ONE SECOND AFTER & ACREAGE DOWN
I could have spent Sunday going to church but I'm not the religious type ( although me and Baby Jesus have an understanding ). I could have helped others throw a egg and basket type event for kids, but I have little appreciation for any children other than my own. I could have gone out to eat at a cheap buffet at one of the casinos, but I'm too cheap for that and was content eating a can of sardines on crackers and a half loaf of bread with butter. I couldn't take time out for cooking or anything else since I was busy reading One Second After by William R Forstchen. This was the main event of the day and I was quite happy with it. This was seriously one great read. A bit expensive at about $2.50 an hour, but this was one of life's treats.
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I'm not going to tell you a whole lot about the story. I don't think it would detract much from it, but since you are paying for a hardback you need all the enjoyment you can get from your purchase. Before Amazon.com came along ( and honest, I'm not getting paid to plug them ) I never bought a hard back fiction book. $25? No friggin way. For non-fiction, okay, no problem. But for a story? Very rare I would even buy a new paperback, let alone a hard back. But at almost half the previous price I can indulge every once in awhile. Still, $15-$18 is nothing to sneeze at for fiction. But I will tell you this. You are not buying an education, only entertainment. You won't learn anything survival preparation wise from reading this. However, this is one of the best stories I can remember reading describing the whole process of a community going through a disaster. The process of die-off. The main story line involves medical problems from the grid being down, lack of machines for the sick as well as the just in time drug supply inventory system causing instant shortages. Luckily, the medical aspect of it is not the only thing, plenty of other problems and processes are discussed. You don't feel like this is a Robin Cook book. Very well written, very believable. I would highly recommend this as a recruiting tool for non believers.
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On to more happy food supply news. The USDA has reported a decrease of seven million acres planted. They didn't give a percentage amount, other than winter wheat being down seven percent. But even if a small percentage, seven million acres is nothing to sneeze at. I've already shouted from the rooftops about the global drought and the credit contraction sure to put a squeeze on farmers, but you just ignore me and buy another case of MRE's. It doesn't matter if this latest news item has serious consequences or not. It most likely will jack up retail food prices if nothing else. But the more important point is that we are headed for a collision course with dwindling energy supplies. Over at Rawles one of the articles stated that our fertilizer supplies were in jeopardy because of our 60% dependence on imported oil. Another letter said it was no problem since we import almost no natural gas ( the original article implied the oil was the source ). Both were wrong, since we have seen over fifty percent of the plants that turn out the nitrogen fertilizer go overseas for lower costs. Now, of course that figure is not current. This was after Katrina. I don't know if any have moved the processing back here. But enough of our fertilizer is manufactured overseas that it does present a vulnerability ( unless my figures are hopelessly outdated ).
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Again, I'm going to throw my situation in your face. Since wife #4 has left, I've accumulated five hundred pounds of corn, among other foods. Most weeks I only spent $11. I'm not saying one grain is sufficient for a diet. But it is a cheap backbone to an emergency diet. Don't dwaddle on buying your bulk grains. Even if the current "crisis" comes to nothing, others are waiting to take its place. Hyperinflation for one. Damn Pringles just went up fifty percent at Wally World. Damn thieving bastards. I won't be eating any more of those. Okay, that's not exactly hyperinflation, but it does seem food just keeps increasing. Don't wait for food to become the new ammo and be priced out of your budget.
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Buy my crap http://www.bisonpress.com/
Thanks for the heads up on Friday's article. I changed the bow diameter to length. My bad.
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14 comments:
I second the recommendation for One Second After, a good story. The main character was a little light on what he mentioned about their food stores (not much of a prepper apparently), and I like how the community handled the food distribution-rationing-nationalization qestion. So many of these stories have a deus ex machina ending, but this ending did not stretch credulity.
Well I see we have the same taste in foods, though probably not in women by the looks of things...
Be that as it may, you are dead on about food - get it and store it while you can.
Two things. I believe the word is dawdle, and "HOW THE HECK CAN YOU EAT THOSE DISGUSTING PRE-FAB PRINGLES POTATO SNACKS?" The very worst potato chips (pick from any national brand) is so very much tastier and at the local discount grocery always cheap.
Pringles have a shelf life of 15 months from date of manufacture. If James buys Pringles, maybe it is for intermediate storage food.
Regards to:
> If James buys Pringles, maybe it is for intermediate storage food.
NOT is Dakin EATS THEM ALL! That aint food storage. That's food eatage. That fat slob must eat up all the good stuff.
Storing food is good idea. What are you going to do when your food supplies run out ?
All hardcore survivalists store Doritos.You guys are all wannabies.
Anon 4:30, food storage is to get you through the die-off (trolls first), the first winter and until you can grow and hunt enough to live off of. you do have heirloom seeds, right?
I have a list very long at my library waiting for books dakin recommended, Wish they would catch up.
If the dude refuting the original organic farming letter got any more angry he would have exploded...
Old Fart
Anon 4:30 PM
Old Fart is right,get heirloom seeds.Get your hands dirty ,start a garden today.Hobby gardening isn't the same as growing your own food for survival.Get some experience right now,you will make mistakes.You might want to consider getting some rabbits and chickens too. The sooner you start the better.
just found on your site pics of your fifth wheel and setup, excellant, is this your current setup??
Hey Jim. Great blog. Great shout out to James Wesley, Rawles. I always wondered why the comma between the middle and last name? Anyway, I consider myself a "yuppie survivalist" and I've got the M4gery to prove it. The new edition of the book just has some 2008-ish language to explain the collapse and changes some of the dates. I bought it anyway. Why not, since I'm a "yuppie survivalist" and I bought 10K worth of "Mountain House" freeze dried food cause I can't stand the thought of having to grind my own wheat. I'd rather just eat can after can of chocolate pudding, and look like that kid on Sesame Street that got the chocolate all over himself eating it right out of the bowl. Cheers bro.
to 4:30 PM and all,
I have often wondered that myself. What would I do when the stored food runs out? Obviously, there's not a simple answer.
I am, this summer, going to experiment with planting buckwheat and rye in some unmowed areas along roads and in some meadows in some hardwood forests around here. Also, my "arsenal" is mostly just some pellet guns with which I wish to hunt rabbits. Raising rabbits would probably be a better idea. The rabbits are one of the cheapest animals to raise and give a lot of meat when fed low-grade vegetable matter (think grass). Chickens are a good idea, too, but rabbits tend to be quieter.
However, it's not really out-right, sudden social collapse that I am mostly worried about. What I really worry about is a gradual or sudden slide into abject poverty without being prepared to live that way.
I feel it's almost impossible to predict exactly how fast collapse for the general society will be. For an individual, a sudden lost of job, family connections, etc. can be catastrophic and maybe sudden. I suppose the idea of a die-off is not that implausible. However, post die-off living would probably be extremely hard and dangerous rather thatn simpler because of the die-off. Most likely, life belongs to those who are willing to work harder, and to those who are willing to put up with the suffering and get beyond the many defeats and challenges of survival.
The decline in planted acreage should not be a surprise after two years of massive corn planting for ethanol. Also, commodity prices have dropped like a rock since last year - the incentive to plant all those high dollar crops is not there this year, or at least not over the fall/spring when winter crops went in. A better indicator I think would be the numbers that come in on summer/fall planting.
Great book, I've read some other material that suggests that an EMP wouldn't be as devastating as the author claims, but it would be damn annoying to down right deadly to many. There are some government studies that suggest recovery would actually be 3 to 6 months, but there would probably rampant disease and breakdowns in the food chain as pointed out by the author. The reality is most do not have more then a couple weeks food storage, and imagine what would happen if you even had to wait 90 days. I also think that small mountain towns become much more attractive, sure wouldn't want to be in a city during this type of disaster.
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