Monday, June 30, 2008

Signs Of The Times

The Signs are everywhere you look now days.

In front of homes.
On forlorn vehicles.

FOR SALE

Everyone is trying to dump their gas guzzlers, but who wants to buy?

They are trying to unload their over mortgaged properties, but who can afford them?

Oil has hit a new high at $143 a barrel, driven up by the commodity traders once again. This rampant greed by a small sector of society is making life grim for those on fixed income and the lower wage earning public. It is putting the squeeze on most middle class incomes also, for the most part because they are so deeply in debt to the American dream.

Burst the oil bubble

CONTRACTS FOR BIG OIL IN IRAQ CONFIRM EARLIER SUSPICIONS

Clamp down on these economy destroying bastards you do nothing Congress! Nationalize the damn oil and fuel industry and get these essentials under control again!

I hate government meddling, but there comes a time when enough is enough! Do we let these bastards destroy our nation in the name of Capitalism and profit taking or do we take control and bring this price gouging to an end!

THE CURE FOR HIGH GAS AND FOOD PRICES

Summer is finally here in the PNW. Temperatures have gone from the mid 60's to the mid 90's overnight. I hate it when the weather does that! The garden is going to love it as long as I give it plenty of water.

My grape vine is growing well; it is a cutting I got when the neigbors trimmed their arbor 2 years ago. I just cut the root end on a bevel and poked it into the ground and when spring came around, It Grew! They are a small green grape with seeds and are very sweet when ripe in the fall.

The other plants are doing well now that the torrential rains have quit inundating us daily. By the way, PNW stands for Pacific North Wet.

I have been rather busy around the house since I am now nearly over this cursed cough and sore throat. Allergys compounded by sinus problems?
Perhaps.

Time to hit the yard sales that are everywhere. Some really good bargins are out there to be had. Even if you don't need some of the bargins, they might be worth purchasing to sell on eBay. Use the profits to buy more prep gear. Just be wary of paying too much or buying something of no use just because it is bargin priced. Tools are generally always a good investment.

Be wary of electronics and old computers. The old style monitors are considered hazardous waste when you try to dispose of them, as are most old electronics.

You may find a few firearms this way also, as well as reloading equipment and such. Fishing gear, boating gear, hunting, trapping, etc...

So keep your eyes peeled and stop at every sale you can find. Who knows what treasures you may find!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Featured Link

Yesterday, my youngest son brought me a usb memory stick and said “Dad, I wrote a story and I would like you to read it and tell me what you think.”

I was busy doing something else at the time so I told him I would get to it after I finished.
About an hour later I plugged it in and found the story he had mentioned. He is a novice writer, but thoroughly enjoys it and wants to be an author when he gets out of school.

I think he will be one sooner than that.
What I read was good. Very good.
So good that I set him up with a blog to post his story on.

The blog is called,
Walking Dead: The Cooper Chronicles.

The link to it is the Featured Link near the top of my page on the left-hand side.
I encourage you to read it, it was that good.

He is going to post daily or as least frequently in the form of a journal kept by the central character. I got to read everything he had written, you will have to wait for the posts.

I am going to post his first 2 entries today on my blog to give you a taste of his writing.

===============================================

Sunday, June 22nd, 2010
I did a little experimenting today. It takes headshots to smoke the infected. You can also burn them, but you need patience and the ability to control the fires. The stuff wildly spreads through their ranks when they come in contact with each other. Because of this discovery, I’ve decided to start making Napalm tomorrow. However, I’m going to keep a lot of fuel in reserve for things that need it more. Such as: Vehicles, Lanterns, etc.

I also did inventory. The list below shows all the Ammunition I have. I didn’t want to go through all the weapons I have, there is so damn many it is just too hard to count. I suspect that I’m just as good in that area as I am in ammunition. I also have plenty of Military Goodies stored; just one of the perks of being a class three dealer.

.22LR: 47,250 Rounds
.38 Special: 10,000 Rounds
9mm: 20,000 rounds
.45 ACP: 5,000 rounds
.44 Magnum: 1,000 Rounds
.357 Magnum: 3,570 rounds
.40 S&W: 4,000 rounds
.50 AE: 500 rounds

7.62×39: 3,000 Rounds
7.62×54R: 30,000 rounds
7.62×51: 6,000 Rounds
5.56mm NATO: 5,000 Rounds
.30-06: 10,000 rounds
.303 British: 3,000 rounds
.12 Gauge: 1,000 rounds

.50 Caliber: 100 rounds

I don’t think I’m in too bad of shape in ammunition. I’m looking good in the way of food & water too. I have food & water for a year or so. If this disaster doesn’t blow over in that amount of time, I need to pull out and head for my retreat in Western-Washington. I may end up having to do that before then. If the entire city figures out I have weapons, food, and water back here, I’ll have the entire city coming down on top of me. I’d take a lot of them with me considering I’ve got training and they don’t, but they’d kill me eventually. If they’re not undead cannibals, they’ll be interested in the goods I have in here. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that, I’ll have to scheme up a plan some time.

===============================================

Monday, June 23rd, 2010

Good God, those moans are going to drive me insane. 1: It makes it hard to sleep. 2: It is annoying as hell. 3: Sometimes, you’re laying there in bed and it will scare the shit out of you. I went looking for earplugs this morning, but guess what? I couldn’t find any! I’m considering playing music while I sleep like I used to do when I was younger. The problem with that is, it would get my ears used to receiving unusual sounds. Which means, if they were to successfully get inside while I slept, I wouldn’t ever wake up because I wouldn’t hear them coming.

This kind of makes me wish I had spent that money on sound-proofing my walls, but then again, how was I suppose to know the dead were going to get up and sprint after the living?

It helps to get up in the middle of the night to pick some of them off. However, the more I do that; the more I give my position away to other enemies.

Aside from the bastards using Physiological Warfare on me, I have other news.

It seems, the phones are out but the internet is up. On the internet, there is this map of the world with red-spots that constantly grow. The first headline below that on MSN was “The Dead Walk” or something like that. That caused me to nickname them Deads. It just seemed like a great thing to call them to me. The other options were “Zeds” and “Zombies”. It’s just too ridiculous to believe, so I’ll stick with Deads for now.

The CB is getting panicky messages from all over the city; Calls for help, various things of that nature. This city is just loaded with Sheeple. That’s what cities are, Sheeple Zones. I can’t believe Jamie talked me into moving here. Oh well, least Portland has a lot of Gun Stores.

There is no news coming from the Television. All of the stations are either on Emergency Broadcasting or off the air entirely. Yesterday, there was little bits and pieces of news on TV, now there is nothing. I think everybody running the TV stations are dead.
I heard some guy on the CB babbling about a military response coming soon. I don’t know much about that, but this could be a problem. Whatever the Government’s plan for us in this disaster is, it can’t be good. They’ll probably try to use us as bait while they pull back to their holes and hide. I’m just going to sit tight where I am and wait this thing out. I’ll probably try to make some earplugs while I’m at it.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Henry vs The JBT's pt 2

Predator Team 3

The team consisted of 10 men, with 9 actively entering the house and one providing radio support in case backup was needed. Once the victims were secured, they called in an extraction team which placed the victims in specially modified van with leg shackles installed to keep the prisoners secured. Predator Team 3 came into being after Teams 1 and 2 were destroyed by armed resistance on two separate occasions. Earlier teams had only six team members, but now they were beefed up to ten.

Team 3 consisted of: Willy Sherman, Robert Mugabe, Jesse Parker, Adrian Gonzales, T.J. Fellowes, Zane Williams, Frank Montgomery, Jerry Jacobs, Danny Freeman and Ahmed Fashkazar.

Most all of Team 3 had served together under UN operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. They had learned to enjoy raping the Muslim women and then killing them when they finished. Mugabe was the most twisted of them, as he loved to stomp kittens in front of the little children that owned them. The children's anguish gave him great joy, but the others only thought the behavior to be a little weird. Such was the level of their depravity.

--------------------------<<>>----------------------------

The Operatives

Team 3 loaded up into the 2 black Suburban’s and the black Van and headed out to the target location. Since they were located in a major metropolis, the ride out to the location of the victim was over an hour in length. Sherman grumbled about the length of the ride and was hooted down by the rest of the team in the car with him, even though they hated it too.

"Damn yokels anyway !" thought Sherman, feeling grumpy after being chastised by his teammates. "I hope I get to kill someone." he thought to himself. Mugabe was lost in thoughts of rape and plunder, and didn't pay much attention to the others.

Williams grinned as he thought about the last Op's they performed. He got himself some sweet young stuff that time. "Who cares if she was only 12" he thought. "The younger the better." Gonzales was busy watching the road as he drove, and kept his thoughts to himself.

In the other Suburban, Fellowes was napping as Parker fiddled with his combat knife. Jacobs and Freeman were arguing about which football team was going to win the Sunday game while Jacobs drove.

Montgomery and Fashkazar drove in silence in the van, both lost in their own thoughts about the upcoming raid.

--------------------------<<>>----------------------------

Action

Team 3 arrived at Henry's at precisely 2:40 am. The driveway was 100 feet long, and since they were lazy they drove up 50 feet before stopping the vehicles. Unknown to them, they had just activated Henry's security system. Parker, as team leader, pulled out his night vision binoculars and surveyed the house: "Nothing moving" he announced to the team. "Alright, everyone into position and wait for my mark before you move."

The team quickly and quietly geared up, donned their night vision and headed for their assigned positions. Sherman, Mugabe and Parker moved up to the front door with Parker holding the ram and Mugabe standing by with the shotgun loaded with the breeching shells.

The steps were too narrow for Fellowes, Williams and Harvey to stand next to the window so Williams and Harvey backed off to a position in the yard 10 feet behind Fellowes. Harvey would have to throw his grenade at the instant the sledge hammer hit the window so as get the timing right.

Everyone reported that they were in position, so Parker started his count: "1... 2... 3... this poor bastard is going down hard" he thought to himself. ""Everything is falling into place, just as planned."

"Mark!"

And at this point, things started to go wrong.

Very wrong!

Harvey pulled the pin on his grenade and arced his arm back for the throw as Fellowes swung his sledge. Just before the sledge impacted the window he threw the grenade.

BROOONWWWNGG!

The sledge hammer rebounded back off the window and caught Fellowes square on the helmet, knocking him backwards over the railing to the ground 4 feet below. The grenade bounced off the window, hit the handrail and finally landed at the feet of the trio at the door.

"Oh Shi....' Ka-Boom went the grenade, stunning and blinding all three as they stumbled around the small porch, bumping into each other.

"Oh my god!" said Harvey. "What just happened?" Fellowes was not moving, as the accelerated fall had snapped his neck when he landed on his head. Williams was just standing there with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

When the driveway alarm sounded, Henry bolted out of bed and climbed through the trapdoor and down the ladder to his OP's center. He quickly slid into his clothes, laced his boots and was soon ready for action. The control board was lighting up in four areas: The driveway, the front porch, the west side of the house, and finally, the deck in the back.

Henry flipped the switches that turned on the heat lamps, electric blankets and the audio countermeasures. He then flipped the switches that remotely triggered the strobes and half the smoke grenades, not wanting to wait for the entry to employ these tactics.

The entry team slowly recovered and forced themselves back to the task at hand. Parker swung the ram expecting the door to give way, but it bounced back and hit Sherman in the the knee, eliciting a string of profanity from him. Parker swung again, and again the ram bounced back, this time narrowly missing Mugabe.

"This damn door is reinforced!" Shouted Parker. “Get the LAW”.

Williams sprinted to the van to equip himself with the teams only LAW rocket as the entry team retreated from the door. As Williams trotted back into camera view Henry issued his own string of profanity. He wasn't prepared for explosives!

Williams had informed Fashkazar of the events while retrieving the LAW. Fashkazar then relayed the developments to HQ where the commander cussed him out for being an incompetent boob. Swearing under his breath, he went back to monitoring the radio traffic of the team.

By the time Williams returned, the entry team had cleared the porch and were dragging Fellowes limp body away from where he fell.

"He's Dead. Necks broke" said Sherman. "I can see that you idiot" snapped Parker. The two exchanged glares and then turned back toward the house.

"Fire that damn weapon Williams!" barked Parker. Williams shouldered the LAW, aimed it et the front door lock, and fired.

Whooossshh FABOOOM!

The door flew open as the latch and door jam were blown away. The shattered door swung back and forth for a few moments and then became still. Smoke billowed out the gaping hole as the entry team raced back up the steps. The Strobes were casting their weird effect through the opening, rendering the night vision useless. They tossed them aside and entered the smoldering doorway.

Sherman, Mugabe and Parker didn't know what hit them. As they leaped thru the doorway they broke the light beam that controlled the solenoid on the crossbow. They would never go home again, as the crossbow in the corner did its job. Three 3 foot long pieces of sharpened rebar leaped from its cable with one piece passing thru all three of them, penetrating their body armor with ease and leaving a one inch hole behind.

One of the rebar passed thru Gonzales kevlar helmet as he stood watching and pinned him to Henrys old camper. Shocked and angered by the sudden demise of their fellow JBT's, Williams and Harvey stormed thru the door, looking for something to shoot.

While all this was happening, Montgomery, Jacobs and Freeman were trying to secure entrance thru the sliding glass door on the back deck. Much to their surprise it was protected by a wrought Iron gate that was locked from the inside. There was no way to reach the lock as it was protected by a steel plate and it would take forever to try to disassemble the construct from the outside.

Their next target was the back door, although their plans hadn't covered entry from there. As the 3 of them stepped up to breach the door, they were greeted by a fine spray of kerosene that soaked their vests and pants. They heard a soft click and were greeted by a propane torch on full.

The kerosene mist exploded into a fireball and their fuel soaked clothes caught fire instantly making them into human torches, running around Henry's backyard as they tried in vain to extinguish the flames. Their screams of fear and pain were heard by the pair in the house who thought that it was coming from their intended victims.

"Take down the door!" roared Williams as he and Harvey confronted Henry's bedroom door. Harvey fired 2 shots at each of the hinges with his shotgun only to discover the breaching shells had no effect on the reinforced door hinges. As they attacked the door, Henry triggered the pepper spray canisters he had added at the last moment, dousing them with it. While they stumbled around coughing and choking from the spray, Henry flipped the switch to open the dogs room. The door slid open and the Rottweiler’s sprang out searching for the intruders who were making such a racket.

They found them in the living room, and the coughing and choking turned to screams of terror and pain as the dog's ripped into them. Once the dogs found their throats, their cries stopped and all that could be heard was the dogs growling as they worried the corpses. Fashkazar rushed from his post at the radio to come to his teams aid. Their screams and cry’s had stirred him up and he was ready for some payback.

As he approached the house he slowed to take in the situation. One team member with his head pinned to a camper, and what looked to be a couple laying in a heap at the entrance door, and "Wait, what’s that movement on the roof? It looks like a piece of pipe or an antenna being...." BOOM!

The turret Henry had designed using small drive motors, a surveillance camera, a laser sight and a Highpoint 9mm carbine had done its job. Fashkazar slumped to the ground while his third eye began to weep a mixture of blood and brains.

Henry secured the dogs and then prepared the final welcome for the follow on crew he knew would be coming to cleanup the operation. He collected all the weapons and gear he wanted which he then loaded in his van. He set out and lit the kerosene lamps and flipped the final switches in the OP's center. After quickly searching the vehicles for gear, he tossed a homemade thermite grenade into each of the teams vehicles. He then loaded up the dogs and drove off to his retreat. Elapsed time: 20 minutes.

The retreat was an hours drive away.

--------------------------<<>>----------------------------

Curses, Foiled Again

The helicopter with the Reaction team arrived shortly and hovered over Henry's house, surveying the corpses of Team 3 that were visible from their vantage point.

The smoldering burnt out hulks of Team 3's vehicles were the only vehicles present. "React Team to command, no sign of life, suspect's vehicle is missing."

The commander had dispatched the Reaction team after failing to contact Predator team 3 on the comm link.

"Land and investigate. I am coming with the procurement team. ETA 1 hour. "

Henry arrived at his retreat and set up his laptop. He connected to the web app that his surveillance cameras sent their feed to, and watched the JBT's wander around his now abandoned house. He listened to them talk over the audio feed and learned that the rest of the command was nearing his house.

So he waited.

The commander and the Procurement team arrived and entered the house. "What is the situation?" asked the commander.

"Team 3 is wiped out sir." reported a nervous underling. "Well why in the hell aren't these doors open?" the commander said. "We'll get right on it sir!"

The commander set his laptop out on the kitchen table and pulled up Henry's file. The only copy of Henry's file. He trusted no one so all the information he gathered was stored on that one computer.

'I'm going to have to back these files up pretty soon." he thought to himself.

"And why in the hell would these kerosene lanterns all be lit? Surely this guy is a whacko!"

Henry clicked a button on his screen once he saw everyone was inside. The computer in the OP's center asked him if he was sure, and he clicked a button again. Under the house, an electric fuel pump began pumping a mixture of kerosene and gasoline into the carefully hidden fuel line mounted under the ceiling tiles. Starting with the bedrooms first, then the hall and kitchen, and finally the living room, the nozzles sprayed forth their deadly fluid.

"Get out! Get out!" screamed the commander as he was blanketed with fuel.

The mist reached the kerosene lamps and.....

The resulting explosion was heard 50 miles away.

Henry closed up the laptop, fed the dogs and sat down to an ice cold beer.

"Now what to do" he thought.

The End

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Henry vs The JBT's pt 1

Some of you may be familiar with Henry from "Barter: The Currency After The Crash" which was posted on Bison Survival Blog by Jim Dakin as a guest post (September 30, 2007) .

This story is an adventure of Henry's that happened during the crash, as the S was HTF.

=============================================

Henry was worried. He had been hearing of raids by the JBT's on fellow prepper friends; Early morning raids occuring while the targets slept. His friends were not seen again, and inquiries into their whereabouts were meet with threats and intimidation. It seems that the targets were too high profile in their conversations on the internet about what kinds of weapons and how much ammo, as well as food supplies they had stashed. Their public criticism of the Government had contributed to their demise.

After the raids, it was all gone. All family members as well as their goods, gone. The rumors were flying thick and fast, so much so that Henry quit listening and decided he needed to do something to protect himself.

Henry decided that he first needed to understand the tactics used by the JBT's in order to defeat them. Their number one tactic was Dynamic Entry. This tactic allowed them to daze and confuse their victims and to overwhelm them with superior numbers.

The gist of this tactic was to post teams at each entrance or exit. The front door was the main entry point where they employed one of three different methods to enter: Door breaching shells in a shotgun to take out the hinges, A battering ram to knock down the door, or a entryway spreading jack that would allow the door to be opened without using the previous 2 methods.

Before the door was breached, a 2 man team was assigned to disable the victims with flash bang grenades. One man was assigned to take out the bedroom window with a sledgehammer and the other to toss in the grenade as the window and curtain were swept out by the sledge. The front door is then breached as this other action occurred followed by the JBT's swarming into the bedroom and overwhelming the stunned victims.

Henry's first act of hardening his home was to relocate most all of his gear to off site caches and to his primary retreat location. Next, he installed 3 foot high sheets of 1/4" thick hardened steel plate along the outside walls of his bedroom. This was covered by Kevlar material with a 1/2" piece of plywood backing that up. While this would probably not stop armor piercing bullets, it would stop shotgun, .223 and most all handgun calibers used by the JBT's.

The glass in the windows was replaced with polycarbonate sheets. Around the inside of the windows was a frame with hangers on which an expanded metal grate was hung. It was secured in place with 4 quick pull pins so that in an emergency such as a fire, the grate could be removed quickly.

All of the bedroom doors were replaced with reinforced steel exterior doors that were painted to resemble a standard wooden interior door. The hinges were replaced with heavy duty steel hinges as well as strips of piano style hinges that ran between the HD steel hinges. The door also had a deadbolt installed with steel reinforced door jams.

On the bedroom side, there were small interlocking loops for pins to be dropped into, essentially making it a wall rather than a door. the door frame itself was replaced with 4" steel square tube welded up to form the frame. Steel plates welded to the bottom were mated to long steel plates under the subfloor which in turn were bolted together and covered back up by the carpet. Normal wood trim hid the whole construct. This was repeated for all the bedroom doors as well as the front and back porch doors.

Next Henry installed a video security system that covered 8 different angles from the eaves of the house. The system could record via IR illumination and was motion activated. it also could be remotely monitored from a web based application in real-time.

In the closet of the master bedroom, he installed a trap door that led down a short ladder into an underground bunker. it was in this bunker that he setup a small OP's center with commo equipment as well as the heart of his video surveillance system. It also had several long arms with ammo, a B.O.B., assorted gear, water and food as well as a latrine.

The Op's center was designed to be able to run for 24 hours with no outside power. It had a UPS with a battery bank that was able to be recharged either with the solar panels on his roof or a small genset as well as grid power.

He installed a control board with lights and switches to control the remote security measures that he had placed. The board was laid out in such a manner as to represent Henry's house and property.

A driveway alert sensor would trigger a soft alarm chime next to the headboard of his bed. Motion detectors at different tactical locations would light up the board as they were activated. Once in the OP's center Henry could check out the activity on the board and know what cameras to view to become aware of the developing situation.

On the sliding glass doors leading to Henry's deck, he built a wrought iron gate that moved on a trolley system mounted to the top and bottom of the gate to slide out of the way when not in use. When closed, the locking mechanism was protected by a steel plate, rendering attempts to unlock from outside ineffective.

Henry decided to try something different at the back door. Here he installed a small steel pressurized tank full of kerosene which was plumbed to 4 spray nozzles: 2 at chest level on either side of the door frame and 2 at the foot of the door angled up towards knee height. The fuel to the nozzles was cutoff by an electrically controlled flow valve.

For an ignition device, he used a piezeo electric ignited propane torch. 1/2 second after the kerosene nozzles quit spraying, the torch lit, igniting the kerosene vapor into a fireball which would engulf anyone who was unlucky enough to be there.

If anyone were to gain entry through the front door, they would trigger smoke grenades and 3 different strobe lights to defeat both normal and night vision. Heat lamps and electric blankets would help defeat any IR devices used to detect body heat and speakers in the ceilings produced the sounds of crowds moving in public places to defeat any acoustic sensing equipment.

One of the spare bedrooms was converted to a dog kennel and Henry bought 2 Rottwiellers which he had trained by a friend who was experienced in guard dog training. Henry named them Turk and Juno and they happily took up their posts within the house.

On the roof Henry mounted a surprise for any intruders that might be standing off from the house.

The last defensive measure Henry built was a crossbow wtih a 6 foot prod. Made from an automobile leaf spring, it required a come-a-long to cock and was mounted on a 4x4 framework secured to the floor. It was loaded with three pieces of 1" rebar, 3 feet long and sharpened to a point on one end. It was connected to a solenoid that would trigger if a light beam was interupted. It covered the front door.

Monday, August 9th, 2010.

Henry was now ready. He got on the Internet and joined several chat groups, posted some inflammatory anti Government remarks, signed off and went to bed. It's was now a waiting game. The trap was baited.

=============================================

JBT Headquarters 9:00 am, Friday August 12th, 2010.

The briefing room was full of idle chatter as the "Predator Team" waited to be briefed on their latest mission. The room quieted as the commander entered to conduct the meeting.

"Tonight’s mission will be a simple one," he intoned. "The subject is a single man living in a single story 3 bedroom rambler. Here is the floor plan as provided by the county auditor. However, the home is on a built up foundation so the bedroom windows are at six feet. There are stairs leading to the front porch beneath the master bedroom window which will allow standard entry tactics. "

"The house has a back door and sliding glass doors exiting onto a rear deck. I want entry team one at the front, team two at master bedroom window, and team three to cover both the deck and the back door. "

"Once subdued, the subject is to be transported to FEMA camp Red. Anyone else in the home is to be transported to interrogation headquarters. The slightest resistance is to be met with lethal force. Any questions?"

"Do we get to keep any loot we find?" asked a voice from the back.

"Standing orders are all recorded goods are to be delivered to procurement teams. If it is not on your list, it doesn't exist."

"Yehaa, kitten stompin time boy's!" said the voice from the back.

"Ops to commence at 3:00 am Friday August 13th, 2010" said the commander as he left the podium. "Happy hunting boys"

Part 2 tomorrow.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Bit’s and Pieces

So far it has been a mostly cold and wet Pacific Northwest spring. My poor little garden of plants is not doing well with the wet and cold. With climate change happening as we speak, it becomes all to clear that we might not be able to grow all our own food, even with greenhouses and coldframes.

Be mindful to stock lots of non-hybrid seed to be able to deal with crop failure, be it weather, insect, or mammal related. Stock up on your basic grains and legumes to provide for these lean times between crops.

When it comes to producing meat protein, the rabbit can not be beat for cost per pound. They are able to flourish on just a vegetation diet, which you can provide from nature. Of course it helps to feed them a more balanced food from a feed store, but that will increase the cost of your meat.

Another plus is the manure which is great for your compost/worm bed. You can also add it directly to your garden as it will not burn it like chicken manure will. Another option is to make a “Tea” to water your garden with.

Evidence of Collapse

From the little bit of driving that I do, I am observing the economic collapse of America in it’s slow slide. All manner of Gas Guzzler’s line the highway with for sale signs blossoming from their windows. Trucks, motorhomes, cars; you name it, it’s there. As far as the motorhomes, there are no cheap ones. That is because they are quietly being bought up by those who are on the edge, so they have somewhere to live when the hammer falls.

I am seeing people doubling up. Campers that are obviously being lived in, 5th wheel trailers that are setup in yards. This will happen more and more and it will bring septic problems to those who are providing the land. Septic systems are designed around how many bedrooms you have, with a max occupancy of 2 persons per bedroom. When you exceed this amount you are asking for problems.

Mental Outlets

Under the stress of normal everyday life, we find we need to unload and get away from it all. In a SHTF situation, the stress will be multitudes greater than now. How will you deal with it then? Collect books, magazines, board games, dice for Yatzee, Hoyles Book of Rules and decks of cards. Maybe even stash some hard liquor for a really bad time. Like when you have just buried a loved one. Make it pints, as you just need a little, not a lot. Put it under joint control, so that both party’s must agree before it can be consumed.

Perhaps the best outlet for many will be their belief in God, and they will turn to the comfort of the bible. Another great way to deal with stress is to have pets. I have heard that petting your cat will lower your blood pressure. And a dog will love you way more than you will love your dog. Your dog will die defending you, will you die to defend your dog? Thought so.

Laughter is a great stress reliever so a printed book of jokes from which to read will serve well during SHTF living. There are ton’s of jokes online so get to work making and printing your own joke book.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Face Of Evil, cont....

Official: Mugabe wins re-election after opposition pulls out

content edited due to low-life scum suing bloggers for alleged copyright infringement


There is no punishment too heinous to be applied to Robert Mugabe. I personally feel he and his supporters should be publicly necklaced and televised for the world to observe. He is in the league of Hitler and Idi Amin.

If Bush was a "Real" president, he would send Mugabe a couple of cruise missiles to enjoy. But alas, he is closer to Mugabe than we realize, so that will never happen.

My heart goes out to these people and their suffering, for one day it may be our turn to endure as they. They have only one recourse now. The bullet box. I hope someone will give them the support they need to overthrow this vicious and evil man.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Price of Disarmament

Military 'runs Mugabe campaign'

content edited due to low-life scum suing bloggers for alleged copyright infringement


The problems faced by the people of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) should be an example to the rest of us as to what can happen when you give up your firearms and your political leader wants to stay in office for life. Not satisfied with destroying his countrys economy, Mugabe wants to destroy it's people also. Since they have no weapons, the people are brutalized by Mugabes thugs.

Is this all at the behest of his Chinese handlers? They are the ones that bankrolled his terrorist forces before they came to power in Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe. If the population is decimated then chinese workers can come in to run the farms rather than the legitmate citizens of Rhodesia. (hard to force myself to call it by the new terrorist name)

China must have more arable land to produce food for it's huge population. It is sticking it's nose into every third world nation, trying to buy up everything it can as it becomes the new consumer nation. This will eventually lead to war with the Western nations as their intrests are threatened by China's comsumption. China is modernizing it's armed forces to be on an equal or superior footing with the west.

While we wear out our military in the middle east, China is rebuilding and renewing it's forces to project it's intrests worldwide. And since they hold so much of our foriegn debt, they could blow our economy out of the water with a single sneeze.

I would not be surprised if they did not bankroll the anti-gun crowd as it would be in their best intrest to have the population disarmed to make a take over easier to accomplish. They do not want to face a nation of gun owners, eager to get some payback.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Self Watering Garden

When my parents lived nearby, I would stop by frequently after work, shoot the breeze and see what projects my Dad was working on. Dad was an incredibly talented handyman and could make anything from what most people would consider a pile of junk.

Having been born during the Great Depression, the lessons he learned carried him thru his lifetime. He and my Mom always had a garden and were always sending fresh produce home with me to feed the family.

Dad had built a small green house in his typical recycled material manner and it was a very interesting setup. For a watering system he used drip irrigation. For a water reservoir he used an old toilet tank with ball float assembly. When the water got low enough in the tank, it would refill from the garden hose he had attached to it.

For an automatic vent system to regulate the temperature, he used a plastic strip that would stretch when it got hot, allowing the vents to open, and when it cooled down, it would shrink and pull the vents closed. Quite the setup I must say.

I had originally intended to build a large greenhouse to use all my glass, but now I think I will build a smaller version modeled on what my Dad had built. It produced a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers as I remember, and would be a good setup for growing onion sets and radishes.

Combined with a good set of cold frames, I believe this would be enough to get me my starts for setting out as well as growing into the winter months, as a smaller greenhouse will be easier to heat with scrap wood from work.

Monday, June 16, 2008

A Book Review, Of Sorts

I was tired of surfing the Internet last night and decided to lay down to read. I didn't want to get into anything "heavy" so I picked a small paperback written by Gary Paulson called Brian's Return. The book is part of a series written about a boy who survived a plane crash in the deep north (Canada). It is written more for juvenile readers and I had bought it to help introduce my youngest son to the survival mindset.

As I read it I began to be a little more absorbed and didn't notice the time. I finished the book and looked at the clock which read 11:38 PM. Oops! I have to get up at 4:00 to get ready for work! Of course, I couldn’t fall asleep because, I needed to. So I lay there and thought about what I would do if I were put in the same position as this young man.

The books I read as a youth inspired a love of the outdoors as well as that of adventure: Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, The Boxcar Children, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, My Side of the Mountain, and a few more that I can't remember at this moment.

After reading this book I began to feel the same urges, the longing for the woods and freedom of the out of doors, the smell of wood smoke and the sighing of wind in the trees. I guess you are never to old to be one with nature.

In modern life we block out nature, enclosing ourselves in cacoons of sheetrock, fiberglass, wood, vinyl, aluminum and glass. We hide from the stars under steel and composition roofs, denying ourselves the freedom of the open sky.

If you have young children, take the opportunity to read these books to them at bedtime. You will instill in them a love for books and adventure, and perhaps kindle the spirit of survival in them also, creating a lifelong path of self sufficiency and acquiring skills sets for the future. Take them camping and teach them survival skills. It is an adventure they will not soon forget!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Thank You

I would like to thank all of you who have expressed concern over my recent illness.
I am feeling much better today and will probably be nearly well by tomorrow.

A special thanks go's out to Patricia (The Handmaiden) for her remedies and suggestions for overcoming this illness.

I spent most of the time sleeping as much as I could so I am way behind on my planned posts.

I am planning a series on security measures, some as I implement them and others as ideas to bounce off you, so keep checking back.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Falling Apart At The Seams

Mayors ask Congress to help fix U.S. infrastructure


content edited due to low-life scum suing bloggers for alleged copyright infringement


Gee, who would of thought that with all the billions going to enrich Haliburton and friends in Iraq, that our own country would be falling apart at the seams. I guess it is no longer desireable to keep the infrastructure back home in any kind of shape.

"Hmmm, your city is no longer livable, time to move your residents to our newly completed (by Haliburton) FEMA camps. We have all the necessities for Life (repressive slavery) at our camps."

It seems the system is being encouraged to fail by the neglect of our leaders.

When it comes time to move the population into camps, those who remain in the city will be at a disadvantage. Egress routes will be cordoned off by troops as they clear the city block by block. Whether they use busses or train cars, it won't matter to the occupants, the result is the same: Enslavement for your meals, labor for your upkeep.

A "Radiaological Event" may occur, allowing them unrestricted authority to empty any city. Just the possibility of a threat may allow them to evacuate any city. After all, who would want to stay in a city threatened with nuclear destruction by Al-Qaeda.

Hospitals, Healthcare Centers, Dentists and Pharmacies may be dismantled and setup in only the camps. Needing any sort of healthcare will require you to enter. Once in, you will never leave.

This will be all justified under centralized logistics. One shipping point, many distribution points within the camp. Everyone will be served! Dwindling fuel supplies may become the trigger for this.

This could be your future if you are not wary.
Prepare like there is no tomorrow.
The Government has sold it and you only think you have more time.

Thanks to all who inquired as to the state of my health. I'm still sick, but feeling a bit better.
I still have nightime fevers though. Kinda strange, those fevers. They seem absent during the day, but I wake with cold sweats and decidedly odd dreams.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Battling The Bug

I'm battling a bug this weekend and so far its kicking my ass. My meds for fighting this type of crap have been depleted by the last round and I have not built them back up yet.

Post SHTF there will be little avaiable in over the counter meds so it is a priority now to identify those that are needed to fight my (and yours) most common ailments.

For me it is sinus, throat and chest related illnesses, so I need to stockpile those items that will combat the bugs in those areas. I have plenty of cough drops but no benadryl and only one bottle of night time medicine. I will also need to stock up on decongestants.

Now post SHTF, this stuff will go fast and herbal replacements must be either grown or identified in the wild. Three good sources for info on herbs are: Back To Eden by Jethro Kloss, The Herb Handbook by John Lust, and The Naturopathic Handbook of Herbal Formulas by Richard Scalzo.

I'm sure there are hundreds more but I'm going to go back to bed now and hopefully I will be ready for work tomorrow. Feel free to post your favorites to share with the rest of us.

Friday, June 6, 2008

I Believe

I believe...

Those two words have sparked heated debates, angry words and nods of agreement. We all have our own beliefs of what will ensue once TSHTF.

We have a plethora of pending disasters that could in our mind, trigger a SHTF event. Avian Influenza is a ticking time bomb according to the WHO. Climate Change is already affecting many as we can see by all the storm related deaths around the world and, here at home.

Famine, caused by climate change will affect the poorer nations before the western nations begin to feel it much. Peak Oil will make an essential product unavailable except to the richer nations, and those who produce it themselves. Trading food for oil is not too far fetched to happen.

UG99 Wheat Stem Rust will decimate crops world wide, but Monsanto will save us, or enslave us with their control over our seed stock. I encourage everyone to stock up on non-hybrid seeds and learn to grow your own food. Learn to save seed for your next years plantings.

Even buying the hybrid seed is not a totally bad thing if you store it in the refrigerator or freezer. Buy as much seed as you can now while it is still available. You will have weather related failures as well as insect pests to contend with.

You should stock up on supplys to build greenhouses with, as there is no guarentee that the weather will cooperate for growing food. Clear plastic and black plastic will be indespensible for this purpose. If you have the chance, salvage windows from Craigslist as people are remodeling all the time. Use them to build Cold Frames and in your greenhouse construction.

I believe that those who do not prepare now, will have no chance later as prices spiral out of control on essential goods. It will begin to take all of their disposable income just to keep food on their table and gas in their tank.

Gas has hit $4.25 a gallon here now, and will probably be $5.00 by Labor Day. I am actively looking at other forms of transportation now in an effort to not feed the greedy bastards who keep driving up the price of fuel and everything else in our consumer society.

I looked at soup in the local grocery store: $1.67 for a can of Campbells condensed Beef soup. The store brand was $0.10 cheaper. These prices are criminal. I try to buy only the out of date meat and other products from this store now. I toss the extra meat in the freezer and use the rest up as quickly as possible.

As soon as chicken goes on sale again I will begin to start canning it instead of freezing. I would not want to loose all that meat if the power went out long term. Canning is a great way to add some normalcy to your food storage. Cooking up soups and stews, chili, and tomato sauces, salsa and fruit: It all is a good addition to the beans, rice and wheat.

I have two food dehydrators that I am going to start up making jerky and hamburger rocks. I am going to dry in season fruit and vegetables and create my own soup mixes in pint jars. I have been saving all the glass jars and lids that I generate rather than throw them out or send to recycle. They will work well for storing dry mixes and dehydrated foods.

One of my favorite snack foods is Tim's cascade Style Potato Chips. They come in a sealed mylar/aluminized lined plastic bag. I think I will experiment with resealing these. If it works I will be able to have my chips and long term stored grain too!

Monday, June 2, 2008

The Marlin Model 60 Survival Rifle

The Marlin Glennfield Model 60 was my very 1st rifle. I bought it when I turned 18 and just recently gave it to my youngest son for his 15th birthday. Long before I was married (and divorced), a co-worker sold me his Marlin for $50.00. So now I have 2 too customize.

Due to an early experiment (didn't work out) at trying to create a folding stock, 1 of the rifles was needing a replacement. So I chose the Dragunov as the only other stock was a factory version. I like a pistol grip and it has the "cool" factor.

Part of the fun of owning a rifle is to customize it to your own liking.
So I did (am).

I wanted to create a survival/foraging rifle that would take small game yet be something I could just grab and go if needed. This is what I have come up with so far.

The heart of this survival kit is the Marlin Model 60 with ATI Dragunov stock.
Next item I added is the QD swivels and sling.
Then I followed up with a 3x9 40mm scope w/rings and lens cap. If you use low mounts, the front lens cap will not fit without modifying it.
A nice folding Bipod for those important prone shots (Harvesting Game, Varmints, etc...)
Heres a look at the bipod mounting system. I'm not real fond of it as I had to use some spacers to get some of the slack out of it.

My solution is to drill and tap the mount, then epoxy it to the stock. The bipod can be removed and the mount used for something else. Here is it folded up.

The Uncle Mikes Sidesaddle shotgun buttstock shotshell carrier will hold 3+ empty plastic medicine bottles, depending on how you arrange them.

There are loops for 5 shells, but the medicine bottles are much larger around than a 12 guage shell so only a few will fit. You could use a thin walled plastic tube with press fit ends if you can find enough.

One bottle is filled with .22lr
One is filled with wooden matches
One is filled with cotton balls soaked with petroleum jelly
One will have an emergency fishing kit
40 feet of 550 para cord is wound onto the stock

Under the elastic buttstock is 2 contractor trash bags taped together and a survival blanket, as well as a mora knife, butane lighter and swedish fire steel.
Using a sewing machine to create a modified button hole like stitch, I will be adding slots for attaching a Molle style pouch for more gear.

This same setup can be used with the Ruger 10/22 when utilising the ATI stock.
Another future upgrade is this laser/flashlight setup for night time varmint shooting (weasel in the henhouse).

With the addition of some of this,

no one will know your poppin' weasels (or coyotes) at night.

Ain't she sweet?