a portable solar cooker

A PORTABLE SOLAR COOKER
Portable, light weight and compact ( if not using the trash can base ). Perhaps you were wondering how to add more weight to your BOB. Or wanted to experiment with the cheapest, flimsiest material possible for a cooker. Okay, seriously, this should have an application for most of us. A car windshield reflector, a clear plastic cooking bag and a black pot make up a solar cooker. The link below gives good detailed instructions. I prefer Big Bears Mylar blanket, plastic box, black pot and glass idea. But of course that one is not storable in a shoebox or able to be carried around.
http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/windshield-cooker.htm
A big thanks to a loyal minion for the idea.
END
www.bisonpress.com for all my crap

path of stampede

PATH OF STAMPEDE
A loyal minion asked about my thoughts on living on the I-80 corridor, in the path of the Golden Hoard. I will be living a half mile from the river and one mile from the Interstate. Yet I am not really worried. Why not? Won’t the rush of worthless mouth breathing Yuppie Sheeple from the ( former ) Golden State threaten me?
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Simply, no. Elko Nevada should hold little appeal for anyone other than the corporation mining gold nearby. There are no trees for firewood. Little farming. Why would this be a destination? The Sierra’s would be a more likely stopping place for Californian’s, as would Idaho or Oregon. I think the Great Basin is last on the list of most refugees. There is no potential here other than small scale nomadic herding. People will be leaving there, not coming. And why would there be that much traffic passing through to begin with? California refugees go north, not towards Utah. Utah folk coming here, why? I just can’t fathom why I-80 through Nevada will be traveled en masse. Some folks will be going to family in the Midwest or east. They won’t stop. If they break down or run out of gas, the numbers staying should not equal those leaving.
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I would be more worried about living in Idaho, even off the beaten path. The natural inclination will be to head for the mountains. The odds of that many folks stopping by my neck of the woods will be remote. It is a God-forsaken desert. Which is why I like it. It is three hundred miles from Reno, about two hundred from Salt Lake. Few will make it that far. The odds are in my favor. And all that is a full scale collapse. In the coming economic collapse things won’t be as lawless or dangerous ( I know crime will increase- but not firefights over a can of beans ) and most folks won’t have the money to travel on $8 a gallon gas. They will stay put and be homeless in their current location.
END
Great news, sports fans. I can pre-post on this blog site. I publish a post, but specify a day and time instead of publishing it immediately. It might be obvious to you but I wasn’t aware of this feature until just now. So I can post several days ahead of time, not needing an Internet connection everyday. So, perhaps there is no need to cease publishing for the two weeks I’m moving. Let’s see what develops.
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If you live near a Dollar Tree, run down there this minute. They have $1 LED lights. The stick up, round, push to turn on types ( with three LED's ). Uses three AAA batteries. Brighter than the $10 Wal-Mart lantern LED. I am in the process of an endurance test on them for battery life. I will let you know. And speaking of batteries, my wife loves her hand held Yatzee electronic game. I had to buy her a new one. They went from using a AAA battery to using a watch battery. The rectal munchers at Parker Brothers, may their foul corporate souls burn in the fiery depths of Hell for all the ages, thought it was a great idea that my battery replacement costs went from twenty five cents to $2.30.
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You will feel better about your empty hollow life if you go shopping for books and prep gear at http://www.bisonpress.com/

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE

Still More Random Prep Thoughts

Ok, tell me what you think of this idea. I have a nice little rhubarb and asparagus patch that I have to move. I let them both go to seed this year and take the seeds over to the ditch in front of the farm and sprinkle them along the inside edge of the ditch. I can then dig up the roots and transplant them this fall and with luck I will have my patch and some “wild” stuff growing in the ditch.

The prep Gods have smiled on me this month. One Sunday morning two weeks ago I found a five gallon plastic gas can beside the expressway. It still had a little gas in it and when I cracked the top the gases inside escaped telling me it doesn’t have any leaks. On my way out of work I drive through a small residential neighborhood. The other day there were three five gallon cans sitting out for garbage pickup. I got a safety gas can, kerosene can, and a jerry can. I took the Jerry can into work the next day and cleaned it up; wire brushed it, and painted it with metal primer. It looks almost brand new right now and it still needs a finish coat. The down side is that it cost me $70 to fill three five gallon gas cans and top off the truck, and I hit gas at $3.76 that day.

Am I the only one that wishes Creekmore would settle on one format and stick with it?

I have been so busy working on preps and the farm that I failed to notice that my truck was nearly 2000 miles over due for an oil change. It is sometimes easy to think survival all the time and forget that until TEOTWAWKI we still have to keep living in this world. Do not want to think of how bad it would be to have not kept up on the PM of the vehicles and TSHTF and we need it.

As I asked on Mayberry’s site, how does one go about convincing an agent of a TLA or local police force that they would feel safer and better off staying at their own home than being taken to a “refugee center”, read detention camp? I did some calculations at work today and figure that at two meals a day, right now, no changes to the pantry, I am good for the wife and me at six months. It will take me couple days to uncap the well and rig up a drop bucket to haul up water, but since I have two weeks worth stored that is no problem. I have a PACE system in place for lights, heat, water, and food. While all may no be fool proof they will provide me with a fighting chance. I would much rather put my fate in my own hands than a young sheriff deputy that hasn’t been around the block yet.

Went to a gun show and picked up some cheap ammo. Some were factory loads and some were re-loads. I decided several things as I was putting the ammo away. Factory loads are inherently better than re-loads and probably should be stored separately. Barter away the re-loads and hoard the factory. Another thought is that since I have over 500 rounds of .30-30 I probably should own more than one rifle in that caliber. Maybe it is time to pare down the gun collection and pick up some more standard rifles.

Am I the only one that thinks Rangerman could post at least once every couple weeks so we know he is still alive?

Voting third party should not be considered a wasted vote. The smarter of the Washington Weasels should figure out that we voted third party because we didn’t agree with either of the “standard” choices. A vote for third party should stop either one of the candidates from winning with a majority, sending the message they do not have the “mandate of the people”. I am sure they will not see it that way, but then they stopped using common sense and listening to “the people” long ago. They are supposed to be working in our best interest, not themselves.

Do you feel ebbs and tides in your prep fears? Does it feel to you that some weeks collapse is due by Friday and other times it is coming “sometime in the future”? I don’t want to stay intense the whole while, but I fear those lulls will lead me to defer a prep for a day or two and it will haunt me later. I am not sure what causes these fluxes, but I know a few others experience the same feelings.

Wolverine
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The regular Bison post is below-Jim

inflation then peak

INFLATION, THEN PEAK
Lately I’ve been going around, sticking out my tongue, making stupid noises, doing the told-you-so dance. Hah, hah, oil is going through the roof. We are so screwed. We are all going to die. Peak Oil, proven. Take that, Pollyanna Yuppie SUV driving scum. Then, much to my chagrin, someone points out that gasoline is selling for the same amount of silver as it did forty years ago. Oops. That might shoot a few holes in my premature victory. However, as I am not one to let logic stand in the way of a great sounding theory, I quickly strike back with a counter proposal. If the rise of oil has been strictly inflation driven thus far, and notice I said IF to note the fact that gasoline is still not fully priced at current oil prices ( my guess is it would be about $6 a gallon for $140 oil ), then we are in for a double whammy. First inflation, then scarcity.
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Bush should, if there is any justice in the world at all, be noted by historians as the perfect puppet for moneyed interests and/or a complete friggin idiot. Inflation on his watch has been the worst since the 70’s. Money creation, credit creation, war creation. Stagflation revisited. If inflation is becoming the only way to pay our bills, can we look forward to oil doubling every year as foreigners reject the dollar? And then you need to add in Peak Oil. Oil is not renewable and everything left to pump or extract is going to be very expensive to bring to the gas tank. And it is not just about money. You need investment ( bank credit drying up, stock market falling ) and resources such as steel, machinery and trained personnel. Oil price will continue to rise. There will be no Alaska and North Sea fields ( or even Russian fields ) to save us this time.
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Inflation will get worse as our economy crashes. Oil will become scarcer and costlier. Very soon $150 oil will look like a great deal.
END
My land guy, http://www.buylandcheap.com/ , is all right in my book. He is helpful and honest and not greedy. If you want to live in northern Nevada, this is your guy. Cheap land on payments. Plus, if you buy a lot five miles southwest of Elko we can be paranoid desert rat buddies.
Support my move, buy my crap at http://www.bisonpress.com/
Major News From Major Surplus!! http://www.majorsurplus.com/ has the cheap corn grinders back in stock!! This is better than friggin Christmas. Every self respecting loyal minion must own a grain grinder ( feed and seed store wheat is half the price of rice ). Order number 16-5365. Only $17 plus shipping. They also have a $5 solar LED flashlight, kinda cool but no where near the nipple tingling factor of a $26 after shipping grinder. Flashlight is order # 5-9176.

getting off my butt

GETTING OFF MY BUTT
Last year I attempted to move up to Elko from my present location in Carson City. I was tired of spending over half of my take home pay on trailer rent. I started making payments on a lot of land ( I own one free and clear but it is too far from town to commute to work daily ). Well, the opposition was fierce. My wife didn’t want to leave the grandkids and my dad wasn’t trilled I was leaving. I didn’t need to leave, but I was tired of being in my current financial situation.
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What a difference a year makes. Now, I am extremely apprehensive. My perception of the danger we are in as a nation economically has gotten many times worse. I no longer want to move, rather I feel I need to move. Before, it would have been nice. Now, I think if I don’t I am going to be in serious trouble. As in, no employment while I need to pay rent. Perhaps gas rationing or travel controls if I try to leave. I need to preposition myself now. And it is the perfect time as my wife has come around. I could have moved us without her permission, it just makes it a lot easier. Being in debt is not the best bet, but it is far better than paying space rent. Buying the land, I owe $100 a month and have a years reserve payments saved up. Staying at the park, I only have two months rent saved. Also, by already being up in Elko, if I lose my job I can still move up twenty miles to my debt-free land. So, I am finely getting off my butt and moving.
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I didn’t want to move until I had no more child support payments, then live out in the boonies full time off my writing. No need to go into town except every few weeks. I would have peddled to the river for water daily, and built some kind of rain catchment. Well, instead of fifteen miles from town now I will be five miles. Not a huge problem, I’m moving from being in a town of 60k to one of 15k ( the entire county has half the population of our current city location ). I’m closer to people, but also closer to a daily job. In the winter, if the roads are snowed in, I could conceivably walk to work if needed. The rest of the year it will be an easy half hour on my bike. If I can’t support a vehicle in the future I’ll now only be a half mile from the river so water hauling is not going to be a problem.
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I’ve put in my two week notice at work. I’ve paid the down payment on the lot. For the next two weeks I will still be posting daily. My other Blogs will suffer however. I’m going to suspend the daily list of survival blog articles. Also the two cheap land blogs. I may or may not post the occasional movie review. I will then stop posting at Bison for a week or two. Then we will see about the future publishing frequency. I won’t stop publishing. I worked too hard to get where I am ( 1000+ readers and about $100 a month in revenues- chump change for some, great for me ) to give it up. I just don’t know how I’ll continue. Write and post from work? Get solar panels and a satellite Internet connection? Post from the public library connection? We will have to see. But I will not stop publishing.
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Time to stop preaching to others and go do it myself. Talk to you tomorrow.
END
Thanks, Eric, for yet another donation. You are a generous bloke.
The rest of you tight bastards, buy my crap at www.bisonsurvival.com

banks insolvent

BANKS INSOLVENT
Jim over at www.survivalblog.com is at it again with great financial articles. A few days ago was one on insolvent banks. Our banks essentially have a negative cash reserve. Let’s say that McScrooge Bank has a million dollars in deposits. He loans out most of that to make money and keeps fifty to a hundred thousand dollars on hand as a reserve, for when people take money out of their accounts. In recent years I think the money was even less than ten percent. But no matter. Right now McScrooge has no reserves at all. Nothing. He loaned too much money to the real estate market. Or worse played the derivatives casino. If any significant number of depositors demand their cash back, another bank has to help with the cash flow problem.
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The problem occurs when too many banks have any up tick to their withdrawals. The meltdown happens when every bank has an increase in withdrawals. Oh, the FDIC will give you your money back. In freshly printed credit or currency. A bit of inflation there to reduce the purchasing power of your money. And don’t forget, the process will take months. Think how screwed up the tax stimulus checks where, and multiply by ten. You will be homeless by then. Keeping cash at home sucks. Giving it to the bankers is just as bad. Only keep enough cash on hand for the bare essentials. Anything else, put into food and ammunition. As far as guns and the upcoming election or upcoming Supreme Court decision, don’t get too panicked or complacent. Another 9/11 will change everything. In the mean time, as per an earlier article, ammunition is going to become more expensive or disappear faster than guns ( in general-evil black guns being the exception ).
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Wipe out all financial assets and convert to tangibles. Keep just enough cash on hand to squeak by for essentials. If we are wrong about the banks being in trouble, it inconveniences you for a short while. If it is correct, you cushion against your cash being stolen. Don’t count on ATM machines. I don’t know if it due to fire or flood, or just a fluke. But for the last five days or so the Internet has been bogging down far more than normal. Trivial disruptions ( in a big picture sense ) can take down the infrastructure a lot easier than we expect.
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If the last year has taught us anything, it is that we need to start taking worse case scenarios far more seriously. It IS all falling apart. The timing is the only unknown.
END
Buy my cool crap, books and gear, www.bisonpress.com

how much extra

HOW MUCH EXTRA?
Another loyal minion suggestion. How much extra do you have? Since Uncle Marty is an alcoholic and a gambler and on his third Russian mail order bride, he has failed to prepare for the economic collapse despite earning close to three figures. He will be showing up at your place when his McPalace is foreclosed. Your brother and his bride both work but have no savings after paying off SUV’s and making condo payments. They will be popping by after their cars sit rusting in the driveway when oil becomes $500 a barrel. You most likely will also receive a few odd family members that remember the fact that you raise chickens and corn. When things slow collapse ( starting last summer, more than likely ) past a certain point the in-laws will start to move in. You have stockpiled enough grain and beans, plus increased your French Intensive garden to feed them. Now the question is, how much extra of everything else do you have?
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Do you have enough pots and pans to cook for everyone? Enough extra grain mills? Are there enough plates and silverware, or are there going to be different shifts for eating? Is the septic tank big enough? Or is there a plan for some outhouses? Got lime? Can you do extra laundry? Do you have enough extra wool blankets for when wood becomes the only heat source? Have you bought enough thrift store clothes in several different sizes? Used shoes? Your guests will more than likely arrive with very little of value. They might bring their own guns- got reloading supplies in those calibers? Do your pantry shelves work as bunk beds? Or is everyone going to be sleeping on the floor? Got mattress pads? Extra sheets? Extra feminine products? Extra cold weather clothing ( at least sturdy coats )?
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Want extra help growing food or standing guard? Those services don’t come cheap, since you will most likely be stockpiling the basics for all your help.
END
A bit of a delay lately getting the http://survivaldigest.blogspot.com posted in the evenings. I'll attempt to post by 6pm but at least for now don't be suprised if it's tardy. Every new survival/prepper/doomer article linked to daily.
E-books, Amazon books, prep gear at www.bisonpress.com

comrade simba

COMRADE SIMBA
When I first ran across http://cryptogon.com I didn’t think a whole lot of it. Sure, it was a good source of bizarre news. I just didn’t see it’s value. Well, after visiting it for a short period daily, I realized that it is indeed a goldmine. This guy really puts together great news you would be hard pressed to come across yourself. At least not without a lot of work. Then he showed me another reason why I like the site so much. He posted an article from Comrade Simba.
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I had never heard of Comrade Simba. If you haven’t either, let me just tell you. This guy rocks. Think of me, only angrier and much more self sufficient on a farm. His latest post wondered how his local economy ( and others like it ) was able to survive with the almost complete lack of productive activity. A rural welfare settlement. Food stamps keep the corner markets open and Federal energy subsidies keep those on food stamps from freezing in the winter. I have often wondered the same thing myself, although he articulates the question much better. Is government spending so vast that entire communities get money inputs to feed a retail economy where everyone just sells worthless glass trinkets to each other ( or charges people to shine up their trinkets for them )?
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The Feds print up money, buy products from a defense contractor in a local community. The locals tax the profit to support the local government. All the retail sector caters to the workers at the plant. That one is easy. But what about other communities, without obvious Federal money inputs. Florida’s economy is simply nothing other than Social Security payments coming in. How does Podunk, Mississippi bring in money? The local factory closed long ago. Is it surrounding farms and the Federal money they get? Is it simply a few productive businesses in the state subsidizing the welfare receivers in poorer areas? It’s an interesting question. Are we to the point that the creation of money and credit is the only thing keeping the economy going everywhere?
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I will be letting you know when Comrade Simba posts a new article. To visit now and read the above described article, go to http://comradesimba.com/blog . You won’t be disappointed.
END
Go to http://survivaldigest.blogspot.com for the list of all survival sites and what they posted today.
Go to www.bisonpress.com for books and prep gear, the place to buy my crap.

commuting from "cheap" rent

COMMUTING FROM “CHEAP”RENT
For the last few weeks I’ve beat my head against the wall, trying to discover a magical solution that somehow has eluded me so far. How can you escape the city while still working full time? It used to be easy. You simply commuted. That was back when oil was nearly free. Now, I’m not saying that oil at $130 is necessarily an outrageous price. Considering inflation and the fact it’s a non-renewable resource shipped from half way across the globe and protected by a very expensive military. But it is a price we are hard pressed to pay, taking into account decades of stagnating wages and purchasing power. The price might still be a bargain, but our declining economy can’t afford it. Car ownership will one day be the exclusive domain of the wealthy, as it was a hundred years ago.
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My family situation is no longer as strong of a glue holding me here in the city. My father most likely is moving up north soon. And the wife is really becoming fed up with her daughters antics. So moving is now less of an emotional issue as it once was. So of course, at the same time gas prices shoot up. Commuting makes living in the country much more expensive than it used to be. Cheap suburban or rural living is becoming much less cheap. I could move to my land, rent free. But the cost of that “free” is the necessity to start driving. Even assuming no mechanical expenses, gas alone is two gallons a day. Since we can safely assume $5 a gallon gasoline, I call it $200 to live cheap. Then you need to add in the increased cost of rural living such as expensive phone service and Internet access. At least an added $80 a month. While living in town I spend $395 for rent, phone and Internet. I’m barely spending over a hundred bucks more to stay in a trailer park compared to living in the wild without a sewer or electric lines. Yes, I want to live like that, to escape all the BS. It is merely hard to justify living rural while working full time in town.
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I could move a lot closer to town. Buy a lot a few miles from town, bike to work. If I lose my job I can give up the lot and move 20 miles away to the lot I already own free and clear. $125 payments. Drive in one day a week to stock up on water, dump sewage, wash clothes. $20 in gas a month. Add in the $80 for the increased phone and Internet cost. $225 sure beats $395. And it is better than the above $280 since it removes a lot of commuting and all of the mechanical problems. But I am still only saving $150. The cost of that is moving from family, biking five miles instead of my current one mile, and living primitive. Again, I want to live primitive. Just not while working in town full time, and not when it saves so little money.
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Financially, it makes little sense to commute anymore ( I understand my rent in town is cheap compared to most peoples, but this is all about me, okay? ). Getting out of town is mainly for peace of mind and future security. Not savings.
END
Instead of larding up the Bison site with lists of links, the daily updated survival blogs list is now at http://survivaldigest.blogspot.com and will be posted each evening, between 5 and 6pm PST.
You are still expected to Buy All My Crap
www.bisonpress.com

dixie gun works

DIXIE GUN WORKS
I have never really been a big fan of black powder firearms. Yes, you can home grow your own black powder by farming your latrine or chicken coop and collecting rust from metal ( your great grandchildren should still be able to be mining the junked automobiles after PODA starts ). With a flintlock ignition you are pretty much set for a firearm forever. My main problem is the lack of breechloader flintlock rifles. I hate front loaders. It is bad enough that flintlocks fail to work in wet weather, I don’t want to add to my tactical disadvantages by using a slower method of loading. I have only seen one company selling a reproduction of a Ferguson rifle and the cost was around $1500. Plus, the company, Narragansett Armes Ltd., only manufactured a limited run of 250.
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Nonetheless, if you are absolutely convinced that the only long term solution for firearms is a black powder gun, Dixie Gun Works sells plenty of muzzleloaders. Of course most are imported and with the Euro at a $1.50 the prices are not on the low side. My recommendation is to instead have a regular revolver and/or single shot or lever action such as in .357 and buy a buttload of primers. You reuse your cases, or improvise using them cut down ( after splitting ) with attached paper case extenders, fill with black powder. Your only item to run out will be primers. But even with them at $30 per thousand this is far cheaper than buying a black powder replica ( the one exception being a flintlock pistol or rifle kit you might find at around $100 ). The one place Dixie does shine ( since it ain’t with cheap guns ) is its vast catalog of muzzleloader accessories. The catalog is over 600 pages. Only 100 are guns and the rest is a mind boggling assortment of BP accessories.
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Next you have a hundred pages of parts. Then another hundred of scabbards and swords/bayonets and such. There are reloading supplies and cleaning supplies. Gunsmithing items. Thirty pages of knives and tomahawks. Ten pages of cannons. You were planning on getting a cannon, right? Field cannon will be required to assault the zombie biker compound. Fifty pages of clothing. A hundred and twenty pages of books!! This catalog is great, and that’s from somebody that is less than thrilled about black powder guns. I’m only sorry I didn’t order this much sooner. Five bucks from http://www.dixiegunworks.com/ . They don’t charge shipping on the catalog if you wait a few weeks for slow delivery. Although mine arrived in five working days so I was pretty happy with that.
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Cool item. Order #ep0426 Quic-kee scope mounts. Uses a magnet to hold the base on to gun with an added strap, so no drilling and tapping. Then use Weaver rings. Only $40.
END
Visit my new blog for the daily listings of new survival blog articles
http://survivaldigest.blogspot.com
And as usual, visit my site to buy my crap
www.bisonpress.com

BOB firearm

BOB FIREARM
Visions of the firearm to bug out with were probably formed years ago when you viewed a now defunct slick paper mass circulation magazine. A manly man graced the cover, cleft chin jutting out, muscles rippling, tanned skin gleaming, a full head of hair perfectly groomed, clutching a full size battle rifle with ease, the end of civilization a mere adventure to him. In reality, a stooped sweaty fat guy with no hair, laboring for breath as he stumbles along wishing he had another pack of Camels drags a shotgun by the barrel with its stock trailing in the dirt, the backpack filled with all the tools necessary to sustain civilization now long abandoned for its weight, cursing the very Gods that rained this hell down on him.
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For most of us, the weapon to carry when escaping can’t be the one that works the best. And here I am speaking of the ultimate BOB bag. The one that you use to escape JBT’s that want to resettle you in a camp. The one you escape the burning cities with ( with no where else to go ). The one that you use to escape your homestead when raiders burn you out. In short, this is the bag you use to escape with no where to go and no supplies when you get there. Just escaping a natural disaster for a week or going from your city where you work to your retreat are a different matter. You are a short distance from resupply. But in the ultimate worse case scenario, the only viable choice is a rimfire revolver. It is cheap, usually under $100 for a used one. It is light weight. You can carry several hundred rounds without effort. The ammunition is cheap. They are slow to reload which might help damping your spray and pray tendencies.
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You can’t afford to have several different BOB bags stashed in strategic places holding expensive guns. You won’t be inclined to bury an expensive one. A revolver can be stashed loaded for long periods whereas a semi can’t. A pistol can be hidden on your person, just in case. A rifle can’t. You can’t carry enough ammo for long term use unless it is rimfire. It is far from perfect. You can’t kill large game ( or at least not normally ). The range is short and the take down power is marginal. But it is not for normal post-Apocalypse living. It is for worse case, living mobile and hiding, post-Apocalypse living. Thank you, loyal minion, for the idea.
END
George Ure, Urban Survival. Great big picture economics site
Israel & Iran, home foreclosures
http://www.urbansurvival.com/
Our buddy Rawles, the biggest blog of them all. Has a huge expert base he picks from
Fire evac, grain storage temps, Mountain House shortages
http://www.survivalblog.com/
Three Amigo’s publish Libertarian Survivalist rants
The courts
http://tslrf.blogspot.com/
If you like mind-numbing economic details, this is a great place
Oil slowdown from Mexico
http://www.financialsense.com/
Time Bomb 2000, the best survival forum in my opinion
Global econ alert, tainted tomatoes
http://www.timebomb2000.com/
Bear Ridge Project, a journey towards self sufficiency
Bush’s crimes, cabin cooking
http://www.bearridgeproject.com/
News, analysis, conspiracies, hard to find anywhere else
GMO animal feed, cops enter when no crime, flooding
http://cryptogon.com/
CH Smith, blog and essay’s-a lot of economics
Sadr City, USA
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
Staying Alive, prepping
Letter from a friend
http://wwwstayalive.blogspot.com/
The Urban Survivalist
Motorcycles
http://theurbansurvivalist.blogspot.com/
Notes From The Bunker
Conversion kit, gas and bicycles
http://commanderzero.com/blog/
Keep It Simple Survival
Support network
http://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com/
Rimfires And Thoreau
Favorite .22’s
http://22sandthoreau.blogspot.com/
Stealth Survival, staying above the water line
Cash and credit cards
http://stealthsurvival.blogspot.com/

Down In The Hills Survivalist
Living off the land, Foxfire books
http://blog.linnabary.net/
Survival, It’s About Living
Family Survival School 3
http://www.destinysurvival.com/
Be A Survivor
SKS update
http://beasurvivor.blogspot.com/
Economics as effected by Peak Oil
Vacant homes
http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/
Living before and after SHTF
Link to off-grid site, potatoes
http://survival-maddog.blogspot.com/
E-books, Amazon books, prep gear
www.bisonpress.com

solar only sure thing

SOLAR ONLY SURE THING
There is an ongoing discussion over at TimeBomb2000 about the sticker shock over the coming winter heating bill. As in, thousands of dollars extra. Also, the price of wood has increased in a lot of areas. Wood pellets were up 25% last year, so they are sure to increase. We do have to keep in mind that most of the discussion centers around Yuppie Survivalists. Heating a multi-thousand square foot home used to be of little concern. Now only Al Gore can afford it. But people still think they should be able to heat two to three thousand square feet to shirt-sleeve comfortable temperatures and are shocked that it is now costing them real money. Let’s forego the advice to move to a smaller dwelling. Most normal people are going to be stuck in what they have now due to the real estate market. But why are they buying thousands of dollars worth of furnaces or stoves? No matter how efficient, the up front investment is obscene ( and if you are doing it to protect the “value” of your overpriced home you are bound to be disappointed ). But more importantly, there is no way to guarantee the future cost of fuels will be affordable.
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Oil doubles in the last year, and you still have the attitude you can afford petroleum heat in the near future? At best you can use the present heating system to keep one section of your house at a tolerable level. Long term, I can only advise solar, with a small woodstove for back-up. A greenhouse and insulation might be about all you afford, along with a small stove. Wood will become scarce. It already is to some degree and oil was a lot lower last year than this one will be. You should only plan on it being a back-up rather than your primary heat. A south facing solar collector is the only sure thing you can count on in the future ( and yes, I do understand some areas don’t get a lot of sun in the winter. I hope you can insulate really well ). I installed two sheets of black metal in my south facing trailer window last winter. It would by no means suffice as my only heat, but it sure made things a lot more comfortable running a small electric heater. And last winter was pretty cold for this region. Some weeks when the sun was hiding things got very uncomfortable, but we got by on a $90 a month heating bill. Small shelter and low expectations, with a little help from Sol.
*
Glass will cost a lot less than oil. Invest in some to help cope with rising prices.
END
George Ure, Urban Survival. Great big picture economics site
Inflation, 401k, campaign funds
http://www.urbansurvival.com/
Our buddy Rawles, the biggest blog of them all. Has a huge expert base he picks from
Car BOB, economic crash, gasoline in UK
http://www.survivalblog.com/
If you like mind-numbing economic details, this is a great place
Why banks are sounding warning, gold indicators
http://www.financialsense.com/
Time Bomb 2000, the best survival forum in my opinion
Credit cards to narc on transactions, food prices soar
http://www.timebomb2000.com/
News, analysis, conspiracies, hard to find anywhere else
Flooding and food prices, Bear Sterns execs arrested, Iraq oil no bid contracts
http://cryptogon.com/
CH Smith, blog and essay’s-a lot of economics
Health care to bankrupt us
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
Creekmore’s survival blog
Cheaper handgun training
http://thesurvivalistblog.blogspot.com/
Staying Alive, prepping
Summer free food
http://wwwstayalive.blogspot.com/
Something Wicked Comes survival
Disarmed voters in Zimbabwe
http://selousscouts.blogspot.com/
Keep It Simple Survival
Lessons from Rita
http://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com/
Stealth Survival, staying above the water line
A word of caution
http://stealthsurvival.blogspot.com/
Survival and politics
Rise above
http://teotwawkiaiff.blogspot.com/
Old and new survival ways
Riding mower project
http://scoutinlife.blogspot.com/
Down In The Hills Survivalist
Buying preps
http://blog.linnabary.net/
Survival, It’s About Living
Survival health
http://www.destinysurvival.com/
Be A Survivor
Crisis Preparedness Handbook
http://beasurvivor.blogspot.com/
Economics as effected by Peak Oil
Chinese to end gas subsidies?
http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/
Living before and after SHTF
SOS America
http://survival-maddog.blogspot.com/
Dragon, mountain man dude
Flooding and levees
http://circleoftheoroborous-dragon.blogspot.com/
The best e-books, Amazon books and prep gear
www.bisonpress.com

scary stuff

SCARY STUFF
Really scary financial compilation
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/deepcaster/2008/0613.html
This is far worse than what I been reporting. Derivatives at a quadrillion, silver shortage, etc.
*
Now for more scary stuff. I have good news and bad news. The good news is I will be posting every day now, to include Sunday’s ( although most likely instead of the regular by 6 am PST I usually post at, Sunday might be a little later if I sleep in ). The bad news is, it will not be at the regular volume. I have written a lot in the last two years ( a few months for my book and booklets, then this blog ). And I am wore out, beat down and stressed. With research plus writing my day usually was four hours or more, plus my regular day job. I can still write up a storm, but even with plenty of idea help, my posts have gotten pretty bad. I can tell the quality is down. I don’t want to keep it up. I love you all, my loyal minions. You are the best readers an amateur writer can have. Your support, emotional and financial has been outstanding. I have said it before, I think I am the best paid survival blog out there ( not counting advertising ). And that is all thanks to you. But I am starting to put out a sub-standard product. It’s not fair to you, and silly for me to continue.
*
So I will still write. Some days it will be a few sentences and an unusually good link to somewhere else ( such as seen above ). Some days might be a few paragraphs. Occasionally I will give you a page or two, just don’t count on that. The spirit must move me. I want to keep reaching out, but after over 500 daily posts I have less to say to you. I hope you keep tuning in. I only want your financial support if you feel I’m providing some valuable service. I just can’t promise I will start cranking out 600-1200 words every day again. Perhaps, but time will tell. For now, every morning I will include in my post a list of whoever has posted survival/sufficiency/doomer articles the previous day. I have about thirty three sites I monitor ( contact me if your blog is not listed- I know you might have already and I forgot about it ). Below is the complete list, starting tomorrow I will delete any link that didn’t post a new article that day. I will usually give a short description of what was written about. For instance, www.survivalblog.com , diesel fuel conversions. I will include whatever I wrote about in the same post. I hope you continue as my loyal minions. Thank you.
*
George Ure, Urban Survival. Great big picture economics site
http://www.urbansurvival.com/
Our buddy Rawles, the biggest blog of them all. Has a huge expert base he picks from
http://www.survivalblog.com/
Three Amigo’s publish Libertarian Survivalist rants
http://tslrf.blogspot.com/
Peak Oil information clearinghouse
http://www.energybulletin.net/
If you like mind-numbing economic details, this is a great place
http://www.financialsense.com/
Time Bomb 2000, the best survival forum in my opinion
http://www.timebomb2000.com/
SHTF blog, suburban prepper
http://shtfblog.com/
Bear Ridge Project, a journey towards self sufficiency
http://www.bearridgeproject.com/
News, analysis, conspiracies, hard to find anywhere else
http://cryptogon.com/
CH Smith, blog and essay’s-a lot of economics
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
Creekmore’s survival blog
http://thesurvivalistblog.blogspot.com/
Staying Alive, prepping
http://wwwstayalive.blogspot.com/
Survival Acres, total doomer
http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/
The Urban Survivalist
http://theurbansurvivalist.blogspot.com/
TEOTWAWKI Blog
http://teotwawkiblog.blogspot.com
Viking Preparedness
http://vikingpreparedness.blogspot.com/
Notes From The Bunker
http://commanderzero.com/blog/
Suburban Prepper
http://suburbanprepper.wordpress.com/
Something Wicked Comes survival
http://selousscouts.blogspot.com/
Together We Stand, prepping
http://www.twsorg.blogspot.com/
Keep It Simple Survival
http://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com/
Rimfires And Thoreau
http://22sandthoreau.blogspot.com/
Stealth Survival, staying above the water line
http://stealthsurvival.blogspot.com/
Survival and politics
http://teotwawkiaiff.blogspot.com/
Old and new survival ways
http://scoutinlife.blogspot.com/
Planning for the end of the world
http://teotwawkian.blogspot.com/
Down In The Hills Survivalist
http://blog.linnabary.net/
Survival, It’s About Living
http://www.destinysurvival.com/
Be A Survivor
http://beasurvivor.blogspot.com/
Economics as effected by Peak Oil
http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/
Going to Heck In A Handbasket
http://goingtoheckinahandbasket.blogspot.com/
Surviving In Argentina
http://www.ferfal.blogspot.com/
Living before and after SHTF
http://survival-maddog.blogspot.com/
Dragon, mountain man dude
http://circleoftheoroborous-dragon.blogspot.com/
Contact me ( jimd303@netzero.com or in the comments section here ) if you are a publisher and need inclusion, or wish the site description changed.
END

oil spectators

OIL SPECTATORS
As easy and convenient as the Internet is, allowing almost effortless research, the big problem is information overload. No matter what you want to find out about, everyone professes to be an expert and they claim that their answer is the correct one. We are all opinionated and loud ( myself included of course ). The current debate over whether oil prices are the fault of spectators is a case in point. Personally, being an irrational True Believer in Peak Oil as the answer to most of the worlds ills, I think it is so much misdirection. A left hand shuck and jive as the right hand pulls the levers behind the curtain. If the oil is indeed running out, it is far better to hide this from the stampeding sheeple. We most likely won’t run out of oil. Fifty years from now when fur wearing savages are fighting each other with spears tipped with sharpened spoons for the last meat morsel of the captured slave, there will still be a petroleum seep they can soak their torches in for illumination. But we have run out of cheap and abundant oil. Economies are not run on renewable resources, historically ( when it takes hundreds or thousands of years for depleted soil to rebuild itself it is only technically, not practically, renewable ). The dominant ones are run on resource theft and war. You need oceans of energy to run an empire, not insignificant sources.
*
Some of us, the more irrational fear stricken ones, believe Peak Oil started in 2005. This was the year conventional petroleum peaked in production. Since then alternate sources ( ethanol, LNG, coal, tar sands, etc. ) have taken up the slack. But those are not abundant and cheap. So the whole structure of our Petroleum Economy is starting to crumble. Detroit is suffering. Food supplies are starting to destabilize. Local weather has global effects as petroleum inputs are more expensive. The housing bubble forced many to live in the suburbs, the only affordable housing. Now with oil more expensive and housing falling in value they are trapped in a no win situation. Yes, inflation is fueling oil price increases. Undoubtedly speculation takes a chunk as well. But I don’t think the two combined are having as much of an effect as petroleum supplies running out.
*
Inflation raises the cost of everything. Again, no one can give you a definitive answer on how much inflation is running. The less panicked claim double the official rate, five percent or so. The doomers are claiming fifteen percent or even higher. We know speculators are out there, helping to rape us financially. It doesn’t help matters when steel prices are boosted by speculation. New oil fields are more expensive to bring on line when metal rigs cost double. At the worse possible time. We must ( and have been ) increase the numbers of fields we are bringing on line, just so the total amount produced doesn’t fall as rapidly as it would otherwise. We are running faster and faster on the treadmill and producing less results. Speculation is out there, it doesn’t help matters in the slightest. But I can’t believe it is responsible for more than modest price increases. Why didn’t speculation prior to last year have the same doubling effect? The argument goes that with the whole globe inflating their currencies oil speculation is the only thing left to produce needed wealth. As if the spectators were busy in other fields such as houses and dot com companies the whole time and just now discovered the juicy profits in oil.
*
I am not claiming to have the definitive answer here. Each year that has gone by I seem to understand less and less about economics, things are getting so complicated. I could be overlooking a critical component. It just seems to me that this coincidence is much too handy. Reams of research from professionals point to running out of oil, but suddenly the spectators double the price. Nothing to do with dwindling supplies ( remember, we could have a century supply of shale oil- if it is too dear to extract and process it won’t save our current economy that is built on plentiful light sweat crude ). I freely admit to using the same bias as the “spectator’s fault” crowd. I’m looking for a simple explanation. The difference is that by taking the paranoid view you are protecting yourself. You start planning for an oil scarce future. You install insulation and solar gain rather than a more efficient gas furnace. If you think this is all about spectators you relax and go back to sleep because prices are sure to come down soon.
*
So instead of asking who’s right, consider the consequences of picking the wrong argument. If I’m wrong, it takes longer for your house retrofit to pay for itself with energy savings. If the spectator argument is wrong suddenly you can’t afford heating oil and are in for a very cold winter ( as well as being awful hungry since food supplies diminish- you thought that was spectators also ). Y2K was a dismal failure for forecasters. But most of us were glad we prepared anyway. Just the chance it could have happened was motivation enough. We didn’t care we were wrong, we were glad. Peak Oil is the same. The consequences of doing nothing are far more severe than those for doing something. Wrong, you invested in a more secure future. You increased your self-sufficiency. Right, you saved your life and that of your family. Being a Peak Freak is a win-win situation.
END
Buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com

prepper nugs

PREPPER NUGS
Well, it’s officially summer. The muffin tops are out. Awhile back the fad amongst fat women was to wear spandex. The stretchy material conformed to the body, tightly accentuating every fold and blubber bubble. It was really foul and disgusting. Hey, I’m no Ken doll myself. I look like I’ve been rode hard and put up wet. But I don’t try to get in peoples faces with it, a silent shout to all of creation that I will never be a Beautiful Person. It’s not that I care, just don’t point out how fat you are by wearing clothes that make me want to vomit. Well, muffin tops are the new spandex. I don’t know who came up with that one, it is rather witty. The pants/shorts are so low and tight, the fat hangs off and over. So the stomach and sides ( and if we are really unlucky, the back ) hanging and jiggling over the clothing looks like a muffin that is hanging over the paper sleeve. Sorry, this has nothing to do with much of anything other than my need to show my disgust. Also, a plea to keep the women in your life from joining this trend.
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I try to give a realistic way for almost anyone to prepare. Most of it is not even my own ideas, mainly the work of Kurt Saxon ( who, if he doesn’t send my damn CD pretty soon, I’ll have nasty things to say instead of only good ) from years back. And it is all so simple that there really is no reason for me to be posting daily articles other than the fact that I have no life and you have nothing better to do with the occasional dollar or two so I’m continually bribed into continuing. A year supply of wheat and beans in buckets, a surplus bolt gun, a homemade water filter. A few supplies such as a grinder and wool blankets. No one should be financially unable to prepare. This web page is mainly just adding to the basics and the occasional frugal tip. However, I’m sure there are a lot of new guys that have no supplies and no way to come up with $400-$700 either. Or, they need to start out slow and not just jump in whole hog. They don’t want to scare off the wife. They don’t want to tip off the kids that the college fund is going to be stripped for land and trailer purchases.
*
So today I want to talk about dipping your toe into the water. A couple of bucks here and there with no ones budget seriously harmed. This is by no means a complete stockpile. Don’t get me wrong. It is nothing more than something to get you through about a month or two. There is no real shelter, poor quality food. Little protection. But it is enough to give you peace of mind in the event of short term emergencies such as hurricanes or displacement from floods or being snowed in with no supplies getting through. And it will give you a taste of self-sufficiency which will feed on itself and before you know it ( if the economy doesn’t collapse in the meantime ) you will have a four wheel drive RV towing a trailer with two tons of dry bulk foods heading towards your Nevada desert retreat with walk in gun safe and underground fallout shelter.
*
Nothing could be simpler than food. Buy 25 pound sacks of white flour. Figure one sack per person and for ten bucks everyone eats for a month. Yes, you also want to double up on can good buys and set half aside. But that won’t be noticeable on the budget if you do ones and twos each time. I’m talking about a purchase to give you food security. It is not the perfect food, lacking a lot of nutrition and fiber. But it will stretch out what is in the freezer and cupboard for quite awhile. You can make dozens of different menu items from the flour alone. And no one is unfamiliar with eating it ( I don’t mention the glutton intolerant as the numbers are far too low ). Water is as easy as filling empty bottles if no money is available. It isn’t a month supply, but it is a start and not all areas need water storage, just filtration ( and that can be bleach short term ). You can use a propane burner ( Wal-Mart $17 ) for boiling water and cooking food. And most folks already have a BBQ propane tank ( although you will need an adaptor, large tank to cooker ). Even if they don’t disposables are only $2.50 each.
*
A tarp for shelter is under ten bucks, and emergency blankets are $2 each. So far each family member has cost under thirty bucks. The only serious expense is going to be a firearm. I’m sure that a lot of new preppers don’t have one. You live in a socialist state. The last girlfriend wouldn’t allow it. Or you sold off the arsenal when they were foreclosing on the house. I don’t care for them, but the Russian bolt guns are under $100 retail. Ammo is around $10 a box. A very cheap start, better than no protection at all. Or, perhaps better yet, run an ad for barter. Offer an expensive item such as a big screen TV or a new game system or an old gas sipping scooter for a firearm. The trick is to offer more than the gun is worth. You don’t need electric or gas powered items as much as you need a firearm. In the future, which do you think will have far greater value? And with the price difference noticeable, far more folks will offer to trade now.
*
I’m not suggesting foregoing a grain grinder, or thousands of rounds ammo or a junk trailer on junk land, or any of the rest. This is a starting point that can be done for pocket change. Anyone can do it. Suggesting bags of white flour and camping gear might even work for sheeple.
END
Read mayberry http://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com/ , a fine inspiration for starter preppers.
For sale at Save Mart supermarket. A ten dollar LED lantern. 12 LED’s, set on low four D batteries will last up to 400 hours. It won’t be as good as the newer thirty LED lanterns, but the price difference is $30. I saw them in the seasonal isle. Also, the same corporation owns Lucky’s markets. They might carry the same thing.
Books and prep gear www.bisonpress.com

heavy and bulky

HEAVY AND BULKY
I got to thinking about this article after I read a post on Down In The Hills Survivalist Blog http://blog.linnabary.net/ . A rant on the stupidity of burning non-renewable fuel to save on labor costs, leading to future lack of Chinese supplies due to fuel costs. Now, I was in complete agreement. But of course I can’t say it will be so bad that supplies won’t be shipped. Some items will cease to ship. Others will ship regardless of the transportation cost. In general the criticism is valid, but as usual the devil is in the details. We must plan now for increased shipping costs on everything, and that means knowing what items will suffer the most. That is what you must stock up on now and what you must learn to do without or improvise. Let me give one example right now. It doesn’t come from China, but a lot comes from far away forests and thus the costs most likely are comparable ( water transport is much cheaper than land transport ). Newspapers are already in severe trouble for offering a shoddy product at inflated prices with monopoly prices on their advertising rates. The increasing cost of paper shipped down from the Canadian Artic area, or from one coast to another will hopefully kill a lot of newspapers.
*
More importantly than fish wrap is toilet paper. In the Dakin compound we use Wal-Mart TP, about as rough as sandpaper. But it is good training for using leaves or corncobs. Twenty percent increase over the last few years. I can’t wait to see how much it is going to go up this time factoring in $135 oil. TP is not necessary if you are using an outhouse outside your Unibomber shack. A phone book can be picked up each time you are in town, free of charge at the grocery store. For us in town, however, it is not the best answer since there are sewer pipes that won’t appreciate that kind of paper. Did you want to test out how that paper dissolves on your three thousand dollar septic system? Since TP is bulky and relatively inexpensive it should go up more in cost than other items, as far as transportation costs. Same with a lot of useless crap like kids plastic playground sets. What about those Christmas metal tins? Light weight but very bulky. They should shoot up in cost. That source for low cost food storage containers might dry up at thrift store donated after holiday items.
*
Heavy items at low cost will suffer a disproportionate cost increase. Transporting bags of cat litter for sale at $2 retail will stop. The energy to process the litter and transport it will cost more. I would stock up. The cost will only go up. Cast iron stoves could be had for $150 at Lowe’s. I don’t know how much longer that will be the case. It has already got to have high transport cost. I would wager it is more to ship than the cost of the metal ( at least if from China ). At least for now. There are rumors of still increasing demand in China leading to huge metal increases ( although I think that is a bit of misdirection to take the focus off of Peak Oil ).
*
And don’t think that a lot of work will come back to the US because transport costs go up. Transport costs were really not that low when we started shipping factories overseas. That was the first response from US companies during the ‘70’s. When oil costs had doubled and quadrupled. China manufacturing took off during the low oil cost ‘90’s, true. But that just meant essentially zero transport cost. Now it is a bigger factor. But for transport cost to matter more than $15 an hour factory workers oil will have to get a lot more expensive. And by the time that happens our economy won’t be able to reinvest in our own factories. We will have no choice but to pay the increased transportation costs. Yes, it was all suicidal and idiotic as far as long term survival. But business doesn’t look long term. We are stuck with the current situation. Stock up now, especially at the dollar stores. Cheap doodads might not last too much longer ( and there is a use in your bunker for a lot of dollar store items ). This is all cheap right now, it shouldn’t hurt to stock up. But cheap is almost extinct. Fill up the hall closet with TP now. If you are going to buy a cheap cast iron stove, buy it now. Stock up on cat litter. Comment if any other items come to mind.
END
You must buy my crap, books and prep gear http://www.bisonpress.com/

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE
Seeds

A cheap insurance plan


Every spring Wal-mart, Menards, Fleet Farm, and a few others offer near generic seeds dirt cheap. Only 10 cents a package.

They hope you come in for the cheap seeds and then buy the potting soil, peat pots, mini green houses, fertilizers, and all the other goodies for spring planting.

These 10 cent seed packages are a bargain and also an opportunity.

Yes, you are right, they are not the "BEST" seeds. They are not heirloom seeds and most of them are probably hybrids.

For only $3.00 you can get 30 packages of seeds. If you were able to plant, grow and harvest all of that it would be a lot of food.

The two best choices would probably be the winter squash (hubbard or turban) for long storage life, and tomatoes for yield. Corn and beans would have been good choices except you only get about 12 seeds in the 10 cent packages.

These seeds would be a deteriorating asset . If stored carefully you could count on a two year life. Every two
years you would have to re buy fresh seeds to be on the safe side.

If the SHTF at the end of winter or beginning of spring, you would also have a high value barter item. Most gardeners don't harvest their own seeds. They just go to the store and buy seeds and potted plants every year.

In a barter deal, an astute trader would work a double deal. An item in trade now AND a percentage of the crop.

Something to think about.
END

no drought & litter & septic

NO DROUGHT & LITTER BOX & SEPTIC TREAT
As the panicked mice go scurrying about aimlessly, worried another drought year will significantly decrease global grain production, Iowa gets either 100 year or 500 year ( we’ll soon find out how bad it is really going to be ) flooding. Corn production will suffer and other grains will be bought up to partially compensate. Prices will set records for corn and wheat will get back up over $10, at least. Who knows if this will be the end of it or next years crop will give us another surprise. The main thing to remember is that last years drought effecting wheat was bad enough, but we had some reserves. This coming problem will see us with almost no reserves to fall back on. Of course, wheat production could give us a nice cushion and while corn and wheat will rise there won’t be wide scale shortages. Or we could see global and even US widespread shortages. Rather than rising prices on the retail level, the trend might be just to allow empty shelves at low prices ( fear of lawyers attacking over price gouging ). It is one thing to see gas shortages, you can scrape by for a time. Food shortages effect almost everybody very quickly.
*
The last shortage, that of rice, was somewhat alleviated by Japan opening up some of its rice reserves and selling it. That gave some breathing room. That and a few hundred thousand less mouths to feed over in Burma and China. But price matters less than availability. Every country is inflating their money supply. It’s not like they need to come up with gold to buy food. But there really is no more land to plant ( remember, Burma had worse flooding because it had cultivated former tidal regions ). And oil is making agriculture twice as expensive as last year ( again, availability rather than price is the primary concern ). This is not the start of mass starvation ( early 90’s saw flooding on this level ) but another added reason to worry about long term supplies and increased shortages/prices.
*
When I was living in Florida I wouldn’t let my cats out. I figured they would pick up fleas and we had enough problems with roaches ( although boric acid did really reduce them ). Here in town I’m worried about cars and prolonged absences and dogs. The stubborn cusses would cause us worry. If I ever get out to the country, the worry would be wild predators. Now, I don’t know if I’m really doing right by my cats. If I was a cat I would want to get out and kill small things all night long. I could be racking up a lot of bad karma, but what can you do? So, rather than allowing our cats to take a big squishy dump in the neighbors lot ( I’ve dodged a few of those myself ) we use a litter box. The Dollar Tree sells five pound bags of diatomaceous earth pellets that work really well. Three a month, three bucks. If your litter is clay, the odor problems might need a little help. Take a 16 ounce box of baking soda and mix in to the litter when first pouring it in. If you remove the solids every day and mix the litter up to help with drying you should get your litter to last ten days before changes and not be too insulted at the animals smell.
*
As a preventive measure in your septic system without chemicals, use the following. Take two cups of brown sugar, one tablespoon of bakers yeast and five cups of warm water. Stir until dissolved, pour into toilet and flush. Wait a half hour before flushing again to give it a chance to work. This should prevent clogs. This and the litter box tip taken from “Cheaper And Better” by Nancy Birnes.
END
Stay tuned Sunday for a guest article, buy my crap today http://www.bisonpress.com/

MUD

M.U.D.
Mobile Urban Domicile. Thanks to several loyal minions for the idea here. Of course, as usual, I’ve taken a perfectly sensible idea and mutated into my twisted version of reality. But that is what you pay me for. As an aside, if any of you ever have any problem with my name for my beloved readers, just consider that loyal listeners of a syndicated radio show are referred to as maggots. I only wish I could insult you as much as they do. It’s the Rob, Arnie and Dawn Show. If you Google it they have a Web page. Hilarious show. Anyway, back to the real world of extreme paranoia and excessive doom and gloom. For those of you sitting in White Bread Suburbia all panicked and looking around with a deer in the headlight expression, I now offer hope. If you are chained to the house and the 2.5 kids and a daily commute and working for a corporation that is looking to replace your job with a button ( and you civil servants better be worried also-expect layoffs with revenue declines, medical costs used as an excuse, Halliburton goons hired as replacements, then national health care is introduced, Halliburton costs go up, contracts locked in and you are living under the freeway ), salvation is at hand.
*
Call up grandma and grandpa and give them a sob story. Don’t tell them you are going to save money and live in a trailer on some junk land and stockpile grain and beans. I can just hear it now. Grandpa will start in on the Old Man Martyr Story. “When I was a young man I walked barefoot to school through the snow, uphill both ways. We had a one room school house. Pa strapped me to the plow since we didn’t have a mule. Had to stop my schooling when I was four years old so I could help in the tobaccee patch. All you spoiled young whippersnappers today with your fancy walkie-talkies and computing machines spending all your time on the InterWeb. You don’t know what hard times are. We need another great man in charge, another Roos-e-velt. Ol’ FDR, he was our savior, I’d crawl through broken glass to kiss his lily white liver spotted ass. Democrats, that’s the ticket. Saved our nation from Hitler. He was about to invade us, you know. Had legions of Jews, ready to storm the New Jersey beaches…”. And it would just get worse from there.
*
Tell them the house is being foreclosed on ( it will be soon enough when you mail the keys in ) and could they please take the kids for the summer. This is the perfect time, the curtain climbers were just released on parole. You and the ball and chain are going to live in the van for three months and save all your money so you can buy a used mobile home. Tell the wife that too. After it’s too late, when it’s paid for, show her the used travel trailer on junk land three hours drive away. Sweeten the pot when you tell her the van is the master bedroom, that should thrill her. Hopefully the grandparents are living far enough away they won’t invite you to live with them. If they are too close, you’ll need a good excuse. Both of you work one and a half jobs. You’ll save twice as much and you stay out of the cramped van except for sleeping. Any off time stay at the city park in the shade. This is the best time of year for forced savings if you have no other options for preparing. Kids are away and you aren’t living in a car in winter.
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A great suggestion given was to stay in a hospital parking lot. It was also suggested you could find out a patients name and pretend to be a relative, hanging out in the waiting room, etc. That I would not recommend since hospitals are great for traumatic emergencies, but otherwise germ factories. I try to stay out of those places, stepping in one is like a seeping septic system. Chances are good you’re going to pick up something really gross. But the parking lot might be a good place to sleep at night. Of course, you want to find several locations and take turns parking there. No need to become a familiar face. If you get in before the boss, the work parking lot might be good. You know where the security cameras are. A friends driveway once a week. The Wal-Mart parking lot. You’ll get busted with an RV, but an SUV or a van should escape notice ( get your groove on during the day, a rocking vehicle will spoil the “customer parked” illusion ).
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I would hate to live out of my vehicle again. Hiding from narcs sucks. A metal box under the summer sun sucks. Peeing in a bottle sucks. But it is only temporary and you can save a whole lot of money. And it is a vacation away from the kids. Also, keep in mind trailer living for a family is not the extreme hardship most think. By giving each kid a tent as a room they can escape all but winter trailer living. A screened in porch doubles the living space. You can enclose in an outer skin and build in storage and small rooms for everyone ( a raised bed with a desk underneath and a small closet only needs a six by eight space ) and make it much more comfortable. You can later buy another cheap trailer and connect the two by another screened or enclosed porch and add more space. You don’t need a quarter of a million dollar mortgage to shelter the family, just a little imagination. And you don’t need many resources to get your land and trailer, just the willingness to sacrifice for one summer. Live in the car this summer, or do nothing and wait and live in it with the family for the rest of your life as the country devolves towards a Post Oil Dark Ages.
END
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oil and credit

OIL AND CREDIT
The price of gasoline didn’t even have the decency to pause for a breather after hitting $4 a gallon before it increased another few percent in price. Why? We are paying for gasoline refined from $90 a barrel oil. Five dollar gasoline is a no-brainer and $5.50-$6 is going to be normal if all oil does is stay at $125-$140 a barrel. We can sit around the corner store woodstove in our rocking chairs, spitting tabacee and cussin and debate all day long the point where oil prices tank the economy. Who knows? But I don’t think we can debate the effects rising prices have had already. And this is just the beginning. Already, at $90 a barrel oil, automobile plants are closing, airlines are merging or going bankrupt, suburban real estate is doing worse, consumer driving declines are edging towards five percent. We are at the beginning of the public being effected by global peak oil production. Not the end of oil, but almost as bad. The end of cheap and abundant oil.
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All this pain at the pump, at the supermarket, in farmers fields is not yet as bad as it is going to get. At current oil prices it will get at least fifty percent worse. Our entire economy is built on cheap oil. Our economy is entering its death spiral. Retail is going to be effected. Big time. We have a tremendous over saturation of retail business. As customers cut back even more on purchases, more retail failures will be seen. And that is just from trying to fill up the gas tank ( well, that and the home equity ATM out of order ). Start adding in inflation as the Fed will save the banks regardless of the costs. Now add in the credit crunch going on for the last year with no end in sight. The banks, with just a few derivative market upsets, are in full panic mode ( remember in the ‘90‘s-Orange County bankruptcy and LTCB bankruptcy were derivative market failures which was papered over and this time around I can’t see what wallpaper we could use ) . They can’t risk any more defaulting loans as they face a liquidity problem so credit is scaled back. No more easy credit for anyone. The last decade or two has seen the business model of borrowing to build business become dominant. Now that is in danger. Credit is drying up, so business will stagnate or fall.
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Retail is 70% of our economy. It is starting to see trouble. Nothing could be more obvious, and from just one example. Look at Taco Bell. They are starting to push 79, 89 and 99 cent items. As food costs are going up they are cutting back on prices. Every store has huge window signs on these new prices and we are being subjected to asinine irritating commercials of slacker rapper dudes singing at the drive in window. Taco Bell has always had good food, at least in my opinion. The price has been about in the middle of the fast food price range. They never built up too closely to compete with each other like Subway or McDonald’s did. Yet they are in trouble. If Taco Bell is in trouble I can’t imagine the rest of them too far behind. And not just fast food. Almost all retail businesses were running on artificial demand. They were eating off cheap oil just like everyone else. Where are any of us going to find jobs if retail gets into serious trouble? Construction is already toast. Government can only grow on the Federal level, county and state will shrink with property values falling. The Feds can’t put all of us to work.
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Expect the whole country to start resembling Michigan economically. It won’t be immediate, at least as long as federal money keeps flowing. Or more accurately, until too much money starts flowing from them. Until we reach Zimbabwe inflation. It’s already happened here, the Continental after the Revolutionary War and in the South after the War Of Northern Aggression ( but we still love you, Rangerman ). And that was before our wonderful Federal Reserve took over. Oh, they’ve shown admirable restraint, only screwing us a few percent a year on average. Not that that will last as their survival is endangered.
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You never see a society collapse from a single cause, other than war. We are facing economic problems, energy problems, weather problems, resource depletion problems, etc. We are just seeing the pain only now becoming plain. Enjoy the ride.
END
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store what you eat

STORE WHAT YOU EAT
We have covered this before. Every Joe Blow survival writer and his brother has covered this before. Only store the foods in your apocalypse stockpile that you eat normally. People do not eat MRE’s or freeze dried foods regularly. The MRE is easy enough to get used to since the protein and fat content borders a super sized McGreasey meal. But believe me, they get real old real quick. The lack of fiber ( they will bind you up in a hurry ) and live enzymes really are telling in very short order. We won’t even go into overprice issues. Just leave it at the unfamiliarity. Even canned foods may not be what you normally eat. I eat tuna, refried beans and fruit from cans, occasionally chili and baked beans and very little else. I would not be very happy with a diet of canned goods ( and again, there is the cost issue ).
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There is a lot to be said for not being too picky with a post collapse menu. After all, we should be happier than pigs in slop that we are eating at all. But knowing something intellectually and being able to overcome your body chemistry are too different things. Guys, take sex. You know you can live without it. You know we pay a very high price for it. Yet we allow the need for it to rule most of our lives. It doesn’t matter how many times we tell ourselves we need to overcome the urge, we still do stupid things because of it. Even when you are telling yourself what you are doing is stupid, you do it anyway. A very mild case would be buying the wife roses and dinner after a fight. Yes, you want to live with the love of your life in perfect harmony and you feel bad and you love her super duper like and wish we could all just get along in our sunshine and lollipop universe. Plus, you really want to get laid soon.
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One of the first reactions to stress is going to be a decrease in appetite. Let’s say that legions of zombie bikers are encircling your compound ( it would be called a house normally but nowadays if you have more than a pellet gun in the house and aren’t a Hillary supporter it is considered a armed compound with terrorists inside ). Fight or flight kicks in and the last thing on your mind is breaking out the cast iron skillet for some fried potatoes. Once the fear subsides your appetite is going to remain slightly fragile. Especially if you introduce weird food into your diet. Now, I have never been attacked by legions of biker zombies but I have encountered plenty of stressful situations, as have we all. Such as moving. Relationship problems. Problems at work. You get the idea. So it really should be a rule you don’t break. Only store what you eat normally. However.
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I think most people also assume they need to duplicate their menu as far as possible. If they choose cans, they buy as close as possible to a regular meal. Canned meat, canned fruit, canned vegetables. Canned dry potatoes. Same with freeze dried. Duplicate the meal as close as possible. Herein lies the problem. Either the cost will be too high or you won’t store enough because of a tight budget. I would advise you that you should only store a few items that you normally eat. Not the entire menu. Wheat, beans, fat and perhaps milk. Not canned meat or vegetables or fruits. Get most of your protein from combining the wheat and beans, get your vitamins from sprouts. Of course you want some of the regular foods. I am not a herbivore. I crave meat. But it is important to have enough food in stock. So I stored up wheat before I bought any canned meat. I didn’t even start stockpiling beans until my wheat supply was secure. Yes, it is far from ideal, but to my thinking a lot of sub par is better than a little of perfect. I’m far more concerned with beans than meat. Canned meat buys are few and far between. A luxury. I understand it is not my normal dinner. But wheat and beans are normal in my overall diet. Right now I eat wheat for breakfast and lunch. I’ll miss meat but my body will be used to wheat when I start eating it for dinner. I love refried beans so legumes will not be a shock to eat every day. Not perfect, not ideal. But cheap and food I’m used to eating.
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Don’t duplicate your present menu. It is based on cheap petroleum and most likely will not be normal for you the rest of your life. Rather, start eating more beans and grains and make them the bulk of your storage food. I agree with others that a little bit of meat is so much better than none at all, even when combining beans and grains. My body notices the difference from just a few ounces of meat added in. Normal people crave and need meat. My point is that it will become more of a luxury than you will care for. Food prices are increasing double digits yearly now. You don’t have the resources to stockpile what you want, only the bare minimum you need. Slowly move your diet towards more plant food, and stock them. After you have a full pantry, then add your luxuries. Don’t panic because you think it will cost a grand per family member in storage food. Instead, stockpile the cheaper basics as you move your everyday diet in that direction also.
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My apologies for this broken record. A lot is lack of fresh material, a lot is my very bad feeling about future food prices and/or availability. Far better to panic now and cheaply stock up on food, then when one is comfortable to add the expensive items. The alternative is being unable to stockpile latter, even on the once cheap beans and grains. Global food stockpiles are down so far there is almost no wiggle room. You should be able to get by on procrastinating certain purchases such as land or gas guzzling RV’s. Prices on those most likely will fall. I don’t think food should be one of those things. I can’t see food prices falling.
END
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tent city gestapo

TENT CITY GESTAPO
Being homeless has of course always sucked. There are a few places such as the beaches in Hawaii or Florida that being footloose and fancy free are nice for awhile. Until the Homeland goose steppers start harassing you. “Vhat are you doingk on public land, citizen?” It could be a lot worse, you could be homeless over in Iraq. Here’s a widow with kids squatting in an old torn up government building and the army is harassing her to get out. Because you know, there are always militiamen supported by Saudi Arabia or Iran that don’t have enough cash left over from the latest arms purchase to pay the $3 a month rent the old shanty costs. Obviously they could only be squatters. So get that old broad and her brood out of there so she can’t aid the enemy. The Department Of American Stoolie Militia kick the family out, and the Department Of A Crapload Of Homeless After Being Bombed can’t help them relocate because the first department didn’t notify them officially.
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Being homeless and a loser and belonging to the dregs of society also sucks. You complain about not finding a job after going to interviews with unwashed uncombed hair crawling with vermin, holes in your tennis shoes and unshaven. Yes, of course we are all out to get you. So you stand on a street corner and hold a sign and the idiot Yuppies feel guilty for their undeserved wealth from holding down a government job that pays five times the private sector wages and donate money to you. So you get three others guys together and rent a hotel room for two hundred bucks a week. But panhandling just doesn’t bring in enough to pay fifty bucks a week rent, plus all the crack that you need. So you quit the hotel and become homeless. Now all your cash can go towards drugs. But now you are much more of a social nuisance than before. It used to be if someone tossed a dollar bill in your hat you would leave them alone. But now you are irritating the normal people by sleeping on the sidewalk or park bench. You are gross, unwashed, psychotic and intimidating.
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The government them spends millions of dollars building an ultra-modern homeless shelter. They are staffed with overpaid Yuppie scum, pulling down civil servant pay and being promised free medical care ( are they in for a surprise when Obama’s Universal Health Care Plan Funded By Hyper-inflation goes into effect and the well off start getting the substandard health care the rest of us are now receiving at the ER ) and a 75% full pay pension paid for by a shrinking property tax. And the shelter only houses a few dozen at a time. It would have been cheaper just to give each homeless guy a foreclosed house. But the homeless want to bring their pets into the shelter, plus smoke their crack. They are not allowed to so they choose to stay out of the shelter. A tent city forms. On city land. The city fathers get a collective knot in their panties and blow the problem way out of proportion. At first they do the sensible thing and set up a few porti-potties and some picnic tables and increase police patrols. But that lasts less than a week.
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Someone must have realized that allowing a semi-free self-regulated assembly of homeless people to exist endangered the very concept of big government and an encroaching police state. So controls were quickly proposed. Everyone must register with the city. They have two weeks to prove they are looking for work or public assistance. Otherwise they get kicked out. Yet the city shelter is still unopened due to a budget shortfall of another few million dollars. So what is a crackhead to do? They won’t stick around for Big Brother to regulate their existence, they will just find another squat spot. So instead of all the idiots in one spot where they can be watched and stay out of the way of the regular taxpayers, they will be scattered all over the city.
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Look, you are an idiot to be homeless in a northern city. You can actually die in the winter. And these people are losers. That is not the point. The point is that the government will spend millions when it can rather than hundreds ( a few police patrols and servicing a portable toilet would cost next to nothing- why build a shelter when the beneficiaries prefer being on their own anyway? ). More importantly, it shows the level of harassment you can expect if you become homeless. Have a better plan than squatting or living on public land in a tent or parking your car on public streets and living out of that. Right now the government just wants you to join the welfare state instead of being free, in the future it could be a lot worse such as work prisons or concentration camps. The homeless didn’t fare too well during the last mass unemployment ( vagrant laws, etc ). Don’t expect any different the next time around. I’m sure a few places are more tolerant than Reno, Nevada. But it’s a heck of a gamble for you to take.
END
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cheap eats

CHEAP EATS
According to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, a ten percent gain in energy costs translates into a five percent increase in retail food prices. Now, this is a neat thing to know so you can calculate how much your groceries are going to increase after the markets close each trading day and the oil price has once again shot up. Thank you, Fed Bank branch. Remember when the Dallas Fed Bank helped us out with those nifty inflation calculations using labor hours rather than dollars ( you‘d have to be one of my original loyal minions to remember me covering that one )? It made us feel all warm and fuzzy since seventy years ago less oil was substituted for labor so prices reflected true costs rather than oil subsidized cost, hence the current illusion of cheaper consumer prices ( this report was the late nineties or there about ). It seems that after helping to rape the American economy for trillions a year there is actually a little bit of cash left over each year for the various bank branches to do these kinds of public service studies. And you thought the bankers were selfish.
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If we assume forever rising oil prices ( 10-15% inflation per year, Peak Oil, increased oil producer nation home market usage, market speculation- but don’t worry, it’s all a hoax and oil should be falling back down to $10 a barrel any minute now ) we can naturally assume grocery prices will also increase. And this doesn’t even factor in increased weather worries ( too much/too little water, etc ) or diseases increases such as UG99 wheat rust, or increased ethanol production, etc. Increasing food prices are pretty much a slam dunk sure thing. So it would behoove you to eat as cheaply as possible. The standard advice is to cut back on meat and eat more carbohydrates. Use meat as a condiment rather than a large portion of your meal. Use whole grains and beans for your main calorie source. Let me show you a typical day in my diet to give you an example of how cheap you can eat. And I’m talking about calories for a hard working adult male. Well, okay, this was my typical diet a few years ago when I was a lot poorer and worked at a much more labor intense job. Now I only eat about half to two thirds the calories. But this will give you a good idea of the most you will likely spend.
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The following foods have roughly 500 calories each. One cup whole wheat flour. Two large potatoes. One half pound of beef brisket. One half stick of butter. If you eat three portions of whole wheat and one each of the others you will get three thousand calories a day. The cost will be slightly over $2 a day, once you include some alfalfa sprouts for your greens. My usual menu was to eat the wheat for the first two meals of the day, waffles or pancakes for breakfast and flat bread for lunch. This gave me the energy and stamina to get through work ( continual moving/lifting heavy boxes of product all shift ). Dinner was meat and potatoes. My current menu is about the same, but with half the whole wheat. The costs are as follows. Whole wheat flour can be ground yourself, but for immediate consumption it is convenient to get the store bought flour. About forty cents a pound, or ten cents a cup. Three cups a day is 1500 calories and only thirty cents. Potatoes are a great food for vitamins and even at high cost are about twenty cents for a large one. Beef brisket is far from the best tasting but it only costs $1.75 a pound bought in bulk. Butter has shot up in price but even at over $3 a pound your daily portion is still only forty cents. Another forty cents for an ounce of store bought sprouts. $2.30 a day for a high calorie diet.
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If you only needed two thousand calories a day you could halve the meat and butter and cut back on the wheat by a third. One thousand calories from wheat, twenty cents. Two potatoes, 500 calories, forty cents. One quarter pound beef, 250 calories, forty cents. One quarter stick butter, 250 calories, twenty cents. Sprouts, forty cents. Total cost, $1.60 a day. You could bring that under $1.50 by sprouting the seeds yourself. Keep the costs down by the cut in butter and meat, then if you need the extra calories add another 500 for ten cents with another cup of wheat. This doesn’t factor in cooking costs, but there are easy ways to cut back on that also. Microwave, crock pot. Solar cooker or thermos cooker.
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You have sufficient calories, protein, fat and vitamins. You could live on a lot less in an emergency, this assumes an active lifestyle/job with a functioning marketplace. It’s about eating cheap now, not after a collapse or emergency. I didn’t include beans. The diet is sufficient in fiber and protein as it is. But if you factor them in it’s about thirty cents a cup for 600 calories. Two and a half cups per pound.
END
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lions and tigers and cans

LIONS AND TIGERS AND CANS
A tornado hit Kansas and spooked a couple of elephants. They naturally didn’t like the thought of getting hit by wind blown debris and took off. The idiots keeping them in captivity were standing in front of plate glass windows looking at the funnel cloud, or driving after it with a video camera trying to get nominated for the Darwin Award. But these two elephants decided that they weren’t playing around and took off. A bit smarter than the humans around them. Well, they capture one after it exhausts itself and the other is tranquilized. A much better ending than the Crazed Honolulu Elephant Episode. Which brings up today’s article. Wild animals after a collapse. A loyal minion suggested the topic and I let it simmer until I saw the tornado headlines. Let’s say that the Halliburton Flu is introduced by Cheney after he fails to secure the next VP nomination. McCain is so old and senile that he forgets about the little hunting trip Cheney was on when he decided to send a clear message to his enemies, “this time its 20 gauge birdshot, the next time it’s a nuclear tipped Scud.” So McCain forgets to check in with the team with their hand up Bush’s butt, controlling their puppet. Oops! Time to cancel the elections by spreading a pandemic.
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As zoo personnel either fail to show up for work, projectile vomiting chunky blood on to the far wall, or die on the job as PETA teams send in infected toddlers to knock off the workers so their animal brethren can be freed, a lot of dangerous animals are going to be let out. Before long, stray dogs are going to start disappearing. The cats will be up on roofs or in trees, somewhat safe but the slew of breeding altered dogs that are two feet tall with one inch legs or pushed in nostrils allowing almost no oxygen intake are going to be easy prey. Then, after the dogs are all gone ( there will be packs still around but one imagines the weaker members on the edges will be picked off ) humans will be next. Here you go, slinking down the street with a hidden 9mm. You are weak from reduced food rations and only have a poodle shooter with you. Hope you survive the encounter with that lion.
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Zoo survivors will not last long, of course. They will either turn into stew meat or be hunted down in self defense. A fun Saturday project will be to get the village together and go hunting dangerous animals. Or seasonal change without an artificial environment will kill them off. Next up besides feral dogs you might see wild animals come in from the wilderness. Go-it-alone survivalists up in their cabins will shoot off all their ammunition twenty eight rounds at a time from their Mattel Plastic carbines when they are running off evil zombies and have no ammunition left when a bear comes sniffing around. In desperation they try a Molotov cocktail but being nervous the glass jar is dropped and the cabin burns down. The bear eats the hermit who is now well done and gets a taste for the other white meat. So every spring after hibernation the bears and the dingo’s come down to the village and carry off babies. Offensive hunting expeditions begin. Heck, make a sport of it. You can be like those crazy fools back in California before gold was found and make grizzly hunting the semi-official State sport. Bringing with them that whole macho contest thing, the Spanish settlers would boast about their testicle size and go racing off after bears. Put on a whole show for the village babes.
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Next up we have canned foods. Canned foods are a great idea. You like the taste and they are easily collectable. Each shopping trip, one for now, one for the stash ( rotated of course ). However, they should only be a suppliment, not an entire emergency diet. You still need to make the bulk of your food grains and beans. Otherwise the food is way too expensive and you can’t store enough. And it will never be enough, the way things are going. You need to strive for years of supplies, not weeks or months. If you meander over to a new survival blog, http://beasurvivor.blogspot.com you can go to the “older posts” page and read an article on stockpiling food. The author calls the grain/bean/powdered milk diet the “crazy survivalists diet”. I like the ring of that. And it is true if you are a short term prepper. No need to eat weird food. No arguments on that score. My point is simply that, if you are concerned with disruptions lasting more than a week or four you need a lot more food than cans will provide. You need bulk grains and beans. And the only way to make that a realistic choice is to train yourself on those foods.
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Start out small. Eat breakfasts of pancakes or waffles with half white flour and half whole wheat. No need to buy kernels and a grinder just yet. Wal-Mart sells bags of 100% whole wheat flour. Take it for a test drive. Build up to all whole grain items, such as the yummy flat bread I just wrote about. For beans, instead of all hamburger in your taco’s or burritoes make it half meat and half refried beans from a can. Later, add rice in to that while cutting down on the meat ( in the burrito, rice in a taco sounds nasty ). You can graduate up to making your own refers from dry beans. Try rice in more ways than boiled, such as grinding into a flour and adding to wheat flour in bread products. There is no need to radically change your menu, flour is central to our diets. And by training your digestive system beforehand there is no shock to your gut. No sudden blow-outs that deplete your toilet paper stock suddenly. And switching over to more beans and less meat and whole grain as one of your meals you save money now.
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And speaking of new survival blogs, a whole slew of them.
http://teotwawkiaiff.blogspot.com
http://scoutinlife.blogspot.com
http://teotwawkian.blogspot.com
http://blog.linnabary.net
http://destinysurvival.com
http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com mostly just financial doom/gloom but cool.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few good blogs. If you have one, try to e-mail me at jimd303@netzero.com . You can leave it at the comments section also, but sometimes I tend to forget about those.
END
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