books

BOOKS
Good God Almighty! Reading the comments section the last week was painful. It seemed that as soon as I gave a logical argument for Peak Oil ( which was a potential disaster I was a Johnny-come-lately to and has been portrayed much better by many others ) the troll section sent out recruiters to gather as many disgruntled readers as possible to band together in blaming me. I'm just reporting it, not causing it. But Yuppie Scum and followers who will condemn as many citizens as necessary to death in the vain hope of not having to suffer any fall in their standard of living can not hear the truth. It is far too painful. So they attack me personally rather than the argument since they know that is sound. But let's try to discredit the author. Rancid puke ingrates. That's okay, I see an upsurge in readers, they read the truth that frugal survival is about sacrifice instead of clipping coupons, they leave and my numbers go back down to my core of loyal minions. I don't need people to agree with me. I prefer when any of my errors are reported ( speaking of which, belatedly, thanks for pointing out my idiocy naming Muslims as enemies of Rome. I amended my book to read eastern empires ). The comments section is to add to my information or to correct misinformation. I won't keep the idiots from posting jokes or lies about me, for reasons already mentioned. Just be warned that you will get weeks like this one.
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For lack of much else to talk about today, here are a few books I've read recently from the library. I go through two or three a week but these were the more notable ones. "The Rising Sun" by Douglas Galbraith. A first time Scottish author. This is based on the true account of the Scottish expedition to Panama, to set up a colony. The plan was to build a road from sea to sea, and charge to have freight transported across land. One ship would drop off goods, they were carted overland and another ship would pick them up. This would have avoided the need to sail around South America, saving much time and cutting down on the number of lost ships. The book is written as fiction but is based on the expeditions quartermasters journal. It covers the time in Scotland raising money, the trip there, the time spent in Panama and the return home after most colonists had died of disease. It is dense print and five hundred pages. Who would have thought he could have stretched it out so far, but the author does and rather well. The book reads so you feel pretty close to events. He doesn't write with present day prejudices. A neat trick. It isn't exactly a old world trade instruction manual, lacking details. But it touches on a lot of them and you do get a feel for it. If you have the time, an enjoyable read.
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"Artic Homestead" by Norma Cobb was written by the last woman to file for a homestead grant up in Alaska ( during the 1970's ). It was quite a remarkable journal with the kids and husband to establish their home and a guide business. All the trials and tribulations. Again, not exactly an instruction manual. More like an inspirational tale. It might get you thinking what can be accomplished with little more than stubbornness and perseverance. You couldn't give me land and a job in Alaska. I have nothing but respect for those making a go of it outside the city there, but I couldn't deal with that kind of winter. I'd rather try to survive in the desert with five inches of rain a year after another mega-drought has started ( which might already be the case out West here ). But we all have different goals and desires. To each his own.
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"The Kingdom Of Fear" by Hunter S Thompson. I love this guy. The original gonzo journalist. If it wasn't for Hunter, most authors would still be writing in dry, inoffensive journalistic style. By blazing the pathway, he made it much more interesting to both write and to be a reader. I give Thompson his due. The first, the original, the trailblazer. That said, this book pointed out something I'd failed to see before. Hunter hated the system, but he was part of it. Which is why he was allowed to keep stirring the pot of crap. He points out the many failings, but ultimately is satisfied when justice prevails. He is only blaming the individuals for misconduct. Not the system itself. Perhaps I'm full of crap. Analyzing too much into things. Making a mountain out of a molehill. I hope so. No one likes to see the feet of clay. An interesting read. Some parts are too slow and deserve to be skipped, others are the full on Hunter we know and love, reporting on the lovable adventures of dope fiends on far too many pharmaceuticals, being armed and behind the wheel.
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That's it for today. I'll try to be more earth shaking on Monday. In the meantime, try to adjust your sense of humor. I try to pick on everyone including myself. Lighten up and enjoy the ride. We are all going to Hell in a hand basket on a rocket ship. Take the time to enjoy the scenery. You might as well have fun observing the decline of the Oil Age. And I'll work on getting pictures. Not because I need to prove anything ( the trolls will merely claim I drove to a nearby spot from the trailer park for pictures, or took pictures of a friends place ) but because I've been meaning to for some time. Sorry if I don't have a digital camera or a cell phone to snap pics. Not all of us spend money on such things.
END

grid blues

GRID BLUES
In moments of weakness when I think that there might be places better than Nevada ( even though I know better ) I might dream about locations such as Kentucky. Perhaps not that state in particular, too much Yankee contamination ( I don't hate you personally but you have to admit that after you won the War Of Northern Aggression things went to hell within fifty years- states rights triumphant would never have allowed the Federal Reserve to be created so that the US dollar would lose 99% of its value in less than a century and the entire global economy would be sucked down with that currency, so thanks whole big bunches you bastards ). And certainly not now that the state is without power for the next two weeks. In Florida when a hurricane knocked out the power, two weeks was just an inconvenience. Well, assuming you had a basic stockpile and weren't like certain ghetto areas whose inhabitants can be traced back to Obammy's birthplace of A Certain Continent That Dare Not Speak Its Name Upon Punishment Of Reeducation Camps who are so ignorant they can't figure out a used 40 ounce beer bottle can also store drinking water and so the first day of power down they line up for increased welfare water.
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Okay, so even though Kentucky is shot through with rot from Yankee influence, I still feel for the poor slobs there living out of their dark and frigid McMansions. What a crappy time to be without power. Am I the only one who gets that feeling that we have been living through the early signs of energy infrastructure break down and it is not some soon to occur future event but already passed into history? Kind of like Peak Oil. Is it past time to admit the system is in eminent danger of not coming back on one day, turning into a Third World grid whose only reliable feature is how unreliable it is? Should you go beyond a two week power outage plan to a more permanent grid down forever plan?
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I miss the power grid. It was so economical to run electrical power. You could watch TV all day and play on the computer all night and the power bill would be equivalent to a half hours minimum wage for the month. You could have 24/7 heat for $30 a month ( okay, not huge amounts of heat, but enough for a trailer ). Coming close to 1% of electrical usage off grid cost a hundred times as much. Yet, the cheap price of grid power is now showing up as much more expensive than thought. Our near total dependence is proving life threatening. As the population of this country explodes rapidly ( thirty years to increase 15%, now 1% a year, roughly ) NIMBY and imported fuel shortages and lack of credit for building mean the population is outpacing power generation. The grid is being overloaded and failing. On top of the decades of neglect as corporate assmunches neglected maintenance in favor of quarterly profits. On top of whatever the lawyers sucked out through litigation. And this is before electrical usage is increased when natural gas becomes scarce or heating oil becomes dear.
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Like everything else in our country, multiple problems combine to provide "hundred year" storms. The perfect storm. Negatives feeding on each other. For now, I'm glad I'm off grid. I am not energy independent, needing propane. But stocking up for the winter beforehand does have a certain calming effect. But at least I don't have one extra worry, that of the power failing. I can already hear one of my trolls, lurching out of his hibernation, bellowing how I'm a loser for living in a trailer and staying cold all winter and how he's making millions working hard and living the good life and driving an SUV while I peddle to work, blah, blah. Your choice, live dependant on the system. I'll live in genteel poverty and insulate myself from at least some of the dangers of the system.
END
Warning! Buy My Crap Or Karma Might Take A Big Smelly Dump On You!!! www.bisonpress.com
Thanks for all the loyal minions who bought my Amazon Crap- I just cashed in a $30 credit!

prep rehash

PREP REHASH
In honor of all my new loyal minions, I'm going to rehash the basics for frugal prepping. I'm sure my long time readers could care less. I had originally planned on a rehash on bolt guns instead of semi's, sure to generate howls of protest from troll section. I'll include that here, just so I can slog through fifty friggin comments about what an idiot I am. That is sure to brighten my day and focus my disapproval.
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Every time I bring up the backbone of your survival diet being wheat, I get assorted complaints. Bland, boring, less nutritious. The basic frugal preparedness plan is a bare bones, better than nothing plan. It contains no bells or whistles. It is what will keep you alive if the world ends tomorrow. It is not meant to be purchased and then forgotten. Ideally, it will be added on to. If the ideal is not met, at least it will keep you alive. Survivalism is about surviving, not about continuing a modern luxury existence without interruption. Buy four hundred pounds of wheat kernels per person if you want a years worth of food. Go to the feed store and buy bags of whole wheat kernels. Not flour, not flakes. And not treated with any vet medicine. Then buy yourself a grain grinder. A corn mill. Google 'corn mill' or 'corn grinder', or go to the link for Amazon products at my web site www.bisonpress.com to buy a $25 grinder. It is a cast iron grinder. It will outlive you if not left in the rain. It is meant as a rough grinder. Not a fine flour grinder. So with wheat you start at a course grind, run it through, grind again a little finer. It takes three or four times through the grinder to get nice wheat flour. Shut up and do the extra work, it is cheaper than spending $300 for a fancy mill.
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The wheat should have a little diatamacous earth ( food grade, not pool grade ) sprinkled in it to control bugs ( also at my Amazon store ). Half a cup per five gallon bucket is good. You put in with the kernels and roll the sealed bucket around to distribute. Buy food grade buckets. Wal-Mart used to have them in the paint section. I wrote an article about, but damned if I can find it ( anyone? a little help here ). Wheat has the highest protein content of commercial grains, although it is not a complete protein like meat is. For that you need to supplement it with beans. If it is all you have, you will eventually suffer from lack of protein, assuming you can't kill some rabbits or something. Again, this is bare bones, better than nothing.
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You will need three five gallon buckets per hundred pounds of wheat. If bought new rather than used from the bakery or BBQ joint ( take them to the car wash and hot water pressure wash them if dried on food inside ) you will spend about $20 per hundred pounds on buckets. About $200 per person for four hundred pounds, wheat and buckets. A lot more expensive than it used to be. Failing all of the above, just get rice and beans at the market. Next up, for water. If you live in a wood abundant environment, just boil all your water. It doesn't have to be boiled, just brought to a boil. All the germs are killed by then. Everyone else needs to buy a ceramic filter. Buy a Berky replacement filter, about $50. To make your own Berky filter unit ( the one with the multiple stick looking filters in a big bucket ) take one poly bucket and drill a hole in the bottom the same size as the filter spout. Set it on top of another bucket with lid on and that lid also having a hole. Fill the top, it filters through to the bottom. Good for 10k gallons. You can quibble all day about plastic chemical leaching, thus needing to buy $10 food buckets and $300 stainless steel water filters, but this is in a calamity, total collapse situation. You'll be dead from warfare long before you might get cancer from plastic buckets.
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Now get yourself a rifle. Not a $1,500 battle rifle that take $20 magazines and sixty cent .308 ammo. A World War Two surplus bolt action rifle. They are dirt cheap and built like a tank. I like the Enfield, but the Russian 91/30 ( don't get the 44 carbine ) is three quarters of that price. I don't recommend the Russian gun, as it has no gas escape feature. But no one else, including long time users and reloaders, share my concern. Up to you. The Mauser family has much more accurate rifles than the Enfield ( the 303 is great for dirty field conditions but suffers in the accuracy department. The Mausers are accurate but jam with dirt ) and cost somewhere between the $150 Enfield and the $100 Russian. Now, you could buy an SKS for just $25 more than a Enfield, but I discourage semi's in all categories ( pistols, rimfires and rifles ). You can't assume a continuation of ammunition. And you are too poor to stockpile 20k rounds. Either Obammy taxes ammunition much more, supplies stay scarce, imports from Russia are outlawed, or after a collapse no more ammunition is produced. When poor, the only option is to use much less ammunition. Under the stress of combat, semi's are sprayed and prayed. With a bolt action you must be much more careful before you fire. Because you aren't covering yourself with a wall of lead and because it will take valuable seconds to reload. Ammunition is high tech. It won't last forever and must be conserved.
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Buy as much ammo as you can. Even a hundred bucks worth is going to be far better than nothing ( a pile of worthless paper dollars being saved for a future semi purchase is not as good as a surplus bolt gun with bayonet and three hundred rounds of thirty caliber ammunition ). So far, you've spent about five hundred bucks. You have protection with food and water. You need a lot more, such as shovels or saws or other tools, camping cookware, wool clothing and blankets, knives, etc. But this will get you far down the road towards a preparedness stockpile. Which is far better than 99% of the population.
END

poda ojt

PODA OJT
Thanks Lloyd. I got your snail mail donation. Now then. On the job training after our civilization is a smoldering ruins. See, I'm being optimistic. I'm assuming you'll survive long enough to need to retrain. And I would like to add this, should you ever be thinking about choosing the path of pessimism. If you assume the glass is half full and take it out in the desert, you'll die of thirst. If you looked at it as half empty you would have gotten some more. That's all I got to say about that. On the job training is, sometimes, less than ideal. Like when you can only learn about combat by going through the real thing. You can be trained to a high degree, but nothing compares to the real thing. No matter how many professional shooting classes you take or how much practice you get, you still must get that crucial bit of OJT. So no matter how much money you have, no matter how well positioned you are for social collapse, you must still be lacking that last ingredient. I'm not saying you can ignore preparations, nor that they don't increase your odds of survival. Just that it will only take you so far.
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The reason I bring this up is there have been a lot of questions lately on my preparations and the advisability of my location. I assume this is from the new guys, confused at my reasoning. So here goes, again. I am preparing for one disaster at a time. The most crucial thing I did was to get out from under the yoke of a landlord. The fact that the area I'm now in has a better financial footing is also a plus. And the small population will mean less crime. I'm preparing for economic troubles. This took a lot of effort and time. I can now look forward to the next challenge, which is surviving the actual collapse. My plan is to become a nomad/herder. This is not the perfect plan, I am fully aware. It assumes my ability to quickly learn about animals, mounted infantry combat, permanent camping, etc. This area is not suited for farming. Not every area is. You need to work with that, not against it. A lot of you are living on or near fertile ground with a good water source. That is not northern Nevada. The grazing lands here are the only non-mineral resource. You can practice being a farmer. Not as easily a nomad with livestock.
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As I said, far from the perfect plan. It will require a lot of on the job training. Eventually, when I can afford fences and feed I can start learning ( at least the animal care part ). If things fall apart quickly I have no choice but to wing it. But don't get too smug with your shallow water well and huge garden. You will also be forced to undergo on the job training. Your stationary wealth will be a target and you will need to fight to protect it. Seen much combat lately? It is an unknown you can't foresee with 100% clarity. Until it happens, you simply don't know how you are going to react. Some of us are going to suck at it. Let me give an example. It is not at all the same thing, but it gives you an idea anyway. I join the army twenty five years ago, while we still had an Evil Empire to battle. My father is a cop, and I've always wanted to do him proud. So it was natural to want to also go into law enforcement. I became an MP. I'd either make the service my career or get out and go into civilian law enforcement. Well, a funny thing happened along the way to my perfectly planned career. I found I sucked at it. I won't relate the sorry details, but I freeze under pressure. I'm far too analytical. I over think everything. Which is why I'm good at this ( shut up, trolls ) and bad at thinking on my feet.
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All those dreams, all those plans, all that training. I still tried over the years. But I finely realized the sad truth and accepted I can't be something I'm not. Do you see what I'm getting at? Some things can't be known. And even if they are, you sometimes have few options. I won't do any better as a militant horseman than I did as a cop. My plan sucks because I've already got a taste of what it takes. But at least I've got the option of retreating as a nomad. As a farmer I would lose everything of value if I ran away. All the tools that kept me alive. I'm picking the least bad plan. In an ideal post collapse world, I could earn a living as a logistics officer. That is an interest of mine, primitive logistics. I'm slowly but surely working on that. It plays on my strengths instead of my weaknesses. Only time will tell.
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I hope all this is food for thought. I hope you learn from all my stupid stunts. I play around at this survival teacher nonsense, have fun with the 'loyal minion' shtick. I'm only passing down the lessons I've learned. Plus hopefully compiling lesser known information. Perhaps connecting the dots most of you haven't thought about yet. That's me, always thinking about others. Don't bother, I'll pat myself on the back.
END

flour flavor and tax return

FLOUR FLAVOR AND TAX RETURN
Before we start today, thanks loyal minion in Germany for the gift. A first aid kit alone would be great ( and much needed after my old one was left to the elements and was largely useless ), but this one is printed all in German. It doesn't matter that I can't understand a word of it, and that's after three semesters of the language in school. It's simply cool. Okay, today we are going to cover two mundane subjects for the price of one. You see, that's just me. I'm all about other people. Always giving extra. Flavoring your flour, and my exciting tax return.
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Getting a tax return is usually the highlight of my year, financially speaking. Last year the extreme generosity of all loyal minions which enabled me to catch up from being unemployed and to buy the new computer was the highlight, but this is a new year. And I have the feeling that the financial news is simply going to go from crappy to catastrophic. So I'm going to enjoy my tax return while I can. Every year I tell you what new and exciting items you should get with your return, this being an opportunity not to be repeated for twelve months. I'm going to skip that this year because now is not the time to be fiddle friggin around. This will be the last opportunity to acquire the basics. Next year, the feds might be issuing IOU's like California is doing. Next year no guns or ammunition, perhaps? Next year, food costs will have doubled again. This year, you lose your job and will have no return to look forward to. I do not want to hear you crying to me next year if you don't immediately buy your wheat and bolt guns now. Although, honestly, will I still be posting next year? I hope things don't collapse that quick, but still...
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I was expecting to take a two hundred dollar cut this year, assuming I was going to have to pay tax on the stimulus check last summer. But I guess I didn't make enough. $17k, which included $1700 from loyal minions. Thank you all very much. If I include the Amazon commission ( which is paid by coupon which buys me books for research ) and donations I got paid $200 a month last year. Of course, the start of the year was high in ad revenue and the end high in donations, and that is before taxes of twenty percent. But still, that is awesome! I love you guys. So, anyway, I get two grand back instead of the expected $1700. Half goes to the kids for upcoming birthdays and Christmas, plus the auto insurance. The other half I get to save. Of course, the whole time that is in savings, I'll be stressing over it. Should I buy tangibles? Should I pay off most of what I owe on the one lot down the street? Should I save it for a rainy day? This kind of wealth is a headache. But a good problem to have, anyway.
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We all know it is a super duper fabulous idea to stockpile spices and condiments. As usual, I didn't heed this advice until it effected me. I kept meaning to buy a restaurant size jug of soy sauce for the hundred pounds of rice I have stockpiled. And I did do something by buying extra burrito seasoning packs for the stockpiled beans ( although the stuff is mostly salt, I would stockpile a little of it when they were three or four for a buck ). But all in all I would have been in for some dull eating. I simply didn't have enough seasonings. That changed when I started eating Something Posing As Meat ( whoever came up with that one gets my vote for cleverness ). If I couldn't smother it with beans in sauce, it had to be disguised with BBQ sauce or mustard. That got me stockpiling spices and condiments again. Still not enough, but more of a months worth than the previous weeks worth kind of thing.
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However, have you thought of flour flavoring? I eat my bland pan bread five times a week. Even cooking it after searing meat, using the grease for flavoring, did little to make it taste very good. My honey froze during a particularly vicious cold spell over two weeks and has never recovered. Margarine helps a bit, but all in all eating bread all week is not exactly a taste treat. To partially offset that, I started doing the following. Every Sunday, we treat ourselves. Instead of the usual two parts whole wheat to one part white, I reverse that for a fluffier, lighter fare. Plus, I add a seasoning to it. I started out getting blueberry muffin mix. At seven ounces, it lasted two servings. One half cup whole wheat flour, one cup white flour, half a pack of the blueberry mix, a dash of sugar and baking powder and enough water to make a stiff waffle dough. Into the pan, low heat. Fifteen minutes each side. Enough breakfast bread for two. And it tastes good. Cost is the flour plus 33 cents for the mix. Next, we started looking for more types of mix. Rather than the Wal-Mart generic mix we looked at Jiffy mix. Now we have chocolate, raspberry and blueberry mixes ( the banana walnut sounded gross ). And the pack, still seven ounces, is only fifty cents instead of 66.
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Now, at least once a week, I can look forward to eating bread. Another idea is donuts. About once a month we eat a package of pork fat. It is mostly slabs of fat with little slivers of meat still on it. Tastes like bacon, is 99 cents a pound or less and doesn't have nitrates on it. But it is overpowering if you eat too much. Almost like scooping out a handful from the lard bucket to snack on. I keep the fat in the pan overnight and in the morning I make up my bread, dry enough to need to roll out. Poke a hole it the middle after making the circles with the dough. Fries up in a minute or two, dust with sugar. A once a month fat treat, just like the pork the night before. It ain't too healthy, but its good as an occasional thing.
END
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peak oil update

PEAK OIL UPDATE
Once again, there seems to be insufficient reader panic about Peak Oil. Its like you know you are going to die from old age, but you tell yourself since you don't know when it is going to happen there is no need to worry about it. I have to tell you, for your own good of course, that I don't like your attitude. Why don't I receive frantic e-mails, imploring me to give directions to Elko where the reader can buy land in the same subdivision I'm in and help me start a new Army Of Righteousness to smite the Yuppies, lawyers and politicians when famine stalks the land and our enemies are at their weakest? Because Peak Oil is already here. So you might want to rethink that whole lack of panic thing. And by the by, I see I've finely broken the multi-day thousand reader count mark. Welcome all new loyal minions. To get your official membership card and beanie propeller cap, you must buy all my crap at http://www.bisonpress.com/ ( offer subject to availability- as in, good luck it being available ).
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Far greater minds than mine have poured out countless pages of statistics trying to pound into your skull that Peak Oil is a reality. And don't give me that crap about the Y2K scare being bogus, so why not this. Y2K was a great sounding theory that we all fell for. Resource depletion is not a theory, it is a proven process. Hello!!!! Easter Island used to have trees. And, I might point out to you that those of us that did panic for Y2K bought our wheat for one third the current price, surplus firearms at half price, our ammunition at a fifth what it is now, our land was a lot cheaper, gold was 1/3 the price, silver a quarter of the price, propane one third, etc., etc., etc. Panicking early paid off very well for us.
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But, for you nervous Nellies that refuse to jump on board and exhibit full paranoia and mental unbalancing, here a few simple truths for you. The price of food has more than doubled in a few short years. A little bit of overpopulation in dry regions diverting irrigation water to subdivisions, a little bit of overpopulation everywhere, and a whole lot of diverting 30% of our corn crop to ethanol. Yes, ethanol is a election pay back to big money interests. But it is also us trying to head off decreasing oil imports. Mexican oil production is down over ten percent in one year, someone starts paying attention. It ain't you. But someone in charge of policy decided to take the cheap corn away from the Mexicans to replace that oil. As a result our food prices went up. Labor costs go down, steel goes down, oil goes down. But food keeps going up. You do the math. And try not to save worthless paper money saving up for freeze dried food. Buy wheat kernels now. And hurry.
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Next up is our Depression currently unfolding. But, wait, you bleat, full of self pity and unwilling to give up your climate controlled SUV with cell phone and DVD player, the Depression has nothing to do with Peak Oil. Our supplies are being drawn down slower with the halt of most economic activity. Well, news flash. The reason we had most of our economy in real estate and finances was because there wasn't enough oil to continue a manufacturing economy. We've been scaling that back for many decades. I would even contend that the slowly dipping per capita energy use is because of that, not conservation or increased efficiencies. When we reached our national Peak Oil we had to switch to a service economy. And that has run its course, feeding on itself and imploding.
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So, there you go. Two important effects of global Peak Oil ( hit on 2005 ) that happened right before your eyes as you denied it. Food being used for energy and the collapse of a pretend economy. Continue to ignore those warnings at your peril.
END
p.s. to angry reader over loyal minion handle- it is an affectionate way of referring to my readers, mixed with my usual cynicism about teaching and "experts", so please relax.

dirty laundry

DIRTY LAUNDRY
No, not the kind of dirty laundry that you try to hide from the public, like Obammy was born in Africa and not Hawaii and he is in fact the charismatic evil leader that the end times predicts, or that you want to have a love child with a really fat chick. No, the soiled clothes kind of dirty laundry. A loyal minion wrote in with a tale that we should all take to heart. The electricity was out for two weeks and the normal lifestyle was disrupted. Being the proper preparedness types that they were, all was in order. Stored water, stored food. A way to cook. But, as if to showcase that the fickle finger of fate is always ready to diddle you when you are not expecting it, they came down with a new and improved Super Flu and were laid up at about the same time.
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Now, this was one of those kinds of flu types that not even on its most clever day at its most paranoid on an unlimited budget of Cold War Communist Combat pay could the military design and stockpile. Oh, they had some glorious moments such as taking some weird monkey virus and mutating it and introducing it the gay community ( because let's face it, thirty years ago you could still get away with blaming it on the will of God that the sodomites were being smited ) and then blaming some poor guy in the bush for getting his groove on with a monkey, like it was possible for the virus to go from bushman to the Caribbean, New York and San Fransisco all at once. Then, just like NASA that went to the moon when computers were the size of a Buick for the portable model but can't seem to do anything else after billions of dollars, the boys designing diseases couldn't accomplish much in the last twenty years except brew up a little anthrax so the CIA could mail it to those questioning the fact that the hole in the side of the Pentagon after 9/11 was the size of a bunker busting missile rather than the wider size of a passenger plane ( or, more importantly, to those threatening to decrease their budget ).
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So, you're laid up for days and then weeks, too weak to do much more than heat up a can of soup, let the dog out before the pile of crap in the middle of the living room got higher than the canine, and totter back off to the couch. You certainly don't have the strength to do laundry by hand. Then you start going through the dirty laundry pile and picking out the least offensive garments to wear. Since you've been sick and sweating from fever and your system is letting off strange and offensive toxins ( perhaps all those unpronounceable chemicals at the end of the list of ingredients on everything you eat ) your clothes would be sealed in plastic bags and stamped with a bio-hazard label if the EPA was around. Remember, this bizarre and new flu strain is kicking your butt. You don't have the energy to plunge clothes, or even soak and wring and hang up. I know we've all been sick like this before. When it's the 48 hour flu, no big deal. But when it puts you down for a long time ( and this seems to be what the newer types do ) you need to have plans for what to do. It's not so much I expect each of us to be brutally stricken by a designer bug, just that you should think in multiples of disasters. Yes, it can drive you crazy, spinning that web.
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I am a pretty hardy type that rarely gets sick. But I had faced a similar planning scenario because of the possibility of winter trapping the car in and not being able to drive into town to do laundry. I did several things. I shop at the thrift stores for clothing and buy even when I'm fully stocked up. For instance, seven shirts is stocked up but I buy several more when they are on sale. I can go two weeks changing shirts daily. Socks and underwear are also a two week supply. That's about $35 so far. I do have a shortages of pants, being a 36x36. Not a size you usually find used. Now, after too much bike riding that is down to a 34 waist, at least. I've had to start wearing belts since I lost my gut. However, if I combine all my pants I've stashed because they are too small or had a hole in the pocket or a broken zipper, I might last the two weeks by wearing each one several days. For under $50, each person should have enough new socks and underwear and used pants and shirts to go two weeks changing everyday without doing laundry. And, as a bonus, that prolongs the period after the collapse before you need to go naked.
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Two other things I do. One, I only wear slacks. Not jeans. Slacks are easier to find used, and more importantly for our discussion here, they dry out a lot quicker if you do have to wash by hand and hang up. Yes, we were talking about not doing laundry at all for two weeks, but it is still a bonus in other instances. The last thing is buying some Ferbreeze, or whatever the name is of that fabric refresher. We bought some generic at the dollar store. If laundry still gets short, we will spray some of this crap on. That and a lot of deodorant and you can show up at work without offending anyone. Why you would show up to work if there is no electricity is beyond me, but I'm mixing and matching disasters here. The point is not being able to do laundry for some time. Hope this helps, and thanks for the article idea loyal minion.
END
My crap is still there, waiting for your purchase www.bisonpress.com

improved cat hole

IMPROVED CAT HOLE
Have you heard about Portable Dwelling newsletter? It's been around for about twenty years, a small print newsletter that tells you how to live cheaply in the woods with light weight and improvised gear. A bleach jug drip shower, foam pad insulated tents, that kind of thing. For the longest time I really didn't see much point in that existence. It was hard to make a living, you were squatting on land and were subject to harassment. The only advantage was you could pick the ideal climate and location you liked. Of course, with the economy now it makes a lot more sense. The price to join is almost zero. If you want to check them out the address is Portable Dwelling, PO Box 190, Philomath OR 97370.
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That was my free plug for their mag so I could steal one of their ideas. An improved cat hole. When I see a new idea I get excited about, I automatically assume you will feel the same way. Not that it is that exciting, but luckily my thresh hold for wonderment is low. The problem with cat holes ( the wilds way of crapping- scoop out a shallow hole, deposit your scented fertilizer, cover ) is that if you stay in any one area too long the fields surrounding your abode come to resemble a mine field. Little mounds everywhere. And about as dangerous. The problem with a large hole for your latrine is that the wastes form a anthill in the middle of the hole and before long there is no clearance right below you. The sides are still not filled in but you either have to move the mound or dig a new hole. But the new and improved cat hole does away with both of these problems. You dig a narrow hole, but much farther down. When you throw dirt on top of your creation the hole is filled up evenly. And it takers awhile to fill up.
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If you are really lucky, you have a post hole digger which is about the perfect width and allows you to get down pretty far. Otherwise, you must improvise. Stick and can, pointed shovel for reach with a trowel for digging out the loose soil, etc. Dig your first hole before the big event. Then, go a foot or two away ( depending on soil type- the looser the soil the farther away ) and pick the spot for the next hole. Do your business, then go to the second hole and dig out enough soil to cover what you just did, carrying it over to the hole being used. I would actual have enough loose soil already to go. Cut down on the offensive nature quickly. Then, dig out enough for the next time. This way you can dig a little at a time and not kill yourself.
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In my neck of the woods, there are no woods. I would feel kind of silly squatting over a hole in broad daylight. This is where the plastic bucket with seat inside comes in handy. Do your thing, cover with sawdust or pine shavings if you are wealthy or dirt if you are not. At night you can slink out to your hole and dump in the turds. Like I said, not that exciting of an idea. But to me, it was a forehead slapping "duh". Why didn't I think about that? So, in the spirit of sharing, here you go.
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retail implosion

RETAIL IMPLOSION
Television is a drug. It is a good drug, a soothing drug, a drug that only effects the mind and not the body. We can all leave healthy looking corpses. Your grey matter might be a puddled mass, but you won't lack all your teeth like you would from crack. I miss my favorite drug. Despite a dismal year when the writers strike caused nothing but reruns and reality shows so horrible that it forced even the most hopelessly addicted to turn away from the Benevolent Electronic Cyclops in disgust, I still feel pangs for the old habit. So thank goodness I can finely resist its allure. Perhaps in time I'll be lured back in. Or perhaps I might be able to discipline myself to only watch a small amount rather than allowing it to become a daily habit. But today, today was a glorious and wonderful time not to have a TV. Thank all the gods I was not forced to watch the national delusion that our New And Improved Hero was being crowned and would soon come to our rescue. It was embarrassing to be an American today. We presented to the world a unified message that we are complete morons and fools. We still believe in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. And we're almost three hundred years old. In the spirit of not joining this spectacle, here is today's article on financial doom and gloom.
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After the last economic downturn, millions of laid off workers were able to hitch their buggy to the real estate bubble and make a decent to great living sucking off people only too eager to spend a half million bucks for twenty grand worth of building materials on a desert lot. You've heard a dozen times how all the job growth since 9/11 was housing and defense. Well, the credit contraction has put an end to all that ( I'll devote an article in due time to the underlying math- in short financial institutions that were leveraged 5 to 1 debt to assets suddenly found themselves facing the nightmare of 100 to 1 due to the structured nature of derivative risk ). And there won't be another bubble to replace it this time. Plus, military spending doesn't seem to be working this time. Not only won't there be the ability to open construction businesses such as marble suppliers or interior decorators or the parasite businesses of home equity extraction such as boutique stores ( scrap booking, beads, candles, bath accessories ) or SUV sales, all those already in existence are quickly and surely going out of business.
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It is going to suck to be a landlord. It looks good now, as rental prices catch up and surpass housing prices. Or, as lack of credit allows a sort of "sub prime" rent. A premium on those with lower credit scores. Soon, however, as job losses accelerate and children move in with parents and geriatric parents move in with adult children and friends move in with friends, the pressure will be on landlords to fill suddenly empty units. Prices will fall ( or at least not accelerate with cost of living ). Retail landlords are in worse trouble. People will give up businesses from lack of customers much faster than they will change their domestic arrangements. They will have no choice. Without cash flow from sales and without any available credit to ease them through lack of sales, they will be forced to close.
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With retail businesses failing left and right, with the manufacturing sector gutted long ago and simply getting worse ( who would have thought that possible? ) and with financial pressure of extreme magnitude forcing all levels of government save the feds to cut back on salaries or workforce or both, who is going to be able to hire you when you are laid off? When I moved to Elko six months ago there were two kinds of jobs to be had. Minimum wage and minimum wage part time. And that was before things really started to go to hell, in an economy that was suffering less than others due to the mining, the then high price of beef and the yet to decline rail transport. Plus, housing had yet to either halt or decline in town ( the old story of retail paying a premium to attract workers was done and gone when I arrived ).
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In short, once you are laid off, panic. I can't see many if any jobs being created. And layoffs will accelerate. Our economy was propped up by easy credit. And that is over. You might want to assume the worse as far as jobs and plan accordingly.
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sacred cows and devils advocate

SACRED COWS AND DEVIL'S ADVOCATE
First things first. A warm and obsequious thanks to my two loyal minions ( from the Far East and the Near East [ Texas ] ) sending money snail mail. What a wonderful surprise Friday night ( it was good enough just getting off work, that made it much better ). Once again, thinking only of others and never of myself, I decided my new found riches would go towards helping others. I bought a marine battery to run the computer from. I'll charge it up running into town. I didn't want to rely on the infernal combustion engine for my electricity, but reasoned that even if I couldn't drive anymore, a marine battery wouldn't go to waste. I can always use it with the solar panels. We'll see how well it works the next couple of weeks and get back with you. For now, I don't have to transport the computer to put a charge on it. Creekmores tragedy reinforced the warnings everyone else gave me on protecting that investment. And, thanks, Steve, for the books. I love books ( hint, hint ).
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I wasn't sure what the hideous sound was I heard over the weekend. Maybe some redneck shooting up the sagebrush winged a coyote and injured it. Then I came to work and checked my comments section from Friday's article. So that's what it was- the sound of sacred cows being slaughtered. You would have thought I was suggesting an unnatural sexual position with their mothers. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but it seemed a lot of reaction was not from the normal band of idiots but from more stable readers offended by my subject matter. Well, at least it seemed that way since most were articulate to some degree. Look, I simply must play devil's advocate. It is in my nature. I'm not trying to dissuade as much as warn. By all means, rely on farming to save your sorry butt in the coming collapse. At least you are doing something. You are acting to better your precarious position. And speaking of which, and this is mainly directed at the trolls, stop bitching about survival blogs and the way they survive. You are given free information. No charge. And the authors spend time and money and a lot of mental effort writing that information you get free. When they offer something stupid for sale, it is not because they are withholding information. They are hoping you benefit from the free information and throw them a bone by buying their crap. An e-book, a military manual CD, an auction. It is just us trying to get paid. What is offered is besides the point. Do you think I really needed www.urbansurvival.com to sell me a book on cheap living? I can do much better than what the book instructs. I bought the thing because I love his site and wanted to help support him.
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All survival preps are not guaranteed. You are only increasing your chances of survival. Increasing, not guaranteeing. Yes, if you follow the advice from Rawles www.survivalblog.com you vastly increase your odds over what you learn at www.bisonpress.com ( I'll throw in mine on the slim chance you forward this to non-loyal minions ) or Creekmores www.thesurvivalistblog.blogspot.com. Or http://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com especially since he's doing the desperate jingle mail method ( way to go dude- I'm impressed! ). Rawles does offer the best advice. Because it is the most expensive. Throw enough money at any problem and it goes away. When you get into the frugal survival method, it is all about compromise and making do and doing without. So excuse the crap out of me if I point out that farming amongst the population rather than in a remote heavily fortified heavily manned mountainous hidden valley with a stream that costs a quarter of a million bucks will get you impressed into a labor gang that works your former land and feeds you starvation level meals as your only payment. Plenty of you get it. You appreciate my pointing out the problems any strategy has. Any, including nomadic herding, has their drawbacks. I'm trying to wake you up to the inherent flaws. I'm not telling you to do nothing at all.
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Living in a trailer in a trailer park has flaws. As in, you still pay rent and are one paycheck from eviction. But at least it is living frugal, a coming necessity. I advanced my position and improved my odds by leaving the trailer park. But I'm not in a perfect position, by far. If things fall apart tomorrow, I'll cope. If not, I'll improve my position. But staying where you are, in an apartment or house, because you can't afford the best strategy is silly. Junk land is a compromise, and has its own flaws. But the flaws are less than doing nothing. Farming is better than doing nothing. I'm only trying to tell you its not the perfect strategy. It has its flaws and dangers. Once you know about the dangers you can still forge ahead. But at least with that food for thought you perhaps have a back up plan. I'm feeding your brain. But I can't force feed it. I'm not trying to slaughter those cows, just trying to look at every side of the puzzle. I'm really here to help. I might do it in a snide, bitter, sarcastic and cynical way, but I'm still trying to help. Any higher power, please note my incredible devotion to my fellow mans welfare.
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Oh, what the heck, I'll say it- BUY MY CRAP at www.bisonpress.com

farm grab

FARM GRAB
Chaos and lawlessness brings misery and the end of trade. The end of trade brings death and an extreme low standard of living. So government is welcomed. It doesn't even matter if the former gangs become the new government. So what kind of government can we expect? My guess is close to a medieval type. You won't have knights on horses jousting or kings ruling from a throne, but you will have governance based on a local, decentralized, agrarian based economy. Land will be the coin of the realm. Land will be controlled by the rulers, as it is the remaining value. There will of course be other valuables such as the few remaining oil deposits pumped by old tech, salvaged metals, salt deposits, manufacturing centers, etc. But the collapse will be brutal enough that we see a repeat of post-Rome. No more centralized manufacturing, a breakdown in trade and a shortage of money. Land, and the food it grows, will be wealth, as it will be all that sustains life. Today we substitute oil for fertile land, and we fight for the oil. Tomorrow, we fight for the land itself, and the crops grown by hand organically. With a lack of trade and credit, precious metal will be the only form of payment. And as that is in short supply, food based barter and the ownership of land is the only way to own more wealth. You can't create more money, but you can steal more land. And you can't afford to pay your armies, but they can be given control of land. Land grants to retiring soldiers, land grants to your "knights" that can muster men at arms, land increased through royal marriage or war.
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Rome grew powerful by taking fertile land. It took in slaves through winning wars, who not only worked the lands but provided a surplus of energy to create a wealthy ruling class. It amassed such a surplus it could build public works that in turn increased its reach and power. Alas, it was surrounded by less ideal lands. Wet and cold northern Europe, African desert beyond the fertile coast, Islam in the east, etc. Once it conquered that ideal land its growth model started to contract. That was the start of the end. They survived nicely on their surplus for a time, but it was on the road to ruin. Just as we are with oil. Once the peak of production was hit, it was the beginning of the end. We are simply witnessing the fall. Without a surplus of energy, either fertile land in ideal climates ripe for conquest or petroleum to substitute for that, you can't have a rich society. You fall back to a substance economy, the land barely enough to feed you and factions fighting over those meager spoils. The Dark Ages were such a time. The depleted soils of old Rome, the less fertile northern land. They supported a population, but not well. By fighting for a surplus, one could just survive. This encouraged a militant society, spurned a continuing arms race and ultimately enabled these people to colonize the globe. But it was a nasty, mean environment to live in. A Darwin evolutionary petre dish. America is headed there. Our once deeply rich and fertile farmlands are depleted, our oil is running out and our treasury can barely pay for a hold on everyone elses oil. The remains will yield little and the huge population will suffer famine and war as the meager lands feed far less. And an armed and militant race will fight each other for that surplus that allows one tribe to survive at the expense of the other.
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This is why I hold such low expectations for farmers in the future. You will be occupying the only wealth left. You won't be allowed to keep it. Gardening is a great way to insure yourself during the collapse phase, it will supply needed foods. If you minimize salad crops and maximize calorie crops such as corn and potatoes it will be a very productive enterprise. Long term, however, the large homestead self sufficient in food is in danger of being "nationalized". A word to the wise.
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The above post is an excerpt from my book in progress, "Life After The Collapse". So, yes, I cheated today. The book is from one half to one third completed. So far I have 20k words, or almost forty pages of dense scribblings. In comparison, "The Frugal Survivalist" was 42k. I'm not sure if I'll wait to publish when completed or offer it in several parts. I picked today's example thinking about long term plans being thwarted, a sure path to insanity as all your efforts can always be "war gamed" away. Then I read China saw 100,000 ( could that be a misprint? ) factories close last year and they need 15 million new jobs a year just to keep up with population growth. I felt better for expecting the worse after that.
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civil servants

CIVIL SERVANTS
We have been having the proverbial heat wave here. Low 15 to 20 and high 30 to 40. With the sun out!!! I feel like Baby Jesus himself took pity on my suffering ( or at least got tired of my bitching ). So, in a fit of spring time type activity I decided to go down to the court house and find out the exact location of my parcel down the road. This weekend I can bike on down three miles and find out where the darn thing is, since I've paid over a grand on it already. Why wait until the last minute if I need to live there? To remind the trolls, I moved to Elko because I own a lot outright, but it is not a location I am able to commute to work everyday. So I bought another lot closer to town on payments. However, it is a seven year note, so I also bought another lot on payments that is only a three year note. That is the one I'm trying to find.
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This is where we come to the point of this post. When I moved to town I went to the same place and got a printout of area, to include the subdivision, the block and the lot. I was able to pace off by existing roads to where my lot was. Thus I didn't need to pay for it to be surveyed. I even paced it off from two directions to be 100% sure. My north side corners are not exact, but I don't plan on building near them so it is not an issue. It is close by a few feet. This time, I was not so lucky. No one would give me a printout, and I had to scribble notes as I was shown satellite photos with overlaying grids. This one is going to be a little bit harder to find because of that. Your random pick of a civil servant will determine if things turn out great or really suck. This was a benign encounter. But I've had exposure to judges and beat cops, and attitude, circumstances, and plain dumb luck determine how those turned out.
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In a way, it's good. If you live rural and get to know people it is some what a way of insuring things will go your way. But it is also scary, knowing how arbitrary things can be. This is all the time and wisdom I have today. Just let it be a reminder to treat public officials to a royal butt kissing. It feels dirty but it pays dividends.
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communal living

COMMUNAL LIVING
Now, relax, Birkenstock wearing Volvo driving, tree hugging Hippies. I'm going to describe post collapse communal living, so don't get overly excited. This won't be like the good old days, smoking dope, waiting for the Food Stamps to come in so you can buy a five cent candy bar and get change for a dollar and go pay off your supplier, flirting with all the girls as they braid their armpit hair and talk about taking a vacation on some other astral plain, as if you need any more escape from reality than you already enjoy. No, this is going to be more along the lines of communal cooking so the one rabbit you caught will stretch out the stew for everyone and sharing a collective fire to make the captured shipping pallet warm everyone.
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I think most of us are envisioning a pioneer existence after the collapse. We farm and enjoy our land and band together for common defense as Super Ninja Motorcycle Hoodlums threaten our tranquil and idyllic universe. Our model seems to be our own propaganda model of the savage redmen threatening us as we try to force them off the land. This could very well happen, criminals will evolve to fit circumstances. But I don't know if the solitary homestead model is all that realistic. We are so blind to distance anymore since we are spoiled rotten by the pervasive automobile. And think nothing of energy use, having it in abundance all our lives. But, this will not be the case in the near future. Wood will become scarce, building supplies will be in short supply. Wood will be needed for cooking and heating as oil becomes unavailable and almost all buildings are unsuitable for post-oil habitation. Rebuilding dwellings suitable for limited wood heat will lead to shortages in populated areas. Salvaging existing building might not be sufficient. Also, for a time, horses and mules will not be available. As the cars run out of fuel, and bicycles mostly prove to be unusable after being stored in the garage for several years, other transportation will be needed. But horses need food. And to get a local farming community going quick enough to feed everyone as trade collapses with the outside, food for animals will need to wait for the time being.
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For most people transportation and warmth will be problems. So it follows that banding together will solve these problems. Help is right there, for work and for defense. Communal living will be a viable solution. We all turn our nose up at it, envisioning the above Hippy or a house stuffed to the rafters with Third World immigrants and their extended family, coping with insane rental costs the only way they know how. So, to help you out, here's a much more pleasing mental picture. Viking or Indian long houses. Several families live together. Each building uses less material and requires less fuel to warm than if each family had separate places. Work, chores and defense are shared to lessen the burden. Also, the shared resources are an insurance policy against one family going without. I'm not saying this shared living arrangement is preferable over individual homesteads, only that we might not have a lot of choice in the matter.
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homeless

HOMELESS
We've covered being a hermit, squatting on public land far away from the public. Living out of a vehicle, with or without a family. Living on junk land, a cheap legal squat. The only thing left I can think of your apartment dwellers one paycheck away from eviction or mortgage holders fearing the pink slip that will see utilities cut off in a month and a sheriffs eviction in three to six months can do is to think about homelessness. I get all paranoid, screaming in your deaf ear that we are all doomed, the end is nigh, and for the love of all that is good and holy, man, hurry up and get a van to live out of or a piece of junk land to park the trailer on. However, you need to understand, if you don't already, that this is simply my prejudice shining through. My priority. I've been homeless a time or two, nothing extreme or major. No long periods of time, always the prospect of a job just around the corner. Just enough to keep me pretty darn paranoid, fearful that I might not have a place to go to.
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Some people don't care about being homeless. They are eternally optimistic, looking at the whole thing as an adventure. To others it is a preferred way to live, optimising freedom. To a certain extent I can see this, feeling at times that most of my worldly goods keep me chained down and working long hours for their benefit. I would, at times, love to hit the road and go to sunnier climes and drop the wife off along the way to regain my sanity. Alas, I can daydream for many hours but in the end my fears get the best of me and I cling to the security blanket of all my crap. That cozy feeling of a years supply of food is not something I can give up now that I've tasted its intoxicating warmth. I'll never go back to being unarmed, dependant on distant authorities for my protection. And I'll never again be without the jingle of precious metal coins to see me through any economic storm. I know I'm trapped by my possessions and I don't care. It is what helps me sleep at night. Alas, I would be better served with a working knowledge of Stone Age skills, able to survive in any environment with that skill alone. Waiting in ambush for revenuers with my bow and arrow, wrapped in layers of rabbit furs. Come and evict me from the National Park, John Law, I can survive out here all year ( cackling vengefully with a wild spark in my eye ).
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If you want to survive without a lick of money, this might be just the trick. Buy ( or go to the library ) five or six books, read up on these skills. Sell all your crap and go to a primitive survival school. Or just go out in the woods and practice. Buy a Greyhound ticket and go to a more secluded area if you are trapped back East. No money needed, really, just the devotion to get some serious on the job training. Of course, have a better back up plan than a bag of rice, living in an abandoned transit bus in the wilds of Alaska. If you just simply suck at this you want to be able to come back in to town, babbling incoherently as you are admitted to the Emergency Room, "Bears, I tells ya! And Lions! No tigers, yet! Feral Dogs! Booby traps around pot plants!". There are a few snags in this plan, mainly isolation from other people. You could always just make this a vacation plan. But I think the main thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to wait until you are forced to do this. Learn beforehand, while you can return to modern living. Don't wait for the mushroom clouds to rise on the horizon before you go hiding in the woods with your Danial Boone coonskin hat and a Boy Scout pocket knife.
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Also, I'm not talking about urban homelessness here. They are animals, preying on each other. The loonie factor amongst them is over 80%. And, most importantly, they exist on the surplus of society. In the coming years that will be a losing proposition as the surplus shrinks and then disappears, never to return. They are dependant on the best of both worlds, lack of responsibility and the excess of an industrial society. And so far society has pampered them. But it won't last. Go with the skilled rural primitive approach.
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Buy My Crap So I Can Buy More Crap www.bisonpress.com

rv food storage

RV FOOD STORAGE
I did cover this before, but I understand that my huge reader growth, rivalling that of the birthrate of an infertility clinic, dictates that I cover this again. Also, before we start, I'll cover my policy on the comments section moderation once again. Censorship, in my opinion, has no gray areas. You either allow free speech or you don't. There is no good reason to block what others see. It is like any other freedom. You either are, or you aren't. As soon as you start making exceptions you open Pandora's Box. Corporate censorship is almost as bad as government censorship, since it is merely sucking up in one form or another. Sure, Big Daddy Government, I'll be your unpaid toady, turning in those with unpatriotic ideas so I'll be the last one to go to the re-education camps. I understand each blog is like a small business. Their owners should be allowed to run them as they please. If one has a high readership of sensitive religious types, by all means keep a lid on the comments. You don't want to offend. Myself, I run an anarchist organization. It reflects my political ideas. I hate the racist crap as much as the next guy ( of course, to be honest some of the jokes can be funny if you like your humor rough and unpolished ) but I won't use that as an excuse to censor. My blog might be one of the few places you can say as you please, even if I don't agree. It doesn't make any difference, only having a thousand readers. But it's the last bit of defiance I'm still allowed. This is not a licence to print nonsense, or stray off topic, but I won't stop the idiots. I hope that makes sense.
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Storing crap in a trailer can be a tough business. There is inevitable clutter if you don't have a separate storage area. And there never will be enough storage space, even in a forty foot fifth wheel with pull-outs. I've owned 16 footers, twenty-five, 35 and currently a 32 foot trailer. Some are much easier than others for storing your years worth of food, but none are impossible. The eight foot cab-over would never store enough, but that should be the only exception. Right now I have almost two years worth of food in my trailer, and that is with the storage space under the bed full of books and camping gear. This trailer was easy, since it has storage under the bathroom that holds three hundred pounds of wheat in buckets. But I've also stuffed that same three hundred pounds of food in sixteen foot trailers. Granted, at the time I owned almost nothing, having just got out of the service. And the climate was so mild I owned nothing more than sweaters, jeans, tennis shoes, etc. So my trailer had no storage other than prep food.
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On a sixteen footer, you may have to fold out the couch every night for a bed, but there are at least four or five storage areas under that and the other seats, plus one outside storage bin. If you vacuum seal bags of wheat, you'll be able to get enough wheat stored in there for your bare bones starvation diet. You won't fit in nine hundred MRE's or several hundred cases of canned food. It will be a thousand calories a day grain and bean diet. Some of the grain will be used for sprouts, the beans are your protein. There are plenty of other storage options outside the trailer, but if you're living in a tin box more than likely you can't afford them. I have two pallets under the overhang of my fifth wheel piled high with storage foods, covered with a tarp. That cost about ten bucks, seasonally. But I also keep the wife at home, and the neighbor dogs love to hang out at our place, so my security is pretty good. Far from perfect, but I'll be damned if I can see putting out the big bucks for the illusion of further safeguards. Sure, when the whole ball of wax begins to melt, I might worry more about theft. But by then I'll most likely be home permanently. And it's not like you can tell what the tarped pile is. But, back to interior trailer food storage.
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Next we go up to your regular cupboards, those in the living room and kitchen. You can fit a lot of food in those. I have no idea what weight they will hold, but I've put almost a hundred pounds of beans in one of them. I kept getting one or two small bags at a time, then transferring them into Christmas metal tins as I pulled them from the trash. Being lazy, sometimes it took me awhile to transfer them. Which is why I had so many in the cupboard at one time. I do have the Hippy Bread Van that holds a lot of storage ( almost a ton before I transferred to the pallets ), but I have held food in the trailer for long periods of time. If you forget about the clutter factor for now, you can too. If you've stuffed a large family into a small trailer and can't set up outside storage, I hope you are pulling it with a van or enclosed pickup. There is some storage. That is one drawback to the fifth wheels, no storage in the pull vehicle. If you've settled in one place and build on an enclosed porch, you can make couches and beds out of plastic pails containing your grains.
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So, settle on a bare bones food storage. Vacuum pack bag the grain and stuff in every nook and cranny possible. Even in a small trailer, you should have enough stored to help you sleep soundly. I've gotten several hundred pounds under the bed/couch and almost a hundred in the small outside storage areas with these bags. You can put a layer on the bottom of the closet. It is not impossible if you sacrifice the space for other items and put up with clutter.
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trade goods

TRADE GOODS
After several articles explaining very patiently to you how we are all doomed and shall be shortly engulfed in a fiery death, I get to feeling a tiny bit guilty and try to figure out an article of a 'how to' natural so that you can actual do something to put forth the worthless and feeble effort at postponing said painful demise. So, today we shall cover cheap trade goods. I don't think I've exposed you to this topic for several hundred articles, so it was about time I dredged up another oldy and moldy.
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It is all very well and good to give out lists. Bug out bag lists, medical kit lists, must own guns lists, 'Alpha Strategy' lists. But I hate lists. I think they are overwhelming. If you see a hundred items that are needed, your brain shuts down at the cost or complexity and nothing gets done. So, I tend to simplify. Instead of recommending cold weather gear, or tobacco or alcohol I have simply selected a few 'near a buck' trade goods. I think cold weather gear is a great stockpile item. If you buy from www.sportmansguide.com you can get very cheap quality surplus cold weather gear. I just got a bundle of long john tops for $4 each after shipping. Same with my mittens. But I can't recommend it for trade because the costs, although cheaper per item than anywhere else, add up too quick. I stockpile just for myself. If I have five replacements, I can have peace of mind many winters in advance. Same with tobacco. If you have an Indian Res nearby, see if their smoke shop sells 'roll your own'. It is thirty percent cheaper than mail order. I can buy my own makings for eighty cents a pack ( with filter ). But, I stock up for my own use, not eventual trade. It would add up too quick. As for alcohol, refer to my previous idea I stole from 'Possum Living', trash can wine. Not much need to stock up at all.
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As to the following trade good list, I know you will have plenty of ideas on your own. I give you mine here, knowing it is not perfect. But I've used the criteria that most are items not stockpiled, hence having extra value in the future. You can buy a twenty pack of sewing needles in the dollar store. So is everyone else, future barter wise. I picked what I thought might be scarce. Number one is two liter sodas. I know you think that's crazy. There will be millions of empty pop bottlers waiting for scavs to dig up out of the landfills. It's not like they will ever decompose. But here is why I think they have merit. The soda inside. After a short period of time, every candy bar, bag of sugar and can of soda will be used up. Since our major sweetener is corn syrup, in the future sugar will become much more valuable. After a time, we won't be growing corn for sweetening or livestock feed or for ethanol. It will all go to the starving hoards. Anything with sweetener will become worth a lot more, barter or trade wise. Hold on to your unopened pop bottles. You can sell the soda for a 'sweet' profit and keep the bottle for your water storage/hauling use ( very few plastics will then be made ).
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Next up is wooden matches. I know a lot of you own wax covered matched in your BOB kit. But the average unprepared citizen, if he owns any fire starter at all, has a disposable lighter. Let me just tell you, from previous experience these last few months, when it is butt cold, lighters don't work. Your hands are too numb to use it and it takes many more strikes to light. We still have dozens of lighters stashed, but day to day for lighting the stove, we use wooden matches. To light the propane heater we use a dollar BBQ lighter. It doesn't flame, but it does spark. That way I save the built in sparker for emergencies. When you do store matches, don't buy the big multi-hundred count box. The side strips for striking the match wear out pretty quick. Stay with the small box ( 32 per ? ) multi-pack.
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22 ammo. Wait, I know that has always been a recommended trade item. But what I'm thinking is that with the price increases, and with Obammy's coming ban ( or the perception thereof ), supplies will suffer. Less, not more, will be stockpiled. So it will become much more valuable. And, if I'm wrong, you can never have enough for yourself anyway. I leave the advisability of arming your enemies for another discussion. Another one is penetrating oil. I forgot to oil my bike one week ( okay, it might have been two ) and with the wet weather I had rust all over my new chain. And the pedals, wheel bolts, kickstand, etc. At first I panicked, then I found a can of penetrating oil in the tool box ( the tool box is a five gallon poly bucket that will punish the careless with its various discarded sharp objects ). I sprayed the crap out of everything, then a few hours later coating with 3 in 1 oil ( anyone? anyone? What's a cheaper alternative to that, at three bucks a small bottle? ) and I was good to go. The alternative would have been to unhook the chain ( on a cold 18 degree day ) and soak it in kerosene or something else I didn't have to take care of the rust. Penetrating oil is available at the dollar store, and it is now on my must stockpile list.
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Also at the dollar store are LED lights. One time I got lucky and found white light flashlights, the rest of the time it has been red light bike flashers. Regardless, they are a high tech, non replaceable, cheap trade item. There is a very small danger of 2012 cosmic storm event or an EMP attack that will fry them, but at a buck each, who cares? Just make sure to stock up on candles for your own use. Also, dollar packs of disposable batteries. Obviously, this is limited. You can only stockpile enough that can be rotated. But it will be the one item that will disappear first and be somewhat valuable. Overstock at your own risk, however. Last up is used, thrift store belts. Not the crappy vinyl ones only good as fashion accessories but real leather ones. Everyone is going to be losing weight pretty soon. Since we are a nation of fat asses that donate our old smaller clothes to the thrift store ( who in turn sell them to paper manufactures ) once the guts shrink, belts will be needed. Besides a length of rope some will use, belts will be in demand. Hope this is all food for thought.
END
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economic recovery

ECONOMIC RECOVERY
I needed a good laugh today, so I started thinking about all these jokers that predict and or hope for an economic recovery. It doesn't matter about the details, whether they are calling for another twenty percent off housing before a recovery, a recovery after Obammy does the exact same thing Bush did this summer and sends everyone a $500 check, whatever. And we might even see a shallow and short lived recovery. But it won't matter. The only way our economy is headed is down, and it will crash and burn in most of our lifetimes. It won't be another twenty year reprieve like we saw after the 1970's. That was a political crash, based on a decision to abandon gold and by the oil exporting nations holding oil hostage. This one is an economic crash, the result of the derivative market played for too long by too many players caring only about immediate gains. And a real oil crash. Not a market manipulation but a global shortage.
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The derivative market coming to an end is not exactly news anymore. Too many bets were made with one percent down and they were lost and now the ten percent marks are coming due ( to grossly simplify ). The resulting credit contraction ( as cash flow is insufficient to cover the bets ) is much more efficient at halting global trade than the 1930's tariff wars ever were. The oil shortages are not being felt just yet. Retail stores close, employees no longer commute to work, shopping is down as credit card limits shrink and workers take pay cuts. Much less oil is being used. For the time this will disguise the shrinking global production of oil. In fact, if you do subscribe to any conspiracy theories, you might think the bankers intentionally started the depression to help the oil last longer. I don't buy that since each and every "powers that be" is a greedy pig and will attempt to maximise their riches regardless of long term effects. But then, let's hope I'm wrong and we see managed long term suffering rather than die off and famine.
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The fact that oil is or is going to shrink in supply should be all you need to know about our long term economic health. You can debate the exact year we hit global oil peak production. You can debate how much time we have at the production plateau. You can argue over how long the remaining coal and uranium will last. You can't argue that oil is a finite resource and there is no replacement for it. As oil is becoming scarcer, as the very lifeblood of our very existence becomes scarcer, how can you expect a functional economy?
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Yes, I keep harping on this very subject. This is too important to wish away. I didn't move up to this Junior Stewart's Folly because I love the weather. I did it because it is the safest place available to me. I really believe this is the start of the end. I could be wrong. I've been wrong for twenty years. I'm just trying to point out what look like conclusive evidence to me. But don't take too long deciding for yourself. If I'm right about the collapse, everything you are used to as life's safety nets will vanish and endanger you. It's time to make hard choices. Your comfort level will be threatened. Hey, I'm only the messenger.
END

roommates

ROOMMATES
Sorry about yesterday. Our government commodities truck showed up at lunch. Usually no big deal, fifteen minutes to roll the pallets in. This time his semi got stuck in the ice and snow. A half hour getting it out, an hour unloading by hand, and all the while a screaming hoard of needy pukes wanting handouts. I normally feel all noble and such doing this job, but yesterday was in effect the Mother Of All Mondays. I was spewing. I didn't even get to eat lunch until 3:30, which did not help my disposition at all. So, that's the story, I'm sticking to it.
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Today, let's talk again about roommates. You either believe one of three things. One, the banks don't think three trillion in bailouts will hurt the economy and thus it is all a ploy to steal more money from us and things will get back to normal soon and you won't be upside down in your house anymore. Two, Obammy is our new black knight in white, coming to rescue us and he is your hero and he can do no wrong and he will magically fix the crisis the entire world is in because he looks so charming and is capable of turning out coherent speech, something not seen from the White House in eight years. Or, three, we are all friggin doomed and this is the beginning of the end. Now, if in fact you do believe number three is the correct answer in the multiple choice You Bet Your Life test, you need to immediately raise a bunch of money and prep like crazy before you have any chance at all of making it through the coming die off.
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You can sell all your crap, since soon their won't be a functioning grid to run all of your electronic doo dads. Or any gas to run your off road recreational vehicles. You might want to do that immediately before everyone else is forced to sell for pennies on the dollar to make grocery money. Once that is done, or instead of doing that, the next least painful way of raising cash is to get a roommate. Let us not mince words. Roommates suck. They are an imposition and all are thieving bastards. However, they are quick and tax free cash. I would not recommend getting one if you own much of value. If you can't lock it up, don't consider it secure. Unless you are married and leave the spouse at home. See, here I am being accused of being sexist and talking trash about women ( sorry, I can't remember the two bit word for that right now ), and all along I'm telling you to not force the poor dear to slave away for crap wages and stay at home and get pudgy watching soap operas all day. I care, as you can plainly see. I'm trying to liberate women from the work force, which was an oversold benefit from day one. Instead of being dependant on a spouse they became dependant on Corporate America. Good choice, suckers.
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Okay, so if you can guard your new in house thief, or if you can lock away all your valuables, you now have a good source of cash coming in every month. For the price of a used refrigerator and a lock on it and a few cupboards and your room, you have hundreds of dollars coming in each month. I've had roommates when single. I've had them while married ( at one low point we slept in the living room and rented out both rooms ). Nine times out of ten it is a pain in the ass. But, nothing is free. Stress a little and earn enough in just a few months to get all your preps. Then another few months to buy your junk land, etc. Even if you have kids, you can rent out a room. Or the converted garage. Or a enclosed porch. You think it is impossible, but just wait until the economy really gets bad. Whole families will be cramming in together to make ends meet.
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Get cracking with the extra income. You'll need it.
END

kissing butt

This is the first article of today ( to make up for yesterday ). Tune in at 1pm for my regular article.
KISSING BUTT
I just got done reading the book "Churchill, Hitler, And The Unnecessary War" by Patrick Buchanan. Actually, I read about half of it. You think I can blather on and on, pumping up a few simple ideas into near book length, you should try reading this sleeping pill. So, I read the first third and then skipped around reading whichever chapter sounding good. Basically, from before the First World War on, how poor leadership decisions led to an unnecessary conflict ( or, two of them ). It was fascinating history, but it did tend to just drag on. It had sound conclusions, but I think too much blame was laid in certain laps. What tended to be overlooked was the fact that even if details had varied by alternate decisions, the end would have been about the same. Really, little else could have been done. The First World war finished off the finances of Great Britain, the opening salvo fired off during the economic conflict between her and Germany for some time before the first guns fired. Look at the wars end. Britain had increased her debt fourteen times. Germany was worse off with reparations. Yet Germany bounded back and became a first class economy again. Yes, a war based economy. But then, so was a recovered United States decades later. But Britain did little except continue her decline. In the end, before the Second World war started, she was finished off through appeasement to the US ( in fear of paying back loans ). She destroyed much of her navy, scrapped her friendship with Japan ( which worked out well during the first war and would have continued to provide free Pacific naval policing she could ill afford ). By being in such dire straights economically, she was forced to make one poor decision after another. Each one hastened her fall, although each was thought to be necessary to buy more time.
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Today you can see similar short sighted policies being agreed on because of energy. Topical news subjects bring up the Ukraine and its natural gas supply being held hostage by Russia. Germany, to avoid the same fate, is busy kissing Russian Bear butt. One can't imagine the consequences being as dire from this action as the fate Britain invited eighty years ago, but you never know. The US is, however, doing much worse with its energy policy. Since we import the bulk of our energy, we are so busy kissing butt to gain cheap and abundant energy that it seems natural enough to not even seem like anything other than normal. We have pretty much allowed uncontrolled Mexican immigration, in large part to appease their government who controls the petroleum fields down south. It is only incidental that corporations benefited with downward labor pressures. But as a result of this immigration, we have seem a population explosion that will help speed up resource depletion, especially food. We've doubled our population in the time it took our oil production to halve. And been busy paving over farmland the whole time. Those policies will come home to roost soon. And that is just to get Mexican oil. What idiocy have we embarked on for Saudi oil? Look no further than our two current wars. And that is just the obvious. You can add in a lot of financial shenanigans that have cost us dearly. Even past wars can be attributed to some kind of oil fix.
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The point is that once you start making decisions based on a weakening economy, the door is open to increase your decline through the need to pick the least bad choice. Either choice is bad, but you pick the one that will give you the breathing room to continue to survive. Even if that decision will hasten the fall of your empire years down the road. Just listen to our last leader and the new one waiting to be crowned. They tell us deficits our grandchildren must pay are bad. Yet, they must act now to combat our terrible economic problems. You don't need to be the sharpest marble in the bag to tell they are making the least bad decision and that it will bite us in the butt big time. I would go into the terrible bargains we have made by kissing the ChiComs butt, but something tells me they will be in as worse straights than we are and thus it doesn't matter a whole lot any more. Of course, depressions invite war. Not that either country will invade the other, and more than likely we won't nuke each other. But if conflict is seen as the least bad decision, who knows what will take place. Because we have trashed our economy, we must continue to kiss butt to some, and make poor decisions regarding others. We've spent more bailing out the bankers ( which seems to have had no good result ) than on fighting in Iraq, so it might seem like that conflict can't do as that much harm economically. But, again, if that decision was made partly to seek favor with Saudi Arabia, it is another domino leading to our demise. I don't know the end point of all these bad decisions, other than something less than desirable.
END