dreams of anarchy

DREAMS OF ANARCHY
Way back in the day, I accidentally introduced myself to anarchy when I ordered a book from the now defunct Loompanics bookseller. I loved Loompanics, with its strange selection of books usually available nowhere else. It’s catalog arrival was on par with sex or a surf and turf meal that someone else paid for. My first and only purchased article was through them for a catalog publication ( each quarterly catalog had two articles and the annual catalog had several more- to be selected was quite the honor ). One of the downsides to ordering obscene amounts of mail order books is you end up with a lot of expensive ass wipe or fire starter. One of the great things is that you run across treasures unexpectedly. I’m not positive, I think the title was “A market for liberty”. Anyway, at the time I was under the oppressive thumb of the Big Green Weenie and ripe for revolution. Anarchy was just what the doctor ordered. And to be clear, anarchy as in the literal definition “no government”, not the propaganda laden meaning of violence and mayhem.
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Looking back, the study and love for the subject has not weathered time easily. I no longer care to study politics, now understanding that government is no more than a dancing puppet for the central bankers. How could I possibly have gotten excited that a foreign born half breed Muslim got elected when the whole thing is just a farce, being a Selection rather than an Election? I don’t get too worked up about economics anymore either, now that the big players have pretty much rigged the game and any market moves send out the wrong information. And the possibility of a system of liberty has recently been under assault as I have been studying the possible life after a collapse. Is it even possible that an anarchist society can ever be achieved ( to clarify, my previous article on an anarchist society now seems naïve as I was basing it on a resource rich environment )?
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It’s not that I don’t strongly believe in anarchy, I still do. Heck, I still think Libertarians are pussies. You can’t just have a little government, it’s all or nothing. I’m just no longer sure it can ever happen. I ran across a blurb stating that anthropologists can correctly guess any societies social customs based on how they get their food ( if anyone knows a book on that, please let me know as I think it would have fascination details ). Farmers will always follow certain patterns as far as marriage and government, etc., and nomads yet another. We can guess that farmers will never see anarchy, because historically they have always needed an army to protect them. Even America couldn’t have done without some kind of government organization clearing farmland of Indians. Certain conditions might decrease the level of government but I don’t think you can eliminate it altogether for farming. Nomads might have more individual rights, but I don’t think you can eliminate the warlord position. I don’t you can have nomads without them being warriors, and certainly they need a unifying leadership at times. Plus the whole “armies stealing the next tribes resources as survival” aspect.
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Anarchist dreams were based on individuals being able to protect themselves in a modern industrial capitalist society. Unfortunately, Peak Oil kind of took a big steaming pile on top of that reality. That was the missing ingredient from the theory, that only an energy surplus allowed individuals the means to provide and protect themselves. Which was flawed itself, since only an industrial society needing central government protection could provide that surplus. Unless Abiotic Oil theory turns out to be true, as was the case in a recent sci-fi ( that genre itself is in jeopardy from Peak Oil ) book by L. Neil Smith. See how depressing it is looking at the big picture? Shattering your illusions and dreams.
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Buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com

cheerleading collapse

CHEERLEADING COLLAPSE
I eagerly await the next article over at www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com . He seems to have it pretty well together as far as Peak Oil impacting the economy. Whenever one of my loyal minions is having a bad hair day and can’t believe I know anything since I didn’t spend fifty grand going to school to listen to a teacher drone on from a textbook, I can point out a highly paid professionals opinion. I just refer them to the above site when it makes the same point I am ( a lot of the time, that is where I got the data to start with ). That is where I learned about the nearly 20% of oil import declines over the last two plus years. Of course, he and the Druid Dude and many others share a happy optimism about the future I don’t agree with. We will continue our long slow collapse, true, but only until we reach a certain percentage in energy decline. Then we start seeing food shortages. After that, it is all over. No happy tree hugging dance down organic garden way then. After that it is mass die off.
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As is often the case when you are absolutely convinced that everyone else has their head firmly planted up their butt, you tend to get a little harsh and sarcastic. The last post on the above site had few good things to say about doom and gloomers ( which is fair, since I’m not very fond of Yuppie Scum ). You could practically see the sneer when he accused us of wishing for the collapse. So that is what we are going to address today. Put aside the issue of hiding behind optimism, fearing that we have no control over the mass die-off in the near future. I don’t care how good you are with organic gardening, the die-off will not be kind to you unless you have a large land buffer between you and everyone else ( how can you accept that America benefited from isolation because of the oceans and yet not see that your millions of neighbors are too damn close? ). Let’s just focus on whether we want to see the collapse.
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A lot of us hide behind a BS macho façade of wanting to be super ninja warriors after the collapse. We stroke our plastic stocked semi-automatic carbines and lust after…what? A return to the simple life, or being able to kill off all the lawyers and politicians, or escaping from a job of shuffling papers in a cubicle. Seeing the ex-wife brutally violated and then put in the Pleasure Brigade of marauding bandits ( that’s my vote ). To give meaning to our drab lives. Whatever. I’m sure a lot of you have your own reasons for wishing to see the collapse. But I don’t actually believe any of us seriously want it, beyond the point of escapism fantasy. The few that genuinely do, they are most likely already in prison for other anti-social behavior. No matter our problems with modern society, we all know how blessed we are. That we are living at levels above ancient kings. Even those of us on minimum wage, we have a higher comfort level in the Oil Age than the richest man in the world 400 years ago. We don’t actually seriously want to give that up. How do I know?
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Because I fantasize about a post apocalypse world all the time. And because people wouldn’t actually deny the inevitability of the return to a post-oil age if they weren’t so afraid of the comforts and luxuries they must give up. I think we can all agree that I have a pretty screwed up life, and that I spend WAY too much time dwelling on a rotten future. If someone such as myself can separate fantasy from reality in this regard, I think anyone outside the funny farm certainly can. And how else can you explain the violent reaction of folks when you tell them all their precious crap is going away? NO AMMO?!?! You mean I have to give up my semi’s? NO GAS?!?! You mean I have to give up my pimpin ride? Shock, dismay, fear, denial. If they so adamantly deny the doom and gloom future, why would they want to live there? Even those of us that are cynical and paranoid fear to imagine much past the long slow collapse. It is too scary seeing a future without luxury. Doom and gloomers are mostly playing. It’s just a weird hobby.
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chinese domination?

CHINESE DOMINATION?
A quick question before we start today. Does anyone have a copy of, or know where I can get one, of “The ultimate do it yourself smokeless propellant cookbook”? I believe the publisher was M&M Engineering. I have a copy of the primer cookbook, but a search brings up nothing on the title or publisher.
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Place yourself in Japan’s shoes. Forget the economy, everyone is involved in this depression. But look at strategic aspects. Japan pissed off China a long time ago. Then they pissed off the US ( I’ll be a good boy and not mention the moves by FDR to get us involved in the war to pay back his banker puppetmasters ), we nuked them and took over the country. Japan actually made out like a bandit. Protection and a built in market for their goods. But surely they realize that the US is going to bend them over and ride the purple pony soon. At some point as petroleum supplies diminish, we will pull out of Japan. We may or may not leave some nukes. Either way, they will then be at the mercy of the Chinese. I can’t believe that Japan actually has much that the Chinese want, not in an energy diminishing world. But I’m sure the Chinese can spare a division or two, or a nuke or two, to defeat them anyway. If nothing else, they defeat a historical foe while they are weak. I don’t believe China will dominate the world. But they sure will take over their own back yard.
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The fact that Japan is starting to make noise about how suckass the dollar is fits in nicely with the recent threats from China, and it could be them buying a few brownie points with their soon to be masters. The threat from China to allow companies to default on their derivatives contracts was a nice opening shot to kick us in the nads as we are getting weaker. That could start the whole ball of wax of a derivatives meltdown. Don’t forget, China is not 100% dependent on a credit/fiat currency like we are. They will take their lumps, but they won’t suffer anywhere close to what we will. Their government isn’t controlled by a banker elite, and they plan long term. Look at their position with African resources. They actually can play the energy diminishing game and win, whereas we are 100% exposed. Our economy is totally cheap abundant energy dependent. They are only exposed as far as exports and extra capital are concerned. They can scale back on imported energy use and still survive with barter ( example, engineering projects in infrastructure in Africa in exchange for oil ). Added to the derivatives threat, they have starting playing with gold.
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It is one thing for the government to stop buying American debt and buy some extra gold, it is quite another to tell its billion citizens to go ahead and buy it. Granted, not all can or will. But any half intelligent Chinese will rush out and buy up precious metal. They are not as far removed from economic reality as we are, they don’t actually trust paper. There are thousands of years of inflation and fiat currency ( okay, I’m not sure if printed currency is more than a thousand years old in China, but enough dynasties screwed over the citizens for the precious metal bug to be firmly entrenched culturally ). These will surely mean that the demand for gold and silver is going to skyrocket. Which means the dollar is under assault in that aspect. America is killing itself, and surely the Chinese don’t have to do anything more than sit back and enjoy the view. But it seems they are also pushing as many non-retaliatory ( militarily ) buttons as possible to help us on our way. Why let Americans buy up gold with worthless dollars when China can mobilize an army of middle class ( larger than out entire population ) to bring the bullion home?
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China will not take over the world. Diminishing energy speaks against another global superpower. But they will survive as a nation whereas we most likely will not.
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guest article

GUEST ARTICLE
RELOADING IN A TENT.

Any of you who have read my recent posts will have noticed my fondness for cast bullets as a form and expression of self sufficiency, in a time of increasing co dependency between ourselves and various expressions of our governments. Good news! Wolfe Publishing has just released a DVD on casting bullets. This will take you through the very basics up to more advanced techniques. The cost is reasonable and the presentation form in a DVD is far easier to learn from than a text oriented book. The trend today, in cast bullets is to cast hard alloy, and, if only penetration is of concern to you then by all means cast as hard as you like. I have found, again, from my experience, that when I am harvesting animal protein, a softer alloy expands well, up to 2X diameters, doesn’t break up and anchors the animal more quickly. To not harvest an animal quickly is neither humane, nor, ethical, nor smart.

In my last post, I promised another post on assembling high quality hand loaded ammunition while one is in the field. This can be done in a “kit” that will easily fit into a relatively small duffel bag. When assembling this kit, be sure to choose a duffel bag that will block as much water and moisture as possible. Pack as many of the components into large freezer size “zip lock” bags as possible.

The first decision you need to make is whether or not you will be reloading for only one rifle per caliber. If, for example, yours is the only 308 in the camp then you need to assemble your kit with the LEE CLASSIC LOADER. Each “Loader” allows you to reload only one caliber and again, for only one rifle. Midway is selling these “loaders for $22.00 so your investment costs are minimal. This “loader” will de-prime, prime, neck size the brass (which is why you can reload for only one rifle), charge the brass with powder and seat your bullet, cast or gilded. You do need a small block of wood and a hard plastic mallet but these are not hard to find in most camps. I have personally loaded ammunition this way, in a tent, in the arctic (I used the Coleman stove as a pounding surface and the handle of a large hunting knife as a mallet), and produced ammunition that gave a three shot group of ½ inch, extreme spread at about 70 yards. This is good quality ammunition. Many bench rest shooters use this type of reloading system to load very accurate ammunition at the shooting bench, so it works! This “LOADER” is available for a wide variety of calibers so check Midway or Lee’s web sites.

If, however, there will be several 308’s in camp that will need reloaded ammunition, then purchase the “LEE HAND PRESS”. This is exactly what the name suggests, it is a hand held press that along with your regular reloading dies will allow you to fully resize, that is full length resize, brass of nearly any caliber. The largest caliber I have used it on was a 9.3 X 62 and it resized with out considerable effort. Don’t forget to lubricate the brass. This press functions exactly like a bench mounted press except that it is small enough to be easily hand held. Midway is selling these for $28.00, currently.

The second unique aspect of this system is the method of measuring the powder to charge the brass. Most bench reloading systems measure the powder charge by weight with some sort of scale, usually, today, electronic. This method is simply not practical for field use. Both of the above “LEE” systems use a small scoop to measure the charge by volume. This is, again, a more consistent form of measure as the volume of powder is not affected by the relative humidity in the air. Many bench rest shooters use this system and their loads need to be extremely consistent if they are to be competitive.

The day is not too far off when having the ability to reload your ammunition, away from governmental approval, may spell the difference between having hungry children at home and those that are well nourished. This sort of situation has happened before and can happen again, very quickly and without warning. A further suggestion, pay for your essential supplies with cash as the evidence is simply too strong that our governments regularly track credit card expenditures for specific items. Don’t just stock pile supplies acquire skills in the use of those supplies, in the field, long before the crisis hits. Learning how to reload or cast bullets when your children are hungry is not a really choice learning environment.

Respectfully

MUKWAH

best sauce

BEST SAUCE
Before I forget, tomorrow will be yet another guest article from our long suffering northern correspondent. Not only does he not get paid, he must put up with your abuse. Kind of like marriage, real trauma in exchange for perceived benefits. Anyone else wish to get such a wonderful deal, write to me at jimd303@netzero.com .
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I put the following quote the other day, but no one rose to my challenge. Okay, you were actively ignoring me, so I decided to make it the subject of today's article.
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Hunger is the best sauce in the world. [Sp., La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre.] Author: Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)Source: Don Quixote
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Eat what you store, store what you eat, don't introduce unfamiliar food in times of stress, yada, yada. We know all that. However, certain minions have argued with me that a diet of nothing more than grain and beans are a bad idea. Now, let's forget for a moment that they were obviously under the seductive force of the dark side, Yuppie Survivalism. Yes, you are lured into their grasp with visions of semi-automatic weapons and unlimited amounts of ammunition ( for the record, I would like to state that I think Rawles "ammo supply back to normal soon" is wrong. Declining energy supplies. If I'm wrong, other than short term blips, kindly remember this and I will gladly eat crow ) and warehouses full of MRE's and screaming into battle on SUV's and whatnot. But once you sign on the dotted line, there is no escape. You will be doomed to die in one last gasp of middle class consumption. Let's not even talk about how much cheaper and nutritious that is compared to freeze dried slop. Let's just focus on taste fatigue.
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If you are familiar with whole grains and beans in your diet now, the transition to eating them exclusively after the apocalypse will not be impossible. Oh, you'll wish you were eating anything else. You'll crave dead animal flesh. The can of Spam that you wouldn't feed your neighbors rabid noisy dog will start to look good. But, with the protein compliment and sprouting some of the wheat, it will be enough to keep you alive and healthy. And I don't think that you will be tempted to eat less than needed because you are sick of the taste. As the above quote says, if you are hungry enough, you will eat it and like it. Written back in the day when famine and a very monotonous diet were the norm, so I think we can take the quote at face value and dismiss the thoughts of someone whose idea of hunger is to miss one meal ( I'm not picking on anyone specially, this attitude is shared by almost all Americans ).
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I love meat. I love meat so much I won't mind hunting and eating vegetarians after the apocalypse. If I could afford to get half my calories from meat every day I would. I don't store wheat, corn and beans because I love bread. Okay, I love bread. But I don't store them because that is all I want to eat. I store them because they are extremely cheap. Even after the doubling of grain prices because of that limp wristed commie puke Baby Bush sold his pathetic soul to the Mega-Ag Corp Of America to push ( sub par ) fuel from food programs. You simply can't provide a lot of food for that many people if you are on a severe budget otherwise. It will help you survive. Not survive in style, but it will be close enough for government work. You won't die on that diet, and it is far better to have twice as much food to eat than a quarter of that amount even if it tastes better.
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investing in less

INVESTING IN LESS
Most tree huggers could care less about Peak Oil other than it will usher in their perfect paradise much sooner. This ignores the whole mass die off issue, but no one ever claimed that the environmental movement had a lot of intelligence behind it. They wear their Birkenstocks made two thousand miles away and drive their imported Volvo to meeting where everyone sits in a group hug and chants to communicate with Mother Earth. Just like the rest of the general population, they survive because of and are surrounded by the Oil Age and think nothing of it. One thing they should be paying attention to is that there is only a small window open to invest in alternate energy. Not to duplicate our current energy use, that would be impossible, but to have any energy at all once the last drop of affordable oil has been burned up in the last SUV driving to buy the last Central American bred hamburger. If we don’t invest now, there won’t be enough surplus energy left in the future to do so.
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You need to use the relatively cheap oil of today to invest for an energy source tomorrow ( I’m ignoring the whole issue if wind is sustainable mechanically speaking and just using it as an example ). So too do you need to invest right now in a lower cost future. It takes time and investment for a lower cost, more frugal tomorrow. I’ve covered this before. You can’t live decently without the investment, and you must invest now while excess energy and your salary from that are available. Almost all of our jobs are frivolous, unnecessary and unsustainable without surplus petroleum. Use that gift now and invest in the equipment you won’t have tomorrow. We all invest in food and ammunition, but that isn’t the only thing soon to be in short supply. Land will always be available in this country. Junk land isn’t wanted even at $500, half an ounce of gold. Come the die-off, even more land will become available. But to survive the economic meltdown, you need to get that land before you are unemployed. How long do you think cheap land will stay available once a small percentage increase in the population starts to panic? You saw how quick ammunition and rice became unavailable at any price.
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Right now, solar panels are selling for $75 for 15 watts. $5 a watt. Yes, you can buy them a lot cheaper per watt by buying a larger unit. Soon, if even a very small percentage of the population becomes new preppers, they zoom up in cost or you see shortages. Solar panels won’t last a lifetime ( get the crystal kind, not the thin film, if you want longevity rather than higher output or cheaper price ), but they will last decades. Once bought, a piece of land is a lifetime rent-free proposition. Get junk land, and either have a shelter set up on an axel or under the legal limit is square feet to be considered a shelter and your property taxes are negligible. Once bought, your stash of wheat lasts a lifetime and requires no other investment. Don’t wait, in other words. Prices are only going up, and you need to invest now, not after it is too late. Once it’s gone, that is it. We are approaching resource peaks in every form. Even if you don’t use it, have it. If you are paranoid enough, you need to act as if it all falls apart tomorrow.
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I’m going to cut my word count in half for my daily articles. Let me know if this offends you terribly. Don’t tell me this particular article offended you, I know it is rehashed crap. My mind is elsewhere. I would like to write more book-wise. If that pans out, I’ll keep these articles short. If it falls through, I’ll go back to my old norm of 1k+ words.
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paper is paper

PAPER IS PAPER
Before we start, a few words. I know that most of you are waiting breathlessly to discover my latest adventures with installing the new propane system. I was tired of wasting money on the disposable propane canisters, especially after I found out I couldn't refill them. I didn't want to make a hole in my trailer wall to feed in a line from a big refillable tank ( the hole in the wall for the heater fuel line was already there from the previous occupants TV cable, I just enlarged it ). Well, once I got to playing around with it, I found that if I crushed the old original copper line I could squeeze the new flexible line through the opening in the back of the oven and feed it through the side access door. So now I have a proper propane tank to cook and heat water with. I thought that Wal-Mart sold the line with the large adaptor, but I was mistaken. You need to buy the line, and then the adaptor. So instead of $20 it is going to be closer to $30. Still, it will pay for itself in four months and from that time onward I can deny a small amount of profit to Wal-Mart. Yes, I know. Sour grapes. Wal-Mart used to screw everyone else over to sell low which benefited the poor. Now they have abandoned the working poor and are sucking up to those with more disposable cash. So it is now my turn to feel their betrayal. It still hurts, scorned by those I loved.
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I got around to reading "Survivors" by Terry Nation. I think it was Rawles at Survival Blog that mentioned it. I didn't expect much, but it turned out to really be good. A bit pricey, but I think one very underrated apocalypse fiction piece. It does once again point out that there is nothing new under the sun and that most of my writing is overblown and unnecessary. Look at the bright side, you spend far less time reading it than I do writing it. The story isn't original as far as how the world ends. The Black Plague comes back and with jet travel everyone dies. What I really liked about the book was its main point that even with everyone dying, the supplies left over would still only last so long and then everyone needed to relearn the old skills to survive. Pretty much what we do now, stockpile enough supplies to see us through reading up on and mastering the old ways. Because of how well that central lesson is taught in the book ( nothing specific, just the insight ) I think this should be one of the better fiction books that you recommend to friends and family. Not a necessity, rather a nice "something extra" if you have the funds. And speaking of funds, on to our main subject for today.
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Although well meaning, the recent comments to other articles are misguided. Yes, it would be swell and groovy to haul butt to the perfect foreign country and have an income not dependant on the failing American empire and be able to assimilate into your adopted culture. It would also be nifty to have a concrete bunker on top of a mountain full of thousands of cases of MRE's and millions of rounds of ammunition and perhaps even a stockpile of gold, a harem and a killer robot sentry. But it ain't going to happen. We Are Poor!!!! If you advocate spending tens of thousands of dollars on anything, go over to Rawles Yuppie Survival site. Let me help, www.survivalblog.com . There you go, please don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Who doesn't get that this site is about helping the bottom of the barrel financially speaking to survive the coming collapse? The lowest on the economic ladder need to survive also. Tens of thousands of dollars per family member to bug out? Thanks, I'll file that advice under my Impossible Dream file. Yes, some of you can cheaply and safely bug out of country. Great. Most of us cannot. So we do what we can to survive. The first priority is to survive the economic crap storm ( notice that I'm high class and thus restrain from using such vulgarities as "shit storm" and I would never say "We're All Going To Fucking Die!" ). That is where dirt cheap land and cheap shelter and Alpha Strategy consumer items come in ( and cheap guns, hint, hint, no semi-autos, hint, hint ). Prepping past that, such as stockpiling years of cheap grain and beans ( Hunger is the best sauce in the world. [Sp., La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre.] Author: Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)Source: Don Quixote ) helps with problems after that.
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Granted, mobility might be a better answer. As I have been trying to point out to the bunny food worshipers, gardening/farming might be the best answer but you can't ignore the dangers involved. But high dollar mobility is unrealistic. And, let us not forget that IT IS ONLY PAPER. In the end, paper currency is very pretty toilet paper. Every currency, every time, all through history. The Continental was inflated to uselessness after the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy currency didn't even hold much value in the few years it existed. Because there was no value behind it from day one. The same point the dollar is at now. I would rather have a pile of dollar store crap that can't be duplicated in a primitive society than piles of currency right now. Stuff can save your life, paper is only paper. Yes, that pile of crap keeps you tied to one spot. That can be dangerous. But at least you have the option of leaving it. With paper, your only option is to wipe your ass with it. So, option one, a pile of crap that has value and that can be left behind if you need to flee for your life. Or, option two, a pile of paper that loses value every single day. A pile of crap isn't a perfect option, but it is the less evil choice.
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Volunteer poverty is one thing, it just means a partial removal from the money economy, but voluntary simplicity and denouncing material goods means you don't have the equipment needed to survive.
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white boy abroad

WHITE BOY ABROAD
Before I start dazzling you with my brilliance and charm, the standard disclaimer to futilely ward off the legions of idiotic and politically correct brainwashed zombies into answering with remarks about what a cracker racist honky mo-fo I am. If I was a white supremist, my marriages to two Mexicans would have been cause for getting kicked out of the kluckers. I don't view skin color as anything other than a environmental mutation ( even if that theory has certain flaws to it, it is close enough for government work ) and race is nothing more than a tribal marker. Even though that is about as plain as you can get, I'm sure some moron is going to pipe up with something stupid. So let me just warn you now. That will end badly for you, your membership in the loyal minions possibly being canceled. At the very least, the board of directors will review your file and decide if your blog subscription cost should be raised.
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Before, when questions of escaping abroad were raised, I wrote that it was a very bad idea. I still feel that way. But because some new guy joins up and won't read the last seven hundred thousand words of my wisdom and memorize it, I have to cover the subject again ( okay, you got me. I would have repeated the subject again anyway when I ran out of other topics ). First off, going abroad is financially risky. If you are retired, you will see your Social Security dry up and then you are stranded in a foreign area with no way to earn money. You were tolerated, not because the farmers liked pasty white old guys in sandals and black socks hanging around drooling over five cent tacos but because you infused the local economy with mucho dinaro ( pardon the spelling, my Spanish is largely confined to cussing and food ). Without that large check from Uncle Sugar, you will quickly find yourself stealing eggs from the neighbors chickens and scampering off into the jungle to eat it raw ( assuming you can get away while on a walker ). I wouldn't even be surprised to see overseas retirees being the first one to have their benefits canceled. When the government goes broke, no one is safe. At the very least, your dollars buy less and less until you find Zimbabwean dollars buy more than American dollars. And if you have a job overseas, how long will that remain a safe bet?
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I don't know exactly how a collapse will unfold. Overseas jobs could be safer than domestic ones. But I also think it would be silly not to plan for the worse case scenario. If your American dollars are interrupted, would you be able to survive overseas? Perhaps you have a pretty good gig going. Perhaps you work as security at Saudi oil refineries. In that case, this article doesn't apply to you. I'm talking about otherwise useless people. If the current system crashes, and you become worthless, can you survive where you are? Obviously, old people on government checks become useless. Don't get your wrinkles out of shape. I know with my skills, I'm pretty worthless in a crashing money economy. I'm not much more than a minimum wage clerk/flunky. Do you have the skills to survive without American sent money? A businessman working overseas has very little value outside the money economy. And we all know the retirement system is in big trouble. Even a writer, say, living overseas will be in big trouble. In a functioning economy, yes, he has value. But in a crashing economy? I hope you get the picture. Outside of economics, there is the culture/language issue. You will be a stranger in a strange land.
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And of course, let's not forget our favorite subject of guns. In a lot of ways, owning guns is sort of a chicken/egg problem. What comes first, owning a gun for protection or owning a gun for protection because everyone else owns a gun. Yes, in polite society being armed makes everyone play nice. In a collapse, it is just more idiots being armed. I'm not saying you shouldn't be armed, or that going to a country that prohibits civilian ownership is a good idea. I'm mearly saying that here in this country, so many guns does mean self defense does become a bigger issue. Not because you won't be a target, but because so many more people will try to make you a target. Anyway, if you go overseas, more often than not you can't stay overly paranoid and heavily armed. Too many restruictions. At the very least, it will be like living in California. Every aspect of gun ownership will be taxed, regulated or prohibited. In the event of trouble, your guns will be taken quickly.
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So, many strikes against moving. No matter how bad things get here, you can still be armed, there are plenty of places to escape to, and you know the lay of the land. And you don't stick out amongst the natives. A few lucky ones can escape to former English colonies. Most of the rest of us will be white boys living with well tanned natives. You will stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. And, you will be hated. Way back in the day when I was in the military, I went to Hawaii. Yes, I know, be jealous. Another reason to envy me. My first duty station was Hawaii. And not the crap hole Scoffield where I would have to do real work in an infantry battalion ( that, unfortunately, came later in Korea ) but right next door at an Inscom unit. Field Station Kunia, if any of you are familiar with it. My first duty station was in paradise while the rest of my training unit got shipped off to nuke sites in Germany. Suckers. I quickly found out that all was not well in paradise however. Being a white boy, the natives didn't care for me much. And didn't try to hide their feelings. My squad leader was Japanese and had no problems assimilating into the local culture, so it wasn't a backlash at the military in general. I can't remember if I've shared that with you before. My apologies if I have. I do forget what I've blathered about before.
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Race marks your tribe. In a resource scarce time, tribes clash in a fight for resources. Simple. Not only will you be the odd white man out, you will also be from a country that somehow seems to be on everyone's crap list. Imagine that. Invading countries just like the Soviets did and we don't stay popular. All in all, I think staying put on your junk land in a beater trailer surrounded by dollar store crap is much better than running off to a foreign country where no one likes you and you can't earn a living, speak the language or hide very well.
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dollar store apocalypse

DOLLAR STORE APOCALYPSE
Way back around two years ago I covered shopping at the dollar store for prep supplies. As I recall, it was a bit of uninspired fluff. A few examples of what you could expect there. The 100 safety pins or 50 feet of rope, or whatever. This articles doesn’t promise to be much more exciting, but it might actually be the last one I write. It certainly can’t be too much longer before the dollar stores go the way of the five and dime. If you recall, Woolworths survived inflation, for a time. But in the end the chain went under. I’m beginning to wonder if Wal-Mart is going to survive. They abandon their core customer after decades, the working poor. I loved Wal-Mart. In the mid to late nineties after the food section started, they were really the only thing saving my poor butt from going on welfare. Yes, I know they benefited from cheap borrowing and cheap oil and were merely a symptom of the last of the good times, not the cause. But I still felt grateful for the lowest prices around on everything one could need in life. Before this became a blog, when I was e-mailing my articles as a weekly newsletter ( the Bison Newsletter is available as an e-book at www.bisonpress.com ) I wrote a lengthy article on how to buy all your survival supplies at Wal-Mart ( to save you the suspense, I don’t think it could be done anymore ). That was how good their selection and prices were.
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Today, Wal-Mart is coming within kissing distance of Target and Albertsons. Actually, in some ways they are even flirting with K-Mart. Instead of “Low Price Leader” they are becoming the “Low Prices For The Middle Class Only”. If you want to buy the cheapest name brands, go to Wal-Mart. If you want the cheapest generic, go anywhere else. A shame, giving up their lead in helping the employed poor. Our numbers will grow steadily. But, despite being disloyal, Wal-Mart is not run by idiots. They know that low priced merchandise from China is on the way out. And to survive, to keep up the multi-million dollar bonuses to Sam’s descendents and to service all the debt used to expand, they are going to have to move from razor thin margins. That kind of business was only possible when fuel was cheap and freight costs from China were negligible. That day is ending, if it already hasn’t. So, no, Wal-Mart won’t be offering $1 deodorant. Instead, they will offer $2.50 deodorant in brand names whereas all their competitors are selling it for $3. The costs are the same, generic or branded, but there is no profit in the lower priced item. That nickel profit is now going to pay extra fuel costs. Now, actually having no idea at all about their costs, profits or markups, I’m still going to guess that the end profit is the same. Instead of selling non profitable $1 items to the growing numbers of poor, they will sell higher profit items to the shrinking number of middle class folks. Their distribution/retail cost is still the cheapest. This will buy them some time, at the very least. In the end of course, they are doomed. It all still hinges on affordable oil. They are sidestepping the cheap oil issue, but they can’t survive the affordability issue. Or the availability issue.
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But they will outlive the dollar stores. The buck an item stores are on borrowed time. For now, they can increase their volume as more and more desperate consumers flock in their doors, panic and despair forcing them into sacrificing quality. That will pay for the increased shipping costs. And of course, don’t forget the infamous labor cutting. Just do more and more with fewer people. The workers can’t complain, there are no other jobs out there. And even though the customers complain, they will still come back and wait in line. Anymore, having a dollar store in town is a blessing. And there is usually just one ( keep in mind that this whole article focuses on the one dollar an item stores, not the lower price stores with “dollar” in their titles- they operate under a different dynamic ). So, you won’t see these stores disappearing immediately. Another factor stretching out their lives will be the crashing commercial real estate market. The landlord won’t be too demanding on high rents when empty stores surround downtowns. They might even be forced to decrease rent. At the very least freeze the amounts. However. In the end, you simply won’t be able to buy dollar crap anymore. Most of it is from China, and fuel costs just keep going up.
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You need to enjoy the moment while you can. Start going to the dollar store every week, and buy as much crap as you can. You can still get five cigarette lighters, four AA batteries, three bars of hand soap, sewing supplies, rope and flip-flops and laundry soap and dish soap and a lot of other great stuff that will help you with your own personal Alpha Strategy. I stopped buying bulk food for now, really having maxed out on room. I’ll figure something else out soon. But for now, I started stockpiling small items. The only food I still get is pinto beans, several pounds a week. I get empty coffee cans at work ( get those while you can also, it seems the plastic and waxed paper cans are taking over as steel prices shoot up- remember how mashed potatoes went from cheap in cans to expensive in cardboard ) and fill those with the beans. As suggested long ago by a forgotten soul, put the lid on and flip upside down with bottom metal facing up for storage. Almost guaranteed rodent proof. And now the dollar store gets a lot of my prep dollars. Last week I bought my usual vitamin pills ( ok, perhaps cheaper in bulk at Wal-Mart, but it is painless at a buck a pop and I buy a months supply every week. Plus, those thick plastic bottles have to come in handy someday ). Shoe polish. Two knife sharpeners. I like those, the kind that you roll along to get the entire edge on one side of the knife ( it looks like two wheels with the stone in between ). #4 got a Hanes T-shirt. Color, sleeveless, big enough to wear as a dress for next summers lounging about. My newest project is to stockpile as many socks as I can in my limited drawer space. I’m still finding three pairs for a buck nylon socks. Not great quality, but perfect for stocking up on factory made socks.
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As usually, you have a limited window of action to get needed supplies at affordable prices. I can still buy wool cold water soap at the dollar store. But it is half the size as I used to get. How much longer before it isn’t even offered? I found great one time arrivals such as $1 mac and cheese ( the creamy cheese kind, not the powdered cheese ) or, incredibly, just last week eight ounces of parmesan cheese for a buck. I bought the last of the sweet and sour liquid bottles for the rice stash. Even rice at fifty cents a pound for a short while. They had one week where you could buy all beef summer sausage 12 oz. So, not only can you find one time bargains, but you also need to fully stock up on everyday items before they shrink in size or are dropped. Go hither to the dollar store and prosper ( limited time only at participating stores ).
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nazi america collapse

NAZI AMERICA COLLAPSE
"In the depths of my heart I can't help being convinced that my dear fellow men, with a few exceptions, are worthless" Sigmund Freud.
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I'm sure that to a lot of you, patriotism means whatever the government tells you it means. To me, loving America means loving the ideal of what it should be rather than the reality of how it actually turned out. So pardon the crap out of me if I'm extremely critical of our empire. Strip away all window dressing and things get a bit ugly. To me, America means the individual over the collective, not the welfare masses rooting for the military machine to steal some more resources ( although I am well aware of our centuries of resource theft, again, we are going with the dream rather than the reality ). All empires collapse, and ours is in the process. Does seeing that make me unpatriotic? Only if you are part of the brainwashed mass shouting in orgasmic glee at rallies, giving stiff armed salutes at our Majestic Muslim.
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The fascist thing has been done to death. We are our own particular brand of government control. The fascist label really only works to a certain degree. But we are a lot like the Nazi's. We are all pretty much brainwashed, but by TV instead of radio. We like trying to ban books, rather than burn them. We use the military industrial complex to keep the unemployment numbers down. We use political prisoners for slave labor. And we think nothing of stealing other peoples oil. And, like Germany, our country will lay in utter ruins after our fight over energy. Unlike Germany, there not be anyone to rebuild our country afterwards. Which wasn't really altruism on our part but more of a government bailout to keep factories busy. And, unfortunately, we won't even have the luxury of an invasion such as Germany did, but be nuked like Japan was. What comes around goes around.
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Look, I don't think living in America during its empire years was such a bad deal. When you are the biggest bully on the block and everyone pays you off not to beat them up, you have a pretty good deal going. I don't deny that I as well as everyone else enjoyed a wonderful lifestyle from stolen resources. But we have to face the facts that the theft is winding down, people elsewhere are smelling our weakness now that oil supplies are drying up. It is going to go badly for us. And, what used to work for us, our isolation, is going to work against us. It is too costly to invade us. Which leaves the only other option a nuclear attack. And not a traceable missile attack from a foreign country but either a smuggled weapon or a submarine attack ( or even disguised civilian boat ) from just off shore. Perhaps there will be no attack. Even if a nuclear attack is highly probable doesn't make it a guarantee. Heck, our economy is imploding so well on its own that there might be no need to finish us off militarily. But either a nuclear attack or an economic meltdown, we will lay in ruins soon.
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I was listening to National Pravda Radio this morning. Some bitch was crying and moaning about being laid off. Oh!, the horror. The horror. I was making $14 an hour with benefits and we were all laid off by the hotel chain and replaced with $8 an hour with no bennies workers. Surprisingly, they didn't see that one coming. My point is that most of the service industry is being let go or having pay cut. The 70% of the economy that is consumption is contracting, taking everything down with them. It is a bloodbath, there are no green shoots. If it ain't paid for by the government, it is shrinking or going out of business. Add together shrinking budgets for local government forcing cuts in fire suppression with desperate business owners needing insurance money, and it is going to be the seventies Bronx all over again. Across all of suburbia americana. And please make no mistake. There will be no sunshine and lollipop happy organic gardener final ending. We won't transition to a local economy. Not peacefully. Entrenched interests are everywhere and are not giving up the old wealth model of endless energy consumption and low interest borrowing. They will take the system down with them trying to survive. Add the smoldering seventies Bronx with the sixties ghetto riots. All across the land.
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And add in famine, blackouts and factional fighting. Now we have 70's Bronx fires, 60's riots in all cities, and 90's Yugoslavia breakup and constant combat. Yes, a wet dream for the militia survivalists. It will suck to be the rest of us. In the end, war or the economy dying, it will look like 1945 Germany. Cold, bleak, starving amongst the ruins of corpses and blackened buildings. What fun to look forward to.
END

yuppie v. frugal

YUPPIE V. FRUGAL
Normally I resist the temptation to follow certain other unnamed blogs in giving a quote of the day, but every once in awhile I can't help myself. Today you get two.
"The difficulty here is that faith in the prospect of a better future has been so deeply ingrained in all of us that trying to argue against it is a bit like trying to tell a medieval peasant that heaven with all its saints and angels isn’t there any more. The hope that tomorrow will be, or can be, or at the very least ought to be better than today is hardwired into the collective imagination of the modern world." By the Druid Dude at http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
"Optimism is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell." Voltaire.
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Looking back with hindsight my preparations for Y2K were a bit naive. But they were far and away better than anything accomplished prior to that. I took it seriously, and as one person wrote at the time, it isn't the probability but the consequences. I could be wrong about the severity of our oil supply contracting, but what if your rosy "soft landing" projections are wrong? Far better to be paranoid than optimistic. Today, I'll once again try to point out the problem with Yuppie preparations versus frugal preps. No, no one wishes to live like a rabid animal in a hovel in the boonies. But that could very well be preferable to the conditions of the cities very soon. I know I don't help much, being too critical and sarcastic. The natural inclination is to become defensive and tune me out. Maybe it was because no one listened when I nicely pointed out the logical imperative to immediately prepare. Or perhaps I was just bored. Whatever. I try to be logical and consistent about the perceived threats in the future. You don't want to listen, not because it isn't possible, but because you don't want it to happen. You want your lifestyle to continue without interruption, even after the mushroom clouds waft radioactive particles into your McMansion bunker.
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I could talk on and on, but let me put this into money terms. Perhaps that will work better. To achieve the Yuppie Survivalist yeoman farmer fantasy, it will cost you $100,000. One Hundred Grand. Frugal preps will run you five grand. 100 v. 5. One twentieth the cost. Frugal is realistic. Yuppie is a thirty year mortgage. In thirty years, the banks won't be around. Neither will you, because you lost your job in year three and lived out of your car until you froze to death that winter. Or, you drove down to a warmer climate and died in a drive by shooting in a border drug war.
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First things first. Let's get some food. Four hundred pounds of wheat and two hundred pounds of beans, in poly buckets, cost $440. A years freeze dried food is around two grand. And that still contains a lot of wheat as filler. To wash that down, the Yuppie spends four thousand on a well for water. Our frugal gent spends $150 on water buckets and a bike trailer to haul it. Once the food and water are digested, Mr. Yuppie flushes that expensive water into his four thousand dollar septic system. Frugal dude bought the Humanure book and a big bag of sawdust for $25. Cost so far, ten grand Yuppie. Six hundred dollars frugal.
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To fight off the motorcycle gangs of zombies, Captain Yuppie has a six grand arsenal. A semi-auto rifle is a thousand. A minimal amount of magazines are two hundred. And ten thousand rounds of ammo will be about five grand. Bushwhacker Frugal Dude buys a $200 war surplus rifle and because he isn't going to engage in any close firefights if he can help it, two thousand rounds of ammo is plenty. That will cost a grand. $6,200 versus $1,200. And that is just dollars and cents. It doesn't even address the collapse of the global factories that resupply ammunition. Post-Industrial, Post-Oil spells the end of pray and spray tactics.
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Yuppie Bitch goes looking for land. Of course, it has to have pasture and a stream and firewood. The land will be at least fifty grand. A small mobile home, at least thirty thousand. To heat that monster, he fills a small propane tank for $500. Cost of his garden, $80k. And only one winter of heat if his woodlot burns down after a lightning storm and the declining local tax revenue puts the fire fighters too far away to save the trees. The poor guy buys a piece of junk land for one grand. He parks a two grand travel trailer on it. He insulates the trailer and buys a thick pile of wool blankets for warmth. Frugal dude spend three grand for land and shelter, and he will stay alive if not comfortable every winter.
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Are you paying attention? Unemployment doubles in a year. The same year the mortgage industry and the auto industry are socialized. The same year oil imports fall eight percent ( after falling another eight percent the year before that ). The economy is in huge trouble. You don't have years to buy the perfect retreat. But you have enough time and money to get the bare minimum to survive. How much time? I would guess this fall it all seriously takes a crap. Act accordingly. If you get more time, great. More preps. Or just put off buying "primitive" equipment, wait until you can duplicate your middle class lifestyle. See how far that gets you. Panic. Prepare. Relax.
END

more on ammo shortages

MORE ON AMMO SHORTAGES
I'm happy to be once again hacking folks off. After last Friday's call to stop being a brainwashed sheep and question the governments version of 9/11 I lost 9% of my readers. Hell, I didn't even get into the whole "government is a stoolie for the bankers so you serve their interests by your complacency" thing. I just asked how you could overlook some really obvious inconsistencies. Now I'm trying to piss of a few more with my geriatric welfare remarks. The difference between me and an old fart, besides incontinence, is not the fact that I wouldn't grab any money with both greedy little fists, because I certainly would, but the fact that I don't count on it and I certainly don't think of it as an entitlement. "But I paid in to it my whole career" doesn't cut much ice. I'm going to pay into it MY whole life, and not only will I most likely not see any of it, more than likely I'll be having to care for several parents when their payments cease having any purchasing power ( thanks to the system encouraging divorce, I'll have more than two potential patients to care for ). So, by their reckoning, it isn't okay to screw them over, but it is okay to screw the younger generation over. There. Go ahead and stop reading. I get new suckers in every day. I'm in one of the few growth industries.
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As usual, I jumped on to a fast moving train and as usually fell off and broke something precious ( at least to myself- several ex-wives would disagree ). Everyone was spouting off about the ammunition shortages and I just had to get my two cents worth in. If I had enough concern I would actually do a blog search and reread my article. Since I only care marginally, I'll just go by imperfect memory. I think I said something to the effect that the Oil War Two was using up all the common caliber ammunition and leaving less for the civilian market. The gun guy over at Backwoods Home Mag ( Mossad, or whatever the hell his name is ) said that it wasn't necessarily that the common calibers were being used but that the raw materials in the rounds being used were what was causing shortages. Probably as good a theory as mine. We can all agree that His Royal Socialist Obammy getting elected caused gun and ammunition sales to shoot straight up. The discussion was on what happened prior to that. There were already price hikes. Obammy just caused huge price jumps and overall shortages. So here I would like to question what happened prior to Obammy to cause the initial problem that his election just made a whole lot worse.
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Now, history does prove that there have been shortages and scares before. History tells us that the recent global trade liberalization gave us a decade of fantastically low prices ( history should have been telling the semi-auto freaks that such cheap ammo was a one time event, but I won't mention that as I've pissed off enough people for one day ). What I would like to argue is that rather than just another blip on the radar, high ammo prices and constant shortages are both the new reality and not a dark conspiracy to deny us our Constitutional rights to shoot politicians. First, let's visit yesteryear. For many years of war, we didn't have any problem with ammunition prices or supply. The price increases were easily explained by general inflation. Small increases might have been attributed to Chinese building bubbles. Or our insane drive to extend suburbia over to the next cities boundaries. But these were minor. If war needs were to cause shortages, why didn't they happen years sooner? If it was the need for copper in plumbing, why didn't the shortages appear much sooner? In an economy where just in time inventory is the norm, shortages should have been felt immediately. More telling, foreign ammunition made from steel rather than brass only recently shot up in price.
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I recently bragged about ordering two books, Peak Everything and Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller. Well, Peak Everything was a real turd. It was a hodgepodge of previous writing thrown together, and the whole did not cover how all resources are peaking. It was fine as a cheaper and shorter book, but certainly not worth $17. And while I'm at it, his recent book on Peak Coal was a real disappointment also. Anyway, the other book is really good. It is recent, very detailed while at the same time being very easy to read and digest. Definitely worth the $17. Think of the blog American Energy Crisis expanded into a book. How energy created the financial crisis, basically. But as I said, very detailed. Highly recommended if you want to explore how Peak Oil is interacting with the economy. The only flaw is his sunny optimism. Barf. No, we are not going to see factories move back to the US and local agricultural flourish once again ( not to the extent it will feed everyone, anyway ). We are going to see death and destruction and die-off. He explains how credit has dried up with oil, yet he thinks the capital will be here to rebuild an entire infrastructure. But other than that, a very excellent book. Yes, I had a point. Reading that book ( I'm almost done ) gave me the idea on ammo shortages.
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If our sinking oil imports and higher oil prices ( by the way, the run up in price to $150 was a bigger increase in inflation adjusted dollars than the '70's oil shocks ) can give Detroit a coup de grace and bankrupt a lot of the major airlines, why shouldn't it also effect another high energy supply sector such as ammunition? Again, look at imported ammo. Steel, not brass. Costs have doubled and tripled. Yes, steel is more expensive than before. As a US product ( Chinese steel is suffering from higher transportation costs ). In Russia, you still have cheaper labor, energy and material costs. No, I don't think supply and demand locally drove up the costs that much. I think higher transportation or energy costs triggered most of the increase. Here, domestic production had to pass on the cost of oil increases. With a war going on and a building bubble, but prior to the oil shock of '08, ammo only went up slightly. As soon as the oil price went crazy, so did ammo. And since energy will keep going up, don't expect the ammo industry to go back to "normal".
END
Sorry about the publishing delay, and the article being cut short. I got a huge delivery half way through lunch.
BUY MY CRAP!!! www.bisonpress.com

propane use

PROPANE USE
Whenever I mention Peak Oil, I know you are all heaving large sighs of exasperation, rolling your eyes and in general trying to ignore me. After all, just because we are using three times what is discovered, just because oil field discoveries peaked forty years ago, just because liquid petroleum has been flat since 2005 and we are using less energy intensive fuels to make up the difference, why, none of that means the very abundant and very cheap oil supply we built an economy on is collapsing before our eyes. Oil will last forever, because without that security blanket you have to worry about giving up all the trappings of modern middle class suburbia. No more welfare for retirement, no more credit, no more pampered lifestyle. No more SUV, for the love of all that is holy and just! Keep deluding yourself. And while you set up camp near De Nile river, I'm keeping my petroleum use in perspective. I know it is nothing more than a luxury.
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I bike to work, with one car trip to town a week to grocery shop. I don't need to drive. Even without a bike trailer, I can still haul water and laundry and food. It will just take more than one trip. If things are so bad I don't work, I can hoof it to the river. But as long as the money economy lasts, I'm going into town anyway. With a backpack and a PeeWee Hermon basket on my handle bars, I can haul what I need. I use two gallons of water a day, the two of us use a total of three gallons a day. I can haul that water on my bike. The only thing that would give me trouble would be a five gallon propane tank. If the car use ends through unemployment, I'll buy a trailer for hauling in propane. If the car use ends because the gasoline is gone, then I won't have to worry about buying propane. The point being, a car is a luxury. I set things up that way because I know that one day none of us will be driving.
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Propane is also a luxury. It is more of a necessity that a car, since it is the heat in the winter. But in a more primitive existence I can heat with solar and scrub brush. It will be miserable, but I won't freeze to death. I can also cook the same way. With some solar and some wood. The trick is to use as little as possible. When you only need twenty gallons of water a week, things are a lot easier. You don't necessarily need a well and a tank and a pump and a septic. When you have good solar gain, you don't need as much heat from propane. By turning off the heat at night and by going cold a lot ( last year a fifty degree trailer while showering was the norm- hopefully it will be sixty or seventy this year with the new insulation ) I can stretch out a bottle of propane for a week. Ten hours a day, seven days a week. My propane heater ( Mr. Heater brand ) turned on low gets about seventy hours use out of a five gallon tank. Currently that is about $13. So heat, used very sparingly and augmented by solar, costs me $50 a month. The solar costs nothing, just the right side of the trailer facing south. I use sheets of foil covered bubble wrap to cover the windows after the sun goes down. That will keep a lot of the heat in. Last winter I didn't have that ( or the other insulation ) and you could almost see the thermometer dropping after five in the evening.
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For cooking, I use a two burner propane camp stove. The oven that came with the trailer has a problem with the pilot light staying on, so I just don't use the original equipment. And a good thing, that also saves me money from burning propane to use the fridge. That is also a luxury. I don't even know how much that appliance would use in fuel. Anyway, that stove has been going strong for three years, with daily use. Using that stove, my cooking and hot water use is one pound of propane a week. Last year I was cooking my flat bread for work with propane. That doubled the usage. Then, in one of my customary semi-annual flashes of brilliance, I starting taking the flour to work and nuking it. Duh. In the morning, one pot of coffee is brewed in the peculator. At night, I heat up a half gallon of water for bathing/shaving. Dinner is cooked in a pot or cast iron skillet, and I heat a few cups of water for cleaning the dishes. With all that, a can of propane will almost always last a week. I'm still amazed.
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I am still using the disposable propane canisters, about $2.75 each from Wal-Mart. That is about seventy five cents worth of propane in a two dollar can. I recycle the steel, but I need to go ahead and make a hole in my wall and feed a propane line from outside ( the heater tank is too far away to use that ) and use a refillable tank. Then my monthly cost on the stove will go from $12 to $3. I had that coupler that you use to refill one of the disposable tanks from a big tank, but it didn't work for me. You must freeze the small can and keep the large tank warm. Without freezing, the transfer doesn't work at all. I tried. My next twenty bucks free goes to a hose, I already have extra five gallon tanks. One less thing to buy from Wal-Mart then. Bastards.
END

book review-makeshift skills

BOOK REVIEW-MAKESHIFT SKILLS

Today’s book review is on “Makeshift Workshop Skills For Survival And Self-Reliance” by James Ballou. His previous book was “Long Term Survival In The Coming Dark Age” which I reviewed about two years ago. My, time flies fast when you are desperately planning for the apocalypse. Okay, first, before I allow you bask in the glory of my opinion ( contrary to the iron clad rule that everyone has an opinion and it usually stinks, just like their bungs, my opinions are always right, correct and just, and smell like a lily field on a warm spring day- although at this time I decline to give the same guarantee to any part of my anatomy ), I am going to start my lawyer like weaseling. I like to be different. I know this comes as a great shock to most of you. But if the crowd up ahead turns right into a tree shaded park with ponds and ice cream vendors, I am going to turn left into the cracked pavement strewn with drug vials and used condoms parking lot of a decaying housing project. Why? Because as soon as the ice cream runs out, that crowd is going to get ugly and riot. I’ll be relatively safe all by myself in the ghetto. Anyway, part of being different is that you get to have a lot of fun disagreeing with everyone and everything. The bad part of being different is that it is a heck of a lot of work. I have to do twice as much research studying both sides of an argument, defend the unpopular side, then keep repeating the argument until at least one percent of you get it. Another bad thing is I have to submerge my ego.*Every other survivalist writer acts like a Guru King, his wisdom unassailable. If he doesn’t act correct constantly, there might be the danger of falling into the pit of humanity from his throne. So, naturally, I have to take the opposite track. I try to owe up to any idiocy on my part. I admit my mistakes, correct them, and try to not make them again. After all, the process of learning largely is about making mistakes. I think this makes for me being a better teacher, not a worse one. Of course, right now some foul troll is building up blood pressure, ready to blast me for that statement. And I will get all pissed and write a whole article with lots of insults and name calling involved. So, in advance, thanks for the article idea. My sin, in reviewing the last book by Ballou, was a subtle one. I tried to be clear in that while I loved the book and its concept, I didn’t care for the huge price tag. I still think that is correct. But what I failed to take into account was that this should have been one of instances where a higher price was a necessary evil we must endure. For instance, if you were to buy the first six volumes of the Foxfire series ( don’t waste your money on the last six, they contain almost no low tech skills ) you would roughly spend fifty bucks. Money well spent. So, while I might be correct in judging the $22 price tag on one padded book too high, I didn’t stop to consider that it didn’t matter.
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Look, I shouldn’t begrudge other authors monetary success. Just because I only self publish out of an irrational fear of rejection doesn’t mean the conventional publishing route is wrong. I might make two bucks and change from a $3 e-book , just the same amount of payment an author gets at ten percent loyalties on a $20 paper book, but my customer base is a thousand while theirs is in the hundreds of thousands. If not millions. The author is not making much money off of a high price book, the publisher is ( because perhaps one day I’ll try to publish with a certain firm out of Colorado, I won’t burn any bridges mentioning the need to pay for lawsuits where they turned pussy and pulled a crappy book and then ceased to publish lots of cool books that had the same information as the public domain military manual on improvised weaponry- I can actually see the business side of publishing even though I’m firmly in the creative camp ). I’m pissed about the lack of discount most Amazon books see, and usually I’m right in cautioning against these high priced illustrated militia stroke books. But in the instance of James Ballou’s books, you are simply going to have to suck it up and pay the higher price. His books are worth the extra extortion, because they will prove to be invaluable after the collapse.
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Having shamelessly plugged his work, let me add a proviso or two. First, these books are not for those that tinker around a workshop. Well, they might be, I can’t really judge how well the mechanically inclined can improvise. I do know for sure that for the mechanically challenged individual such as myself, these books are a godsend. Okay, the first one might have been more theory and principle than detail. Although it did cover the metal aspect of post collapse survival quite well. To recap, you are pretty much facing a post-industrial existence with making your own cordage and skinning rabbits. But by salvaging metal you can replace the conventional stone age material with modern material. So, an improvement in the caveman existence, but fitting in with a primitive survival strategy. Of course, to clarify, that is my own take on the philosophy behind the first book, not the authors. I think the author simply delights in improvising costly goods, as any frugal genius would. Do you really need/want the first book? If you suck working with your hands, if the extent of your knowledge of metal ends with cutting up a coffee can for a stove, yes, I would recommend it. Two years ago, I was intellectually preparing for a collapse. But I had yet to really feel it in my gut. Today, my gut tells me that this book is much more important than the dollars you are spending on it. My sense of panic and fear is ratcheted up much higher than it was. Before, it was smarter to spend frugally. Now, while still being frugal, there are going to be investments you simply must spend the money on because money is losing its value much quicker. At the same time, the information in books such as these are gaining in importance as the collapse stays on schedule.
*
Having gone through all that, blathering about what a great guy I am and slightly altering my previous recommendation for the first book, can we please just get to the friggin point after almost 1200 words and review the book in question? Sorry, the asshats at the post office failed to deliver this weekends DVD’s from Netflix ( again! ) and I haven’t had anything to write about and I kind of just started babbling away in my excitement to get back to the keyboard ( plus, writing this on the weekend allows me much more time ). The new book, Makeshift Skills, is far superior to the first book Long Term Survival. As good as the first one was ( great concept, good metal working section ), even with its flaws ( padded, overpriced, a bit shy on details ), the second one is far and away much better. Oh, I detest the new and increased price. $30 is a very huge chunk of change. To put it into perspective, I loved “Unintended Consequences” for $30, since I read it several times and it taught you a lot while entertaining you. Yet, the $30 I spent on Paladins book on military rifle reviews was a waste. The author liked every military rifle ever made, even the Italian crap ( if I’m not mistaken, this was almost all bolt actions ). I wanted the book to tell me what surplus guns to buy, so I invested the cash. Instead, it didn’t review as much as stage a love fest. On the other hand, buying “Caveman Chemistry” for almost $30 was a great investment. I can’t follow a lot of it, but it is an invaluable reference book on homemade chemistry for after the apocalypse. So, spending the $30 isn’t the problem. It is getting your monies worth that is problematic. With the book “Makeshift Workshop Skills”, you are definitely getting your monies worth. Not because the overpriced book is worth it, not because Paladin deserves these kinds of profits off of huge margins, large type and too many illustrations, but because what is taught in this book is unavailable for the same price elsewhere. And the information will prove to be invaluable. I’m going to even say that one page alone, that on making your own plastic, will pay for this book all on its own. Again, if you are the type that can take a coffee can and a pile of dog crap and make your own cannon, this book might not be for you. But for most of us, those stuck in crap jobs in suburbia rather than one of Baby Jesus’ Chosen Ones living in the boonies, this book is chock full of ideas that you didn’t know about.
*
Now, while there might be a few sections in here that seem unneeded, such as stone tools and cordage, the beauty of this book is that pretty much everything is covered. The subtitle is “Expedient ways to make your own tools, do your own repairs, and construct useful things out of raw and salvaged materials”. And it is covered in such a way that you can take a subject you knew nothing about and using the information here, muddle through with trial and error and get the job done. For instance, the section on tanning leather. In a couple pages, you get the basics on tanning that while of course not being as detailed as a complete book on the subject, it will see you through in a pinch. Should the apocalypse occur before you got around to that book. Same with the clay and pottery section. But those are just a few pages. The main thrust of the book is of makeshift tools and repairs. Makeshift forge, blower and anvil. Makeshift forge tools. The composition of different metals. Makeshift saws. Makeshift files and rasps. Homemade knives. Improvised wrenches. Thread cutting tools. Improvised vise and clamps. Glue repair, homemade glue. Repairing with tape, cord, wire. Rawhide repairs. Riveting. Wood and clothing repair. A homemade welding machine. Reusing saw blades and rebar. Fishhooks from nails.
*
There are a bit more than covered above, but the main point for me was that I had a great reference book. I didn’t have to concern myself overly much about my lack of a giant tool chest and an extensive library on hands on skills on tools or repairs. This book would be enough that I could muddle through creating a lot of things I would need in the future, after Home Depot was overrun and burned down. No, there is no substitution for hands on experience. But the next best thing is a great book on how to do something. Almost none of us have the time to learn all the lost skills of yesteryear. The skills were lost because they no longer paid. In the near future we will need those skills. The only realistic alternative to having those skills is to know how to learn those skills. In other words, you can have a list of needed skills you learn one by one with a lot of money and time you don’t have. Or you have a good library with all the skills you need. A teacher on tap. 99% of us are too busy earning a living and supporting families to get first hand teaching. The rest of us need libraries. This book needs to be in your library. It will allow you to improvise and repair. I know of no other book with the scope of this material in such an easy to read and follow manner.
*
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I did receive this book at no charge. But from the examples given before, hopefully you can tell that I treat all books the same. If the thing is useless, I tell you. It doesn’t matter if it cost a little or a lot. Sometimes, the extra cost pushes the book into the “don’t buy” category. And sometimes, such as here, the cost is irrelevant. It is a must have, needed reference book. Would I buy the authors next $30 book? More than likely. If he comes out with an improved plastics book, I might even think about paying the $30, plus driving up to Idaho and giving him a big wet sloppy kiss. I can’t promise tongue. If he did a book on improvised metallic cartridges, I would pay $40. If someone came up with an improvised catalyst for turning ammonia from stale urine into nitric acid, I would pay $50, and guarantee a French kiss ( although you might have to pay for transportation if it‘s out of my area ). It’s here in writing folks. Get it before the collapse, or before I turn too old and kissing my disease ridden mouth is no longer so exciting. And before we close, a reminder to buy this book through my Amazon pages. If I don’t get the link posted in time ( my last addition to my web page took 24 hours to show up, some times it’s only seconds ) just visit Amazon.com through any of my other links, then find this book without logging out and I’ll get my commission. Yah! Sucker. He has to devote thousands of hours to research and writing for ten percent, and I get 4-6% just for reviewing the thing! God, it’s good to be me.
END

death economy anniversary

DEATH ECONOMY ANNIVERSARY
Today, you could do as Obammy wanted and volunteer. To commemorate the 9/11 anniversary, volunteer in your community. Because paying higher taxes ( "read my lips, no new taxes" just a few months before taxes went up on tobacco-again ) isn't enough, now you must give more of your labor for free. This, right after he wanted the Girl Scouts to be the vanguard for the new Junior Stormtroopers. This guy really has no shame. Not any worse than Baby Bush's program of walking shoeless through body cavity searches at the airport, but certainly not much better. I would like to commemorate the anniversary by pointing out what idiots we are for this whole jingoistic knee jerk flag waving thing. I certainly don't discount the heroism of the rescue workers. I don't argue that it was tragic civilians died. And I applaud those guys ( and begrudgingly those gals-it isn't okay to send girls into the war zone ) in the military that are giving their all, despite being dragged into a needless political war. What I don't like is the general brainwashing most folks willingly embrace about the whole thing.
*
I don't claim to know who was behind the attack. It certainly wasn't as simple a matter as a few camel jockeys going from Cessna flying lessons to precession jetliner target practice. My guess would be the bankers. But to be fair I blame everything on them, from inflation to Gore Warming to perhaps even ex-wife #2. So let's just say there are far too many unanswered questions and the simplistic script we were given by Cheney and party might fool the Big Brother watching legions of idiocy but can't stand up to the simplest scrutiny. Why did a building that wasn't hit and that was far away also fall down? Why was the entrance on the Pentagon hit smaller than a jetliner body or engine? It is not my intent to spend decades trying to unravel a mystery much more complex than a simple sniper attack from a grassy knoll using a Magic Bullet. While interesting, the details don't concern me all that much. What concerns me is who benefited from the attack. Directly, the military industrial complex. Indirectly, it gets much more complex. And much more interesting. But who could actually argue that our economy wasn't helped immensely by the huge increase in military and security spending? Even absent all conspiracies, even buying the official party line, the fact stands that war is the health of the state.
*
The bankers had been scheming and plotting for centuries to get a central bank in this country. We had a few half assed attempts being in the nineteenth century and during the War of Northern Aggression. And in a way, it was inevitable. An Industrial Age economy needs money expansion for growth. But the price paid has been servitude. And the benefits from industry didn't last as long as our debt to the bankers. But finally a few ass whores in Congress cheaply sold out their great grandchildren's future and put the bankers in power. WWI saw the first state sponsored debt and slaughter that continues to this day. I could argue that no conflict in our history outside of the Indian eradication and rebellion against England was necessary for our survival ( and the native wars were for land based wealth rather than settler survival- but without the expansion and resource grab we wouldn't have survived a takeover by Europeans ) but the twentieth century wars were far worse in their futility and waste of life. World War One was about securing the bankers loans to Europeans, in jeopardy in the event of defeat. And credit expansion to become the breadbasket of Europe. World War Two was the only thing making the recovery from the Depression possible ( and the Fed created the Depression to start with ). And from the dropping of the atom bomb on Japan, we have constantly been at war.
*
The Cold War was contrived from Day One. We could have nuked Moscow and been king of the world. But we were afraid of going back into the Depression. As a quick aside, the Depression, as I said, was caused by the bankers. But it also marked the end of our Industrial Economy. We were never the same in quality or quantity as compared to before 1929. After the war, colonial resource grabs in commodity theft and foreigners subsidizing the dollar started growing in importance rather than the previous free market economy we once had. But let's not get too far off track. To offset the possibility of regressing again economically, we started the Cold War. And I really believe we helped the Commies get the nuclear weapon knowledge they needed to help prolong the war indefinitely. Unless we actually stole all that from the Nazi's and the Ruskies got a few of the choice scientists themselves. But that is more far fetched. We needed to continue war to keep the economy going, but it couldn't be at previous levels. Even our country, blessed in oil ( at one time the globes leading exporter ) and ore couldn't keep up war level production for too long. But expanding the military to immense levels, justified by our manufactured bogeyman, compromised the need for spending with the need to husband our resources.
*
Hot wars were needed from time to time. If your military goes too long without fighting they turn into a paper tiger. So every decade we start a war. We kind of skipped the eighties, still recovering from the First Oil Wars. But it has been pretty much as regular as clockwork otherwise ( and even in the eighties we did keep everyone on their toes with practice runs in Grenada/Lebanon/Panama ). I'm not trying to trivialize the patriotism of our soldiers. When you are eighteen and full of energy, you want to believe in Mom and Apple Pie and go kill something. They are doing their duty. I blame the government for an unnecessary war and the mindless cheerleaders applauding it. Not that voting counts anymore, but the mouth breathers pulling the level for War Hawk candidates doesn't know that. I hope you know better.
END

last one in the stew pot

LAST ONE IN THE STEW POT
When I come up with a new phrase dripping with wit and being a bit playful I of course have to beat it to death like the drugged cancer plagued nag that it is. This is just another way of saying that Yuppie Survivalists are wrong, and here is why...Plus, no one commented on yesterday's article and now I'm all hurt and paranoid and so perhaps with this article I can pull a few more tails and get everyone awake again. Frugal survivalism is perfect in so many ways. Us peons, the proletariat masses, can easily afford it. In a lot of cases the equipment is much better ( commendable restraint as I fail to use the semi automatic rifle as an example as an unneeded, over recommended tool but instead use the more healthy, better cost effectiveness of grains and beans as an example, as they easily beat the over processed slop that is most freeze dried food ). You can panic now, before the rush, and not have to wait decades to be able to afford the needed stockpile. And now, let's add to that the fact that most expensive advice won't keep you alive much longer.
*
The whole purpose behind survivalism is to stay alive during and after a collapse. Why else are we sacrificing and upsetting our lives? And yet, to be realistic, we are not assuring our survival. We are merely increasing the odds that we won't be the first ones to die. So when I say that you want to be the last one in the stew pot, I'm saying that you can't have unrealistic expectations. If you are last to be killed, you've achieved all that you could. The unspoken agreement seems to be that if you buy an authors or companies product, you will live forever in grotesque luxury, king of all you survey. Not only will you eat normally, you will live in a comfortable shelter and easily defend yourself with high tech machinery. After you clear out the rabble ( also unspoken, the poor ghetto dwellers or poor trailer trash are the ones to attack your mansion and stockpiled wealth ) you will be King. To appear a bit more democratic, you will be Captain In The Militia. But you will be in charge. Remember, you have wealth, and thus are far more noble and important. In fact, your purchases now not only protect you against the welfare scum, but also against survivalists that don't own a concrete McBunker.
*
Nothing could be further from the truth. In a failing energy supply environment, your civilization collapses ( if any asshat points out the seventies as a false alarm [ see, we didn't collapse then, so why should we now? ] just point them to Easter Island or the Mayan Empire ). The die off is usually to a point far below the natural ecosystem carrying capacity. In other words, if a solar energy system, post-Oil Age, is capable of supporting a half billion globally then the die off could be as bad as leaving just a few tens of millions. So in that extremely violent spasm of destruction, do you really think that any of the "survival packet" solutions are a magic talisman to automatically save you? The Yuppie Bunker solution will see you quickly run out of irreplaceable Industrial Age supplies ( how can you possibly stockpile enough gasoline, propane or ammunition to sustain your present lifestyle? ). The Tree Hugger organic farming solution will see you buried under your garden as fertilizer by bandits or the new feudal king. My suggestion, the Wheat Eating Trailer Trash solution, will not keep you alive much longer. But it won't kill you any faster. And it won't have anywhere near the high price tag as the other two.
*
The conventional advice to throw money at the problem of surviving the collapse is simply dead wrong. Money will not keep you alive longer. Okay, obscene amounts of money, a mountain fortress in the wilderness type of money, will increase your odds. But that kind of money is available to very few. But even if you are a doctor or corporate type, you don't have obscene amounts of money. Even if you do all this on credit ( a bit of a risk ) you don't have that much purchasing power. If you are close enough to people for a job or supplies, you are close enough to have them battle you for your processions. You are exposed either way. Only complete solitude is a hedge in protection. The rest of us, poor or rich, will be potential victims of the mobs. At that point, extra money in your preparations does you very little good. There was an interesting article in the newest Backwoodsman magazine ( better than usual issue, by the way ) on machetes. One point made was that the machete killed far more people in African massacres than high tech weapons did in a conventional war. The point being that, to point out the genius of Jim Morrison ( with a name like Jim, you belong to a special group ), they got the guns but we got the numbers. The mob will trump your semi-automatic battle rifle eventually.
*
I'm not trying to say that preps are futile. They are necessary. I am saying you should not blind yourself to reality. If you don't expect the worse you can't prepare for it. Toys and money do not make you immune from the die-off. They help, they do not guarantee. So why kill yourself from debt and worry preparing as a Yuppie Survivalist. You might not live long enough to enjoy the Apocalypse. Just spend your several hundred to a couple thousand and prepare frugally. A few hundred in grain, a few hundred in a surplus gun. A $50 water filter. A couple thousand in a used trailer or Unibomber shack and some junk land. One tax return and a few months savings will do the trick. You will get far more than 80% of the protection for far less than 20% of the price. If this is only a depression, you protect yourself financially. If it is the collapse, you are prepared ahead of time with adequate supplies instead of never finishing being prepared with perfect supplies.
END

last light book review

LAST LIGHT BOOK REVIEW
First things first. Green shoots news today, courtesy of Ure over at www.urbansurvival.com . Total credit is down year to year. A decrease of 7% in June and a decrease of over 10% in July. You might not use credit cards or have a mortgage, but credit is the lifeblood of business. You expected to get rehired where? Also, a quick note on my bumbling kitchen chemistry. Not enough to stretch out into a full article, so I'll use it here to stretch out today's drivel. I hate wasting anything, and soap scraps are no exception. I didn't like the idea of the scraps in a sock used as a washcloth idea. It is a good idea, but I'm not used to using a washcloth to soap up but rather the normal rubbing the bar to lather. And I certainly don't like the idea of paying my new nemesis ( hell hath no fury as a former evangelical customer scorned, you asshat scum sucking dillhole pukes ) Wal-Mart $1.50 for a round bar of soap for my shaving mug. You know how cheap I am, instead of spending four bucks for a new shaving brush when my old one cracked its handle I just wrapped twenty rubber bands real tight around the old one. And I wanted a snug fit, so I didn't just cut down a regular bar of soap. Double broiler won't work on soap, so I used direct heat with water added to the scraps. The soap got mushy enough that once the water got thick enough ( like a gravy ) I poured the whole thing in the mug and pushed it down in to one mass. It works just fine. In fact, it lathers up better than the regular shaving soap. It has a multiple coloring to it from the varied soap bars, and a few brown streaks from a few burns ( I put an aluminum foil disposable type container such as you use for baking on the burner and a few scraps burned in the boiling process ). But it looks pretty to me, being nearly free.
*
"Last Light" by Alex Scarrow is a quasi-Peak Oil fiction paperback. Expect to pay about ten bucks for it. Before I say any thing else, I want to point out I really loved this book. It isn't about after the collapse. It is about the first week of the collapse. It uses a conspiracy theory plot, making the collapse sudden. So the whole slow decrease of oil supplies is sped up. And it might seem a bit formalistic to some. I usually hate the "cliff hanger at the end of each chapter" type of writing, but this guy does it so well I didn't mind. Nor did I mind the higher than normal mass market book price. It really was that good. Your basic plot is engineer dad in Iraq, daughter in school and mom on a trip. Refineries and shipping lanes are all hit at once, following the pattern of a report dad was paid to write years ago on the system vulnerability. The book is them trying to get back together as a super secret banker group that is behind the attacks send an assassin to kill the daughter who knows the identity of some of them. It sounds gay, but this was a very well written book and it all works together. This wasn't a New York Times bestseller book written for the lowest common denominator. For one thing, it is 500 pages. For another, it actually teaches you something.
*
The author is trying to get awareness about Peak Oil to the general public. It is written for Brits, by a very Brit type of bloke. A lot of bollocks and mates and fags and cars with bonnets and boots and strange spelling of words. But easily followed. Strangely for a Limey, he has a good grasp on firearms. And a pretty spot on description of Yankee attitudes. As long as you don't go in expecting a post-collapse novel, you will not be disappointed. There are enough hints on Peak Oil and conspiracy theories that pepper the story to keep you teased. But it isn't larded with them. No need to scare off the general public, but scary enough to get them interested in further research on the threat of system collapse. It might not be the best Peak Oil fiction, but it is a very good book in general. Despite the price tag, highly recommended.
END
A little short today. I had to take the bike in for its bi-monthly tire flat, plus I'm trying to get the next Chicken Little Magazine posted. If anyone has an idea for a non-copyrighted, public domain book that fits in with survivalism, please e-mail me at jimd303@netzero.com . With a link if you have it. The next Chicken will have the 1911 Boy Scout manual. Thanks to Rawles at www.survivalblog.com for that link. A little bulky at ten megs, six hundred pages with illustrations, but hardly anyone has to worry about dial-up speeds anymore. Look for it later today, over at www.bisonpress.com under the Chicken Little Magazine page. Still dirt cheap.

water containers

WATER CONTAINERS
Because I am all about my loyal minions, taking pains to anticipate your needs and wants, here is something a bit different today. New, super duper deluxe water containers. I could have given you the same old crap, tired hysterical pleas to drop everything including children, spouses, jobs and mortgage to retreat to the wilderness and dig a deep hole for an underground Unibomber bunker complex ( say what you will about the guy, he knew how to retreat to the woods on a very frugal budget ), but today and today only, no refunds or rain checks, you get something practical. I don't want this to go to your heads, thinking I'm going to do this all the time. And some of you might blow a wet sloppy raspberry my way and proclaim in a haughty superior tone that the information contained herein is unworthy and pedestrian. But that's what's on the menu today. No substitutions, either.
*
Way back when, three years ago, I was in a frantic planning and spending spree as I had just been laid off from work and was on the way to Elko. Unlike the vast majority of unworthy mouth breathing sheeple, I had prepared myself prior to this. I was just doing the last minute, nice to have, shopping. I already had a few six gallon water jugs but got some more. At the time they were six bucks ( now 50% higher ). The type at Wal-Mart in the camping section, the greenish ones. A bit thin, but I wasn't too concerned. Well, if you have been following every detail of my life as you should, you know we moved back to Carson City within a week. My land just wasn't suitable for daily commuting. In the next two years I worked as the Food Bank driver and as part of my daily routine I took the thrift store trash to the dump every day. I pulled out a lot of treasure, much of which I am using today. Including two other, thicker, water containers. Now I had a total of nine water containers, all six gallons with one being a five gallon. The Wal-Mart containers haven't disappointed me too much, surprisingly. I keep five of them filled and covered, stored in the van. Before each fall I refill them. That is my emergency water in case I can't get into town. In my tub in the trailer I keep four jugs I fill and use each week.
*
I've had one container tear, after I put it into the truck bed on top of some trash. I think it was a burnt out taillight bulb that did it. I of course recycled the container by turning it into a barrier under the trailer so the dogs couldn't run underneath and rip out the solar panel wires ( not my dogs, the neighbors- they like hanging out in the shade under the Compound ). But it got me thinking that I should work on a better water container. Which of course got moved down the mental to-do list and promptly forgotten. A bit later, I'm complaining about my back. Lifting the containers out of the truck is a pain, but no big deal. The problem comes when I'm holding a heavy container and filling a smaller jug ( I use one gallon juice jugs for toting water around the house for dishes, cooking, drinking ). Leaning over the tub and filling the jugs puts too much strain on my back. A recipe for disaster sometime down the road. I think I was looking at MEN and saw a picture of the five gallon pail with a water facet attachment at the bottom for a drip irrigation arrangement. So I'm saying to myself, "Self, you need to get one of those bad boys. You can set it up on a stool in the tub and place the jug below to fill it." At this point I got all excited and my nipples got a funny feeling in them.
*
I now had a new project to work on. I always like to have a new project in the works, no matter how trivial. I went around and looked at the ranch store and the Home Depot, hoping to find a pail with a hole already drilled in it. I didn't want to buy a drill I might never use again. No dice. And the containers that already had a hold open spout didn't have a big enough top opening. I didn't want to use a insulated water jug with the thumb button spout at the bottom. You have to keep pressing it in to fill a container. They are made to fill a small drinking cup. So even though they have a big top opening they didn't have a suitable drain. I needed to have a big opening so I could quickly fill from one of my five gallon containers I had used to haul my water in from town. Using a funnel would waste a lot of water from spill over and put too much strain on my back. I have a bum back from childhood, but I've always kept my lower back muscles toned with exercise so as to minimise problems. But I don't want to do anything stupid either.
*
Then, in a moment of mental clarity which always hits me unexpectedly, I had the answer. Instead of constructing a container because I wanted a drain, just use a scoop. Bypass the gallon jugs and switch to a pot. I eliminate one step of the process and simplify what I need. Simple, I know. But when you are only thinking in one direction, that is what happens. I had been under the spell of a new toy. I now use a five gallon poly bucket with one of those big screw tops attached, the Gamma Seal. Its not just for storing grain anymore. It isn't leak proof. You can tip it over almost to horizontal before it leaks, but it will still leak if it falls over. So it isn't perfect. But it is a heck of a lot thicker than most water jugs out there. I had been wondering if perhaps I would have to go to metal, or buy an expensive set through the mail. But now that is no longer a problem. I have extra thick containers I'll switch over to, and an easier way to get water for household use. I'm magic.
END