a feces hits the fan world. Lets look at the alternatives to a semi auto assault weapon survivalist arsenal.
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I have advocated a World War Two surplus rifle survival weapon in the past. I still think this has merit. Alas, it also has its problems. Not that you shouldn’t consider them. They do have several things going for them. First, they are real cheap. Both the rifles and the surplus corrosive ammo is so cheap it enables even the poorest down on his luck minimum wage earning slob the opportunity to prepare to survive. This is no small thing when there are too few of us survivalists out there and we would do better to add to our ranks. The more people that prepare ahead of time, the less the pain and suffering there will be. And, the fewer who will try to steal our supplies. Two, bolt action rifles use far less ammunition than their semi-auto brethren. The difference between one thousand rounds of oddball caliber and ten thousand rounds of current military caliber is about $900. Minimum. At the extreme, an HK91 with ten thousand rounds of 308 and twenty mags will cost you about $2000 ( if you use a clone, not the real McCoy- and using crap corrosive ammo ). A Turkish Mauser and one thousand rounds will cost about $110. Both are jobber price without shipping costs. This compares a Cadillac to a moped, but if you don’t want to walk and are poor, a moped will do. I am not saying that it is a great idea to buy the currently available Turkish rifle, as they are reported to be real crap. But if you are truly, desperately financially challenged you can, with that purchase and another $90 for wheat and grinder ( see issue #29 ), become prepared for survival for $200-250.
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I have covered bolt actions previously, so let me just say that if you can overcome their limitations of inaccuracy, corrosive ammo and recoil you could do a lot worse. Such as the AR15.
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Relying on a rimfire round to put down an enemy soldier is close to using a .38 to stop a grizzly. If you are close enough to accurately hit the correct spot you will put him down. Otherwise you are just going to piss him off and become his lunch. He might later die from the wound but it would be too late for you at that point. However, that also misses the point of this article. If a .38 is all you have and if you are skilled with it, it can ( barely ) do the job. A piece of duct tape can repair just about anything, as long as you realize its limitations. Realize what this round can and cannot do, and you could use it to your advantage. The number one selling point to a .22 is that the ammo is so cheap you can literally go out and shoot every week and not even hurt your budget. Even the cheapest 8mm for your Mauser is going to run ten cents a round after shipping and as cheap as that is you are still going to have a problem shooting on a regular basis. If you were to go out every week and shoot 30 rounds from your bolt action ( about all the recoil your shoulder can handle unless you are built like line-backer ) you would spend a whole $12 a month. Not bad, and all of us can handle that cost. Will that allow you to become proficient? That is for you to decide. If you feel that this amount of practice will allow you to hit what you are aiming at, you have got yourself a winner. Stick with your surplus bolt action.
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However, if you need a lot more practice to remain an acceptable marksman than for a grand sum of $2 a week you can shoot 100 rounds of ammo in practice each time you go to the range. I would think that this would be enough for anybody to become very good at hitting their target. And that really is what the main concern is here. If you are not able to practice on a regular basis you will not be able to engage the enemy and win. If you can’t hit your target you are useless. This was once understood over 75 years ago when hunting was the only way to put meat on the table. Then came World War Two and although officially marksmanship was encouraged once on the battlefield common practice was to lay down suppressing fire at any opportunity. Not that I blame the troops one bit. If it was me and I could keep the enemies head down so they wouldn’t fire at me and I knew that there was plenty more ammo available I would have done the same thing. The only problem with this practice is when you are cut off from resupply you are suddenly forced to switch practices and conserve ammo. Not that easy to do under the stress of battle. The German forces on the other hand were trained with and issued a five round bolt action that loaded slowly. The doctrine was to take your time, aim, and fire only at a target. How much both these practices had to do with regards for the soldiers lives and how much it had to do with the military-industrial base of their respective countries is open for debate. But the point being that since that point our militaries practice if not official training has been to Spray and Pray. That is what the M16 does best ( when it is working ) and why we are in no hurry to replace it. If we were dependant on the infantry to inflict most of the enemy casualties we would have a much better rifle for them to use. But tactics have been for almost 100 years that the real killers are artillery and machine guns. The ground pounders just help protect those systems ( tanks being mobile artillery ).
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In a End Of The World scenario it is assumed that industry ceases to exist. When that happens you cease to have resupply. Without resupply you cease to have artillery or machine guns or assault weapons. What is left is what you have in your personal supply. This is where the rimfire also shines through. You can stockpile enough. Lets say you call the bore life of a semi-auto 50,000 rounds. A 7.62x39 supply using surplus ammo is $5,000. A .22 supply is $1,000. It is going to cost you more to buy a .22 and magazines, but the initial investment is a couple of hundred dollars difference. The ammo cost difference is several thousand. Another consideration is ammo weight. You can carry a lot more .22s with you than conventional rifle ammo. Now, I realize that this is the same argument that was used to replace thirty caliber rounds with the puny ineffective .223, but the end goals must to entered into the equation. With the 30-06 and .308 it was assumed that all rounds were aimed at long distances. The .223 was used as a high volume short range shock weapons system. The two rounds were for totally different objectives. The .22 is ideal only for its low cost. It has very little else going for it unless all you ever kill are squirrels. You must realize that a .22 is only considered a compromise. You must stockpile rounds cheaply, and be able to practice a lot cheaply. Only the .22 rimfire is cheap enough for these two criteria. Its performance as a man stopper is pathetic and must be compensated for.
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Remember, the rimfire arsenal is only meant for End Of The World survival use. I do not recommend it for any other survival scenario, be it looters after a natural disaster, a government insurrection or other conventional combat plans. Regular warfare, be it guerrilla or conventional troops, needs a lot of firepower of medium to high caliber. A rimfire is ludicrous in that case. But when you are looking at the end of our industrial supply base, it makes perfect sense. The only other choices are to start your own industry or use black powder, or both. They are better choices, but require more organization than the loner survivalist has. For a go-it-alone after TEOTWAWKI scenario, stay with the .22 if you foresee long term industry collapse. But what if you are unsure which scenario will unfold? Well, that’s not so easy. You can compromise such as I have. A bolt action and a thousand rounds will be sufficient for conventional confrontations and as a backup plan I bought a cheap .22 arsenal with another 1000 rounds. It is nothing to brag about, being a single shot rifle and an old beat up revolver, but at a total of $125 after ammo it is damn cheap insurance against an asteroid or nuclear strike. You could just take the plunge and buy a complete arsenal and at least ten thousand rounds ( twenty would be better ) and then justify the cost by calling it your weekend plinking gun. But even a used rifle with tube magazine bought for $75 at a pawn shop and two thousand rounds of ammo for $40 will run you under $120 and is a small enough purchase to perhaps slip under the spouses radar screen or at least become a gift request. Most of us make enough to supply ourselves splendidly for survival but have a really high maintenance family that selfishly consumes all of our discretionary income. That is the main reason I write on surviving fugally, not because we are all living on minimum wage. At times those poor people are the ones who have better survival supplies. It is a lot easier to save when you don’t have a car payment, a house payment, college tuition or retirement plans. But I digress.
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If you have the money I would seriously stress the need for the best .22 rifle you can get. The difference between the best and worse .22 is perhaps $75. Not enough to worry about in most cases. The difference between the best and worse battle rifle is $750. A big difference and why I stress getting war surplus bolt actions instead of new assault rifles. But with a .22 it is not quite the same thing. Even if truly poor, $75 is only another months of savings. True, the final cost with magazines will bring this difference higher.
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The final cost of a tube magazine rifle will be about $100. The final cost of a $150 Rugar 10/22 after twenty magazines ( at $15 each ) is just under $500. Add $500 for 25,000 of ammo and the final cost is $600 verses $1000. If you add a decent scope for $50 this will encompass your total cost for your survival arsenal. You could get a SKS carbine and 5,000 round of ammo just as cheaply, but remember that we are concerned here with stockpiling a lot more than 5k rounds and also with practicing on a regular basis. You can’t just look at the immediate purchase.
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Another reason why you might wish to spend the additional $500 is tactics. In an ambush you are already at a serious disadvantage using the .22. The last thing you want is to handicap yourself further by lack of a detachable, quickly loaded magazine. I understand that most of us will go with the $120 minimal .22 package. In that case you are going to be restricted to a hit and run, three shot maximum ambush. Which is fine and dandy. For those who wish to go the extra mile and raise the rimfire battle tactics to a fine art, stick with a Rugar 10/22, get plenty of magazines ( even more than twenty if possible ) and practice a lot. Let us say that you only have the tube magazine rimfire. With a decent scope ( I would buy a moderately cheap two or three rather than one expensive one in case of damage ) and a reasonable amount of practice you can set up an ambush, shoot off two or three shots and get the heck out of there. You must obviously select your site with care. With a two or three man team all equipped with Rugars, you can ambush a fire team ( if you have the guts ) and with multiply hits per enemy you can defeat an enemy with superior weapons. This assumes a concealed site with cover and the skill to take down the enemy before he can find you.
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The rimfire arsenal is for a specialized scenario for those financially hindered in their preparations. The thing you must have or develop is skill. You must practice enough that under the stress of combat acquiring your target is second nature. If you can’t hit a two inch circle at one hundred yards under rapid fire you will not be able to hit critical areas on an enemy such as the throat, crotch or ankle. The goal is to incapacitate. If I am on the ground screaming like a girl because I have a round through my foot I will not be shooting back at you. Even if I was to shrug off that wound another one two seconds later to my skull and then my neck would put me out of the action. The wounds would then fester and I would die a horrible death due to lack of medical care. This is not for everyone. Be sure of your limitations and skills before you undertake these preparations. END
Reprinted from my e-book Bison Newsletter, available at www.bisonpress.com
Until I start posted again after I move I will be posting these reprints on Sunday. Hopefully I will get back to normal by August.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
survival cannibalism
SURVIVAL CANNIBALISM
Cannibalism is not the nicest activity humans engage in, and it ranks right there in between infanticide and genocide. This is quite understandable, as in a crises we can expect some to help us and others to try to harm us, but rarely do we expect to be eaten. Being thought of as dinner throws the whole equation into disruption. You can accept someone’s help, and you can fight off attempts to kill you, but being consumed for supper is just plain gross. Even if you aren’t religious, there’s that little nagging voice telling you that it does matter what happens to your body after death. Burial is preferred, cremation is cool in a Viking warrior sort of way. Cannibal consumption of your carcass is strictly off limits. Your remains will be defecated out, and that is as bad as it gets for desecrating a body.
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Now, having said that the concept of cannibalism in general is distasteful, I must also state that in certain survival situations you and I might have no other choice than to eat up on some of that long pork. Sure, it’s gross. So is ramming a bayonet into someone’s gut and twisting it about. I have done neither, but will do either if the situation demands it. Face it, the most foresighted of us can’t see or plan for all situations that can arise. If you must feed yourself, and there is only one source of food, you eat that food. You could have five years worth of wheat stored up, but a fire, a visit by bandits, pests or other situations could wipe it out. Farm land can be invaded by pests or persons, fire can burn your crop, or a blight can strike. Too much can happen to rely on one food source.
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Water and food are your most important necessities in life followed by shelter. Most of us are spoiled rotten in our affluent lifestyle. We are conditioned by running water pipes and a food system that feeds us at the slightest rumblings of our bloated belly. Seeing as how at least half of our nation is arid, and seeing as how our food system is only workable in a well running economy, it seems prudent to assume that disaster can easily strike us where we are most vulnerable. Water can be stored in drums, we can have a solar powered well, and we can always migrate to water. Food can be stored in the form of wheat for least cost/maximum caloric count, we can grow an extensive garden/hunt, and the third source of food will have to be cannibalism.
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Consider the advantages of cannibalism if you are practicing mobile survivalism. There is no need to carry food stores, not even a pan if you cook over a fire using skewers. With one bullet you get a spare firearm with its ammunition, nifty equipment you need and at least a week or two of grub. This of course assumes a total breakdown of society. If you are just lost for a week in the woods, don’t go killing Ranger Rick for his 9mm and a few tasty meals. Society will frown on this.
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This is pure and simple common sense. You can’t store all that much food, it can be lost for whatever reason, and farming is precarious under even ideal conditions. And, you need to eat. I do not suggest you consume the fresh of diseased corpses, or kill innocents just to avoid some hunger pains. Cannibalism is only for emergencies under conditions where the entire fabric of society is violently torn asunder. Sure, there are exceptions. Such as plane crashes in the mountains or if your leaders are attempting to control the populace with deliberate starvation. But just to make it plain, what I am talking about is life after doomsday. After civilization ends. Mad Max scenarios. When the stuff really truly hits the fan.
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Reasons why cannibalism is okay if you really, really have to.1) Sure, it’s disgusting. So is eating monkey brains, escargot, insects or even oysters. To me, meat should be an expectable creature such as cows and pigs, fowl and fish. Hell, even snake or alligator. Also, it should be a muscle meat. The only place guts or organ meat have on my plate is in a sausage, and a well seasoned one at that. If you are forced to eat human, at least it is mammal and has muscle meat. At least it isn’t slimy mucus looking snail. 2) you will not be hunted like a dog or outcast. If the situation is this dire, you will not be alone. The only cannibalism that should be condoned is that of an unnecessary nature. If there are crops or game available, the remnants of society should not allow the practice. Otherwise, you’ll have plenty of company and more than likely it will be a subject not brought up at a cocktail party. 3) You will not catch diseases if you take simple precautions. Avoid the spinal cord or brain and you avoid catching Kuru or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the turning of your brain to mush as you laugh uncontrollably in intense pain. Not the way to go. However, this is very rare unless you consume the aforementioned parts or the blood of a multi-generational cannibal. If you take care to avoid blood while butchering ( mainly infecting a cut you already have- a precaution you practice now) and just eat muscle meat, you should be okay.
*
Ancient bone findings indicate cannibalism. Enlargement of the brain/spinal socket might suggest brain consumption. Lengthwise splits in bones suggest bone marrow removal. Stone marks ( not animal tooth marks ) on bones say that the flesh was scrapped off and eaten. When you are lucky to make thirty, life can’t be all that great. Predators a lot bigger than today roamed around. Disease was a sure killer. Starvation was not uncommon. So, sure, cannibalism was almost a sure thing. Life that brutal suggests brutal tactics to be fed.
*
More recently there was the Donner Party. An untried trail was used, the party was stuck in the Sierras during winter, and after everything possible was consumed, the dead were eaten. Your typical story. What must be mentioned is that were it not for the protein, none would have had the strength to venture out and summon help. Without cannibalism the entire party would have died, among them many children.
*
As Fat Bastard said, it is the other, other white meat.
END
Taken from my Bison Newsletter e-book, available at www.bisonpress.com
Reprints will be posted every Sunday until I get to writing on a regular basis, hopefully before August.
Cannibalism is not the nicest activity humans engage in, and it ranks right there in between infanticide and genocide. This is quite understandable, as in a crises we can expect some to help us and others to try to harm us, but rarely do we expect to be eaten. Being thought of as dinner throws the whole equation into disruption. You can accept someone’s help, and you can fight off attempts to kill you, but being consumed for supper is just plain gross. Even if you aren’t religious, there’s that little nagging voice telling you that it does matter what happens to your body after death. Burial is preferred, cremation is cool in a Viking warrior sort of way. Cannibal consumption of your carcass is strictly off limits. Your remains will be defecated out, and that is as bad as it gets for desecrating a body.
*
Now, having said that the concept of cannibalism in general is distasteful, I must also state that in certain survival situations you and I might have no other choice than to eat up on some of that long pork. Sure, it’s gross. So is ramming a bayonet into someone’s gut and twisting it about. I have done neither, but will do either if the situation demands it. Face it, the most foresighted of us can’t see or plan for all situations that can arise. If you must feed yourself, and there is only one source of food, you eat that food. You could have five years worth of wheat stored up, but a fire, a visit by bandits, pests or other situations could wipe it out. Farm land can be invaded by pests or persons, fire can burn your crop, or a blight can strike. Too much can happen to rely on one food source.
*
Water and food are your most important necessities in life followed by shelter. Most of us are spoiled rotten in our affluent lifestyle. We are conditioned by running water pipes and a food system that feeds us at the slightest rumblings of our bloated belly. Seeing as how at least half of our nation is arid, and seeing as how our food system is only workable in a well running economy, it seems prudent to assume that disaster can easily strike us where we are most vulnerable. Water can be stored in drums, we can have a solar powered well, and we can always migrate to water. Food can be stored in the form of wheat for least cost/maximum caloric count, we can grow an extensive garden/hunt, and the third source of food will have to be cannibalism.
*
Consider the advantages of cannibalism if you are practicing mobile survivalism. There is no need to carry food stores, not even a pan if you cook over a fire using skewers. With one bullet you get a spare firearm with its ammunition, nifty equipment you need and at least a week or two of grub. This of course assumes a total breakdown of society. If you are just lost for a week in the woods, don’t go killing Ranger Rick for his 9mm and a few tasty meals. Society will frown on this.
*
This is pure and simple common sense. You can’t store all that much food, it can be lost for whatever reason, and farming is precarious under even ideal conditions. And, you need to eat. I do not suggest you consume the fresh of diseased corpses, or kill innocents just to avoid some hunger pains. Cannibalism is only for emergencies under conditions where the entire fabric of society is violently torn asunder. Sure, there are exceptions. Such as plane crashes in the mountains or if your leaders are attempting to control the populace with deliberate starvation. But just to make it plain, what I am talking about is life after doomsday. After civilization ends. Mad Max scenarios. When the stuff really truly hits the fan.
*
Reasons why cannibalism is okay if you really, really have to.1) Sure, it’s disgusting. So is eating monkey brains, escargot, insects or even oysters. To me, meat should be an expectable creature such as cows and pigs, fowl and fish. Hell, even snake or alligator. Also, it should be a muscle meat. The only place guts or organ meat have on my plate is in a sausage, and a well seasoned one at that. If you are forced to eat human, at least it is mammal and has muscle meat. At least it isn’t slimy mucus looking snail. 2) you will not be hunted like a dog or outcast. If the situation is this dire, you will not be alone. The only cannibalism that should be condoned is that of an unnecessary nature. If there are crops or game available, the remnants of society should not allow the practice. Otherwise, you’ll have plenty of company and more than likely it will be a subject not brought up at a cocktail party. 3) You will not catch diseases if you take simple precautions. Avoid the spinal cord or brain and you avoid catching Kuru or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the turning of your brain to mush as you laugh uncontrollably in intense pain. Not the way to go. However, this is very rare unless you consume the aforementioned parts or the blood of a multi-generational cannibal. If you take care to avoid blood while butchering ( mainly infecting a cut you already have- a precaution you practice now) and just eat muscle meat, you should be okay.
*
Ancient bone findings indicate cannibalism. Enlargement of the brain/spinal socket might suggest brain consumption. Lengthwise splits in bones suggest bone marrow removal. Stone marks ( not animal tooth marks ) on bones say that the flesh was scrapped off and eaten. When you are lucky to make thirty, life can’t be all that great. Predators a lot bigger than today roamed around. Disease was a sure killer. Starvation was not uncommon. So, sure, cannibalism was almost a sure thing. Life that brutal suggests brutal tactics to be fed.
*
More recently there was the Donner Party. An untried trail was used, the party was stuck in the Sierras during winter, and after everything possible was consumed, the dead were eaten. Your typical story. What must be mentioned is that were it not for the protein, none would have had the strength to venture out and summon help. Without cannibalism the entire party would have died, among them many children.
*
As Fat Bastard said, it is the other, other white meat.
END
Taken from my Bison Newsletter e-book, available at www.bisonpress.com
Reprints will be posted every Sunday until I get to writing on a regular basis, hopefully before August.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
china earthquake and alternate energy
CHINA EARTHQUAKE & ALTERNATE ENERGY
Did you know China has half the world’s hydro-electric power? I had no idea. It is also trying to locate new heavy industry out west. The new factories will be effected by power problems due to the dam damage. Companies already providing a lot of the globes wind machines were damaged. So the earthquakes will effect countries trying to get more alternate energy through wind. Just when Peak Oil starts to have an impact, less alternate energy production is available. Here is a great article:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45778
*
Yes, another short posting today. My last daily posting until further notice. For a time you will have to be content with Sunday postings only. Please stay tuned for all my glorious adventures as the Dakin Compound is relocated.
END
A new blog. Interesting, it is a mini-course in introductory preparedness. Not bad so far, check it out at http://gsiep.blogspot.com/
Remember to visit the Official Bison World HQ www.bisonpress.com
Did you know China has half the world’s hydro-electric power? I had no idea. It is also trying to locate new heavy industry out west. The new factories will be effected by power problems due to the dam damage. Companies already providing a lot of the globes wind machines were damaged. So the earthquakes will effect countries trying to get more alternate energy through wind. Just when Peak Oil starts to have an impact, less alternate energy production is available. Here is a great article:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45778
*
Yes, another short posting today. My last daily posting until further notice. For a time you will have to be content with Sunday postings only. Please stay tuned for all my glorious adventures as the Dakin Compound is relocated.
END
A new blog. Interesting, it is a mini-course in introductory preparedness. Not bad so far, check it out at http://gsiep.blogspot.com/
Remember to visit the Official Bison World HQ www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
big picture oil
BIG PICTURE OIL
Sorry, I really don’t have much today. All my spare time today was spent making more preps for the move. I have two vehicles, the Hippy Bread Van and the truck/trailer to move up to Elko. And the wife doesn’t drive with her medication. So I am going to have to make two trips. I am driving the van up on Wednesday after a half day at work. I’ll crash in the van overnight and then look for a place somewhat secure to park it for a week. To get home I had to rent a car one way. I could have taken Greyhound much cheaper but the limited schedule and lacking a run into Carson ( they only go to Reno ) posed problems. I would get in too late to take the local bus, so a hotel room on top of the fare would roughly be $200. Renting a car, after gas, is $300. Both are much more than I wanted to spend, but what can you do? I’ll finish up everything here on Friday and we hit the road Saturday.
*
So today you only get a link to a very interesting article, a big picture on global oil use/supply.
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/dancy/2008/0707.html
END
Sorry, I really don’t have much today. All my spare time today was spent making more preps for the move. I have two vehicles, the Hippy Bread Van and the truck/trailer to move up to Elko. And the wife doesn’t drive with her medication. So I am going to have to make two trips. I am driving the van up on Wednesday after a half day at work. I’ll crash in the van overnight and then look for a place somewhat secure to park it for a week. To get home I had to rent a car one way. I could have taken Greyhound much cheaper but the limited schedule and lacking a run into Carson ( they only go to Reno ) posed problems. I would get in too late to take the local bus, so a hotel room on top of the fare would roughly be $200. Renting a car, after gas, is $300. Both are much more than I wanted to spend, but what can you do? I’ll finish up everything here on Friday and we hit the road Saturday.
*
So today you only get a link to a very interesting article, a big picture on global oil use/supply.
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/dancy/2008/0707.html
END
Monday, July 07, 2008
assuming normal
ASSUMING NORMAL
Before I start, let me just say that this is not an original thought. It has been expressed before by others. I bring it up to express my surprise. I should have known but was blinded by my normal routine. It is amazing what we take for granted, what is assumed to be a normal life. Although moving a trailer 300 miles down the road is about as easy a move as you can make ( other than moving within the same town ) it still entails planning and thought. I am desperately trying to duplicate all functions ( normal daily living off grid which is a lot different than disaster planning with duplicates ) and foresee possible problems. My biggest concern is winter living.
*
My normal winter heat was a oil filled radiator running 600-900 watts. I paid $60 a month ( 11.5 cents a kilowatt hour ) in mild cold and $80 a month in bitter cold ( relative to this region ) to stay alive. When it got down to zero it was far from comfortable in the trailer but it kept us alive. Now I have to go to propane and solar. I hate to be dependant on propane, what with petroleum prices rising and all, but then that leads us into the worry about the land. I am financing the land and if I lose the job I fall back to the other land farther from town. If I construct a dug-out for winter living I lose that investment. So for now I stay trailer squatting rather than in a permanent dwelling. The land was only bought to be close to a job so it is almost viewed as a disposable expense. A better version of trailer park rent.
*
But here is my point. I am freaking out about stocking up for winter. Before, I was dependant on the electric company for heat ( I had a two week supply of propane for emergencies ). But it was pay-as-you-go and I gave it little thought. Well, now I have to pre-plan the whole winter and I’m stressed. Silly, right? With a hundred gallons of propane I’m set for heating all winter, yet I’m worried. Snowed in, I can’t get more so I’m wanting to stockpile all I need. Last winter, with electric, if it got too cold I turned up the heat. Next winter, with a set amount of gas, what is bought now must suffice. I know there is the propane company bulk tank option. And I will look into that. But worse case I use my own small refillable tanks. I’m moving to a more disaster resistant heating method ( wood is not yet a viable option unless I install a stove in the trailer which I’m not so sure about ) but because it must be planned for in advance it seems more troublesome than being grid dependant.
*
Even after all these years of self induced paranoia I must still combat sheeple assumptions ground into me since childhood. I know some of you view me as a deity, so let this be a lesson to you. Even one so near perfection as myself must continually strive to get this preparedness thing down correctly.
END
A heads up for everyone. I was toying with the idea of pre-posting articles before I moved. But I am simply too busy ( mostly busy worrying ) to write up enough ahead of time for daily posting. I don’t want to leave you hanging for two weeks, so I did the next best thing and pre-posted Sunday articles. This Wednesday will be my last daily post until I can get set up at the Elko Compound. From that day forward there will only be Sunday posts. And I cheated and reprinted old articles from 5-7 years ago ( taken from the Bison Newsletter book available at www.bisonpress.com ). I hope that I can get somewhat back to normal before the end of this month. So please stay tuned.
Before I start, let me just say that this is not an original thought. It has been expressed before by others. I bring it up to express my surprise. I should have known but was blinded by my normal routine. It is amazing what we take for granted, what is assumed to be a normal life. Although moving a trailer 300 miles down the road is about as easy a move as you can make ( other than moving within the same town ) it still entails planning and thought. I am desperately trying to duplicate all functions ( normal daily living off grid which is a lot different than disaster planning with duplicates ) and foresee possible problems. My biggest concern is winter living.
*
My normal winter heat was a oil filled radiator running 600-900 watts. I paid $60 a month ( 11.5 cents a kilowatt hour ) in mild cold and $80 a month in bitter cold ( relative to this region ) to stay alive. When it got down to zero it was far from comfortable in the trailer but it kept us alive. Now I have to go to propane and solar. I hate to be dependant on propane, what with petroleum prices rising and all, but then that leads us into the worry about the land. I am financing the land and if I lose the job I fall back to the other land farther from town. If I construct a dug-out for winter living I lose that investment. So for now I stay trailer squatting rather than in a permanent dwelling. The land was only bought to be close to a job so it is almost viewed as a disposable expense. A better version of trailer park rent.
*
But here is my point. I am freaking out about stocking up for winter. Before, I was dependant on the electric company for heat ( I had a two week supply of propane for emergencies ). But it was pay-as-you-go and I gave it little thought. Well, now I have to pre-plan the whole winter and I’m stressed. Silly, right? With a hundred gallons of propane I’m set for heating all winter, yet I’m worried. Snowed in, I can’t get more so I’m wanting to stockpile all I need. Last winter, with electric, if it got too cold I turned up the heat. Next winter, with a set amount of gas, what is bought now must suffice. I know there is the propane company bulk tank option. And I will look into that. But worse case I use my own small refillable tanks. I’m moving to a more disaster resistant heating method ( wood is not yet a viable option unless I install a stove in the trailer which I’m not so sure about ) but because it must be planned for in advance it seems more troublesome than being grid dependant.
*
Even after all these years of self induced paranoia I must still combat sheeple assumptions ground into me since childhood. I know some of you view me as a deity, so let this be a lesson to you. Even one so near perfection as myself must continually strive to get this preparedness thing down correctly.
END
A heads up for everyone. I was toying with the idea of pre-posting articles before I moved. But I am simply too busy ( mostly busy worrying ) to write up enough ahead of time for daily posting. I don’t want to leave you hanging for two weeks, so I did the next best thing and pre-posted Sunday articles. This Wednesday will be my last daily post until I can get set up at the Elko Compound. From that day forward there will only be Sunday posts. And I cheated and reprinted old articles from 5-7 years ago ( taken from the Bison Newsletter book available at www.bisonpress.com ). I hope that I can get somewhat back to normal before the end of this month. So please stay tuned.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
45 watts
45 WATTS
Thanks to the heads-up from the Rawles Ranch I looked into the solar panel sale from Northern Tools. $80 for a 15 watt unit. The kind that generate a reduced amount of power even with an overcast ( the down side being you start losing generating power after about a decade or so ). So I ordered three panels. With a controller unit ( keeps the panels from discharging ) and shipping it came to a few cents shy of $300. It came in less than two weeks. I had it delivered to my private postal box which is across the street from my trailer park and proceeded to almost kill myself carrying it home ( my bike was down with a broken leg ). They are a lot heavier than I imagined. But I bit the bullet and bought them and they are delivered. At the time I wasn’t even sure about moving but I had visions of increased demand as electric rates went up and increased shipping cost. I couldn’t imagine them decreasing in price.
*
For the truly poor survivalist you don’t need anything more than a paperback book size battery charger and LED’s. And plenty of AA rechargeable batteries ( the unit handles AAA and D and C but it is nice if you can standardize size ). LED’s are far superior to petroleum light sources. Not light output, but safety and affordability and longevity. But being off-grid, 45 watts is barely adequate for even primitive living. Four to six hours of several lights and you’ve used the days production. Try adding in an hour on the computer or any TV and the system is overloaded. Look at it one way and you are paying $300 to power a couple of 20 watt lights. Now add in the battery cost. Insane. But look at it another way and a high up front cost still means energy independence. Just don’t figure out the payback period compared to grid power or you will hate yourself.
*
Eventually I would like to add a lot more panels and use a laptop and a satellite Internet connection and a regular TV. But I can wait. In a pinch I can live with what I have. After all it is merely a luxury rather than a necessity. Perhaps a primitive luxury, but soon it will be the only kind most of us have. Surprising myself, I am actually thinking this is a glass half full moment.
END
Buy my crap, books and gear www.bisonpress.com
Thanks to the heads-up from the Rawles Ranch I looked into the solar panel sale from Northern Tools. $80 for a 15 watt unit. The kind that generate a reduced amount of power even with an overcast ( the down side being you start losing generating power after about a decade or so ). So I ordered three panels. With a controller unit ( keeps the panels from discharging ) and shipping it came to a few cents shy of $300. It came in less than two weeks. I had it delivered to my private postal box which is across the street from my trailer park and proceeded to almost kill myself carrying it home ( my bike was down with a broken leg ). They are a lot heavier than I imagined. But I bit the bullet and bought them and they are delivered. At the time I wasn’t even sure about moving but I had visions of increased demand as electric rates went up and increased shipping cost. I couldn’t imagine them decreasing in price.
*
For the truly poor survivalist you don’t need anything more than a paperback book size battery charger and LED’s. And plenty of AA rechargeable batteries ( the unit handles AAA and D and C but it is nice if you can standardize size ). LED’s are far superior to petroleum light sources. Not light output, but safety and affordability and longevity. But being off-grid, 45 watts is barely adequate for even primitive living. Four to six hours of several lights and you’ve used the days production. Try adding in an hour on the computer or any TV and the system is overloaded. Look at it one way and you are paying $300 to power a couple of 20 watt lights. Now add in the battery cost. Insane. But look at it another way and a high up front cost still means energy independence. Just don’t figure out the payback period compared to grid power or you will hate yourself.
*
Eventually I would like to add a lot more panels and use a laptop and a satellite Internet connection and a regular TV. But I can wait. In a pinch I can live with what I have. After all it is merely a luxury rather than a necessity. Perhaps a primitive luxury, but soon it will be the only kind most of us have. Surprising myself, I am actually thinking this is a glass half full moment.
END
Buy my crap, books and gear www.bisonpress.com
Saturday, July 05, 2008
road warrior
THE ROAD WARRIOR
To receive your valid and endorsed Doomer Union card, it is required that you view the movie Road Warrior. I’ve said it before, the 70’s and 80’s produced some of the best Apocalypse films. Now the focus is so much on special effects and budgets that more often than not the story suffers. Back then a good story made up for lower budgets and little effects. A Boy And His Dog, Soylent Green, The Omega Man, Road Warrior. I’m sure you could think of a few others. Did the 1990’s produce anything other than The Postman and Waterworld? Has the new Millennium had much besides I Am Legend? I don’t include fantasy films such as Damnation Alley or Planet Of The Apes or Tank Girl.
*
I hadn’t watched Road Warrior since the mid 80’s. You see Mad Max shown all the time, but I don’t really consider that a true post-apocalypse movie. More along the lines of Escape From New York or The Warriors, a society-degenerating-into-mass-crime genre film. You could argue that Soylent Green isn’t really post-apocalypse since society still functioned, but I think with its global warming and overpopulation and mass pollution and recycled people as food themes it might belong in either camp. Road Warrior definitely belongs to the post collapse camp. You don’t get much better at total collapse than this. I just rented and watched it again and thought it aged quite well. The whole movie is arguably little more than a chase film, but just the opening few minutes describing the collapse make the whole movie awesome.
*
I wish they still made movies like this. I guess after oil tops $200 a barrel then true panic will set in and we’ll get a few good writers truly inspired to envision the end of the world again. How far away can that be? Two weeks? Oh, yeh. Fun stuff.
END
Important note on Coleman LED lantern from Wal-Mart. It just went up to $12. The generic is still $5. Bastards!
The Bison HQ http://www.bisonpress.com/
To receive your valid and endorsed Doomer Union card, it is required that you view the movie Road Warrior. I’ve said it before, the 70’s and 80’s produced some of the best Apocalypse films. Now the focus is so much on special effects and budgets that more often than not the story suffers. Back then a good story made up for lower budgets and little effects. A Boy And His Dog, Soylent Green, The Omega Man, Road Warrior. I’m sure you could think of a few others. Did the 1990’s produce anything other than The Postman and Waterworld? Has the new Millennium had much besides I Am Legend? I don’t include fantasy films such as Damnation Alley or Planet Of The Apes or Tank Girl.
*
I hadn’t watched Road Warrior since the mid 80’s. You see Mad Max shown all the time, but I don’t really consider that a true post-apocalypse movie. More along the lines of Escape From New York or The Warriors, a society-degenerating-into-mass-crime genre film. You could argue that Soylent Green isn’t really post-apocalypse since society still functioned, but I think with its global warming and overpopulation and mass pollution and recycled people as food themes it might belong in either camp. Road Warrior definitely belongs to the post collapse camp. You don’t get much better at total collapse than this. I just rented and watched it again and thought it aged quite well. The whole movie is arguably little more than a chase film, but just the opening few minutes describing the collapse make the whole movie awesome.
*
I wish they still made movies like this. I guess after oil tops $200 a barrel then true panic will set in and we’ll get a few good writers truly inspired to envision the end of the world again. How far away can that be? Two weeks? Oh, yeh. Fun stuff.
END
Important note on Coleman LED lantern from Wal-Mart. It just went up to $12. The generic is still $5. Bastards!
The Bison HQ http://www.bisonpress.com/
Friday, July 04, 2008
LED test
LED TEST
I just told you about the $1 LED push-on three bulb light from Dollar Tree. It was brighter than the two lanterns from Wal-Mart. A ten dollar Coleman model and a $5 generic lantern. As expected, the brightest lost power the quickest. The Dollar Tree light only lasted 36 hours. Used three AAA batteries. At 24 hours one bulb lost power and the remaining two only lasted another twelve hours. Of the two lanterns, the Coleman started to dim at 48 hours and by 72 hours it was pretty much finished for any useable light. The generic was still going strong at that time. Coleman uses three AA batteries and the generic uses four AA batteries. The Coleman started as a strong indirect light, the generic has a weak indirect light.
*
I will be using the $1 lights as an easy to find and activate lamp for when I need light in the dark. Such as coming home late or going to the bathroom at night. At $1 I bought ten of them without sweating the purchase. For on and quick off lights they should go awhile without needing to change the batteries. The generic lantern will be great for getting around with a portable light. Just enough light to walk around and not stepping on the cats. The Coleman will help when needing a stronger indirect lamp, although the small flashlights mounted on an adjustable arm for direct lighting will be much better for stationary activities.
*
I just bought 45 watts of solar panels and I have two marine 12v batteries in the trailer. With that set-up I can run the car bulb lamps in the trailer. Occasionally I can use the florescent ceiling lights, but at 30 watts they will be a luxury. The #1141 car bulbs use 18 watts and give decent direct lighting. I will be using the LED’s for initial light until I set up the panels, then as emergencies and to help with extended cloudy periods. As dollar stores go extinct from high oil prices and falling China trade I will only use the LED’s when I must, assuming disposable batteries skyrocket in price. The rechargeable small batteries are only in case of collapse. Unless 12v batteries get too expensive of course, then I’ll go all rechargeable and buy more of those batteries and more of those solar rechargers ( the shoebox size that are currently $25 and charge AA, AAA, D, C, 9v ) We’ll have to see on that one.
*
Ah, the joys of replacing AC power at ten cents a kilowatt hour.
END
A lot of comments from loyal minions hinting at the demise of our relationship. I don’t know if it is about the coming two week period I will be moving, or if they think I won’t publish anymore. So just a reminder. Bison will not be restored to the length and depth I had before as it was consuming my life and sanity ( well, never say never, but the current plan is to take it easy a bit at least for now ). But I am not going to stop publishing. I will continue to post. How, or how often is an unknown for now. But please stay tuned and don’t give up on me. Loyal minions are hard to get.
Buy My Crap www.bisonpress.com
I just told you about the $1 LED push-on three bulb light from Dollar Tree. It was brighter than the two lanterns from Wal-Mart. A ten dollar Coleman model and a $5 generic lantern. As expected, the brightest lost power the quickest. The Dollar Tree light only lasted 36 hours. Used three AAA batteries. At 24 hours one bulb lost power and the remaining two only lasted another twelve hours. Of the two lanterns, the Coleman started to dim at 48 hours and by 72 hours it was pretty much finished for any useable light. The generic was still going strong at that time. Coleman uses three AA batteries and the generic uses four AA batteries. The Coleman started as a strong indirect light, the generic has a weak indirect light.
*
I will be using the $1 lights as an easy to find and activate lamp for when I need light in the dark. Such as coming home late or going to the bathroom at night. At $1 I bought ten of them without sweating the purchase. For on and quick off lights they should go awhile without needing to change the batteries. The generic lantern will be great for getting around with a portable light. Just enough light to walk around and not stepping on the cats. The Coleman will help when needing a stronger indirect lamp, although the small flashlights mounted on an adjustable arm for direct lighting will be much better for stationary activities.
*
I just bought 45 watts of solar panels and I have two marine 12v batteries in the trailer. With that set-up I can run the car bulb lamps in the trailer. Occasionally I can use the florescent ceiling lights, but at 30 watts they will be a luxury. The #1141 car bulbs use 18 watts and give decent direct lighting. I will be using the LED’s for initial light until I set up the panels, then as emergencies and to help with extended cloudy periods. As dollar stores go extinct from high oil prices and falling China trade I will only use the LED’s when I must, assuming disposable batteries skyrocket in price. The rechargeable small batteries are only in case of collapse. Unless 12v batteries get too expensive of course, then I’ll go all rechargeable and buy more of those batteries and more of those solar rechargers ( the shoebox size that are currently $25 and charge AA, AAA, D, C, 9v ) We’ll have to see on that one.
*
Ah, the joys of replacing AC power at ten cents a kilowatt hour.
END
A lot of comments from loyal minions hinting at the demise of our relationship. I don’t know if it is about the coming two week period I will be moving, or if they think I won’t publish anymore. So just a reminder. Bison will not be restored to the length and depth I had before as it was consuming my life and sanity ( well, never say never, but the current plan is to take it easy a bit at least for now ). But I am not going to stop publishing. I will continue to post. How, or how often is an unknown for now. But please stay tuned and don’t give up on me. Loyal minions are hard to get.
Buy My Crap www.bisonpress.com
Thursday, July 03, 2008
wage pressure
WAGE PRESSURE
Wages have basically been stagnant for decades. Ever since the magical mystery 70’s. The start of the end of Middle Class America. Of course it was only a coincidence that the estrogen brigade agitated for equal rights and women entered the workplace and wages went down. You in effect doubled the workforce, but that couldn’t have had any effect on wages. Not in the slightest. It’s okay to agitate against teenage labor ( it’s for the children! ) to reduce wage competition with adult male Union workers, but God forbid you try to put women back into the kitchen while pregnant. If you think a women’s place is in the home raising a family then you are a male chauvinist pig. Stop the penis power! ( it’s funny women complain about wage inequality when their entering the workforce hurt wages )
*
Next we have Mexican immigrants helping to push down wages. The meat packing industry and construction are prime examples. Replace the $30 an hour Union members with $10 unskilled laborers. Yes, new building materials are easier to use and don’t require as much skill. And some industries do overpay Union members. And immigrants are hard workers. But it is another blow against middle class economics. So one of the few Union-like wage jobs left is government workers ( forget Detroit- dead man walking ). And they are going to be in a world of hurt. Especially on the local and state lever where government can’t print the money to pay its bills ( and increasingly can’t afford to float bond issues ). Property tax revenue is falling. Business sales tax is declining. Every level of government expanded during the housing boom and overextended. Now it is time to cut back.
*
Wages being held down due to competition goes back to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Free former slaves and European immigrants threatened employed workers with replacement if they demanded too much ( like safe conditions or a living wage ). Real workers rights and generous benefits really only lasted a few decades. The era is once again over. Even the ultra-socialist peoples party of Obama and Hillary will not thwart the moneyed corporate interests. Pressure will continue to decrease your wages. Even a freeze will in effect be a cut with higher inflation. We had better hope the welfare state stays around, it might be the only thing keeping you fed and warm in winter when employment dries up to Third World country levels.
END
Thanks, Craig, for the donation.
The Texas land is now open for the free rent offer. 60 miles east of Dallas/FW, five miles from Gun Barrel City. Trailer lot next to dirt road, utilities on road. At time of purchase there were no trees on lot, just a field. Unemployment in area is reported to be bad. Let me know.
Have you bought my crap today? www.bisonpress.com
Wages have basically been stagnant for decades. Ever since the magical mystery 70’s. The start of the end of Middle Class America. Of course it was only a coincidence that the estrogen brigade agitated for equal rights and women entered the workplace and wages went down. You in effect doubled the workforce, but that couldn’t have had any effect on wages. Not in the slightest. It’s okay to agitate against teenage labor ( it’s for the children! ) to reduce wage competition with adult male Union workers, but God forbid you try to put women back into the kitchen while pregnant. If you think a women’s place is in the home raising a family then you are a male chauvinist pig. Stop the penis power! ( it’s funny women complain about wage inequality when their entering the workforce hurt wages )
*
Next we have Mexican immigrants helping to push down wages. The meat packing industry and construction are prime examples. Replace the $30 an hour Union members with $10 unskilled laborers. Yes, new building materials are easier to use and don’t require as much skill. And some industries do overpay Union members. And immigrants are hard workers. But it is another blow against middle class economics. So one of the few Union-like wage jobs left is government workers ( forget Detroit- dead man walking ). And they are going to be in a world of hurt. Especially on the local and state lever where government can’t print the money to pay its bills ( and increasingly can’t afford to float bond issues ). Property tax revenue is falling. Business sales tax is declining. Every level of government expanded during the housing boom and overextended. Now it is time to cut back.
*
Wages being held down due to competition goes back to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Free former slaves and European immigrants threatened employed workers with replacement if they demanded too much ( like safe conditions or a living wage ). Real workers rights and generous benefits really only lasted a few decades. The era is once again over. Even the ultra-socialist peoples party of Obama and Hillary will not thwart the moneyed corporate interests. Pressure will continue to decrease your wages. Even a freeze will in effect be a cut with higher inflation. We had better hope the welfare state stays around, it might be the only thing keeping you fed and warm in winter when employment dries up to Third World country levels.
END
Thanks, Craig, for the donation.
The Texas land is now open for the free rent offer. 60 miles east of Dallas/FW, five miles from Gun Barrel City. Trailer lot next to dirt road, utilities on road. At time of purchase there were no trees on lot, just a field. Unemployment in area is reported to be bad. Let me know.
Have you bought my crap today? www.bisonpress.com
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
free rent
FREE RENT
Long time suffering loyal minions know about the land I own. For you new guys, I bought several lots of land years back when they were as cheap as could be. I don’t necessarily want to sell them since I will never be able to buy comparable lots as cheap. Yet they are doing me no good at all. So if any of my readers want free rent for your trailer, I am offering them for your use ( no friends of friends or distant family- this is for my loyal readers ). I have already offered the use of the Texas land to someone else. He likely won’t take me up on it but it is still spoken for.
*
Arizona. Half way between Show Low and St. John’s ( northeast ). A very small lot out in the middle of nowhere. The closet town is five miles away but most likely is nothing more than a gas station or bar. Very likely there are no roads remaining or by now they are barely visible ruts. The Lower Colorado is about fifteen miles away, as is a lake in the other direction. Thirty miles to either city. Might be a bit hard to get food or water or hold a job. How about if you have a pension and a dependable vehicle? I couldn’t resist buying this even with all the shortcomings since it was $400.
*
Arkansas. North central part of state near Hardy. Small trailer lot. Probably overgrown with trees. Dirt road to pavement might get muddy in the rain. Three miles to town, about nine miles to a Super Wal-Mart. I’m sure there are few jobs in the area. I’ve heard through the rumor mill that squatters can take your land from you after a certain number of years if you don’t catch them in the act, so it would behoove you to check this one out before you pack up the cats and kids and drive there on the last tank of gas.
*
Nevada. The only lot I’ve actually gone to see. Turn off I-80 nine miles NE from Elko and go up four and a half miles on a crappy dirt road to my own little acre of sage brush. Won’t be plowed in the winter. River five miles away on the south side of the freeway. Southern sun exposure will be poor due to gentle slope up to a nearby hill blocking some of the rays. The nearest neighbor to the south is about three miles, none to the east or west I saw, and one neighbor a mile north ( it could be a fair weather vacationer, or full time- I have no idea ). There is a gas station and RV park at I-80. You could even winter in the RV park and live rent free the rest of the year. That was once my plan but the gas cost would have been higher than buying another lot closer to town.
*
You’ll have to haul your sewage and trash in to town to dump, and haul water back on all the lots. This is a place for you to park a trailer, not leave a footprint ( other than clearing vegetation to park ). I don’t want you to pollute the place and then the authorities harass me. For that matter, I am only going by what I was told as far as zoning. I can’t guarantee you won’t get harassed in a trailer there. I will send you a signed and notarized paper giving you permission to be there, abiding by all laws is your responsibility. I don’t want any rent because I don’t want you having renters rights if I need to kick you off. The agreement can be terminated. Legal notice aside, figure the odds of my ever going there ( other than Nevada ). Most likely you could operate a sewage pond and slaughterhouse there and I would never know unless notified. I don’t want you to feel like I will show up at any time and boot you off, but I also want it clear that if for some bizarre reason it happens you understand it is still my right.
*
So let me know what you think. If you can get a trailer ( heck, a tent if you can get away with it ) and solve the employment/transportation issues, you can live for free. On me. Yes, you can squat anywhere, in much nicer locations. But this is legal. No cops harassing you. Peace of mind. Contact me soon before I’m no longer online ( I’ll still log on, but in a week and a half it will no longer be easy and I won’t have the luxury of staying on as long as I desire ).
Jimd303@netzero.com
END
You should still feel free to buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
Long time suffering loyal minions know about the land I own. For you new guys, I bought several lots of land years back when they were as cheap as could be. I don’t necessarily want to sell them since I will never be able to buy comparable lots as cheap. Yet they are doing me no good at all. So if any of my readers want free rent for your trailer, I am offering them for your use ( no friends of friends or distant family- this is for my loyal readers ). I have already offered the use of the Texas land to someone else. He likely won’t take me up on it but it is still spoken for.
*
Arizona. Half way between Show Low and St. John’s ( northeast ). A very small lot out in the middle of nowhere. The closet town is five miles away but most likely is nothing more than a gas station or bar. Very likely there are no roads remaining or by now they are barely visible ruts. The Lower Colorado is about fifteen miles away, as is a lake in the other direction. Thirty miles to either city. Might be a bit hard to get food or water or hold a job. How about if you have a pension and a dependable vehicle? I couldn’t resist buying this even with all the shortcomings since it was $400.
*
Arkansas. North central part of state near Hardy. Small trailer lot. Probably overgrown with trees. Dirt road to pavement might get muddy in the rain. Three miles to town, about nine miles to a Super Wal-Mart. I’m sure there are few jobs in the area. I’ve heard through the rumor mill that squatters can take your land from you after a certain number of years if you don’t catch them in the act, so it would behoove you to check this one out before you pack up the cats and kids and drive there on the last tank of gas.
*
Nevada. The only lot I’ve actually gone to see. Turn off I-80 nine miles NE from Elko and go up four and a half miles on a crappy dirt road to my own little acre of sage brush. Won’t be plowed in the winter. River five miles away on the south side of the freeway. Southern sun exposure will be poor due to gentle slope up to a nearby hill blocking some of the rays. The nearest neighbor to the south is about three miles, none to the east or west I saw, and one neighbor a mile north ( it could be a fair weather vacationer, or full time- I have no idea ). There is a gas station and RV park at I-80. You could even winter in the RV park and live rent free the rest of the year. That was once my plan but the gas cost would have been higher than buying another lot closer to town.
*
You’ll have to haul your sewage and trash in to town to dump, and haul water back on all the lots. This is a place for you to park a trailer, not leave a footprint ( other than clearing vegetation to park ). I don’t want you to pollute the place and then the authorities harass me. For that matter, I am only going by what I was told as far as zoning. I can’t guarantee you won’t get harassed in a trailer there. I will send you a signed and notarized paper giving you permission to be there, abiding by all laws is your responsibility. I don’t want any rent because I don’t want you having renters rights if I need to kick you off. The agreement can be terminated. Legal notice aside, figure the odds of my ever going there ( other than Nevada ). Most likely you could operate a sewage pond and slaughterhouse there and I would never know unless notified. I don’t want you to feel like I will show up at any time and boot you off, but I also want it clear that if for some bizarre reason it happens you understand it is still my right.
*
So let me know what you think. If you can get a trailer ( heck, a tent if you can get away with it ) and solve the employment/transportation issues, you can live for free. On me. Yes, you can squat anywhere, in much nicer locations. But this is legal. No cops harassing you. Peace of mind. Contact me soon before I’m no longer online ( I’ll still log on, but in a week and a half it will no longer be easy and I won’t have the luxury of staying on as long as I desire ).
Jimd303@netzero.com
END
You should still feel free to buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
giving up the electric teet
GIVING UP THE ELECTRIC TEET
I haven’t exactly been having anxiety attacks over the coming move, but the stress level is definitely elevated. So I started to wonder why. After all, nothing I’m planning to do is exactly new or unknown. I lived without utilities in the Hippy Bread Van for almost six months. I’ve been using a bicycle as my primary transportation for decades. I’m used to biking in the snow and cold to get to work. The only thing I’m not experienced at is living off grid in the winter and being without a refrigerator. So why do I have days where I just want to curl up in a fetal position, renounce all doom and gloom thinking and rejoin the polite society of Pollyanna’s?
*
Now I think I’ve figured it out. I’ve been securely clamped to the electronic/information teet solid for the last year and a half. Every day was at a minimum of three hours plugged into the Internet. Most were four hours total. I’ve become more addicted to the Web than I ever was to TV. I don’t want to leave its sweet embrace. The radioactive glow delivering information overload to my grey matter has corrupted me. The forced parting will not be pleasant. In the few lucid moments I experience every day I actually start to think the best thing about this move will not be the financial freedom or the increased self sufficiency, but the cutting of the electric umbilical cord. No power for much TV at all, and no Internet connection. Even if I get Internet to the trailer once again I won’t have the juice to power the computer for too long. My addiction will be restricted instead of only controlled by my need to sleep and keep the wife marginally happy.
*
Nothing wrong with the Internet. It is wonderful. But as with all things, moderation is the key. I should have known that.
END
My site www.bisonpress.com
I haven’t exactly been having anxiety attacks over the coming move, but the stress level is definitely elevated. So I started to wonder why. After all, nothing I’m planning to do is exactly new or unknown. I lived without utilities in the Hippy Bread Van for almost six months. I’ve been using a bicycle as my primary transportation for decades. I’m used to biking in the snow and cold to get to work. The only thing I’m not experienced at is living off grid in the winter and being without a refrigerator. So why do I have days where I just want to curl up in a fetal position, renounce all doom and gloom thinking and rejoin the polite society of Pollyanna’s?
*
Now I think I’ve figured it out. I’ve been securely clamped to the electronic/information teet solid for the last year and a half. Every day was at a minimum of three hours plugged into the Internet. Most were four hours total. I’ve become more addicted to the Web than I ever was to TV. I don’t want to leave its sweet embrace. The radioactive glow delivering information overload to my grey matter has corrupted me. The forced parting will not be pleasant. In the few lucid moments I experience every day I actually start to think the best thing about this move will not be the financial freedom or the increased self sufficiency, but the cutting of the electric umbilical cord. No power for much TV at all, and no Internet connection. Even if I get Internet to the trailer once again I won’t have the juice to power the computer for too long. My addiction will be restricted instead of only controlled by my need to sleep and keep the wife marginally happy.
*
Nothing wrong with the Internet. It is wonderful. But as with all things, moderation is the key. I should have known that.
END
My site www.bisonpress.com
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