Under the Coffee Table- Security in a Sometimes Scary World

Get Your Peanunt Butter While It's Cheap........

2011-10-18T16:04:00.000-06:00

Bad harvest, poor crop. Major brands are planning on raising prices next month - November 2011. FYI.

Leave Your Troubles Behind.....

2011-10-05T21:26:00.000-06:00

Our Hometeachers came by tonight and gave us a nice lesson on the Church Welfare system, and how able the Church is to respond and help in so many areas in the world when there is an earthquake or a hurricane or other natural disaster. This line of conversation led to various points about personal preparedness and no matter where you live, you can find yourself in a situation where you will not be able to buy what you need.

We talked about hurricanes and tornadoes and the possibility of an earthquake along the Wasatch Front. We have had a tornado, but it was a little one and it's damage was not widespread. If an earthquake struck the cities up north, even Sweet Haven might find itself without power, communications, natural gas, and possibly resupply of food and fuel.

We talked about an epic trip that S2 and D2 took one day on their bikes. We were slated to pick Annie up at the airport sometime in the early evening. These two kids were pretty restless and wanted to go on a bike trip, so I told them to take off, and I would pick them up along the way. I had chores and projects - I don't remember exactly what, but I didn't get on the road until they had about a 5 hour start. We drove and drove in the old Ford Van and I kept thinking I would see them over the next hill, but that was not happening and I was getting worried that something had happened to them. Finally about 43 or so miles from Sweet Haven we caught up with them. They hadn't taken much in the way of supplies - if you read this S2 or D2, please fill in any detail that my old brain has forgotten. I think they took some water, but used it up, and didn't take any food. They were expecting me to pick them up much sooner than the 5 hours it took me to get on the road. I was amazed at how far they had traveled. I think D2 was 9 or 10, and S2 would have been 13 or 14.

Many years ago, when I was in college, I was surprised to find a good friend show up at my doorstep, on his bike with little more than a book pack and light jacket. He had biked down from Moo U. to Flatirons U - about 60 miles when he decided that he just couldn't go back to his apartment. He really couldn't. As he approached his apartment, coming back from class, he saw several police cars and police men, and they were packing his roommates into the cars and they were in handcuffs. Lief continued right on by the scene and just headed out of town. It seems that one of the roommates had a marijuana plant in the window of his room, and a meter reader saw it and turned them in. Lief didn't know what was going on at the time, but he knew he didn't want to get hauled off in the confusion and so he just disappeared. I doubt that the police spent any time looking for him, but a lone guy, riding a bike is much less conspicuous than a guy in a car with a color, make, model and license plate. So he just continued on down and stayed the weekend with me. On Sunday I rode about half way back with him, and when he got back to Moo U. everything had been sorted out, and he was in not trouble.

I didn't start this post with the idea of singing the praises of the bicycle, but that must be a little on my mind as these stories came easily to mind. We see quite a few long distance bicyclers on the roads going to and from Sweet Haven. Some of them have panniers and packs, some of them are hooked to trailers. None of them are moving very fast. But they have all come a long distance - we know this because Sweet Haven is near the edge of no-where, and many miles from any city of even modest size. Sweet Haven is not in a well watered, verdant, fruitful landscape. The topography varies from reasonably productive, irrigated farms nearby, to juniper covered desert hills, to parched sandy flats, to empty, seemingly endless greasewood covered plains. And still they manage to come. Carrying water, food, shelter, dodging cars, semi-trucks and buses, the crawl along the roads at a few miles per hour. When night comes, they might be in a town, but they might be on the road and just pull off into the scrub and make a quiet camp. You will never see them, not at all the same as if they were driving.

I guess that I don't have a real conclusion to this other than I am frequently surprised how far you can go, and how much you can carry on a bike. If you had to go from the airport in SLC to Sweet Haven on foot it might take you two weeks. On even an bargain basement bike, a thrift store special, and weather permitting, you would stand a good chance of making it in two days, at the most in three. All with no gas, no electricity, with nothing more than a tire pump, a patch kit, a couple of gallons of water, and maybe a jar of peanut butter and a couple of loaves of bread.

If you have airless, flat free tires your bike repairs are decreased by 95% - just my opinion. You can drive over broken glass, sharp rocks, and puncture weed without a qualm. Try 'em, you will love 'em. We recently and somewhat reluctantly retired our old Yard Sale/DI Specials and are now riding about Sweet Haven on regular tube, and worried about the bumper crop of puncture weed that is everywhere. So far we haven't had a flat, but I know that it is just a matter of time. And after following the adventures of our Intrepid S2, who bikes 7 miles each way to work and home, except when he has to walk 25 blocks in the rain because of a flat tire....well I think I am going to be ordering some new airless tires and then we can ride without worry.

We All Need A 'Bottom Bank'

2011-08-09T21:41:00.004-06:00

Some of you might remember a few years ago when some near (and hopefully dear) relatives of yours were going through South Jordan and were stopped and had their truck impounded because they were/are not the best at book work, and a just-past-teenie-bopper-girlie cop took exception to their lack of organization and had the truck impounded.....

So, there we were, grandparents in our mid-50's at 11:30 at night, on the Redwood Road sidewalk with the contents of the truck cab and truck bed stacked beside us like a couple of homeless people. We could not see how this had come to pass - it just seemed beyond bizarre, but it might have been worse.

As it was, we called Chandler and he and Julie brought us their extra car and we drove home and came back on the next Monday and paid all the fines and tow charges and claimed our pickup. But what would we have done if we hadn't had a cell phone, or someone to call, or any money to walk to a motel.....

We are wonderfully fortunate in that we have a depth of resources that could help us, but not everyone is so lucky. In this article : "The Criminalization of Poverty" , Barbara Ehernrich writes about how, if you are poor, it is very possible for you to end up being a criminal, and it isn't that hard. I'll just include a short quote - the part about having your car impounded kind of struck home to me:

"...... there are two main paths to criminalization, and one is debt. Anyone can fall into debt, and although we pride ourselves on the abolition of debtors' prison, in at least one state, Texas, people who can't pay fines for things like expired inspection stickers may be made to "sit out their tickets" in jail.
More commonly, the path to prison begins when one of your creditors has a court summons issued for you, which you fail to honor for one reason or another, such as that your address has changed and you never received it. Okay, now you're in "contempt of the court."
Or suppose you miss a payment and your car insurance lapses, and then you're stopped for something like a broken headlight (about $130 for the bulb alone). Now, depending on the state, you may have your car impounded and/or face a steep fine -- again, exposing you to a possible court summons. "There's just no end to it once the cycle starts," says Robert Solomon of Yale Law School. "It just keeps accelerating.""

It is of course a good thing to not be poor - we all are working to avoid that. Things happen, rocks fly up and break windows and headlights...... there is an endless limit to what can break, or what we need or think that we need. But we all need an emergency fund of some kind.

When our kids were little, they would sit on their money when they were playing 'Monopoly' so as not to let their siblings know how much they had. One charming daughter coined the term 'bottom bank' for this little trick. It was a good thing. I don't know if she won or not, but she had a pretty good poker face, and I don't think her siblings knew how much she had in the bank.

We have all been advised to have some money available for emergencies. If you are being advised by a financial guy, they will talk about having 6 months of your yearly wage ready to go - which I think would be nice, but is really silly. I don't know of anyone that really needs money in the paycheck-to-paycheck sort of way that we and most of the people that we knew actually live that has anything like that.

But when you think about actually falling into poverty, we should all have some kind of reserve that can be a 'last resource'....something that we would not use even to pay our cell phone bill, or for high speed internet... Maybe it's only $50, maybe if we save our change we can grow it to $500 or $1000 or more. That would be a pretty nice rainy-day fund for when the rain is coming down hard. We are not a nation of savers. Saving doesn't come easily to me, but it is important. Anything you can save will give you some power in your life.

Here is a little clip that shows the value of a 'Bottom Bank' over an investment bank...

Margaritaville
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83 Year Old Japanese Woman Escaped Tsunami on Her Bicycle

2011-04-18T12:13:00.000-06:00

This is kind of fun. Annie and I ride our bikes around Sweet Haven quite a bit, especially in warmer weather. We used to get some looks from people whom I assume think that unless you under 30 or dressed in $500 worth of bike costume gear and ride a $1000 bike, that you have no business on one. We often ride to church, which is admittedly pretty close, but got quite a few disbelieving looks for a while as well. We even reclaimed the bike rack parking place from the cars - first come, first served after all.

So I was really interested to watch this little clip about this lady that escaped the tsunami on her bike. She was a farmer all of her life, and is proud of being strong and fit. Actually, as I write this, I remember the story that Mom told me several times of Great Grandpa Barthel ( I think) and his bike. If I remember the story right, he never learned to drive a car and rode his bike into his late 80's. (Mom: If you read this, correct any mistakes in the 'Comments' section). Anyway, I thought is was a great story. Hope you enjoy it as well. Happy riding!

Taming Chaos with a Personal Plan - by Scott Stewart of STRATFOR

2011-03-17T17:43:00.000-06:00

Taming Chaos with a Personal Plan is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By Scott Stewart
Over the past week we’ve seen a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan that caused a nuclear accident, the Saudis sending troops into Bahrain to quell civil unrest there and the government of Yemen taking measures to expel foreign media as protests have swelled against Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
We have also recently seen large-scale evacuations of expatriates from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and it is not unreasonable to assume that we might see a similar exodus from Bahrain and Yemen if developments in those countries deteriorate. Moreover, in Japan, the risk of radiation and conditions that are not yet under control at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could force further evacuations there.
In light of this uncertain environment, STRATFOR thought it prudent to address once again the topic of personal contingency planning. Indeed, we also made this topic the subject of this week’s Above the Tearline video. While we have often discussed this topic in relation to terrorist attacks, its principles are also readily applicable to crises caused by natural disaster, war and civil unrest. When a crisis erupts, having an established personal contingency plan provides people with a head start and a set of tools that can help them avoid, or at least mitigate, the effects of the chaos and panic that accompany crisis events.

When Chaos Reigns

When a crisis erupts due to civil unrest, natural disaster or a major terrorist attack, a number of things happen rapidly and sometimes simultaneously. First, panic ensues as people attempt to flee the immediate scene of the disaster, usually seeking safety using the same escape routes. At the same time, police, fire and emergency medical units all attempt to respond to the scene, so there can be terrible traffic and pedestrian crowd-control problems. In the event of large civil disturbances, roads can also be clogged with protesters, troops and panicked civilians. This can be magnified by smoke and fire, which can reduce visibility, affect breathing and increase panic.
In many instances, an attack or natural disaster will cause damage to electrical lines, or the electricity will be cut off as a precautionary measure. Natural gas, water and sewer lines can be damaged, causing leaks, and in the case of natural gas lines raising the threat of explosions and fire. Earthquakes and mudslides can cut roads and shut down mass transit. Often, people find themselves trapped in subway tunnels or in high-rise buildings, and they are sometimes forced to escape through smoke-filled tunnels or stairwells. Depending on the incident, bridges, tunnels, subway lines and airports can be closed or jammed to a standstill. Grocery stores are frequently inundated by people scrambling (and sometimes fighting) to obtain food and supplies.
In the midst of this confusion and panic, telephone and cell-phone usage soars. Even if the main trunk lines and cell towers are not damaged by the event or otherwise affected by the loss of electricity, this huge spike in activity quickly overloads the exchanges and cell networks. This means the ripples of chaos and disruption roll outward from the scene of the crisis as people outside the immediate vicinity of the crisis zone hear about the situation via the media and wonder what has become of loved ones who were in or near the crisis zone.

The Need to Plan

Those caught in close proximity to such a disaster site have the best chance of escaping and reconnecting with loved ones if they have a personal contingency plan. While such planning is critically important for people who live and work overseas in high-threat locations, recent events have demonstrated that even people residing in places considered safe, like Cairo and Tokyo, can be caught in the vortex of a crisis. Taking this one step farther, sudden disasters, such as tornadoes, earthquakes, school shootings or the derailment of train cars carrying chlorine, can strike almost anywhere. This means that everyone should have a personal contingency plan.
Emergency plans are vital not only for corporations and for schools but also for families and individuals. Such plans should be in place for each regular location — home, work and school — that an individual frequents and should cover what that person will do and where he or she will go should an evacuation be necessary. This means establishing meeting points for family members who might be split up — and backup points in case the first or second point also is affected by the disaster.
When school-aged children are involved, parents need to take the time to coordinate with the school to learn what the school’s crisis plans are so any measures the school employs can be accounted for during the planning process. A crisis plan should also account for any pets a family may have.
The lack of ability to communicate with loved ones because of circuit overload or other phone-service problems can greatly enhance the sense of panic during a crisis — especially in this age, when people are so dependent on almost-constant communications via the ubiquitous smart phone. Perhaps one of the foremost benefits of having personal and family contingency plans in place is the reduction of stress that results from not being able to contact a loved one immediately. Knowing that everyone is following the plan frees each person to concentrate on the more pressing challenges presented by their personal evacuation. This is critical because someone who waits until he or she has contacted all loved ones before evacuating might not make it out.
It also is important to have a communications plan, which should include the contact information for the designated rallying site as well as an alternate communications hub outside of the area. It might be difficult to communicate from point A to point B, but someone at point A or B might be able to get through to a person at point C. For example, it may be impossible to call from Tripoli to New York, but both parties may be able to call through to Rome.
Alternative means of communication also should be included in the communications plan. If the phone lines and cell phones are clogged, many times text messages can still get through and Internet connections may work to send e-mail. Satellite telephones, though expensive, are also very useful in a communications blackout, as are two-way radios. Analog fax lines can also prove useful when other forms of communication are shut down.
People who are going to serve as communications hubs need to be briefed on the evacuation plan and have contact information (landline and cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.) for each person who will be participating in the evacuation. The communications hub should also be provided with important personal data on each person, including full name, date of birth, passport numbers, etc. The communications plan also will be helpful in case one member of the family is unable to evacuate immediately or finds it unwise to evacuate at all. In that case, he or she will know where the rest of the family is going and how to contact them once communications are restored.
Planning is important because, when confronted with a dire situation, many people simply do not know what to do or where to start. It is not unusual to find people wandering aimlessly at the scene of a disaster. Not having determined their options in advance — and in state of shock over the events of the day — people quite often find themselves unable to think clearly enough to establish a logical plan, so they just drift around or collapse in helplessness. Having a plan in place gives even a person who is in shock or denial and unable to think clearly a framework to lean on and a path to follow.

Evacuating

One of the keys to surviving a catastrophe is situational awareness. Situational awareness allows people to recognizing a potential threat at an early stage and take measures to avoid it. Situational awareness also helps people know where to go when an unforeseen disaster strikes. For example, if the airport is closed by the crisis, situational awareness enables one to understand the alternate means of leaving the country, and if a bridge is damaged on an alternative land route, you can locate another way out. Being aware of the layouts of your residence and workplace is also critical. If an office building is hit by an incident of workplace violence or catches fire, people with a plan will know where the fire exits are and where they lead. Situational awareness will then help them realize when an exit could lead them out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Situational awareness also aids in reacting to a dangerous situation while on the move. If a subway tunnel is filling with smoke from a fire or bombing, situational awareness tells one to keep low in order to avoid being overcome by smoke. Better still, proper preparation can lead people to carry important items such as a smoke hood that can be worn to protect against smoke and a flashlight to help navigate a dark place like a tunnel.
For individuals who work in high-rise buildings, frequently travel or routinely take a commuter train or subway, these two items can greatly assist you if the need to evacuate arises. Smoke hoods are relatively inexpensive devices that can be carried in a briefcase or purse and quickly donned in case of emergency. They will usually provide around 20 to 30 minutes of breathing time, which could quite literally mean the difference between life and death in a smoke-filled hallway, stairway or subway tunnel. Likewise, a small flashlight could prove to be invaluable in a crisis situation at night or when the power goes out in a large building or subway. Some of the small aluminum flashlights can also double as a handy self-defense weapon.
Of course, in some situations, evacuation might not be the best idea. If there is no immediate threat at a specific location, it may be more dangerous to join a crowd of panicked people on the street. In some cases, it might be safest to just stay in place and wait for order to return — especially if the shelter is stocked with food, water and other basic necessities. Situational awareness will allow you to make the call on whether to stay or go.
As part of a contingency plan, it is also prudent to prepare a small “fly-away” kit containing clothes, water, a first-aid kit, nutritional bars, medications and toiletry items for each member of the family. It also is a good idea to include a battery-powered or crank-powered radio and other items such as appropriate maps, multi-tool knives and duct tape. An appropriate amount of cash can also prove quite useful. The kit should be kept in a convenient place, ready to grab on the way out. Even if it is impractical to keep all these items in constant readiness, keeping most of them together and using a prepared list to collect the other items quickly can help get one out the door in seconds. Maintaining important papers, such as vehicle titles, deeds, licenses, birth certificates, passports and credit card information, in a central file allows it to be quickly retrieved in case of an evacuation. Of course, passports are of vital importance in an overseas situation.
Another important part of situational awareness is having the means to receive instructions and information from the authorities. In addition to radio and television, many locations have emergency text and e-mail alert systems that can provide critical information. Overseas, embassies also maintain networks for disseminating information to expatriates such as the U.S. Department of State’s warden system. Individuals should register for such services and ensure they know how information is disseminated before the crisis hits and results in communication disruptions.
When it comes to information pertaining to emergency plans and fly-away kits, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration’s ready.gov site is an excellent resource. For people residing overseas, the U.S. Department of State’s travel information site and the Overseas Security Advisory Council are also valuable resources filled with helpful information.
Now, while it is important to listen to authorities in the case of an emergency, individuals cannot rely on the government to take care of them in every situation because the resources simply may not be available. This means that individuals must have a plan in place designed to take care of themselves and their families.

Flexibility Required

In order to be effective, an emergency plan must be fluid and flexible. It is important to recognize that even a good plan can be worthless if reactive measures taken by authorities during an emergency impede execution of the plan, or if the catastrophe itself closes down the airport or a section of a primary escape route. For these reasons, it is best to have several alternate contingency plans that account for multiple scenarios and include various routes and modes of evacuation. Once the emergency is announced, it likely is too late to start devising a back-up plan.
Plans must be also reviewed periodically, at least once a year. A plan made following 9/11 might no longer be valid. Bridges and roads included in the original plan might be closed for construction at the present time or could have been changed to a one-way traffic pattern. Communication plans may also need to be updated if family members move or change telephone numbers.
The contents of fly-away kits should be checked periodically to ensure the kits are functional. Flashlight and radio batteries can lose their charge and need to be replaced. Items such as smoke hoods can become damaged by being carried around in a purse or briefcase for too many years. Food can become stale and inedible. Medications can expire. Children can grow and require different sizes of clothing.
Finally, while having a contingency plan on paper is better than having nothing, those plans that are tested in the real world prove to be far superior to plans that are never tested. Running through an evacuation plan (especially during a high-traffic time such as rush hour) will help to identify weaknesses that will not appear on paper. It also will help ensure that all those involved know what they are supposed to do and where they are supposed to go. A plan is of limited use if half of the people it is designed for do not understand their respective roles and responsibilities.
No plan is perfect, and chances are that individuals will find themselves “shifting on the fly” as conditions on the ground change in the event of an actual emergency. However, having a plan and being prepared allows a person to be more focused and less panicked and confused than those who have left their fate to chance.

Ode to Garden Huckleberry Jam

2010-10-09T22:40:00.000-06:00

Garden huckleberries are a pretty plant, related to tomatoes and peppers.

Pretty berries. They aren't especially sweet even when ripe, but they make great jam.

Here are about 16 cups of berries (which took Annie and me the better part of a day to pick - they aren't very big) with about 6 cups of chopped apple.

When you add 22 of sugar to 22 cups of fruit - typical jam ratios - you get a very full pot.

Here is the fruit and sugar mixed together but still cold. The only extra liquid in this batch is about 1/3 cup of lemon juice added to the apples when I was chopping them in the food processor.

This was really too big of a batch.... I should have done it in two batches. When you are making jam, you have to boil the mixture for at least 10 minutes. This has the effect of melting all of the sugar, and making it into a syrup, it also dissolves and activates the pectin (follow the directions on the box. Measure the fruit, add the right amount of sugar - too much is better than too little. Add the right amount of pectin - again too much is better than too little.), and cooks the fruit. I had trouble with this batch because I was afraid to turn the heat up to where it would boil for fear that I would burn the bottom. So I cooked it for about 30 minutes, and still had to take a mixer to the top layer of berries to make sure they were all broken.

As the fruit mixture cooks it will form a foam on it. You have to stir it constantly, and be ready for the foam to boil up and over the top of the pan. It can be rather exciting. Pull the pan off of the burner to stop the foam from boiling over. You can control the heat a lot better by pulling it part way off the burner than you can by trying to use the heat adjustment knob - it's way too slow.

You have to realize that you really are making a candy or confection, rather than a healthy fruit treat. It will taste a lot better than store bought jams, but it is mostly fruit flavored sugar syrup. But tasty! :)

After it has boiled for 10 minutes you put it in hot, clean jars. I like to put them in the oven, and have it heated to about 180 degrees. This makes it very unlikely that the jars will crack when you put the hot liquid in them. You could probably add the hot liquid to cold jars and not have a lot of trouble, but if there is a tiny crack or flaw in the glass, and the bottom cracks around and falls out, you will wish that you had heated the jar first.

These are pints - 12 to a box. Narrow neck are fine. Actually old jars of any kind are fine. More on that later.

If you are going to water-bath process the jam, then you need to leave about 3/4" of air space between the top of the jam and the top of the jar. When the jar is heated in the steam or water bath, the water in the jam will boil a little, and displace the air at the top of the jar. It will be filled with water vapor. As it cools the water vapor condenses and that forms the vacuum that hold the lid to the top of the jar. If you put too much liquid in the jar, their won't be enough room for the vacuum to form. Also, the liquid might get in between the rubber seal on the lid and the jar top. Then it won't seal. In this picture, the lids are in a hot water bath to soften the rubber, and I'm rubbing my finger around the top of the jar top to make sure that there are no nicks in the top of the glass, and there is no jam on top of the glass. It has to be smooth and clean.

If you have old glass peanut butter, ragu, or other old jars, they can be used for jam. Clean them well, heat them in the oven and put the hot jam in them just as if you were going to water bath process them. Put some paraffin in the clean can and put it in a water bath and melt the wax. Make sure to use a water bath as heating on the stove directly can be a fire hazard.

Clean the inside neck of the jar carefully after you add the jam. Pour about 3/8" of melted wax directly on top of the jam and let it cool. The was will keep any mold spoor from growing on the top of the jam, and can be used again and again. Also, if you give extra jam away, you don't have to worry about getting your jar back.

That is about it for jam. I had a lot of trouble getting this to work. It was hard to put in the amount of sugar that is called for in the recipes. So - measure everything. Some things in cooking you can be casual with your quantities - but in making jam it pays to make sure you have the right amounts. Make sure to boil the mixture for 10 minutes. If you don't, you might have a yummy fruit syrup, but you won't have jam.

That is about the extent of my experience. Good luck. Homemade jam on fresh homemade whole wheat bread.....mmmmmmmmmm

Bike Lane Signs

2010-08-27T18:00:00.000-06:00

In math they would say this was 'elegant' - simple, straight and to the point. :)

One Oven Sunday Chicken Dinner

2010-08-14T19:45:00.000-06:00

Time hurries on, and if I don't get this posted, the leaves that are green will have turned to brown. My sloth and schedule have let about 3 weeks go by since we had this dinner. It was a broiling hot Sunday, and the swamp cooler and the one-room AC and all the little fans were going full blast and I didn't want to add any heat to the house. I had a Lemon Pepper Chicken all thawed (not un-thawed) and we had some squash from the garden and come corn from earlier in the week.

I decided to see how much I could get into one dutch oven. It all fit, as you can see. This was a deep 12" oven, and it has a little more capacity, but I think a standard 12" would do just fine.

The zucchini recipe is one that we got a year or two ago. It is actually was for eggplant, but we prefer the squash, and it works really well with more mature fruits. Scoop out the fruit with a melon baller and saute with onions, peppers, and tomatoes- or just what you want. We season it with pesto and garlic, and Italian Seasoning - basil and oregano, and a little black pepper and Parmesan cheese. Add some fried sausage and bake for 30 minutes.

Since we had the chicken to cook, we didn't do the sausage, but seasoned it Italian and assembled it and put it into the DO. You wouldn't really have to saute the stuffing I don't think, but I had a chicken and some corn in there too, and was worried that I might not have enough heat in one batch of coals.

Recently, B & T were down and we did some chicken in a DO, but it was still a little frozen, and the wind was blowing hard. If you have conditions like that, you should probably cut the chicken into pieces as it would cook a lot faster. Ours was done.... but not falling-off-the-bone done. Until I put it in the oven after dinner and finished it off.

Anyway, there you have it. I had a bunch of little videos to use instead of the pictures, but they ended up being about 350 MB, and it just wouldn't load into Blogger. Have fun.

White Panel Vans and Robbers

2010-07-16T22:22:00.002-06:00

Today I read a scary article written by a lady that survived a home invasion robbery . Here are three response letters you might want to read as well. Also, I ran across this blog on rape prevention - another scary but related topic.

I couldn't help think about my dear daughter that recently had her home burglarized. She has always been a tender heart, and very afraid of white, windowless panel vans - Robber Vans. Fortunately no one was home, but the burglars took what they wanted and left.

When I read this article I kind of put myself in this ladies (home invasion) position. I thought about running back to our bedroom, and that I don't have a gun on the night stand, loaded and ready. I would have to ask the robbers to wait while I retrieved a gun from it's hiding place and found the bullets and carefully loaded it....so that wouldn't happen. I could run to the kitchen and maybe find a kitchen knife...but likely many of them would be in the dishwasher. Baseball bat in the coat closet? Run like heck out the back door, race back to the front to the side yard and run over to the Sheriff's house? Not too practical, but the best plan yet. So, no, I don't have a plan. Barricade in the bathroom and call 911 on the cell....

You who know me know how much I like to shoot, and you might be thinking that I would be agreeing with Susan G. and recommend that you get your concealed carry permit and carry a loaded weapon at all times. While I think this might be kind of fun in a 'I'm Magnum P.I.' kind of way, I don't think that it would be appropriate at this time for most of the circumstances of the people that I know and love. Things may change, and that might be the best solution for some of us at some time, but I hope not.

I was telling Susan G.'s story to the guy that I ride to work with, and told him of my daughter's recent burglary, and how this Dear Daughter was something of a lightening rod for burglaries .... and started counting up the scary incidences that had happened to people that I care about. And I came to the conclusion that it's not as safe a world out there as we think it is. Let's count them up. Maybe you can think of more incidents, or perhaps you are aware of some that I don't know about. I would welcome corrections/additions/etc in Comments.

197something Sister has house broken into while at work. Front door latch beaten in with a hammer.

197something Sister has Peeping Tom. Doberman is completely baffled as sister tosses dog abruptly out of door to chase Peeper. Peeper escapes, dog surely questioned sister's sanity.
1977 Sister-in-law seriously wounded and nearly murdered in home by ex-boyfriend.
1970 or 80something Sister works at store where women are escorted to cars by male employees as a female employee was abducted and raped. (this is kind of fuzzy Dot, but I'm pretty sure you told me this story.)
1990something: Sister-in-law surprises man/burglar in garage. Screams break glass and scare off burglar...not really with the glass. But she scared him off.
2003 Daughter(1)'s car burglarized. Leather bound scriptures and some change stolen.
2004 Daughter(3)'s car burglarized. Stereo and two nice sets of tools stolen (Thanks for the comment J).
2005 Daughter(1)'s car burglarized. Stereo stolen.
2006? Son-in-law(1)'s car burglarized, window broken, sunglasses stolen...stereo too?
2006-9? Daughter(2)'s friend was murdered in her home when she surprised a burglar.

That is about all that I can think of at this time. But I am surprised at how much has happened over the years, and how serious some of it is. The Marshwiggle in me finds it hard to believe that with police budgets being cut, criminals being let out of jail early to save money (especially CA), and Arizona feeling a lot of crime from the Mexican drug cartel turf wars, that things will be better any time soon.

(Much later) I've thought a lot about this topic since I started the blog entry and I haven't really come to any sweeping conclusions other than security is a topic that is very personal, and very different for each of us, but also one that probably deserves some thought and action. What are somethings that could help make you a less inviting target?

pepper spray
flash light on keychain - no fumbling when getting in house or car
motion sensing perimeter lighting
security system including alarm
good door hardware and deadbolt
replacing door hinge screws with 3+" screws that screw deeply into framing 2x4's
window, especially basement window security hardware.
yappy little dog, or big scary doberman type. Effective if not targeted by bad guy
I would really like to say martial arts training, and some would be better than none, but unless you are going to get really good at this, maybe it would provide a false security... a la Rachael and Phoebe.
concealed carry. Not for everyone. Or most people.
tasers

The simplest thing that I can think of, the one that will give you the biggest bang (metaphorically) for the buck is probably pepper spray. For $15 or so you can get an aerosol pepper spray with UV dye in it as well. Like most things you carry in your pocket or purse, a pepper spray aerosol container would probably be a quiet annoyance most of the time. But the time when you feel creeped out, when your Unagi is telling you that you are not in a good spot, well then you will be glad you have it. If, perish the thought, you ever would have to use such a device, then it would sooo be worth the $15 bucks. In the wild, the predators most often go after the animal that will give it the least fight and provide the easiest meal. Human predators are not so different.

Unagi = Relaxed Awareness

2010-06-15T12:54:00.002-06:00

We make fun of Ross, and his state of Unagi, but Scott Stewart of STRATFOR talks about 'relaxed awareness' in terms of spotting dangerous situations in our personal lives, and in our national security.

"This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR"

"A Primer on Situational Awareness:

By Scott Stewart
The world is a wonderful place, but it can also be a dangerous one. In almost every corner of the globe militants of some political persuasion are plotting terror attacks — and these attacks can happen in London or New York, not just in Peshawar or Baghdad. Meanwhile, criminals operate wherever there are people, seeking to steal, rape, kidnap or kill.
Regardless of the threat, it is very important to recognize that criminal and terrorist attacks do not materialize out of thin air. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Criminals and terrorists follow a process when planning their actions, and this process has several distinct steps. This process has traditionally been referred to as the “terrorist attack cycle,” but if one looks at the issue thoughtfully, it becomes apparent that the same steps apply to nearly all crimes. Of course, there will be more time between steps in a complex crime like a kidnapping or car bombing than there will be between steps in a simple crime such as purse-snatching or shoplifting, where the steps can be completed quite rapidly. Nevertheless, the same steps are usually followed.
People who practice situational awareness can often spot this planning process as it unfolds and then take appropriate steps to avoid the dangerous situation or prevent it from happening altogether. Because of this, situational awareness is one of the key building blocks of effective personal security — and when exercised by large numbers of people, it can also be an important facet of national security. Since situational awareness is so important, and because we discuss situational awareness so frequently in our analyses, we thought it would be helpful to discuss the subject in detail and provide a primer that can be used by people in all sorts of situations.

Foundations

First and foremost, it needs to be noted that being aware of one’s surroundings and identifying potential threats and dangerous situations is more of a mindset than a hard skill. Because of this, situational awareness is not something that can be practiced only by highly trained government agents or specialized corporate security countersurveillance teams. Indeed, it can be exercised by anyone with the will and the discipline to do so.
An important element of the proper mindset is to first recognize that threats exist. Ignorance or denial of a threat — or completely tuning out one’s surroundings while in a public place — makes a person’s chances of quickly recognizing the threat and avoiding it slim to none. This is why apathy, denial and complacency can be (and often are) deadly. A second important element is understanding the need to take responsibility for one’s own security. The resources of any government are finite and the authorities simply cannot be everywhere and cannot stop every criminal action. The same principle applies to private security at businesses or other institutions, like places of worship. Therefore, people need to look out for themselves and their neighbors.
Another important facet of this mindset is learning to trust your “gut” or intuition. Many times a person’s subconscious can notice subtle signs of danger that the conscious mind has difficulty quantifying or articulating. Many people who are victimized frequently experience such feelings of danger prior to an incident, but choose to ignore them. Even a potentially threatening person not making an immediate move — or even if the person wanders off quickly after a moment of eye contact — does not mean there was no threat.

read the rest on the STRATFOR site.

Fuel Pump Protection

2010-06-15T07:11:00.001-06:00

FYI: In order to help your in-tank gasoline fuel pump to have adequate cooling and not to suffer damage, try to run on the top half of the tank. If the distance to payday is just too great, run above 1/3 or even 1/4 full.

Pump replacement is not easy, or cheap, and pumps not only need adequate suction head (gas level in the tank) in order to operated without damage, but they use the gasoline to cool the motor.

DIY Mopeds

2010-05-13T12:29:00.001-06:00

In a couple of earlier posts (Bike Trailers, More Bike Trailers, Electric and Cargo Bikes, and Sport Utility Bicycles ) I wrote about ways to make your bicycle more than just a machine for the occasional spin around the block. A couple of days ago I ran into a site that sells small 2 and 4 cycle engine kits to make your bike into a mo-ped.

These conversions are not nearly as expensive as an electric motor and battery system would be, and look like so much fun that I'm thinking hard on getting one.

Legally (in Utah), motorizing a bicycle requires that you have a motorcycle endorsement on your drivers license.... and I have no idea whether or not you would need to register it as a motor vehicle or not....I'm thinking they probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it unless you went into the bike-to-moped conversion business.

Here is the engine buyer's guide page.... the 4 stroke 49 cc engine kit looks the best to me. Not that I don't have enough to do already. I just don't know if I will be able to resist.

Have fun. There is a ton of information on these....I had no idea. Also, look at motorbicycling.com - they have a discussion forum with a lot of information.

Buying a Right Sized Generator

2010-02-24T15:21:00.007-07:00

All of us have had the experience of having the power go out. This summer we had a short outage of an hour or so. One minute Annie was sewing, the lights were on, the computers were on and the TV might have been on as well. The next minute - Nada. The house was dark, the sewing machines were off, the computers were dark and quiet. I think I might have been working on supper, but with no stove, that quickly came to a halt. We wandered around for a while, wondering what had happened, and when the power would be restored.

After a few minutes I saw a neighbor who has a police/fire/emergency scanner, and who's husband is a Deputy Sheriff - she often knows what is going on. She said that a fire in a neighboring town had burned down a half a dozen power poles, and it would be Monday before they got them repaired. My conclusion was that it might be Monday (it was Saturday afternoon) before we got our power restored. I don't know how long it took to actually fix the poles and line, but they were able to re-route power to town in an hour or so, and we went back to normal living.

But I have pondered that all winter long. Every time I put a log on the fire, or turned on the furnace I thought - what would we be doing if we didn't have power. If for some reason, in the middle of the winter, we lost power it would be a pretty dark and cold house. If we didn't get it back in a day or two, I would be draining the waterlines and the water heater - you don't want to think of the pipes freezing in your walls, breaking in several places, and then soaking your house down when the power came on, and things warmed up a little. We are fairly lucky to have most of our pipes in the interior walls. We can easily let our house temperature go to 45 or probably even 35 before we would worry too much about frozen pipes. Some of my friends aren't so lucky, and in their new homes, they have all the pipes routed in their outer walls.

Summer time is easier - maybe not too comfortable, but we could probably find a way to can/bottle most of the food in the freezer if we couldn't run the refrigerator/freezer.

So these musings led me to the KSL Classifieds and the search for a generator. I quickly found that there is a huge variety in generators, and they vary widely in price as well. I worked through a lot of scenarios of how much load we would need/want and confused my self some in the process, but finally came to a conclusion, at least about how to calculate the load.

Load, or watts are found by multiplying amps x volts. We are only calculating load for 120 volt loads, so that makes things a little simpler. I don't know how much load my furnace takes, or my water heater, but I know they have run for years on a 15 amp breaker. So I know they are less, and probably quite a bit less than 15 x 120 or 1800 watts. Because they have motors in them, I'm going to leave the estimate at 1800 for extra safety when starting. Motors draw extra current when they start. The bigger the motor, the bigger the power spike.

I know that everything in my list will run on 15 ampss, as they have for years. So they are not tripping the breakers, and hopefully the generator motor will take the load. Here is my little worksheet. There are three scenarios here.

I've got to have everything on the list running all the time.
OK, I can do some trading of loads to buy a smaller and cheaper generator.
Economy - only the essentials. But I can still trade one for the other. Cheapest option.

Generator Scaling Worksheet

Winter - Gotta Have It All Mode

Furnace 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Water Heater 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Wood Stove Fan 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Freezer 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Refrigerator 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 9000 watts = 9 kw

Summer

Whole House 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Swamp Cooler 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Freezer 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Refrigerator 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Water Heater 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 9000 watts = 9 kw

Can Get By With A Little Less

Winter

Furnace or Water Heater 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Wood Stove Fan 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Freezer or Refrigerator 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 5400 watts = 5.4 kw

Summer

Whole House or Swamp Cooler 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Freezer or Refrigerator 15 x 120 = 1800 watts
Water Heater 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 5400 watts = 5.4 kw

Winter - Economy Mode

Furnace or Water Heater or
Freezer or Refrigerator 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Wood Stove Fan 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 3600 watts = 3.6 kw

Summer - Economy Mode

Whole House or Swamp Cooler or
Freezer or Refrigerator or Water Heater 15 x 120 = 1800 watts

Total 1800 watts = 1.8 kw

Annie will probably note that I don't have the hair dryer and curling iron on the list.... but they can be traded, and she is always beautiful anyway. So there you have it. You can get a 3.6 kw generator for a few hundred dollars, probably about the price of a new iPod or Blackberry. But seriously, if you need it, there will be very few things you would trade for it. More later on this adventure.

So You (Don't Particularly)Want to Become A Farmer

2010-02-24T09:14:00.002-07:00

This is a great article, for all you who might be married to someone that is catching farming fever, or might have caught it yourself. You should know, that this often starts out with liking the best of food on your table....and then comes the garden..... and after a few years the thought of really fresh farm eggs - yolks almost orange - becomes just a little too tempting. That is about where I am now.... and even thinking that a goat might be a possibility - they aren't any bigger than a good sized dog after all. Dangerous, dangerous thoughts.

More on Bicycle Trailers

2010-02-01T12:22:00.005-07:00

We had a lot of fun this weekend with D&A down with the kids, and lots of fun conversation. One thing that D and I talked about a little was bicycle trailers, and how useful they could be if you wanted to make any kind of extended trip on a bicycle.

I was looking around on KSL Classifieds today and found this:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=9392527&lpid=&cat=191

This looks like a permanent ad that he runs (www.DluxFab.com click on Bike Trailers). There are a variety of designs offered, with prices from $200 to $300. Locally manufactured.

For those of us that don't know when to quit, just seeing how they are built might be enough of a blueprint to get one built.

Grafting Designer Fruit Trees

2010-01-14T18:22:00.002-07:00

A great article. I've been looking for a good article on grafting fruit trees for some time. I've never tried this yet, but I think I will be working on it this summer.

The author (Jackie Gray) shows you not only how to do the grafting, but how to get the root stock (plant seeds of trees that you like) for free, how to get scion stock (the part that you graft on and actually get the fruit from).

Have fun. I'll let you know how my experiments go.

The Best Virtue of the Dutch Oven

2009-11-14T17:50:00.004-07:00

Actually, it is kind of hard to find the best thing about a dutch oven, but surely one of the best is that they make meal preparation so easy. For lazy people like me, this is great.

Here is an oven full of easy meal preparation. In the back are two spaghetti squash cut in half, buttered, sprinkled with splenda and cinnamon and covered with aluminum foil. The largest DO has bratwurst sausages tossed in still frozen, and a big handful of sliced mushrooms tossed on top. The little dutch ovens (which used to have a candle in them)have cut up plums, a little sour cream, and stroissles (not sure of the spelling - flour, sugar, oatmeal and butter in equal volumes, kneaded together until the butter is well distributed. No liquid.) sprinkled on top. Baked for about 45 minutes at 360 deg.

And there you have it.

Sausage, low carb squash, and high carb plum cobbler. :) Prep time was probably about 15 minutes.

Cargo, and Electric Cargo Bicycles

2009-09-18T11:50:00.006-06:00

These were interesting articles. I think you will like them, although there is quite a bit of information here, and you won't be able to read through them in a minute or two... or if you do, you have scary good reading abilities.

The lady that is writing this has several small kids and routinely commutes to work on her bike. She does a lot of shopping, and kid transporting as well. One really interesting thing that she said was that riding and electric bike is often considered cheating by regular bikers. She was in a relay type race on her non-electric mountain bike, and worried that she would let her team down as she might not be as highly conditioned..... but it turned out that because she rode her bike day in and day out, and pedaled all the while, that she was a strong member of the team, and was never passed by another rider. Persistence and consistency - again!

A Quiet Revolution in Bicycles: Recapturing a Role as Utilitarian People-Movers (Part I)
A Quiet Revolution in Bicycles: Recapturing a Role as Utilitarian People-Movers (Part II)

Have fun. I doubt that we will go electric in our little flat town, but it is good to know about. There is a lot of information in the second part on parts, motors, options, controllers, etc.

One thing that keeps me from riding a bike to work is the worry of riding along the highway. She mentions in Part II that a bike route really isn't the same as a car route. Usually a biker will want a lower speed, lower traffic road. We find this is true when we are tooling around in Delta. Back streets, school yards, alleys all give us a road without competition with the cars.

Hollmans Products Would Add Spice to Food Storage

2009-09-10T21:15:00.001-06:00

My cousin Judy on You Tube!!

Path To Freedom

2009-08-22T07:22:00.003-06:00

These guys are inspiring, at least to me. They have 1/5 of an acre, but produce so a tremendous amount of produce and fruit. I think they have 350 species of herb, fruit, vegetable, and berry on their little spot of ground.

We have just been trying to use every square foot of ground for something - just not weeds, and it is quite a challenge. But it seems like every day or two there is enough produce that I have to bottle or freeze something. For example, the garden huckleberrys ripen slowly, so every few days we pick the ripe ones and make a little batch of jam. This last batch was great - GH with apples and zucchinni for bulk.

Well, that's all for now. It is time to get busy on Saturdays work. If you want to get some ideas on what you can do with your yard, go and visit this site. They give a great example of what you can do with home production of food.

Low Cost Dutch Oven Cooking

2009-08-09T20:42:00.008-06:00

We are just back from a memorable reunion in Colorado. The reunion was held on at a church camp that had once been a ranch. It was on the Western Slope of the Rockies, at about 8400 feet of elevation.

Every family took a turn preparing a meal, and we are lucky to have so many good cooks among the family. We have a couple of dutch oven cooks that are getting pretty good. Our family doesn't have a long history of cooking with dutch ovens, so this a happy condition - I think that we might not have much of a past, but we have a great future.

I like to cook with dutch ovens in the summer especially as it keeps the kitchen from being heated by the stove or oven. The only drawback that I have found is that it takes a lot of charcoal to cook several dishes, or even one dish if the food you are cooking isn't fully (or even partly) thawed.

So I have been doing some experiments with wood fires and natural charcoal. I'll be posting some results, hopefully it will help you not to have to do so much trial and error if you decide to try this. I've been trimming trees, and we don't take anything to the dump. All the little twigs get snapped and stored - so there is a lot of this little kind of trashy wood under my shed.

A couple of nights ago I wanted to cook a spaghetti squash in the DO, but was low on charcoal, and decided to try a little wood. It only took two hands full of wood to cook the squash. I'm planning to cook a chicken, and to bake some bread this week end. I will keep you posted.

Wendy Dewitt on Food Storage

2009-06-04T06:50:00.007-06:00

Wendy Dewitt has a great system - I just heard about her today but have had time to listen to most of these clips while I did other things. I think you will find her system to be pretty easy to use, and full of common sense.

The sound isn't the best, I think these clips are worth the watch.

Dutch Oven Experiment

2009-03-13T20:39:00.004-06:00

NOTE: This experiment is fine in a stove, but might be not so good in a fireplace. Charcoal produces a lot of CARBON MONOXIDE - very dangerous inside. If you are going to try this in a fireplace, have a CO monitor. Your fireplace might have enough draft to waft all the fumes up the chimney, but charcoal doesn't produce heat at all like a real fire, and so there will be much less draft and the carbon monoxide might well end up in your home.

It is a little cold today, and after finishing up our taxes it felt like a day to do some dutch oven cooking....but I couldn't get up much enthusiasim for it in the cold. I thought about lighting a fire in the woodstove..... and then thought.....hmmmmm .... how would it be to cook in the wood stove with charcoal???

So I cleaned out the ashes and polished up the windows and here is how it turned out.

Grain Mills and More

2008-11-21T08:30:00.003-07:00

A couple of days ago I found our grain mill online. I thought for sure that we had bought it while on the farm in Delta, but couldn't remember where we got it. Looking through a Mother Earth News, I found a add from the Pleasant Hill Grain - Fine Kitchen Equipment. So if you can't find what you need in the way of grain mills, meat grinders, pressure cookers, dehydrators, slicers, dicers etc, then you are just pretty darn picky.

Also, here is a great site for bulk foods: Bulkfoods.com . Among the treasures that I found there is chicken bullion in bulk. You can't beat these prices.

Production and Storage

2008-11-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

We have heard a lot about food storage, but equally important is home production. You might never end up producing like the Dervaes (Urbanhomestead.org ) family does, but their example shows us what is possible.

You might look at this as being as extreme as Walt Nelson, and if you think that our economy is going to be healed, you will think it is totally silly. I guess it is a lot about what you think the future will bring. If you want to see how the Great Depression affected people watch 'Sea Biscuit' and then back-to-back watch 'Cinderella Man'. Let me tell you that you will experience a 'Great Depression' right there. Yikes! Everyone didn't wakeup poor one morning, although some did. But it wore them down.

When you have an sick economy one of two things happen. Either you have a deflation, much like what is going on now, and people can't find jobs, many are out of work and while there might be food in the locality, people can't afford to buy it because they can't get the money. Roughly 2 billion people in the world live like this every day. They get by on less than $2.50/day. And this deflation is pushing them to starvation.

The other thing that happens is that you get an inflation, and the inflation rate gets pretty high. If you don't have a job, so much the worse for you, but if you do have a job the money that you get isn't worth anything.

Some of these problems can be blunted by home production. In an inflation or deflation there are less opportunities to actually create wealth. You can't work overtime, or might not even have a job. The only opportunities that you have are those that you create yourself. Home production might be the single easiest way to have that second job.

You can't do this overnight. You can't wait until the wolf is at the door to have a productive yard and garden. My goal is to bring more of my lawn under production each year. We planted five grape plants this year, and Annie found a bunch of great information on pruning and starting new plants. We planted two thornless black berries as well, and I have about 10 little plums and apricots ready to be transplanted. We built cast block raised beds in the sunniest part of the yard, and had a wonderful crop. After removing a shade tree, we actually got sweetcorn and had a great squash year. It doesn't happen at once. Start now. Spade, rototill or plow under some of the Kentucky Blue. You don't have to take the whole yard, or even change the looks of the yard. Just come out from the fence 4-8 feet, depending you the size of your yard. Put as many leaves, grass clippings and garden scraps as you can on the soil. Whether you can buy bulk manure or have to buy the bagged stuff from Walmart, put about 2-3" of manure on these new beds. It will take several years to build up the fertility, but your yard will surprise you with the produce that it will supply you with.

A Great Garden Seed Source

2008-11-03T15:01:00.002-07:00

Scott sent me this link to Mountain Valley Seeds, and I liked it so much that I ordered all of our seed for next spring. I think I have spent more at Ace Hardware in the past. These guys typically sell seeds in 1 oz. quantities, which is a lot more than you get in the packets. Take a look, you might like what you see. You can store the extras in your freezer until the next year.

They do sell hybrid seeds as well, but they are well marked. If you want to start saving seeds to see what works best in your soil and with your climate, this might be a good place to start.

The Gomer Parable

2008-10-21T12:54:00.001-06:00

Taken from the LDS Preparedness Handbook

BOOK OF GOMER PARABLE
These are the generations of Gomer, son of Homer, son of Omer. And in the days of Gomer, Noah,
the Prophet, went unto the people saying, "Prepare ye for the flood which is to come, yea, build yourselves
a boat, that ye may not perish."
Now, Gomer was a member of the Church, and taught Sunday School and played, yea, even on the
ward softball team. And Gomer's wife said unto him, "Come, let us build unto ourselves a boat as the
Prophet commandeth, that we may not perish in the flood." But behold, Gomer saith unto his wife,
"Worry not, dear wife, for if the flood comes the government will provide boats for us."
And Gomer did not build a boat. And Gomer's wife went unto Noah and she returned saying, "Behold,
Honey, the Prophet saith unto us, "Build a boat, that we may preserve ourselves, for the government
pays men not to grow trees, wherefore the government hath not the lumber to build for you a boat."
THIS MANUAL MAY BE SOLD AT COST ONLY - AND IS NOT TO BE OFFERED FOR RESALE. 7
And Gomer answered saying, "Fear not, oh wife, for am I not the star pitcher on the ward softball team?
Wherefore, the Church will provide for us a boat, that we will perish not."
And Gomer's wife went again unto Noah, and she returned unto Gomer, saying, "Behold, mine husband,
the Prophet saith that the Church hath not enough lumber to build a boat for everyone, wherefore,
mine husband, build for us a boat that we might not perish in the flood." And Gomer answered her
saying, "Behold, if we build a boat, when the flood cometh, will not our neighbors overpower us and take
from us our boat; wherefore, what doth it profit a man to build a boat?"
And Gomer's wife went again unto Noah and she returned, saying, "Behold, the Prophet saith, build
unto yourselves a boat, and have faith, for if ye do the Lord's bidding, He will preserve your boat for
you." But Gomer answered his wife, saying, "Behold, with this inflation, the price of wood has gone sky
high, and if we wait awhile, perhaps the price will go down again. And then I will build for us a boat."
And Gomer's wife went again unto Noah, and she returned saying, "Thus saith the Prophet, build for
yourselves a boat RIGHT NOW, for the price of wood will not go down, but will continue to go up.
Wherefore, oh husband, build for ourselves a boat, that we may perish not." But Gomer answered his
wife, saying, "Behold, for 120 years Noah hath told us to build a boat, to preserve us from the flood,
but hath the flood come? Yea, I say, nay. Wherefore, perhaps the flood will not come for another
hundred and twenty years.
And Gomer's wife went again unto Noah and returned saying, "The Prophet saith, he knows it has
been 120 years, but nevertheless, the flood will come, wherefore, build unto yourselves a boat."
And Gomer answered her saying, "Wherewith shall we get the money to build ourselves a boat, for are
we not now making monthly payments on our snazzy new four horsepower chariot? Wherefore, when our
payments end, perhaps we shall build ourselves a boat."
And Gomer's wife went again unto Noah and returned saying, "Behold, the Prophet saith that we
should cut down on our recreation, and our vacations, and even give each other lumber for Christmas,
that we might thereby get enough lumber to build a boat."
But Gomer saith unto her, "What a drag! Are we to cease enjoying life, just because we must build a
boat?"
Wherefore, Gomer built not a boat. But behold, one afternoon Gomer heard thunder in the sky, and he
feared exceedingly and he ran, yea, even to the lumber yard to buy lumber. But behold, the lumber store
was crowded with great multitudes, all seeking to buy lumber, and there was not enough lumber to be
found for the multitudes.
And on the same day were all the fountains of the deep opened, and the windows of heaven were
broken up, and the floods came -- and behold, Gomer had no boat. And as the water rose above
Gomer's waist, his wife saith unto him, "Behold, Honey, I told thee so!"
--- Author Unknown

That was fun, wasn't it?

Experiences from Hurricane Ike

2008-10-01T07:06:00.002-06:00

Here are a few things that were shared on one of the boat building forums. I would imagine that a lot of these were experienced by M&J during the aftermath of Katrina.

"This is from a High School friend from Houston and way off topic.
I could lie and say She lives on a boat in a marina under a pine
tree. Could be applied to cruising.

Things we learned during our Hurricane Ike . . .
A new opening phrase when seeing someone: 'Got lights yet?'

1. Coffee and frozen pizzas can be made on a BBQ grill.

2. No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work
without electricity.

3. My car gets 23.21675 miles per gallon, EXACTLY (you can ask the
people in line who helped me push it).

4. Kids can survive 4 days or longer without a video game controller
in their hand.

5. Cats are even more irritating without power.

6. He who has the biggest generator wins.

7. Women can actually survive without doing their hair- you just wish
they weren't around you.

8. A new method of non-lethal torture-showers without hot water.

9. There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.

10. TV is an addiction and the withdrawal symptoms are painful.

11. A 7-lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz Cokes to a drinkable
temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14-lb.turkey frozen for 8
more hours.

12. There are a lot of trees around here.

13. Flood plane drawings on some mortgage documents were seriously
wrong.

14. Siding, while aesthetically pleasing, is definitely not required.

15. Crickets can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14
generators.

16. People will get into a line that has already formed without
having any idea what the line is for.

17. When required, a Lincoln Continental will float, doesn't steer
well but floats just the same.

18. Tele-marketers function no matter what the weather is doing.

19. Cell phones work when land lines are down, but only as long as
the battery remains charged.

20. 27 of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than
you, and they are quick to point that out!

21. Dirty clothes hampers were not made to contain such a volume.

22. If I owned a store & sold only ice, chainsaws, gas and
generators.. . I'd be rich.

23. Price of a can of soup rises 200% in a storm.

24. Your water front property can quickly become someone else's
fishing hole.

25. Tree service companies are under appreciated.

26. I learned what happens when you make fun of another states'
lackout.

27. MATH 101: 30 days in month, minus 6 days without power equals 30%
higher electric bill ?????

28. Drywall is a compound word, take away the 'dry' part and it's
worthless.

29. I can walk a lot farther than I thought -- & from Alvin, TX

30. My dad was right, relatives & shrimp, in a freezer without
electricity, both stink after 3 days.

TWO-YEAR-OLD CANNED BEETS TASTE BETTER THAN YOU THINK

MANICURES ARE A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION

IF YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO WEAR UNDERWEAR, YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO WASH
THEM

WHAT LOOKS ACCEPTABLE BY CANDLELIGHT IN YOUR BATHROOM WILL SCARE YOU
WHEN YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR AT THE OFFICE

COFFEE IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT STARBUCKS

RATHER THAN CAMPFIRES, YOU FIND FAMILIES HUDDLED ABOUT TINY BATTERY-
OPERATED TELEVISIONS TO WATCH ANYTHING

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY IS A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE MEAL FOR BREAKFAST,
LUNCH AND DINNER IN THE SAME DAY

DON'T SHUN THOSE WHO USE TYLENOL PM OR ADVIL PM TO GET THROUGH 11-
HOUR NIGHTS

THAT NEIGHBOR WHO KNOWS HOW TO USE A CHAINSAW IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND

IT SEEMS SPOOKY THAT THE ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH STILL WORKS

ICE IS A FORM OF CURRENCY

IT'S OK TO LET THE KIDS KEEP THEIR STICK FORT UNTIL THE DEBRIS-PICKUP
CREWS START ROLLING IN

A THREE-HOUR LINE FOR GASOLINE IS AN EXPLOSION WAITING TO HAPPEN

COMING HOME FROM WORK WITH A PIZZA AND A CHARGED-UP LAPTOP SO THE
KIDS CAN WATCH A DVD MAKES YOU A HERO

YOU RUN OUT OF THINGS TO BARBECUE AFTER DAY 2

ROOF-DAMAGE STORIES ARE PASSÉ'

SPAGHETTI-O' S AND CANNED TUNA DO NOT MIX WELL

HAIR CAN DRY WITHOUT A BLOW-DRYER, BUT IT MAY NOT LOOK THE WAY YOU
HAD PLANNED

THE STORM TREASURES YOUR KIDS ARE FINDING REALLY BELONG TO YOUR
NEIGHBORS

IF YOU HEAR A CHAINSAW AFTER DARK, NEXT LISTEN FOR THE AMBULANCE SIREN

BASEBALL CAPS GO WITH ANY POST-HURRICANE ENSEMBLE

GRAPES TASTE BETTER IN THE DARK

YOU CAN NOT TRAIN YOURSELF NOT TO FLIP ON LIGHT SWITCHES WHEN
ENTERING A ROOM

LUKEWARM IS THE NEW COLD

YOU HAVE NEIGHBORS

THE FREEZER SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEANED OUT REGULARLY

DITTO THE FRIDGE

GARAGE DOORS ARE NOT MAGIC

IT IS EASIER TO IGNORE A DIRTY FLOOR WHEN YOU CANNOT SEE IT

HEARING A NEIGHBORS GENERATOR IN THE MIDDLE OF A HOT NIGHT MAKES YOU
WANT TO COMMIT MURDER, UNLESS HE HAS GIVEN YOU AN EXTENSION CORD TO
RUN YOUR REFRIGERATOR (Amen Thank you Mr. Gutierrez).

YOU MAY HAVE RAKED UP A MILLION PINE CONES BUT THERE ARE STILL PLENTY
MORE WHERE THEY CAME FROM AND YOU ARE BOUND TO STEP ON ONE IF ONE
GOES OUT BAREFOOT

PLAYING BOARD GAMES BY CANDLELIGHT QUICKLY BECOMES A NEIGHBORHOOD
PARTY

OFF STILL HASN'T MADE A MOSQUITO REPELLENT THAT WILL DETER TEXAS
MOSQUITOES"

Food Storage Calculator

2008-08-06T13:28:00.001-06:00

Here is a link to a food storage calculator. Julie just sent a note and said she remembered seeing it, but couldn't find it, and I couldn't either.... so I thought I would post or repost it.

Gardening When It Counts

2008-08-05T13:30:00.005-06:00

Gardening when it counts.... pretty interesting videos. These guys are survivalists, but then if we lose the warm comforter of plentiful oil, we might all be. They seem a little out there, but they bring up a lot of good points on what you might need for your garden if it is ever going to be something that you really need.

One the way home from work, after this had been posted for the first time I was talking to a friend about these clips. I told him that these guys seem a little out there, but it is a matter of perspective. My Grandparents lived like this. They got through the Depression for the most part on their gardens. I imagine they saved their seed. They stored what they raised, and they ate what they stored. This is the way that countless generations of people lived before they had cheap transportation and mechanized agriculture.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5LmLu2UCE

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOqxyGNjzI4

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpX_PjMvi9k

Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4KXlKSxqWw

Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGKydUzciyU

Part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut5BjlilqRU

Part 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBhpzfrMgAk

Part 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQlneCkpuSA

DIY Bicycle Trailers

2008-07-27T17:57:00.003-06:00

Pixie commented on the last post about the Sports Utility Bicycle that she would like to do some of this, but it looked pricey. I think that it can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you want it to be. If you go and buy the best at the bike shop, you will undoubtedly have a nice looking and top of the line bike. But there are a lot of good bikes looking for a home at DI. They might need a little oil and the grease in the bearings to be changed, but mostly they will be fine. Old Christmas and birthday presents that have been outgrown and neglected when kids go on missions and on to college. Annie got her bike at a yard sale, and I got mine at a thrift shop... and, yes, we will probably upgrade someday, or at least get some new shifters for her bike.

Mostly they work fine, and we ride all over town and some into the country with them. but they aren't set up to haul much, and we don't really want a big basket or panniers on the sides of the wheels when we run to town.

I came across some designs for do-it-yourself bike trailers, being somewhat inspired by the kid carrier trailer that M&J have for carrying Greta.

See what you think of these. They can all be built for a few dollars and don't require welding, although I am sure welding might make some parts of the fabrication easier. They are all pretty robust, one being designed for up to 300 lbs and to carry "loads as diverse as wood, water, maize, fertilizer, portable generators and pregnant women." So, as Pixie likes to say: There you have it.

Trailer 1: The Coleman Cooler Trailer

Trailer 2: The Scrap Metal Trailer

Trailer 3: The IBF Trailer

Trailer 4: The Bamboo Trailer

When I get done building fences, raised bed grow boxes, cradles, quilting frames etc., I think I will build one of these.

The Sport Utility Bicycle - SUB

2008-07-24T21:28:00.002-06:00

This was an interesting article and clip. Especially the blender. That is kind of new.

When I was a Freshman and Sophomore at the University of Colorado I didn't have a car. Being single, young and not employed it was not all that hard. It gets harder when you are older, have strict times when you have to be at work etc.

Annie got her bike at a yard sale, and I got mine at a thrift store. Real high end machines, but they get us around. We are limited to what we can carry on them. A few light items in a bag isn't a problem, but when you pick up a gallon of milk, it makes it a little unstable. In the olden days, when I was at CU, I would toss everything into an old army green pack and just head home up the hill. It was surprising what I could get in the pack, but I don't really want to go back to the pack either. This guy has an extended length frame bike, and some heavy duty panniers.... which I am not sure is the answer either. Give it a look. It's kind of fun.

Hard Red, Hard White, and Soft White

2008-07-15T07:56:00.003-06:00

I told Kevin that I would take 500# of hard red, 500# of hard white, and 200# of soft white. The cost will be $15/50# bag, or $30/hundred. So I am hoping (Friends and Family) that you take some of this off my hands so I don't have to store it.

Also, I think the honey people are getting ready for some harvesting. The bees haven't all died here. I will let you know what I find out.

The hard white is supposed to make a bread that is very mild, and tastes much like bread from white, milled flour. We tried some soft white years ago and it didn't keep really well, but I am thinking that it would be just the ticket in pilaf.

Wheat, Wheat, Wheat

2008-07-14T19:35:00.002-06:00

If you are interested (family and friends) there might be some wheat available, double cleaned in bags in a week or two. Let me know if you are interested. But don't wait too long. He doesn't have anywhere to store it, and so will probably clean up what he harvests and sell it quickly.

If you don't have a grinder, or don't want to bake, here is a great recipe for wheat pilaf. Whole grain goodness and you don't have to worry about eating it too quickly.

Call me soon if you are interested in the wheat. I heard a price third hand, and talk to Kevin myself.

For the Earth is full, and there is enough and to spare

2008-07-05T16:22:00.005-06:00

In the midst of all the bad news that surrounds us, it is really important to remember that the 'earth IS full, and there IS enough, and to spare'. This a promise and a reassurance that had been given to us, possibly for times like these. If there is hunger or shortages, it isn't because the earth is failing us, but because we have the wrong system of farming or economics in place to realize the promise that we have.

I ran across a very encouraging web site that I hope you also like. The Dervaes family lives in Pasadena California. They harvest almost 6000 lbs. of produce off of 1/5 of an acre. They live off the grid and power their computers from solar panels. Here is a short trailer that shows a little about what they are doing. They believe they are 21st Century pioneers in the mold of Laura Ingalls Wilder from Little House on the Prairie

They have a website that has quite a bit of information on it. They also have a newsletter that you can sign up for. I just signed up today, so I can 't comment on the content.

It seems to be a common attitude when thinking about storage, to neglect home production. One friend said that he would just dig up his lawn and plant a garden, if conditions warranted it. I didn't know what to say. You can certainly dig up you lawn, and eventually have a good and productive garden, but not the first year. And probably not the second year either. It takes a while for the soil to become fertile, and it takes longer to learn how in the heck to get any kind of harvest.

Another attitude that I hear is that..... what can you do.... get some storage and wait for the Second Coming.... the problems are just too big. That would be great if the Second Coming was well scheduled, and we could count on it coming in the nick of time. More likely, we will ignore the coming storm, and then have to wonder how to feed our families. James Slessinger, former head of the Department of Energy also said that we (in the U.S.) have two speeds, complacency and panic. Complacency will just about guarantee panic somewhere down the road.

Anyway, I don't expect that we will ever get to where we were as self sufficient as Dervaes family, and I don't suppose that anyone that reads this will be either, but..... they have shown what can be done in small space in an urban environment. Granted, Pasadena has a much better growing season, and more natural rainfall than we do here in Utah, still, we can stand to make our yards and homes more productive, and while we have the chance we should make it a priority to do so.

Hypermileing: Another Approach

2008-06-10T16:00:00.002-06:00

One more idea: why drive to the gym... or on a lot of other short trips. I know we don't always have the time to walk or take a bike, but a lot of times it takes almost as long to drive as it does to bike.

Last year we had our old beater bikes fitted out with solid foam innertubes. It wasn't all that cheap, but we have no flat tires now. Just get on the bike and go. Yes, they are a little harder on your behind. But for the short trips that we make, it is just so great.

Just a thought.

More Hypermileing

2008-06-10T15:45:00.002-06:00

This seems to be catching on. One guy got 133 mpg on a long trip. That seems a little bit much.... but shows there is a lot of potential to save gas.

We have now racked up almost 3000 miles on the Grand Am, and have an average mileage of over 37 mpg. I haven't had much luck with the truck. I think that it will never be too good with full time four wheel drive and such a boxy outline. But you do what you can.

A friend has gotten 42 out of a Geo Prizim, but has recently bought a 3 cylinder Metro (which he insists will be worth 10 grand in a year or two) and will be shooting for over 50 mpg.

Funny what a little motivation will do. In the 70's everyone hated the 55 mph speedlimit, and tried every way they could to drive faster. Now, we won't be worried so much about a ticket, because as gas prices rise, we git a 'ticket' every time we try to break the laws (of physics)...

Have fun

Warm House on a Cold Spring Day

2008-05-25T22:09:00.002-06:00

It has been a cool spring, and something in our furnace is on the blink. And we haven't been home enough to call a repairman. Mostly it has been a little on the cool side, but not too bad until we have three or four days of cold, and then it gets pretty brisk.

We have Jotul Woodstove Insert that has seen some duty in the last few weeks. It seems funny to put a fire in the stove this late in the year, but it really does warm up the house. I would like to build some solar collectors especially for these cool but bright days, but until I get that done, we will haul in an armload of wood and make things cozy.

This particular stove is cleverly engineered in that it burns the smoke and has a clear stack. It brings secondary air in and preheats it, and then it sort of injects it through holes in the top of the firebox. When the temperature and draft are right, you can see little jets of flame shooting back into the stove. When you go outside and look at the top of the chimney, all that you see is a mirage-type wavering in the air, indicating heat, but no smoke. We like it.

TEOWAWKI and the List of Lists

2008-05-11T21:23:00.008-06:00

A friend of mine sent me this link. I had thought that we were fairly prepared, but I guess that there is no end to the depth of preparedness that you can go to. Still, it is not a bad idea to read through things and jog your memory, or make a note about something that you think is a good idea.

James Herriot, the British veterinarian and author wrote that 'an enthusiast is appealing, but a fanatic is irresistible." He was writing a story about one of the farmers that he knew that made dozens and dozens of different home-made wines. Still, the concept is the same. These guys that made this list are pretty far out on the edge. But when you are looking for information, go to the people who think about stuff day and night for years. They will have thought of just about everything.

A long time ago when the kids were little we lived for a week or so on our food storage. We cooked outside but Annie still used the washer and clothsline for the diapers, and we still showered inside. But we learned a lot about what conditions might be like in the event of a natural disaster. We didn't have dutch ovens, we didn't have a Coleman stove or lantern, and we learned that we really, really didn't like TVP, of which we had several big buckets.

The Survivalblog guys call this a TEOWAWKI weekend - The End Of The World As We Know It. Try it, you might not like it, but you will learn a lot. And it is a lot better to learn that you don't like TVP (example) under controlled conditions, then when you are trying to get your family to eat strange food in a stressful situation. ( TVP does make good pig food however).

Several years later, we ended up eating out of our food storage for about three weeks while we were in the middle of a labor union strike. We were fairly ready. We had just moved, and we hadn't bottled any fruit that year, but we had a bucket of brown sugar and the kids ate a lot of whole wheat pancakes and a lot of whole wheat bread. We had dried milk. We had beans and rice. We had a wheat grinder, and a lot of wheat. Annie is a whiz at bread baking, and with the wheat, some garden veggies that a neighbor gave to us, and some help from the union, we got by pretty well. We were glad that it was over, but we never really wondered what we were going to eat.

Even though you might think it is a good idea to try this, there is a huge reluctance to actually not use the electricity, etc. I am not sure why our minds work the way they do, but on one level we can say, "yes, it is good to be prepared, it is rational and reasonable", but on another level, trying out preparedness food and equipment means that someday we might have to use them. And that is something we don't even want to acknowledge in the slightest way - it makes us feel sort of paranoid and possibly insane.

Here is a copy and paste if you don't want to follow the link:

"From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Start With a "List of Lists"

"Start your retreat stocking effort by first composing a List of Lists, then draft prioritized lists for each subject, on separate sheets of paper. (Or in a spreadsheet if you are a techno-nerd like me. Just be sure to print out a hard copy for use when the power grid goes down!) It is important to tailor your lists to suit your particular geography, climate, and population density as well as your peculiar needs and likes/dislikes. Someone setting up a retreat in a coastal area is likely to have a far different list than someone living in the Rockies.

As I often mention in my lectures and radio interviews, a great way to create truly commonsense preparedness lists is to take a three-day weekend TEOTWAWKI Weekend Experiment” with your family. When you come home from work on Friday evening, turn off your main circuit breaker, turn off your gas main (or propane tank), and shut your main water valve (or turn off your well pump.) Spend that weekend in primitive conditions. Practice using only your storage food, preparing it on a wood stove (or camping stove.)

A “TEOTWAWKI Weekend Experiment” will surprise you. Things that you take for granted will suddenly become labor intensive. False assumptions will be shattered. Your family will grow closer and more confident. Most importantly, some of the most thorough lists that you will ever make will be those written by candlelight.

Your List of Lists should include: (Sorry that this post is in outline form, but it would take a full length book to discus all of the following in great detail)

Water List
Food Storage List
Food Preparation List
Personal List
First Aid /Minor Surgery List
Nuke Defense List
Biological Warfare Defense List
Gardening List
Hygiene List/Sanitation List
Hunting/Fishing/Trapping List
Power/Lighting/Batteries List
Fuels List
Firefighting List
Tactical Living List
Security-General
Security-Firearms
Communications/Monitoring List
Tools List
Sundries List
Survival Bookshelf List
Barter and Charity List

JWR’s Specific Recommendations For Developing Your Lists:

Water List
House downspout conversion sheet metal work and barrels. (BTW, this is another good reason to upgrade your retreat to a fireproof metal roof.)
Drawing water from open sources. Buy extra containers. Don’t buy big barrels, since five gallon food grade buckets are the largest size that most people can handle without back strain.
For transporting water if and when gas is too precious to waste, buy a couple of heavy duty two wheel garden carts--convert the wheels to foam filled "no flats" tires. (BTW, you will find lots of other uses for those carts around your retreat, such as hauling hay, firewood, manure, fertilizer, et cetera.)
Treating water. Buy plain Clorox hypochlorite bleach. A little goes a long way. Buy some extra half-gallon bottles for barter and charity. If you can afford it, buy a “Big Berky” British Berkefeld ceramic water filter. (Available from Ready Made Resources and several other Internet vendors. Even if you have pure spring water at your retreat, you never know where you may end up, and a good filter could be a lifesaver.)

Food Storage List
See my post tomorrow which will be devoted to food storage. Also see the recent letter from David in Israel on this subject.

Food Preparation List
Having more people under your roof will necessitate having an oversize skillet and a huge stew pot. BTW, you will want to buy several huge kettles, because odds are you will have to heat water on your wood stove for bathing, dish washing, and clothes washing. You will also need even more kettles, barrels, and 5 or 6 gallon PVC buckets--for water hauling, rendering, soap making, and dying. They will also make great barter or charity items. (To quote my mentor Dr. Gary North: “Nails: buy a barrel of them. Barrels: Buy a barrel of them!”)
Don’t overlook skinning knives, gut-buckets, gambrels, and meat saws.

Personal List
(Make a separate personal list for each family member and individual expected to arrive at your retreat.)
Spare glasses.
Prescription and nonprescription medications.
Birth control.
Keep dentistry up to date.
Any elective surgery that you've been postponing
Work off that gut.
Stay in shape.
Back strength and health—particularly important, given the heavy manual tasks required for self-sufficiency.
Educate yourself on survival topics, and practice them. For example, even if you don’t presently live at your retreat, you should plant a vegetable garden every year. It is better to learn through experience and make mistakes now, when the loss of crop is an annoyance rather than a crucial event.
“Comfort” items to help get through high stress times. (Books, games, CDs, chocolates, etc.)

First Aid /Minor Surgery List
When tailoring this list, consider your neighborhood going for many months without power, extensive use of open flames, and sentries standing picket shifts exposed in the elements. Then consider axes, chainsaws and tractors being wielded by newbies, and a greater likelihood of gunshot wounds. With all of this, add the possibility of no access to doctors or high tech medical diagnostic equipment. Put a strong emphasis on burn treatment first aid supplies. Don’t overlook do-it-yourself dentistry! (Oil of cloves, temporary filling kit, extraction tools, et cetera.) Buy a full minor surgery outfit (inexpensive Pakistani stainless steel instruments), even if you don’t know how to use them all yet. You may have to learn, or you will have the opportunity to put them in the hands of someone experienced who needs them.) This is going to be a big list!

Chem/Nuke Defense List
Dosimeter and rate meter, and charger, radiac meter (hand held Geiger counter), rolls of sheet plastic (for isolating airflow to air filter inlets and for covering window frames in the event that windows are broken due to blast effects), duct tape, HEPA filters (ands spares) for your shelter. Potassium iodate (KI) tablets to prevent thyroid damage.(See my recent post on that subject.) Outdoor shower rig for just outside your shelter entrance.

Biological Warfare Defense List
Disinfectants
Hand Sanitizer
Sneeze masks
Colloidal silver generator and spare supplies (distilled water and .999 fine silver rod.)
Natural antibiotics (Echinacea, Tea Tree oil, …)

Gardening List
One important item for your gardening list is the construction of a very tall deer-proof and rabbit-proof fence. Under current circumstances, a raid by deer on your garden is probably just an inconvenience. After the balloon goes up, it could mean the difference between eating well, and starvation.
Top Soil/Amendments/Fertilizers.
Tools+ spares for barter/charity
Long-term storage non hybrid (open pollinated) seed. (Non-hybrid “heirloom” seed assortments tailors to different climate zones are available from The Ark Institute
Herbs: Get started with medicinal herbs such as aloe vera (for burns), echinacea (purple cone flower), valerian, et cetera.

Hygiene/Sanitation List
Sacks of powdered lime for the outhouse. Buy plenty!
TP in quantity (Stores well if kept dry and away from vermin and it is lightweight, but it is very bulky. This is a good item to store in the attic. See my novel about stocking up on used phone books for use as TP.
Soap in quantity (hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, cleansers, etc.)
Bottled lye for soap making.
Ladies’ supplies.
Toothpaste (or powder).
Floss.
Fluoride rinse. (Unless you have health objections to the use of fluoride.)
Sunscreen.
Livestock List:
Hoof rasp, hoof nippers, hoof pick, horse brushes, hand sheep shears, styptic, carding combs, goat milking stand, teat dip, udder wash, Bag Balm, elastrator and bands, SWOT fly repellent, nail clippers (various sizes), Copper-tox, leads, leashes, collars, halters, hay hooks, hay fork, manure shovel, feed buckets, bulk grain and C-O-B sweet feed (store in galvanized trash cans with tight fitting lids to keep the mice out), various tack and saddles, tack repair tools, et cetera. If your region has selenium deficient soil (ask your local Agricultural extension office) then be sure to get selenium-fortified salt blocks rather than plain white salt blocks--at least for those that you are going to set aside strictly for your livestock.

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping List
“Buckshot” Bruce Hemming has produced an excellent series of videos on trapping and making improvised traps. (He also sells traps and scents at very reasonable prices.)
Night vision gear, spares, maintenance, and battery charging
Salt. Post-TEOTWAWKI, don’t “go hunting.” That would be a waste of effort. Have the game come to you. Buy 20 or more salt blocks. They will also make very valuable barter items.
Sell your fly fishing gear (all but perhaps a few flies) and buy practical spin casting equipment.
Extra tackle may be useful for barter, but probably only in a very long term Crunch.
Buy some frog gigs if you have bullfrogs in your area. Buy some crawfish traps if you have crawfish in your area.
Learn how to rig trot lines and make fish traps for non-labor intensive fishing WTSHTF.

Power/Lighting/Batteries List
One proviso: In the event of a “grid down” situation, if you are the only family in the area with power, it could turn your house into a “come loot me” beacon at night. At the same time, your house lighting will ruin the night vision of your LP/OP pickets. Make plans and buy materials in advance for making blackout screens or fully opaque curtains for your windows.
When possible, buy nickel metal hydride batteries. (Unlike the older nickel cadmium technology, these have no adverse charge level “memory” effect.)
If your home has propane appliances, get a “tri-fuel” generator--with a carburetor that is selectable between gasoline, propane, and natural gas. If you heat your home with home heating oil, then get a diesel-burning generator. (And plan on getting at least one diesel burning pickup and/or tractor). In a pinch, you can run your diesel generator and diesel vehicles on home heating oil.
Kerosene lamps; plenty of extra wicks, mantles, and chimneys. (These will also make great barter items.)
Greater detail on do-it-yourself power will be included in my forthcoming blog posts.

Fuels List
Buy the biggest propane, home heating oil, gas, or diesel tanks that your local ordinances permit and that you can afford. Always keep them at least two-thirds full. For privacy concerns, ballistic impact concerns, and fire concerns, underground tanks are best if you local water table allows it. In any case, do not buy an aboveground fuel tank that would visible from any public road or navigable waterway. Buy plenty of extra fuel for barter. Don’t overlook buying plenty of kerosene. (For barter, you will want some in one or two gallon cans.) Stock up on firewood or coal. (See my previous blog posts.) Get the best quality chainsaw you can afford. I prefer Stihls and Husqavarnas. If you can afford it, buy two of the same model. Buy extra chains, critical spare parts, and plenty of two-cycle oil. (Two-cycle oil will be great for barter!) Get a pair of Kevlar chainsaw safety chaps. They are expensive but they might save yourself a trip to the emergency room. Always wear gloves, goggles, and ear-muffs. Wear a logger’s helmet when felling. Have someone who is well experienced teach you how to re-sharpen chains. BTW, don’t cut up your wood into rounds near any rocks or you will destroy a chain in a hurry.

Firefighting List
Now that you have all of those flammables on hand (see the previous list) and the prospect of looters shooting tracer ammo or throwing Molotov cocktails at your house, think in terms of fire fighting from start to finish without the aid of a fire department. Even without looters to consider, you should be ready for uncontrolled brush or residential fires, as well as the greater fire risk associated with greenhorns who have just arrived at your retreat working with wood stoves and kerosene lamps!
Upgrade your retreat with a fireproof metal roof.
2” water line from your gravity-fed storage tank (to provide large water volume for firefighting)
Fire fighting rig with an adjustable stream/mist head.
Smoke and CO detectors.

Tactical Living List
Adjust your wardrobe buying toward sturdy earth-tone clothing. (Frequent your local thrift store and buy extras for retreat newcomers, charity, and barter.)
Dyes. Stock up on some boxes of green and brown cloth dye. Buy some extra for barter. With dye, you can turn most light colored clothes into semi-tactical clothing on short notice.
Two-inch wide burlap strip material in green and brown. This burlap is available in large spools from Gun Parts Corp. Even if you don’t have time now, stock up so that you can make camouflage ghillie suits post-TEOTWAWKI.
Save those wine corks! (Burned cork makes quick and cheap face camouflage.)
Cold weather and foul weather gear—buy plenty, since you will be doing more outdoor chores, hunting, and standing guard duty.
Don’t overlook ponchos and gaiters.
Mosquito repellent.
Synthetic double-bag (modular) sleeping bags for each person at the retreat, plus a couple of spares. The Wiggy’s brand Flexible Temperature Range Sleep System (FTRSS) made by Wiggy's of Grand Junction, Colorado is highly recommended.
Night vision gear + IR floodlights for your retreat house
Subdued flashlights and penlights.
Noise, light, and litter discipline. (More on this in future posts--or perhaps a reader would like to send a brief article on this subject)
Security-General: Locks, intrusion detection/alarm systems, exterior obstacles (fences, gates, 5/8” diameter (or larger) locking road cables, rosebush plantings, “decorative” ponds (moats), ballistic protection (personal and residential), anti-vehicular ditches/berms, anti-vehicular concrete “planter boxes”, razor wire, etc.)
Starlight electronic light amplification scopes are critical tools for retreat security.
A Starlight scope (or goggles, or a monocular) literally amplifies low ambient light by up to 100,000 times, turning nighttime darkness into daylight--albeit a green and fuzzy view. Starlight light amplification technology was first developed during the Vietnam War. Late issue Third Generation (also called or “Third Gen” or “Gen 3”) starlight scopes can cost up to $3,500 each. Rebuilt first gen (early 1970s technology scopes can often be had for as little as $500. Russian-made monoculars (with lousy optics) can be had for under $100. One Russian model that uses a piezoelectric generator instead of batteries is the best of this low-cost breed. These are best used as backups (in case your expensive American made scopes fail. They should not be purchased for use as your primary night vision devices unless you are on a very restrictive budget. (They are better than nothing.) Buy the best starlight scopes, goggles, and monoculars you can afford. They may be life-savers! If you can afford to buy only one, make it a weapon sight such as an AN/PVS-4, with a Gen 2 (or better) tube. Make sure to specify that that the tube is new or “low hours”, has a high “line pair” count, and minimal scintillation. It is important to buy your Starlight gear from a reputable dealer. The market is crowded with rip-off artists and scammers. One dealer that I trust, is Al Glanze (spoken “Glan-zee”) who runs STANO Components, Inc. in Silver City, Nevada. Note: In a subsequent blog posts I will discuss the relationship and implications to IR illuminators and tritium sights.
Range cards and sector sketches.
If you live in the boonies, piece together nine of the USGS 15-minute maps, with your retreat property on the center map. Mount that map on an oversize map board. Draw in the property lines and owner names of all of your surrounding neighbor’s parcels (in pencil) in at least a five mile radius. (Get boundary line and current owner name info from your County Recorder’s office.) Study and memorize both the terrain and the neighbors’ names. Make a phone number/e-mail list that corresponds to all of the names marked on the map, plus city and county office contact numbers for quick reference and tack it up right next to the map board. Cover the whole map sheet with a sheet of heavy-duty acetate, so you can mark it up just like a military commander’s map board. (This may sound a bit “over the top”, but remember, you are planning for the worst case. It will also help you get to know your neighbors: When you are introduced by name to one of them when in town, you will be able to say, “Oh, don’t you live about two miles up the road between the Jones place and the Smith’s ranch?” They will be impressed, and you will seem like an instant “old timer.”

Security-Firearms List
Guns, ammunition, web gear, eye and ear protection, cleaning equipment, carrying cases, scopes, magazines, spare parts, gunsmithing tools, targets and target frames, et cetera. Each rifle and pistol should have at least six top quality (original military contract or original manufacturer) full capacity spare magazines. Note: Considerable detail on firearms and optics selection, training, use, and logistic support are covered in the SurvivalBlog archives and FAQs.

Communications/Monitoring List
When selecting radios buy only models that will run on 12 volt DC power or rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery packs (that can be recharged from your retreat’s 12 VDC power system without having to use an inverter.)
As a secondary purchasing goal, buy spare radios of each type if you can afford them. Keep your spares in sealed metal boxes to protect them from EMP.
If you live in a far inland region, I recommend buying two or more 12 VDC marine band radios. These frequencies will probably not be monitored in your region, leaving you an essentially private band to use. (But never assume that any two-way radio communications are secure!)
Note: More detail on survival communications gear selection, training, use, security/cryptography measures, antennas, EMP protection, and logistical support will be covered in forthcoming blog posts.

Tools List
Gardening tools.
Auto mechanics tools.
Welding.
Bolt cutters--the indispensable “universal key.”
Woodworking tools.
Gunsmithing tools.
Emphasis on hand powered tools.
Hand or treadle powered grinding wheel.
Don’t forget to buy plenty of extra work gloves (in earth tone colors).
Sundries List:
Systematically list the things that you use on a regular basis, or that you might need if the local hardware store were to ever disappear: wire of various gauges, duct tape, reinforced strapping tape, chain, nails, nuts and bolts, weather stripping, abrasives, twine, white glue, cyanoacrylate glue, et cetera.

Book/Reference List
You should probably have nearly every book on my Bookshelf page. For some, you will want to have two or three copies, such as Carla Emery’s "Encyclopedia of Country Living". This is because these books are so valuable and indispensable that you won’t want to risk lending out your only copy.

Barter and Charity List
For your barter list, acquire primarily items that are durable, non-perishable, and either in small packages or that are easily divisible. Concentrate on the items that other people are likely to overlook or have in short supply. Some of my favorites are ammunition. [The late] Jeff Cooper referred to it as “ballistic wampum.” WTSHTF, ammo will be worth nearly its weight in silver. Store all of your ammo in military surplus ammo cans (with seals that are still soft) and it will store for decades. Stick to common calibers, get plenty of .22 LR (most high velocity hollow points) plus at least ten boxes of the local favorite deer hunting cartridge, even if you don’t own a rifle chambered for this cartridge. (Ask your local sporting goods shop about their top selling chamberings). Also buy at least ten boxes of the local police department’s standard pistol cartridge, again even if you don’t own a pistol chambered for this cartridge.
Ladies supplies.
Salt (Buy lots of cattle blocks and 1 pound canisters of iodized table salt.)
(Stores indefinitely if kept dry.)
Two cycle engine oil (for chain saw gas mixing. Gas may still be available after a collapse, but two-cycle oil will probably be like liquid gold!)
Gas stabilizer.
Diesel antibacterial additive.
50-pound sacks of lime (for outhouses).
1 oz. bottles of military rifle bore cleaner and Break Free (or similar) lubricant.
Waterproof dufflebags in earth tone colors (whitewater rafting "dry bags").
Thermal socks.
Semi-waterproof matches (from military rations.)
Military web gear (lots of folks will suddenly need pistol belts, holsters, magazine pouches, et cetera.)
Pre-1965 silver dimes.
1-gallon cans of kerosene.
Rolls of olive drab parachute cord.
Rolls of olive-drab duct tape.
Spools of monofilament fishing line.
Rolls of 10 mil "Visqueen", sheet plastic (for replacing windows, isolating airspaces for nuke scenarios, etc.)
I also respect the opinion of one gentleman with whom I've corresponded, who recommended the following:
Strike anywhere matches. (Dip the heads in paraffin to make them waterproof.)
Playing cards.
Cooking spices. (Do a web search for reasonably priced bulk spices.)
Rope & string.
Sewing supplies.
Candle wax and wicking.
Lastly, any supplies necessary for operating a home-based business. Some that you might consider are: leather crafting, small appliance repair, gun repair, locksmithing, et cetera. Every family should have at least one home-based business (preferably two!) that they can depend on in the event of an economic collapse.
Stock up on additional items to dispense to refugees as charity.
Note: See the Barter Faire chapter in my novel "Patriots" for lengthy lists of potential bart"

Hyper-mileage Driving Revisited

2008-04-13T15:23:00.005-06:00

We have been driving back and forth to work - cold car, some intown driving. I thought we would see a drop off as opposed to the straight trips to SLC via back of the lake.

Yesterday we filled in gas. we had traveled 588.4 miles. It took 12.54 gallons to top it off. That works out to 46.92 mpg. Not to bad for a car with all stock components. Even if you knocked off 15% of that to speedometer inaccuracies my mileage would still be 39.9 mpg.

I will be doing a little checking on the odometer to see just how close we are. But there is no doubt in my mind that you can improve your mileage with no cost to you just by changing your driving habits. The next project is to see what kind of mileage I can get out of my 2001 Ford Ranger with 4WD, and a 4.0 liter V6 and automatic transmission. Three big handycaps. I am shooting for 30 mpg.

Hypermilage Driving

2008-03-30T20:24:00.003-06:00

I ran across an article the other day where these fanatic people were getting over 100 mpg using cars that had no special equipment or alterations. I thought - wow, this is just what I need! It so happened that Annie had a practice and a concert in SLC on consecutive days, and so we put some miles on the old Grand Am, and I got a chance to practice some hypermileage techniques.

In case you are wondering how mileage is calculated by the EPA, you can go here. If you follow that page on down quite a ways you will get to the section where the driving techniques are outlines. Note: Not all of these techniques are safe or even legal, not all of them will save you money over all. You might get better mileage if you turn off your car when you wait at a stop light, but the wear and tear on the starter motor, battery and alternator might not make it worth it.

Section II - Basic FE saving techniques

Now that we have a good feel for what others perceive as a problem without knowing what they themselves are achieving, let us begin to consider the ways to match if not beat the EPA estimates.

Do not use quick accelerations or brake heavily: This reduces fuel economy by as much as 33 percent at highway speeds and 5 percent around town. EPA tests do not account for this kind of vigorous driving.
Do not idle excessively: Decreases average FE. The EPA city test includes idling, but drivers that experience more idling experience lower MPG.
Do not drive at higher speeds: This increases aerodynamic drag (wind resistance) and mechanical friction which reduces fuel economy. The EPA test accounts for aerodynamic drag up to highway speeds of 60 mph, but drivers often exceed this speed.
Cold weather and frequent short trips reduce fuel economy, since your engine doesn't operate efficiently until it is warmed up. In colder weather, it takes longer for your engine to warm, and on short trips, your vehicle operates a smaller percentage of time at the desired temperature. Note: Letting your car idle to warm-up doesn't help your fuel economy, it actually uses more fuel and creates more pollution. Drive to your furthest destination first and then as you are heading home, stop at the closer destinations in order from furthest to closest as the car is warmed up for longer portions of your drive.
Remove Cargo or cargo racks: Cargo and/or racks on top of your vehicle (e.g., cargo boxes, canoes, etc.) increase aerodynamic drag and lower FE. Vehicles are not tested with additional cargo on the exterior.
Do not tow unless absolutely necessary: Towing a trailer or carrying excessive weight does decrease fuel economy. Vehicles are assumed to carry three hundred pounds of passengers and cargo in the EPA test cycles.
Minimize running mechanical and electrical accessories: Running mechanical and electrical accessories (e.g., air conditioner) decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on "Max" can reduce MPG by roughly 5-25% compared to not using it.
Avoid driving on hilly or mountainous terrain if possible: Driving hilly or mountainous terrain or on unpaved roads reduces fuel economy most of the time. The EPA test assumes vehicles operate over flat ground.
Do not use 4-wheel drive if it is not needed. 4-Wheel drive reduces fuel economy. Four-wheel drive vehicles are tested in 2-wheel drive. Engaging all four wheels makes the engine work harder and increases crankcase losses.

Maintain your Automobile: A poorly tuned engine burns more fuel, so fuel economy will suffer if it is not in tune. Improperly aligned or under inflated tires can lower fuel economy, as can a dirty air filter or brake drag.

Try to purchase high BTU content gasoline if available: Fuels Vary in Energy Content and some fuels contain less energy than others. Using oxygenated fuels or reformulated gasoline (RFG), can cause a small decrease (1-3%) in fuel economy. In addition, the energy content of gasoline varies from season to season. Typical summer conventional gasoline contains about 1.7% more energy than typical winter conventional gasoline.

Inherent Variations in Vehicles: Small variations in the way vehicles are manufactured and assembled can cause MPG variations among vehicles of the same make and model. Usually, differences are small, but a few drivers will see a marked deviation from the EPA estimates.

Engine Break-In: New vehicles will not obtain their optimal fuel economy until the engine has broken in. This may take 3-5 thousand miles.

The things that will get you the most good are pretty easy:

Don't drive at high speeds. In airplanes I have been told that drag increases as the square of the speed, and power needed (and fuel burned) as the cube of the speed. I'm not going to get all mathematical, suffice it to say that your mileage will be noticeably lower at 65 rather than 55. I know that traffic won't always let you drive slower, but if you can take a few extra minutes it will save you money. The many large trucking firms are setting their speed limits in their trucks to 62. FYI.

Coast to a stop as often as possible.... within reason. Pushing on the gas until you are close to the stop, then slamming on the brakes costs in gas, brakes, and tires.

Gently accelerate. Imagine you have a raw egg between your foot and the gas pedal.

Generally coasting down hills isn't encouraged... I don't think it is illegal if your engine is running, (don't take my word for it either.... I am no legal expert) but this will help you a lot if you have a long hill. Turning off the engine can be done, but if you aren't careful you might turn the key to far and lock up your steering. And you lose your power steering and power brakes. So this is probably taking things too far. I am pretty sure that turning off the engine is not legal... or smart.

Anyway, driving a 1995 Grand Am with 90,000 miles on a rebuilt engine, fairly well maintained, correctly inflated tires (some of the hyper milers over inflate their tires, which helps with the mileage, but hurts handling, stopping and tire life), with a 5 speed manual transmission and two people in it... we left Maverik in Riverton and drove home. We traveled 104.3 miles, and it took 2.72 gallons of gas to re-fill the tank. Doing the math give 38.35 mpg for this trip. The next day we made the trip back to SLC, and had to drive some on I15 at high speed, with normal traffic acceleration and then back to Maverik. We dropped down to 32.39 mpg for that leg of the trip.

So, I am a fan. I have been driving my Ranger a lot more gently, and found that even with a 4 wheel drive, boxy truck that I can noticeably improve my mileage. If anybody tries some of these techniques, I would be interested to hear from you with a comment.

Casabon's Book - Food Storage 101 Resource

2008-03-26T06:46:00.003-06:00

This is a nice site. There is a lot of information here. Here is a link for storage with emphasis on pregnancy, lactation, and young children.

Here is a page on storing medicines.

Here is a perspective on the hard times that have been here before - the difference between being poor in a rich world, and mass collective poverty of a deflation or inflation.

Finally, what not to do in the way of food storage. We probably all have some stories that could go here.

I hope you enjoy these. There is a lot good stuff here.

Peak Oil Video - Krassimir Petrov Ph.D

2008-03-25T19:04:00.002-06:00

This is kind of long (60 minutes!), but it should answer any questions that you might have. He covers supply, demand, and economics. I don't really expect that anyone will actually spend a hour watching this. But I thought it is a good summation, and if you want to learn something this guy is pretty good. Because you won't see this on 60 Minutes doesn't mean it isn't happening.

A Letter From Afton

2008-03-10T12:18:00.002-06:00

This was forwarded to me. I thought you might be interested. She is from Oak City.

Sister Afton Dutson writes:
Hi, everybody! I am by some miracle back on my e-mail! It has
been worthless for the last month, but the last 2 weeks, it has been so
sporadic, I haven't been able to do a thing. If by some chance, I could
open it, I would click to read a message and it would abort! And that
was that. Anyway, I made a trip down to the office of Netconnect,
(usually I just call then on the phone to complain about the service,
but this time I really wanted to get to the bottom of it) and they told
me that lightning had struck the tower. And they were out for so long.
They were re-routing everything to Harare, and it wasn't handling it
all. And then, they were working on the line and so we didn't have any
service again for a few days.
And I am not surprised that lightning struck it, because it hit and
killed 3 people. In different locations! It was a wild night! I
thought that it was for sure the end of the world again. (We have been
through 3 or 4 of those end of the world storms, and it is scary!!!)
...When we came out of there, we were so glad to breath fresh air and
come back to our flat, and we were exhausted and depressed. There are
so many sick and dying. And because of the death rate, and all of the
AIDS (1 out of every 3 in Zimbabwe), there are funerals all the time. I
am hoping we won't have to have one for Edward. He has 3 little
children, and his wife died about the time we came here. And last week,
there were 3 funerals in our wards. One was one of the guys killed by
lightning, (he was just riding his bike when he was struck!) and 2 of
them were suicides. One was 14 and the other 17. That happens here
alot, too. Life is not fun for kids like at home. Times are hard and
some of them have a terrible home life and parents that are not much
good, and they just give up. So sad.
A few days ago, our stake president, President Makasi was driving
up to Zambia on CES business, and got in a terrible rain storm, and I
guess the roads were slick, and he hit a spot and skidded and then over
corrected and rolled his little Isuzu (spelling?) truck (with a canopy
on the back). Because of the roll bar on it, and the fact that he was
wearing his seat belt, and the Lord was protecting him, he was not
hurt! But he was up near Kariba Lake, and where there is no network for
his cell phone, he couldn't call anyone. But there was a little traffic
and several people stopped to help him, and he asked them to send a
wrecker to take his car back to Harare. But of course, he couldn't
leave his car, because it would be totally stripped within a few hours
if left alone. So he sat there in it. And it was about 5 in the
evening and he sat there all night, and all the next day until around 6
in the evening and here came our mission president's wife along, with
the two assistants. And they took him to Harare, as soon as the truck
got headed there, too. But I can tell you that he spent a fearful
night. That area is full of animals. And the windows were broken out.
Any lion could reach in and pull him out so easily. And the hyenas run
in packs and are vicioius and all other kinds of wild animals. He said
he was scared. So now, we are also being transport for him part of the
time. And what will he do when we go home? This van that we drive will
be driven up to Harare by us and then left there, as there is not a
couple coming to replace us here. So they don't need the car here. But
he will need something. It takes months here to get anything done like
fixing a car.
Now, for anything we buy, we have to peel out rolls of 10 million
dollar bills to pay for _anything_! A million won't buy anything at
all. It is almost worthless now. We had to get some veggies the other
day, and I asked Elder Dutson how much money he had, would we have
enough to pay for the stuff? And he counted that he had 7 billion 500
million dollars on hand. And we spent it all. They said the other day
that inflation here has now reached 100,000 % An all-time world
record. And still climbing faster than you can believe!Speaking of
cars, Elder Dutson had to get an oil change done on our van, and he went
in to check on the price one day and we went to the bank and got money,
and the next day he went to get it done and the price had jumped in just
that one day from 125,314, 492 dollars, to 1,016,344,482 dollars. 891
thousand dollars more than it was the day before!
And speaking of the animals, we heard the report a few weeks ago
about them arresting 2 poachers who had killed 15 elephants! Taken the
tusks and left the animals there for the vultures and other animals.
How very sad, and how wasteful. This country is rich in scenic places,
and all the wild animals and tourists have always loved to come here and
enjoy that, and now the animals are getting more scarce all the time
with those things going on. And they say that the poachers will spend
something like 20-30 years in jail and pay fines that are astronomical!
It is a serious crime here and still they do it. People are so desperate.
The church deposits in the bank 8 billion dollars in each of three
accounts, every week. It sure costs the church a sum to operate this
mission here in Zimbabwe, wouldn't you say? And the problem is, the
church doesn't get the same exchange rate that we get. They get the
bank rate and it is quite a bit less than the black market that we do.
And speaking of crime, we have a very good friend here who helps
Elder Dutson repair the bikes. He has a business of fixing bikes and
gets parts and that and they spend alot of time working on them. And
one Sunday morning, we got a phone call from Mike and he sounded just
terrible. He had been on his way home the night before, (walking, of
course), and was robbed and beaten horribly! They hit him over and over
with big iron bars, and left him there in the road. Somehow, with some
help from some people who had witnessed it all (but didn't make one move
to help him when it was going on). He said if it had been only 2 guys,
he could have handled it and fought them off, but there were 5 or 6.
That is the way they do it. Get several together and go for one
person. Mike is a big, big guy, and it was sad that he couldn't fight
them off, although he tried. Then he screamed and screamed but no one
will get involved, because they know they would be killed too. He
called his old employers, and they wouldn't do anything about him. So
he called us here, and we went straightaway and picked him up and took
him to a chemist shop and gave him some money for some medications for
the pain he was having, and then left him at his mother's. It was
terrible and his face was swollen up so bad, and I think he had a
concussion, and his head ached terribly for days! But they cannot go to
a hospital or doctor. No money. It is so sad....

Mostly Cloudy, and It Looks Like Rain

2008-03-09T16:05:00.004-06:00

"But let's not be too gloomy here.

Other than overleverage, bad debts, sinking home prices, no jobs, shrinking wages, cash strapped US consumers, rising oil prices, a sinking US dollar, $500 trillion in derivatives not marked to market, rampant overcapacity, underfunded pension plans, looming boomer retirements, no funding for Medicaid, no funding for Medicare, and no Social Security trust fund, everything is just fine.

And even though the Fed, central bankers in general, and governments combined to create this problem, the irony is nearly everyone is begging for them to fix the problem by encouraging still more speculation in housing, commercial real estate, and the markets.

Sorry folks, it's the end of the line and payback time for the world's most reckless financial experiment in history. The deflation genie can't be put back in the bottle until leverage everywhere is unwound."

Mike "Mish' Shedlock paints a dreary picture here. But if you are reading the financial press, you know that this stuff well known. For heavens sake, if you have money in stocks or mutual funds think about getting out of it and put it in SHV (basically 3 month Treasury bills) or a nice money market. The value of each of your dollars will be going down through devaluation. But at least you will have the dollars. You won't be missing a rally for some time.

Say you started out in the fall of 2005 with a really great mutual fund like CWGIX. Say you had 25,000 dollars worth to start, by the time November of 2007 rolled around, the value would be up to about 37,000 or so. CWGIX peaked at $50.49 and has since fallen back to $40.73 as of last Friday. That drops the value to just a little over $30K. Thats a drop of about $7K in a little over three months. I don't know what the future will bring, but I think the odds are heavily to downside losses, rather than upside rallies.

Starting a New Garden

2008-03-04T16:29:00.003-07:00

After years of both enjoying and bemoaning our shady yard we decided to put in some raised beds. We are hoping that we will get the same production that we get out of the bigger shady part of the yard.

Where the garden is now, we will be planting a small orchard, and some bramble rows. Also, we will use clover for a ground cover. We will be updating this.... so stay tuned.

Weekly Preparedness Goals

2008-03-02T21:38:00.002-07:00

This list was sent around in our ward bulletin this week. I thought I would share it. The original was in table format and had a goal for every week of the year. I think you might want to read through these goals and prioritize them for your particular situation. Diapers should probably be pretty high on the list if you have little ones. Still, there are some good things to remember. Most of this is geared for 72 hour, it is a good thing to have for your regular storage as well.

 Obtain a suitable 72 Hour kit container (backpack, duffel bag, garbage can w/lid etc.)
 Check the batteries in your smoke detector
 Add 1-1/2 gallons of water per person to 72 hr. kit
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Add a can opener to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 2 cans of tuna fish or canned meat to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 blanket to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 large roll of paper towels to 72 hr. kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 bar of soap to 72 hr. kit.
 Add stress relief factors to 72 hr. kit (books, magazines, coloring books, games etc.)
 Add pocket or utility knife to72 hr. kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 container of baby wipes to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1-2 changes of clothes to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 48 oz. non-carbonated canned juice to 72 hr. kit. (date for rotation)
 Add 1 can of fruit, 1 can of vegetables to 72 hr. kit. (date for rotation)
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 box matches to 72 hr. kit.
 Add hard candy to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 ½ lb peanut butter can to 72 hr. kit.
 Add Ziplock bags (in a variety of sizes) to 72 hr. kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Check the batteries in your smoke detector and practice escape routes
 Add 1 box of crackers to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 bag of plastic utensils to 72 hour kit.
 Add 1 large candle to 72 hr kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr. kit.
 Add 1 lb. Graham crackers to 72 hr kit.
 Add flashlight to 72 hr kit. Check batteries
 Add disinfectant (betadine, bleach, sterile wipes, hand sanitizer ) to 72 hr kit.
 Add paper cups to 72 hr kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr kit.
 Add 1 lb. dried fruit to 72 hr kit.
 Add ½ lb non-fat dried milk to 72 hr. kit.
 Add battery powered radio to 72 hr kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr kit.
 Add items related to individual medical needs to 72 hr kit.
 Add diapers, feminine hygiene supplies to 72 hr kit.
 Add toothbrush and 1 tube toothpaste to 72 hr kit
 Add hand shovel to 72 hr kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr kit.
 Verify each family member's tetanus immunization is up to date.
 Add 1 large roll heavy duty aluminum foil to 72 hr kit.
 Add 1 axe to 72 hr kit.
 Add paper plates to 72 hr kit.
 Add $10 cash to 72 hr kit.
 Add 1-2 boxes of pre-sweetened cereal to 72 hr kit.
 Add photocopies of personal documents to 72 hr kit (wills, insurance policies, birth certificates). Send 1 copy to family member or friend in separate location


Diebold Leaks Election Results

2008-02-29T20:52:00.002-07:00

This has a good 'gottcha' factor to it. Have fun with it.

The Care and Keeping of Dutch Ovens

2008-02-19T08:30:00.005-07:00

Of all the handy inventions that has been given to mankind, I have to rate dutch ovens above the computer, the internet, the cell phone, and even, dare I say it, the ipod. We didn't come to learn about dutch ovens until we had moved out to the edge of nowhere. Avalanche, Rockslide and I went out with the scouts one fine spring day. There were a lot of scouts, and they all wanted to have their own campfires. We didn't have a Coleman stove, and had kind of chickened out and brought a few sandwiches, some chips, apples, cookies etc. The Scouts were making pizza, popcorn, and the campfire dinner with hamburger, carrots, and potatoes wrapped in tinfoil and put on the campfire. These last could probably be fairly edible if the hamburger was extra lean, the potatoes and carrots were cut into little pieces and the whole thing was seasoned and cooked well - something that is only theory to me. I have never seen one done well. So we ate our dinner, and were still a little peckish. The Scoutmaster asked us if we wanted to have some of his dutch oven dinners. We had no idea what a treat we would have. Dutch oven chicken, cheezey potatoes, cherry cobler.... mmmmm.... Much better than the greasey hamburger, - rare in the inside and cooked to a burnt crisp on the fireside, crunch and burnt potatoes and carrots that the traditional dinner gave us. Our sandwiches had been good, but we really liked this new style of cooking.

Fade back about 15 years. We were on the farm and inflation was roaring along at about 15 percent and we had a lot of exhortation to get our food storage in church and had been making some progress in that area and decided to test it out for a week. It taught us that we didn't have a good way to cook things, and that we didn't like textured vegetable protein at all.... and probably some other lessons as well.

So let's concentrate on food today. Water is probably more important to have if you can't get it, but lets start with food. We didn't have dutch ovens! Yikes, looking back, how strange is that? If you don't have a dutch oven, get one. Save for one, let Santa know it's on your list, use some of the stimulus package money this spring to buy one or more.

I like the ones without the legs. The camp ovens are really better if you are going to use them outside a lot, but you can use the classic ones all the time in the oven, and get your recipes dialed in and then take them outside and use them with briquettes. You will need to have a few small rocks or something else to act as legs, or the oven with smother the briquettes, and you will have very pink, tough and juicy chicken. :)

Dottie asked me to send her some information on dutch oven cooking so that she can put it into the cookbook she is putting together. (Mostly Grandma's recipes, but also other family favorites that anyone has and wants to share).

I got this chart and placement instructions from

http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2007/03/dutch_oven_cooking.html

So maybe this will be helpful. I don't use recipes or charts much, so I am not much help. But maybe I should.

Don't use the briquettes that are supposed to give things a mesquite or other wood flavor. They are made from wood rather than coal, and have a LOT less heat in them... you can use them, but not on a 1 to 1 basis with the chart below. They have less heat, and they burn out quicker, so you might need 1.5:1 or 2:1

If your meat is still a little frozen - more time, more briquettes.

If is is really cold out side - same as above. If the wind is blowing, shelter the ovens, or you don't have a prayer.

You can use them on a regular campfire just fine too. Bring a fireplace ash shovel so that you can heap the coals on top. Also, buy a lid lifter, or have a pair of vise grip pliers handy.

There are lots of little gadgets that can be handy to have, but are not totally necessary. I like the smooth bottom ovens designed for using in the kitchen oven. They nest inside each other, and take less room. But you need to have something to set them on so that the coals or briquettes aren't crushed and can still get some air. Railroad spikes work well for this. So does several little rocks....

You need to have some kind of pliers or forcips or something to move the coals around. Good to have a whisk broom too, to sweep off the top before you serve. I hope this is helpful.

This chart will show you how many briquettes you need to use to achieve a certain temperature in your Dutch oven. The numbers across the top refer to the cooking temperature you wish to achieve. The number down the side refers to your Dutch oven's diameter. So if you have a 12 inch Dutch oven and want to cook something at 350 degrees, for example, you would need 25 briquettes.

	325	350	375	400	425	450
8	15	16	17	18	19	20
10	18	21	23	25	27	29
12	23	25	27	29	31	33
14	30	32	34	36	38	40

Briquette Position

Now you know how many briquettes to use to get a certain temperature. The next question is how many briquettes go on the top, and how many go on the bottom? Use this guide:

To Roast
Put ½ of the briquettes on the bottom, ½ on the lid.

To Bake
Put 1/3 on the bottom, 2/3 on the lid.

To Simmer
Put 2/3 on the bottom, 1/3 on the lid.

Also, realize that a briquette has a heat curve - at the start they put out very little, then the heat rises in sort of a bell shaped curve, reaches a peak and starts to fall of as the fuel in consumed and the actual hot part gets to be as big as a marble, surrounded by a lot of fluffy ash. Don't be fooled...

The more you use your dutch oven, the better it will cook, in that all the little pores in the metal will become filled with carbon, and it will have a slick finish that is very durable.

When you are first seasoning an oven the process is to coat it with oil and bake it at 450 deg F for an hour or so. This will kind of make a slick surface, but it is just a start. For the first dozen or more times, I would just use it to make meat dishes, or bake bread in. If you have a lot of liquid, and especially if there are acids (fruit based desserts), that will dissolve the seasoning coating, and you will have to add more oil and bake it again. Bread is good, put a lot of pan spray in and bake without a lid. Or with one, except for the last few minutes to brown the loaf. And, yes, it won't be shaped like bread you buy in the store.

One more nice thing about DO cooking. It is easy to store a bag of match light briquettes in a closet. They can be used on a propane or coleman gase stove as well, but if push comes to shove, you can gather up some sticks and dry branches from a nearby tree and have a warm meal.

Well, that should get you started. And that is kind of the whole point of this blog. Once you start using a dutch oven in your cooking, I think you will be hooked. And it won't seem so weird either. After the first time you have a power outage that last for a few hours, you will be glad of the water, warm clothes and blankets, and food that you have in you home.

Addendum to the last post

2008-02-18T09:13:00.002-07:00

Just to clarify, they buying of companies and stock is a desperate measure, but might actually stimulate stock prices in the short run. But it will kill the dollar, and so while you might have more dollars, their value will fall. Sophie's choice I suppose.

Central Banker to Buy Assets? What does that mean?

2008-02-17T18:40:00.003-07:00

What does that mean? Well, the Fed and other central banks have been trying to loan out a mountain of money to prevent a deflationary depression. But the commercial and investment banks aren't lending out what they are borrowing from the FED, because a lot of the assets that they own- subprime based CDO's- are losing value, and the bank's reserves have to be constantly replenished with borrowed money.

But the lower interest rates and unlimited liquidity might not be enough. The central banks could lower the interest rate to zero, and if no one wanted or was able to borrow more, the house of cards will fall. So it looks like the central banks might actually buy companies that they consider too important to let fail, and just print money to do it. This is called monitizing the debt, and it is wildly inflationary.

Right now all of my 401(k) is in cash, and that is the best I can do to avoid a falling stock market, but I wish I could put some or all of it into a very respected exchange traded fund (ETF) that actually holds more gold than many countries. GLD is the by symbol, and each share is about 1/10 oz of gold that they buy. It is held in Zurich. Sadly my hands are tied.

Here are some articles that talk about possible montization by Central Banks. The last article explains this in good detail.

United Kingdom Seeks Power to buy Companies- Marketwatch .com

U.K. government to nationalize Northern Rock

Depression risk might force U.S. to buy assets

Central Banks Other Option, Crossing the Rubicon

I have to appologize for these last few posts. They have been pretty depressing, and I really wanted to do some on gardening - soils, cool and warm weather gardens, patio gardens etc. Maybe tomorrow. I talked to Gary L., at L... Lumber and he is getting me a price on some patio door windows to use as solar collector glass..... so, more on that later as well. I want to do two solar hot water, and two solar hot air this year.

How I got this way.......This is for you, John

2008-02-12T22:51:00.012-07:00

Pat McManus devotes a whole book to telling how he got to be the way that he is. He decided that he better explain himself after his friend almost laughed himself to death as Pat recounted that when he was five he fell out of a bus and landed on his head. This is what set his friend off in gales of laughter that ended with him weakly gasping that 'it explains so much.....".

As far as I know, I don't share Pat's history with the head injury. But I had a nice talk with my mom tonight, and she told me that my brother is wondering about the head injury, or maybe brain tumor or something. How did I get so weird?

Here is the deal:

The name of this blog contains the phrase: The End of The World as We Know It. That is what is happening. In the next few years will will look back on these times with wonder. We know a world of no limits. We have all the energy that we want, all that we can use. People all through out the world work and save, and we import their savings to fund our debt, and provide a market for their goods and services. We are a nation of consumers. We are a nation of debtor drones.

Short Story 1
A ship runs into a reef and sinks. Several of the passengers manage to swim to a nearby island where they dry themselves out and set about making up the rules of the island. Bill becomes the coconut gatherer. Jane becomes the weaver of sleeping mats. Don gatherers the fronds and grasses that Jane uses. Dale and Sally comb the beach and bring back useful things, and a lot of clams and shellfish. Susan learns to make pots and dishes from a deposit of clay. Merlin is the consumer. He doesn't gather, sew, weave or pot, but pays each of his fellow islanders with a hand full of special sand. Now this sand is just the same old sand that is on the beach and has no special value, but Merlin has worked his magic, and between the force of his personaility and the fact that he is big, somewhat unstable and has the only functional handgun on the island, his fellow islanders accept his leadership and fall all over each other saving the sand that he gives them.

Now, if this seems like a healthy and sustainable and just kind of a situation, I suppose we don't have much more of substance to say to each other. If this seems like the biggest crock of crap that you have ever run into, welcome to Global Economics 101. We are living in an economic twilight zone.

This is the world that we know. A world where saving is not a virtue, but a vice. Where conservation is discouraged, and waste is built into everything we use, everything we do. Weirdly, we are kind of an economic lynch pin for the global economy. Mr. Bernake and our other friends from the Federal government want to give us some of our money back so that we can patriotically spend it and keep the ponzi game going.

Hubberts Curve: Short Story 2

A man heats his home with wood, as did his father, and his grandfather. This happy and warm family made it a point to map out all the trees in their valley, and for years it was the job of the younger men to go out and find new groves of trees. All of the grandfather's children, and all of the grand children continued to live in this valley. They never planted new trees.

Each year they would write down in a book how many trees they had discovered. Each year, for years they found more than the previous year. Until about the mid 1960's That was they year the found the most trees, and every year since then they found fewer and fewer, even though they worked harder, rode longer, and even flew above the valley in a large balloon.

Each family continued to heat with wood and since they had always found some more trees, they believed that the tree finders would always find more, or that someone would think of a way to heat their homes. Some vile malcontents asked how firewood could be made and trees cut down if they had found fewer and fewer trees, and indeed had used more trees then they had found for more than a generation. These malcontents were stoned and ran out of town for their depressing questions. And everyone lived happily ever after until some of them had cold houses because of a wood shortage. So they decided then it would be a good idea to plant some trees, and maybe to dig some coal..... although they needed wood for cross ties to make the rails to bring the coal from the next valley, and they needed timbers to mine into the mountain, but the trees were all gone and the people were cold and very grouchy, but they were glad they had run the gloomy malcontents out of town. Bunch of trouble makers. The End.

If you have been reading these blog, I think it abundantly clear that we are very near peak oil production, or that we have passed the peak, probably in 2005. Does that mean that we are 'running out of oil'? Yes, and no. No we as a planet still have a lot of oil in the ground that we know about, and probably quite a bit that can still be found and extracted. Yes in that the oil that remains is increasingly not in the hands of the international oil companies.

For all that we curse them, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, BP etc. want to sell us a product. They want to get out all the oil that they can, and they want our economy to flourish. But they are holding less and less of the reserves. National oil companies are holding more and more. It isn't in their best interest to sell us their valuable oil and get electronic chits in return. It is in the interest of the countries that still have significant reserves to use them carefully and to get the most return for each barrel of oil that they produce. For example, Saudi Arabia is building four new cities. They will be based on petroleum refineries and petrochemical production plants. They will sell these to us as refined product, basically 'retail'.

'Oh, don't be so gloomy - we can run more alternative fuels. They will think of something.' Well, that is comforting. We actually are producing a lot of ethanol. Food prices are skyrocketing. Wheat is selling for close to, or at $10/BUSHEL (56 lbs.) Grain stocks are lower than that have been since 1947. I think you can call this a manifistation of the 'Law of Unintended Consequences'.

Or how about hydrogen. This is one of my favorites. You need a lot of electricity to split water to obtain hydrogen. Right now our national electrical grid is challenged to keep the lights on. Never mind make hydrogen for 200 million cars. There isn't enough electricity to run a nation of plug in cars either. There just isn't the capacity. Power plants are expensive to build and people don't want them in the back yard, or off in the hills where they might want to recreate some day. And we certainly don't want nukes. To have enough extra electricity to make enough hydrogen to power the cars in the U.S is staggering. Mind boggling. Would we need 100 big plants? 500? We haven't built even one new nuke plant in the last twenty years. So, as my first daughter often says: 'There you have it.'

So there you have it: You can't win or quit or break even. We just won't have infinite energy. Sadly, increased energy consumption, and particularly liquid fuels consumption has gone hand in hand with economic growth. That isn't to say that we can't live quite comfortably on less energy, but it is institutional bedrock philosophy that economies need to expand 1-2%/year. At some point, and fairly soon I think, it will become impossible to continue to have the new energy to use. That isn't to say that we won't work our way around it eventually, but it takes a while to change the minds of all the economics, bussiness people, and polititians in the country. This way of thinking won't change until it is forced to change by circumstance.

All this is just energy related items. There is a whole list of financial problems and seem to be rocketing out of anyones control. I could make this page blue with links, but to what end?

I am not sure where to go from here. If this doesn't make you want to adapt in some ways to these new circumstances, I don't know what to say. To the extent that we can adapt and prepare for reasonable and probable failures in our financial and physical sytems, it seems only wise a prudent. I guess that if you think that increased petroleum costs or loss of availability won't change your life, then you should ignore all of the above. If you are content with the FED and the Federal governments assurances that the markets are sound, and the financial well being of the global economy is intact, then forget anything I might have said or say in the future.

This next part is IMPORTANT:

Risk= Probability X Consequences This is how the math works. I am working on a project for the scrubbers where I needed a lot of money to fix a system that hasn't been needed since 1994. Fourteen years it has been idle, and has fallen into disrepair. I needed several million dollars to fix it. "Please give me 3 million dollars to fix the quench system. No, we haven't needed it for the last fourteen years......." The thing is, that if we lose all station power, probably from and earth quake or something like that, we could suffer damage and loss of generation that would equal 100 million dollars..... with that in the equation, it starts to make sense.

So what is the probability of a financial meltdown with multiple bank failures? I don't know. But it is probably several orders of magnitude greater than what you would think if your only knowledge of the system is the 6:00 news. Don McAlvany thinks it is probable that it will happen in the next 6 to 18 months. I don't know. Those calculations you can only really make with your gut, as we will never have enough information to make a good calculation.

What would be the result to you and your family if you couldn't use your ATM, online banking or direct deposit for two weeks? What if your bank did fail and you had to wait for the FDIC to refund your money? Obviously no matter how well we are prepared for something like this, it will still be a giant pain in the postierior to all of us. But would you be able to eat? Would you have water to drink, at least for a few days if the power went out? Even more important, would you have enough water to flush the toilet?

In the next few years, I think it is very likely that we will see that we are on the down side of the petroleum production curve. There will be no going back, and possibly only some flattening of the curve due to conservation measures and poor economic production. Tar Sands won't make up the difference, and neither will oil shale. Ethanol and bio-diesel will make us chose driving or eating.

How will you be doing then? Remember, at the present time your food travels an average of 1500 miles before you eat it. How about a garden? What a radical concept. Seriously, this will impact everyone, and I guess the reason I get spun up about it is that as a nation we are just so complacent. Dick Cheney summed up our collective attitude when he said the 'the American way of life is not negotiable'. Not even by geological depletion it seems. What is your risk factor? It will be pretty hard to lower the probability of this happening. About the only thing you can do is to change the consequences of how you will be affected.

People in countries that are too poor to buy fuel will lose their agriculture, their electrical grid, their manufacturing capability. I am hoping that we will still be rich enough that we won't see starvation like many other countries are seeing even now. There are about 6.6 billion people on the earth today. It is doubtful that the earth can feed more than about 2 billion without a lot of fertilizer and mechanized farm machinery. You do the math on what kind of pressures will develop over the next 10 years. Right out of 'Revelation'.

So, that is how I got this way. Sorry if I am a little to worried, and grim. This is for you John, you were wondering what has gotten into me. Well, now you know. I see window of a year or two that we might be able to make a difference in preparing for what is likely to come. I will be trying to make a difference in our lives and help my kids if they want help. Comments are welcome.

Rate Your Bank

2008-02-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is kind of cool. It gives you a run down on the health of your bank or thrift.

http://www.bankrate.com/safe sound/ss_home.asp

I tried the link, and got a message that said that it was an old page... you might have to type the whole thing in. Remove the space between safe and sound when you do.

Here is an FDIC site that give some more information. These are the guys that insure your account, so it also should help.

So have fun. I hope. Our bank checked out just fine.

Just What Are We Supposed to Do? Part II

2008-02-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, Annie posed this question and asked if we should put all of our money in our mattress.

I don't think we can do that on a permanent basis, and almost everyone that reads this blog is living close to paycheck to paycheck. But it does argue powerfully for having some money - a weeks worth, if you can swing it, in cash, at home. You don't hear much about the instability that is going on in the markets, but the translation is 'credit crunch'= near bank failure. And if you don't think the trillions of dollars that have been injected into the system since August are symptomatic of real bank instability, then you have no idea of what is going on. Anyway, here is the quote. The author, in the preceding paragraph was describing CDS derivatives, (Credit Default Swap) which is as he describes it, sort of a private insurance for bonds. Huge (hundreds of trillions of dollars) and almost unregulated, they seem to work fine in good financial conditions. But no one knows what happens in times of trouble. The quote:

......"Be ready for the coming bank runs. These will make the recent run on all of the branches of the Northern Rock Bank in England seem puny, by comparison. The Northern Rock experience taught us a few important lessons: In a 21st Century bank run you can expect three things to happen immediately: 1.) All ATMs will be shut down, 2.) Debit card withdrawals will be severely limited or stopped completely, and 3.) Online banking will be shut down. These measures effectively funnel the "run" down to just face to face transactions at bank teller windows, to stem the tide. Bank managers must slow the outflow of cash, for without these measures, a bank could be "cleaned out" of most of its deposits within 24 hours. I've said this before: Be ready for bank runs, folks. Keep some greenback cash on hand. Don't keep all of your funds in one bank--even if your deposits are less than $100,000. Don't forget that it can take weeks or even months to get a check from the FDIC. Lastly, in the event of widespread bank runs, we can anticipate some draconian new rules limiting withdrawals, via executive order(s). Once bank runs begin in the US, even if your own bank is not yet affected, have direct payroll deposit stopped. Instead, ask your employer's payroll department to issue you a traditional paycheck."

I don't know about you, but if ATMs and online banking are shut down, then I am in trouble. So maybe Annie answered her own question. And like they say in 'You've Got Mail' - go to the mattresses.

News and Blues

2008-02-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

These links are pretty mainstream. I think their conclusions are pretty motivating.

HerbGreenberg_Marketwatch.com

DavidKatz_CFO.com

JimJubakMSN_Money

I'm not just making this stuff up.

Rex Bucy and other Job Hunt Stories

2008-02-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

I think I have told this story once or twice but I think it is a good illustration of determination.

Sometime in the early 1950's a man named Rex Bucy lost his job. He had a wife, and maybe a baby or two. He was probably about 30. He got his check on a Friday, and on Monday morning he got up, and asked his wife to pack him a lunch. She asked him where he was going. He told her he was going to work. She reminded him that he had been laid off. He reminded her that no one was going to come to their house and offer him a job either.

So she packed him a lunch. He took his tools, gloves and hat and started his job search. Every day for about two weeks he made the rounds. In about two weeks he got a job working for Adolph Coors, and that is where Grandpa met him I believe. They worked together for the next 25 years or so.
**********************

Another story that I thought was a good illustration of determination was one of Grandpa's jobs. He got a job after high school, and before he went into the Navy working at a small machine shop in Longmont. It was an OK job, and while he was there he learned to use a drill press, a milling machine and a metal lathe amoung other tools. Then he heard about a job in Denver running a lathe that paid a lot more.... and he applied for it. They told him to come to work .... like on Monday afternoon for swing shift and gave him a little tour of the shop. Then they showed him the lathe that he was supposed to run. It was HUGE. It could turn rail car wheels - which is pretty big. Grandpa didn't say much but was pretty intimidated by the size and complexity of this machine.

Monday, about noon, or maybe even earlier found him in Denver at the shop. He sat down near the operator and watched him work it. By the time he needed to come on duty, he had figured out how all the controls worked, and realized that while it was bigger, it was really the same machine.
*****************

When we were down in Monte Vista, Grandpa ran into a very determined man. Grandpa was running a construction crew, and they were building a large grain storage building for Coors. He had hired n men, but found one day that he had n+1 working there. He asked this extra guy what he thought he was doing. He said that he needed a job, and that he would work for free for a month. If Grandpa didn't want to hire him then, that was fine- he didn't owe him anything. If he found that his work was good and that he was a good worker, he hoped that Grandpa would hire him. I don't remember his name, but I am pretty sure that Grandpa hired him on the spot. This strategy probably wouldn't work in these complicated times, but it worked then.

Just What Are We Supposed to Do?

2008-01-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Andrew got right to the point in his comment on the Looting of America. Besides voting and food storage, just what are we supposed to do?

The preparations that we make, and the things that we do reflect our belief in what the future will likely be like. We have, at the moment, one of the worst financial situations since the Great Depression.

The Great Depression was a financial train wreck, but there were about 60 million Americans then. Many people lived on farms, or had large gardens and raised a lot of their own food. They burned wood and coal, and even if they were very hard up, they could tear up a bill board and salvage some wood (Cinderella Man). We had not even begun to tap our petroleum resources, and they served to get us through World War 2 and brought in hundreds of tons of gold as we exported the oil to other countries. I wish we only had a screwed up economy.

The data that I have seen on oil production suggest that it is likely that we have actually passed the peak of global oil production, and that from here on out oil will be increasingly scarce. Being one of the richer and more powerful countries, maybe even having the grossest domestic product and the largest, most powerful military, we are likely to enjoy a disproportionate share of the remaining petroleum. So maybe life will go on somewhat the same as it is now for years. I don't know the future, but the present direction that we are going scare the bejebbers out of me. And I track them all over the carpet. Whether hard times come sooner or later is about the only variable that I see now.

If I thought this was something that you could run away from, I probably would run and look for a productive farm to become old and infirm on. In Argentina and in Russia when their currency and oil problems caused their economies to melt down, the people that were the least dependent on the infrastructure suffered the least. It will be that way with us as well. One fellow that witnessed some of the breakup of the Soviet Union said that there was not heat, and not much water. Keeping clean was a matter of will power as you only had a bucket of cold water to wash with. He said keeping clean was of major importance in avoiding fleas and lice, and that this was an important part of staying healthy.

So assuming that you can stay in your home, and I think that there will be mighty efforts to keep people in their homes, what do you need to survive, and what do you need to be comfortable? Heat in the winter, safe water, and warm water for washing, food..... the basics.

Imagining an energy deprived and financially screwed up world is do depressing that the way that we cope is to ignore it. When lobes of our brains start arcing because there doesn't seem to be a way out of the trap, it doesn't mean there isn't a way out, and it doesn't mean that there isn't a trap. The trap hasn't sprung yet. We have time to build our lives in different ways.

Things are going to change. We have the luxury of knowing that ahead of time, and hopefully using our time and the resources that we have to cobble out some solutions for ourselves and our loved ones.

Here are some of my goal for a sustainable household:

1. Better food storage. More home canned fruit, meat, and soups.
2. Better garden. Tall fences all around the yard, raised bed veggies with block walls on the back porch. Possibility of a chicken coop or rabbit pens. Possibly a goat. Orchard of dwarf trees where the garden is now. Raspberries, strawberries.
3. More wood for the stove.
4. Solar hot water, or at least a solar water preheating system.
5. Generator and solar PV system with batteries. Scaled to run the fan on the wood stove for 24 hrs/day, or the fridge and freezer for a few hours per day.
6. Possibly new windows.

Will I get these all done? Probably not. But each one will help. I have told Annie to buy all of the flannel and quilt bats that she thinks she will ever need or want. I would like to store some extra plywood upstairs in the attic. Yes, I am my fathers son. I didn't live through the depression, but I have lived through a few recessions, some inflation, some fuel shortages, and we haven't ever suffered, we haven't ever been hungry. but that was temporary- the ups and downs of the business cycle. What is coming will be more or less permanent. That sounds bleak, but our rich life is so correlated to the amount of energy that we use that is hard to believe that we will be 'richer' if energy consumption is lowered by force of circumstances.

If you are in an apartment, you have fewer options. At least keep a half a tank of gas and $100 in a drawer. We do have food here, if push comes to shove. I would be happier if you all could live in small towns and be able to build a fire when you wanted to. I know that isn't possible. So you will have to do your best and we will do our best. And we'll help each other as best we can and stick together. That is a lot of what I have been trying to get across in this blog, and more so in Zatarasworld. Tough times come in this world. These are the last days. Have courage. Have faith. Prepare. Stick together. Our parents and grandparents did it. I am sure they are watching from their vantage points. Let's not disappoint them.

Bushonomics, or The Looting of America

2008-01-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Look, Kids, you can't prepare and you can't protect yourselves and your loved ones unless you understand what is going on, and where in the heck this economic ride is likely to take us all.

This is one of the best articles that I have read about the shell game that has been going on for the last twenty years or so. For heaven's sake, and your sake please read this.

Electrifying News!

2008-01-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. In a previous post I related a presentation that my boss gave to us about renewable energy (wind and solar), carbon taxes and carbon sequestration proposals, and how about 25 proposed coal fired power plants had been canceled. If you work in a power plants for a while you know first hand how hard they are to maintain, yet alone to build, and how often the whole system is on the verge of failure do to high demand. It was a good presentation, and it led to the conclusion that without new coal fired plants that it was unlikely that the current reliability of the grid would continue.

Here is an article that details the state of the worlds electrical grids in a general way. You might think that this can't happen here, but it can. I am looking at a couple of solar kits designed for small cabins or RV's that aren't too expensive (170W, 200 W, 300 W). While they wouldn't provide us with all the power that we are used to consuming, either one would let us run the fan on the fireplace, the hot water heater on a limited basis, and maybe more. I am thinking 3-5 years on getting this in. Might even start with a smaller starter kit to get the feel for the different loads.

Good Cartoon

2008-01-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

I saw this on The Oil Drum today. Too much truth. One day when I was driving Mr. Russell around we were talking about the state of the world and got to talking about energy. I said it was hard to believe that so little progress had been made in using solar energy. He replied that with fossil fuels you install the furnace or stove and keep paying the rest of it's life. With solar, you install the equipment and then ...... no one gets paid.

And truth be told, International oil companies are losing control of the market. National oil companies (Think Gazprom of Russia, also Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela - many countries) are gaining power and influence. The Exxon-Mobils and Chevrons of the world want to find the oil, develop the oil and get it to market. The more they pump, the more they make. National companies realize that this may be their countrie's only chance to develop infrastructure and markets. The higher the prices go, the better for them. ...

Incidentally, I think the Oil Drum has more information on the oil industry and oil geology than any site I have seen. Most of the contributors are oil professionals, so if you want information from those that walk the walk.....it is hard to beat. Otherwise, if you want pleasant pablum, continue on with network TV and financial publications.

It's a New Year!

2008-01-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some predictions by Ambrose Evans-Prichard. You probably haven't heard of him unless you follow the London Telegraph. More global than local in scope.

Supply vs. Demand

2007-12-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

I only have two graphs to show. Right now crude oil is selling for almost $97/bbl. Of course some of that price is blamed on a falling dollar, and rightly so. What bothers me is that even at these high prices, our national inventory- the amount we have in the tank farms across the country - is falling.

My conclusion from this is that, world wide, we are beginning the slide down the back of the bell curve of production, and that while there is still a lot of oil out there that to have as much as we want, we will have to bid significantly more for it.

This graph show actual production and then a variety of different predictions for the future. Notice the very optimistic EIA and IEIA lines. These are governmental and international agency estimates that assume that supply will not be a problem for the next several decades.

The oil business is very complicated, and very intertwined with the economy in general. Everyone seems to be holding their breath for the minute that crude breaks $100/bbl. and I think that there is probably a some arm twisting from the FED/Treasury to keep it under that mark if at all possible, even if inventories suffer for it. But the truth is that $100/bbl. is just a number, and it's only importance is in our minds. If you correct for inflation oil would have to be closer to $200/bbl to produce the economic problems that we felt during the 1973 oil shock.

While these graphs illustrate the problem, here are a few links that show some promise for the future.

Designer microbes producing fuel from garbage.

New fusion techniques that might have a huge impact on electrification. Go to 'future work'. More on the guy that came up with this new concept- Robert Bussard.

Thin film photovolatics are promising. There are also new improvements in efficiency in standard thick film PV panels that have to do with splitting the incoming light into different colors, and allowing a wavelength specific receptor layer to accept that 'color' of photon. Efficiencies as high as 42% are claimed.

Note that these are possibilities- there is very little in the way of infrastructure. Photovoltaics are not common, they are a curiosity. They show great promise, but are still fairly rare. The garbage to fuel technology is promising, but think about how much fuel is used just in SLC in any one day, and then realize that all the garbage would have to be transported to some central location and then processed before the bugs could eat it.... a pretty big job in itself.

For you who want to wade through an excellent technical article I do recommend 'On Energy Transitions Past and Future'. There is a ton of information there.

So, what do we have here? The end of the world? Nope, but maybe the end of the world as we know it. Energy will become harder to get, and we will have to use it more carefully. If we move to a photovoltaic based energy system, we probably won't have much going on at night. Any power that is produced to keep things going will likely be charged at 20 times the daylight rate. Street lights will be a lot dimmer and probably LED based.... you get the idea. We will adapt, but adaptation is sometimes painful and inconvenient.

We are very blessed to live in a developed country as there is a good possibility that we can live comfortably and well in the future. Many developing countries are experiencing electrical shortages as well as fuel shortages. They often burn heavy oil in their power plants and find they just can't afford it anymore. Some have also installed natural gas stations and find they can't get it, or they have to import LNG, and have the port facilities necessary etc.... bottom line, they can't get that either.

Many countries are already experiencing food shortages, even famine. Food like fuel is available if you have the money, but right now grain stores world wide are at a 26 year low. In the US, they are at a 52 year low. Using grain to manufacture fuel is a bad idea. It makes food scarce and costly, and even if we use switchgrass or some other non-edible plant as a feed stock, fewer acres will be available world wide to produce food as acres are diverted to produce fuel.

I guess that time will tell. Expect the unexpected, prepare as best you can. 2008 might be an interesting year in the Chinese sense.

The Nearer the Bone, the Sweeter the Meat

2007-11-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

This was a saying that Spencer Kimball was fond of quoting. They had a large family and limited means, and the shared a chicken each Sunday as I remember. There wasn't much meat left on the bones when they were done with it either. His Mother would tell him to clean up his piece really well because... the nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat.

This post is about bottling meat and non-acid food at home safely. Sometimes you come onto a good buy, or you want to clean out the freezer and don't want to throw good things out, but just don't have room for them. I wish that this was the type of project that you could do with just what you have on hand, but unforutnately it is not. If you bottle food that doesn't have a significant amount of acid botulism bacteria can grow, and the resultant toxins can kill you. Non-acid, or weakly acid foods need to be processed under pressure. These canners aren't cheap, but you won't have to hock your jewelry. They are durable, and well worth having. As long as they have a functioning gasket and the right weight, they are very reliable. It might be possible to break the gauge on one, but ours has lasted for years and we haven't had any problems. They come in 16 quart and 23 quart sizes, and there might even be some bigger monsters out there. We are happy with our 16 quart model.

Over the years I have bottled soups, beans, and chicken. I haven't had any trouble at all with anything ever spoiling, and we always heat everying that we use for 15 minutes as an added safety measure. Last week I bought a beef chuck roast, and two smaller pork shoulder roasts. I cubed them, put a pinch of dried onions in the bottom of each pint jar. After cubing the roasts, I applied liberal salt and pepper and packed them into the clean pint jars. I added a little water and used a table knife to move the meat around and make sure that I didn't have any air voids.

I put about three inches of water in the canner and put the jars in with the lids
screwed on medium tight. Before you put the lid on, run your moistened finger around the rim of the jar. It puts a little film of water on the glass, and cleans off any debris that might be stuck there.

Each jar had meat and water in it up to the begining of the neck of the jar. Don't fill them as full as you do for water bath canning or they will leak.

I ran hot water over the seal and warmed up the lid before I put it on the canner cooker which softens the gasket and helps it to seal better. Once it was in place you just turn on the heat and wait until you have a healthy stream of steam coming out the weight vent, then put the vent on. Pressure will start to build, but it takes probably 15-20 minutes to get up to 15 lbs of steam needed for processing. Once you have reached 15 psi the weight will begin to rock, releasing a little steam, and regulating the pressure. You can turn down the heat then to about 1/2 burner capacity. I process at 15 lbs pressure for 30 minutes with the heat on, and then turn off the burner and let the cooker cool on it's own. This helps to keep the juice in the jar from boiling out. It takes a long time to cool it all down, and mostly I let it go overnight. That way everything is very cool when I take the lid off. If you rush it, the jars will still be boiling and have a little pressure in them. They juice will tend to cook out a little and has a tendency to ruin the seal. If you feel you want to follow another cooking length recommendation, please do so. This is just what has worked for me.

So here is the finished product: 5 pints of canned beef, 4 pints of canned pork, and one pint of canned sausage... an experiment within and expermiment. I have canned chicken drumsticks and thighs by just putting the raw chicken in the jar, and have also precooked the meat and de-boned it so that I would only have meat and juice in the jar.... The jury is still out on what is best there.

Hope you enjoyed this. There are a lot of things that you can bottle this way, and if you can keep them in the dark and fairly cool, they last for years.

Giving Thanks Under the Table

2007-11-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

I suppose that this is not where you might expect to find a post about giving thanks, but I try to be thankful for all of my blessings, and I have much to be thankful for.

Being in times that will likely usher in 'The End of the World as We Know It' is not the same as 'The End of the World' or the 'End of Happiness and Light'.... It means that life as we know it will change. It is almost guaranteed to be a simpler life, and one that moves slower. It is likely that we will have to cling tighter to our family members, so while we might lose some independence, family solidarity will become more important. We might find it greatly to our advantage to learn new skills, and re-learn old skills and values.

From here, under the coffee table I find my cup overflowing. I have a wonderful wife, and wonderful children who picked amazingly wonderful mates. So far in life, I have been blessed with good health, a good job and a quiet little out of the way town to live in. I don't know what the future will bring, to me or to my loved ones. But we never really do know no matter how hard we work at guessing. I think that the frantic pace of our lives might slow down somewhat. I remember my dad telling about Sunday afternoons with his grandpa. They would sometimes contemplate a visit to relatives between Sunday dinner and evening chores, and Great Grandpa would send one of the kids out to the car with a stick and have him measure how much gas there was in the tank. If there was enough, they would make the trip. If it was too low, they would spend the afternoon at home.

In the book 'The Hiding Place' Corrie Ten Boom's sister is thankful for the lice that infest the straw they use for beds in the concentration camp they were sent to. Corrie is stunned when Betsie reveals this in her nightly prayer. Betsie explains that the lice kept the German guards from coming into the living quarters and thus the prisoners could keep some medicine and most important, they hand copies of the New Testament. Well, I am not as thankful as Betsie, or nearly as good of a person either, but I am thankful for the many, many blessings that are in my life so far. I hope that I will always be able to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. If a sparrow doesn't fall without his knowledge, we can be sure that we will not be forgotten either.

Riding the Slide

2007-11-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

You have to come up with your own Plan 'B'.

We have been Warned

2007-11-08T04:13:00.001-07:00

We haven't heard a lot about preparedness in the last few conferences, but I don't think that what we have been told before has been repealed either. Here are a few pages of quotes with references from conferences and talks. I haven't been through all of these yet. There are a zillion of them, but what struck me is that a lot of them reflect the problems and trials of the moment. Which I guess is what we are worried about - the things that pose a threat or danger at the present time. I hope you find these interesting.

LDS Prophecy Part 1
LDS Prophecy Part 2
LDS Prophecy Part 3
LDS Prophecy Part 4
LDS Prophecy Part 5
LDS Prophecy Part 6
LDS Prophecy Part 7
LDS Prophecy Part 8

The Staff of LIfe

2007-10-23T08:31:00.000-06:00

If you are serious about ever using your storage, you will want to know how to make bread. Fortunately, bread is not a high-tech food. Although, I guess you can always add bells and whistles until it is hard and complicated.

For me, bread, soups and salads are similar in that they can all be made from a variety of ingredients that you might or might not have on hand. Soups are great for making a new dish out of old leftovers. As long as they aren't spoiled, you can add them to a pot and in a few minutes you can call it soup. When you learn that onions, garlic, and black pepper are almost universal soup spices, you are 90% there. Add celery for chicken and turkey. Add bay leaf for beef. And so it goes.

Gardens are to salads as refrigerators are to soups. If you have some lettuce or cabbage, a few onions, carrots, beets or beet tops.... you are close. Or we have been making a good salad from tomatoes and onions. Mostly tomatoes, a few diced onions, Italian seasoning, black pepper, garlic salt, raspberry vinegar and olive oil and there you have it.....

With bread of course you aren't cleaning out the fridge or the garden, but if you follow a few simple principles you can have pretty good to amazing bread every time.

Start with a sponge. Put some warm water in a bowl. Water that is about the right temperature for a comfortable bath for a baby. I am guessing that you have added from a pint to a quart of water, and will scale things accordingly.

Add some sugar or molasses or honey, something for the yeast to eat. Dissolve it. Add about 2 table spoons or so of dried yeast, kept in the freezer. Mix. Let stand for 5-10 min.

Add flour to the consistency of medium thin pancake batter. This will probably be two cups or so. If you are using whole wheat, and only the whole wheat flour - no white. Also, add plain rolled oats - about 1/2 the volume of whole wheat. So if you put in two cups of wheat flour, add 1 cup of rolled oats. Some people like to chop them fine in a food processor. Whatever floats your boat. You can't see them in the finished bread, but the oats glue the crumbly whole wheat together and give it a better texture.

Add a stick of melted butter or 1/3 cup of oil or, and be strong here, 1/3 cup or so of bacon grease or chicken fat. Yes, I cook with bacon grease. And if you try it, you will probably like it. Your bread will have great texture, and great taste. You will die, as we all will, but not right away.

Add about a generous three fingered pinch of salt. Check the consistency and temperature. Add some water or milk if it is getting too thick, as it will with whole wheat. Check to see that it is just right for a baby's bath, and if it is too cold, nuke it in the microwave for 20 seconds repeatedly until it is warm enough. In the summer you probably won't have to do this. In the winter your flour will be colder.

Let this mixture set for about 30 minutes or until it is all bubbly and looks like a sponge. Then mix in white flour until it is dough, but somewhat sticky. You should be able to mold it into a big ball that is smooth, but a little tacky on your fingers. Too much flour at this stage is not desirable.

Knead it until it feels more like dough and doesn't have the consistency of batter anymore. Make sure it is warm. Microwave for 15-20 secs to rewarm. Let dough rest for 15 minutes if you are making loaves. If you are making rolls you can add just a little more flour and form the rolls.

For loaves, cut into thirds or fourths. Knead in a little more flour and roll with a rolling pin until it is about 1/2" thick or less. This gets rid of bubbles that might form big voids in the bread. Roll up the dough and form into a loaf. Do this with buttered hands to leave a little sheen on the dough, especially on the bottom. Place in a bread pan that is sprayed with pan spray , or smeared with butter. Paint top of dough with a beaten egg and sprinkle on sesame, poppy or flax seed. Place in warm area and let it rise for about 20 minutes or so. It should start to look a little soft and have expanded some. If it rises too much it might collapse in the baking. If you put it right into the oven without letting it rise, there won't be bubbles in the dough to expand in the heat and give it a good texture. There might be some trial and error to this, but keep at it.

Bake for 40 minutes or so at 350 deg. White bread can bake for a few minutes less. Remove from oven and the pan and let it cool. If you cut it too soon the knife will break the dough and you will have a crust with smashed bread inside. I like to let it cool for an hour or so, and turn it once or twice, then put it into a bag to let the crust soften. We make two little tiny loaves from a toy bread set when we bake, and these are sacrificed right away and slathered with jam or honey and butter. Before we did this we often broke the bread. It is OK if you do for eating with soup, but doesn't ever work for sandwiches.

Have fun!!

Chicken Soup for the Survialist Soul....

2007-10-21T20:57:00.000-06:00

Actually, I don't much like the word 'survivalist'. Maybe 'survivor's' would be better. Pixie and the Nurse came down last Wednesday and during the course of our conversation asked for some soup recipes that are quick and easy. So I scribbled them down and made a copy and then forgot to give them the copies.... So I thought I would put them here, and you can either use them or not. And yes, I don't do a lot of measuring.

Minestrone:

1 can corn
1 can green beans
1/2 bell pepper if you have it.
1 med. onion or 1 tablespoon or large three fingered pinch, or less of dried food storage onions, or none at all, but pretty boring.
1 cup of dried pasta or so.
hamburger, browned, or turkey burger browned, or what have you in the way of meat.
2 cans diced, stewed tomatoes, with one or both being pre-spiced Italian

Mix. Cook. Italian seasoning to taste. Black pepper to taste, salt with beef bullion to taste. some pesto if you have it. Mozzarella cheese to taste if you have it.

Prep time 15 minutes (be browning the meat as you put all the other stuff together) , but it is better if you let it cook for maybe 30 mins on low heat.

Very good with bread sticks fresh out of the oven.

Chicken Bone Soup

Yes, sound gross, but it is just fine. Save bones from one chicken and any pork chops or steaks you might eat. Boil for about an hour. Strain and let bones cool. There will be some salvageable meat in there - probably neck and back. If you don't strain it, then the little bones will end up in your soup and it isn't so fun.

Simmer stock with a little onion and about a handful of chopped celery for 30 min. If you have some meat saved, add it. When celery and onions are cooked, and meat is added then season with pepper, and salt with chicken bullion. Very rich taste. Add noodles or rice or pearled barley and cook until done.

If you aren't going to use the stock right away, after you strain it, bring if back to a boil and add about 1/2 packet of Knox unflavored gelatin. Oh, and put the meat in there too. Pour stock and meat into a quart jar and in will keep in the fridge for at least a week. It should have a layer of fat on the top for best preservation.

Beef Soup

Beef soup bone or oxtail soup - cook for quite a while, at least an hour. Season with bay leaf, beef bullion for salt, pepper, onion and garlic to taste.

Carrots (dried, canned or fresh), corn, cabbage, peas, potatoes, pearled barley, noodles, green beans, and even tomatoes can all be added to the soup.

Enhanced Ramen (but still quick and easy)

In boiling water cut some cabbage - not a lot for one person, some onion, fresh or dried, a little celery, and add some leftover chicken, pork, or beef or sliced hard boiled eggs if you have them.
If not, beat one or two eggs in a dish and add to soups, stirring constantly for about three minutes. Add noodles.

Quick and Good Chili:

Hamburger browned, 2 cans diced stewed tomatoes ( Mexican style with chilies is good), 1 can black beans. Season with dried onion, garlic salt, chili powder or cumin - very important, cilantro if you like it, black pepper. If you don't have the Mexican style tomatoes then add more chili powder, or Cayenne pepper, or some other gut flaming pepper of your choice, to your taste.

Prep time, about 15 minutes. Brown the meat while you warm the tomatoes, beans etc.

Pozole

Start with the head of one hog.... actually that is how they do start, but you can use a pork or chicken or pork and chicken base. Chicken bones stock with some cubed pork chops or pork roast would be good. Salt with chicken bullion, use black pepper, onion, garlic, and any other peppers you might like. From bell to habanero. Add 1 can of hominy.

Garnish with some cilantro if you like but DO NOT cook it in the soup. You will be sorry, and we will laugh.

Cube some avocados, slice some radishes very thin, chop some leaf lettuce very finely and add to hot soup when served. It is kind of different, but good. Sour cream is good in this soup too.

Filling the Freezer

2007-10-19T23:21:00.000-06:00

Well, it looks like pork is out, unless you just buy the sales. We found some nice pork roast for $1.49 and put a few away. A lady at work had a sign up for half or whole pigs, but wanted $2.50 /lb, and wouldn't change the tune when I told her that we didn't want them cut and wrapped.

I called over to Moroni and they have turkey burger for $1/lb. That sounded the best to me, and all of the work is done. Let me know how much you want and we will make a trip over. I would like to pressure bottle about 50 pints, and also try out the sausage stuffer. I think turkey sausage would be great. So let me know if you have any interest. After the wedding and before Christmas probably. They didn't blink when I said we might want 500 lbs. No discount either. :)

Thats all the news on the food storage scene. Well, maybe not all. I was mowing the lawn one last time today and when I got to the garden I found about six little garden huckleberry plants that had come up volunteer, and had survived what frost we have had so far. So I transplanted them and brought them into the house. They still have berries and even blossoms. Meanwhile, Annie's tomato is also enjoying the warm and has maybe 20 little bitty tomatoes on it. Kind of fun. I am contemplating making our front porch into a solarium/greenhouse. I think we could have peas, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach and maybe even cabbage almost all through the winter. All but about six weeks. It would change the looks of the house some, but if I matched the siding it wouldn't look too bad.

One more thing - maybe a five year problem: My boss has been really involved in trying to get Unit 3 built. Since that effort failed he has been tracking all of the coal fired projects across the country that have also been killed, and there are probably over 30 of them. He gave us a little presentation about this, and about the big push for green energy like solar and wind. After the presentation I went to his office and talked for a few minutes. I said that it sounded like he believed we were going to experience black/brown outs in time. I asked him when he thought that might happen. He thought we would see it within five years. I said well if that is so, and it doesn't look like anyone will be changing their minds on building the fossil fuel plants, then as the head of his house hold, doesn't that leave him looking mostly to wind and solar for his own home's security? He told me to go back to work..... but with a rueful smile.

I know that this seems utterly unbelievable, but if you have anything to do with the power grid, you come to realize pretty quickly that it is pretty fragile in the best of times. The closer that it is run to capacity, the more a small problem becomes a large one. Kind of like a car. If you have to drive at 60 mph then you have power to climb a hill or fight a headwind. You also have some lee way if you hit a board with a nail in it and a tire goes flat. You can probably get to the side of the road.

If you have to still drive at 60, but you have to pull a big, heavy trailer, you can do it just fine on the level. But not up a hill, and not with a headwind. Same with a generating unit. We have to go at 60 cycles per second. If the load gets too big when we are at pressure with valves wide open, the dispatchers open switches and isolate areas for a few hours at a time. They rotate these areas so that it isn't too much of a hardship on any one neighborhood. Of course if they have a tube leak or a fan trip, or coal is bad, or a belt rips..... there are just a lot of things that can go wrong..... then more load has to be shed.

We have trouble all of the time. Plants are always having problems, but we still have excess capacity, and instead of shedding load, dispatchers ask the other plants to pick up more load and all is well. When all plants are running flat out, you don't have that option.

Well, time to call it a night. Sleep well.

Where's the Beef

2007-10-14T21:30:00.000-06:00

Funky-Disco called last night and we had a good chat. We had talked sometime ago about getting a sow and/or a dry cow and splitting up the meat several ways. I haven't done anything about this but wondered if anyone else would be interested in this (among family).

I will let you know what I find out. There seems to be quite a few cows around, but not so many hogs. I think that they are in the concentration camps down by Milford. I don't know if anyone else even raises them anymore. Assignment for me: check out the hogs.

Reading over the last post seems a little grim. I didn't mean it to be that way, and don't really think that being thrifty and frugal should be grim. Gaining new skills should be a fun thing. Buying and making tools is a fun thing. Using all the bounties that God gives us should be a happy thing too. A thankful thing. For me it is all that and more. Anyway, it is about time for bed, so I will say goodnight.

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or do without.....

2007-10-13T17:21:00.000-06:00

The anti-consumerist mantra. This short couplet is so dangerous and radical that it is surprising that it is not illegal. For one person, or even a few families to fall off the deep end of such a philosophical cliff is a small thing, but if this were taught in the schools, and if the actual skills were taught in the schools that would allow a new generation to implement this philosophy, it would turn the entire world economy on it's head because our world is built on waste, and our economy is built on consumption. This would cause huge economic dislocations, perhaps even a global depression for a time. If people followed, at least a little of Thoreau's admonition to simplify their lives it would be amazing.

Fortunately, I don't have much worry that the fearless American Consumer will change their ways anytime soon. But I believe in using things up, wearing them out.....

Not just anybody can actually live like this. You have to actually have some skills, some tools, and you have to look at the world differently than we are accustomed to looking at it.

Use-it-up: One of the coolest ways to do this is to use up the fruit that goes to waste locally. We have been fruit scavengers for years. We have a tree across the street that lives on a lot with an absentee landlord. Annie asked him early on if we could pick the apples from this tree. He said that would be fine. The tree produces fairly small apples that mature early in the summer and get quite mushy. We were told that the apples were not any good. Undeterred, Annie has made hundreds and hundreds of quarts of applesauce from this terrible tree. Some of our children have been able to take advantage of local unwanted fruit to make applesauce, and grape juice.

But you have to have the tools: Jars, pot big enough to use for a water bath canner, and for applesauce, you should really have a squeezo. You can find them at a better price from time to time, but the all metal ones are the best. Yes this costs money. Absent the squeezo you may can peeled and chunked apples. Season with sugar or splenda and cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Yum.

And how about zucchini? I know - you can only do so much zucchini bread, and you can only have so much in your freezer. But if you are making jelly, know that zucchini will let you stretch the expensive fruit quite a bit, and with a little jello for flavoring, pretty good jelly can be made with just zucchini, jello and sugar. I am a big fan of storing sugar as jelly and syrups. Not in total, but in a good part. Much more useable.

There are a lot of possibilities of using up the food is available locally. Crab apples make great jam and jelly, and I would like to try making apple juice one day. You need a cider press or a steam juicer for this.

Wear it out: Learn to sew, learn to work with wood and metal. Learn to weld. Learn to (Oh, gosh, this is supposed to be a family rated page....) work on and repair cars. Whew, the worst is over. Not only can you repair things around the house and hearth, but you can often find a cast away object that needs only a little glue and wire to make it almost as good as new. Get a meter and learn how to trouble shoot and repair some electrical devices..... You might not ever become the Maytag man or woman, but you can easily learn to repair lamp cords, plug-ins, and lights. I guess that in this section should be the exhortation to have some kind of skill that is a hands-on skill.

Make it do: Shine it up, clean it up, be humble enough not to foolishly go into debt for the latest model of anything. Buy good things when you do, and take good care of them.

Do without: Yikes!!!! What kind of radical doctrine is this? One book that had a great effect on me as I was growing up was 'Walden Pond'. Although time has given perspective to Thoreau's little treatise, and I don't think we could all do as he did, I think that mostly our lives are better when they are simpler, and when we pay attention to the important things in life. When we are following the Two Great Commandments, the cares and desires of the world fall away, and we find that we can do without a lot of things and still be happy.

But wait you say, isn't all this a lot of work? And pretty boring work too sometimes? Well, yes and no. It is a lot of work, but in times economic trouble - either de or in flation, what happens is that you can't buy stuff. Either you don't have the money because you either lost your job, or were demoted to a lower job in a deflation, or the money that you have isn't worth it's weight in toilet paper in an inflation. Either way, you are pretty much screwed. Wages never keep up with inflation, and in a deflation, no one has any money. So, as my under-the-coffee-table daughter sometimes says, 'there you have it'. And if you are doing to prosper, you will have to create wealth on your own. You can't continue to look to wages and the giant economy to meet all of your needs. I used to get very discouraged because overtime was so hard to get. And a few hours here or there made a big difference. But the bosses watched overtime hours like hawks watch baby chicks. The ones that cared the most were making at least twice as much as I was making. One remarked one day that he couldn't understand why everyone wanted to work overtime. He said that he would rather have the time off. Yeah. If I was making what he was making, I would want the time off too. When economies go south, business' pull back. They downsize, they are cheap with raises, they cut benefits. And you can't look for a raise, a promotion or a better job to get you by. Not that you shouldn't try for a better position, volunteer for the overtime, etc. Just don't count on it.

Beans, Beans, and more Beans

2007-10-02T16:42:00.000-06:00

Back in the olden days, when inflation was running at about 15% and Grandpa was remembering the Great Depression he told me about eating corn meal in one form or another for about a month. Three meals a day, mush, corn bread, fried mush....you get the idea. But he told me that if I ever needed to get through a winter and feed my family for almost nothing to get a 100# of beans. We probably have at least 100# of beans in #10 cans, and I don't think we have used any of them. Such is the love that Annie has for beans. :)

Well, it would be nice to have a recipe that would let you make and angel food cake from a pot of navy beans, but I don't have one, and I don't have one that will make cookies, pies, or short cakes, but there are a couple of alternatives to chilli.

It is OK to soak them, but not absolutely necessary. If you want to get them soft you will either have to cook them for a long time, or pressure cook them for about 35-40 minutes. Soaking has the advantage of making sure you don't overfill the pressure cooker as they swell quite a bit with either soaking or pressure cooking.

So now you have a batch of hot, cooked beans. If you have a ham shank, you can add some tomato, brown sugar, salt, onions (a few) and maybe some beef bullion and then cook it over a low heat, stirring to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan. Good with cornbread. :)

Actually you can use split peas, lentils or any kind of bean with ham. I used to make split pea soup all the time when I was in college and a small pot would last me for three or four days (lunches mostly). We aren't real wild about lentils... so much. They have a little stronger flavor than beans. Actually, I think they would make great pigeon food. And pigeons would make pretty good soup. A fair trade, don't you think?

Beans can be simmered into soup with virutally no meat, and with a little seasoning, it is pretty good.

You can also cook the beans until soft, cool overnight. The next day grind them into paste, again with some onions and maybe a little bullion if you have it. Add some butter or bacon fat or chicken fat and you have refried beans. With a little rice and home made tortilla's you can have a hearty and robust meal. Hearty and robust....kind of scary to describe a meal this way isn't it?

With a little planning you can sprout the beans and have stirfry..... again with rice, but we are doing food storage cooking. If you have several different kinds of seeds stored, your stirfry could be pretty interesting. I have taken my anaheim peppers, and the jalapenos too and chopped them up in the food processor until they are medium to small relish size, filled the jar with vinagar and added a little salt and hot water bathed them in small jars for about 15 minutes. You could put a few peppers preserved like this into a lot of different foods. They still have quite a nice pepper taste. I am going to have to buy some bell peppers and try it too.

But with a few canned peaches cut into chunks, a little bit of onion, some frozen or canned peppers, any thing fresh or crisp from a garden, like peas or green beans, possibly a carrot or two cut up small, you could make a nice stir fry. Some beef or chicken stock or bullion would be good to give it depth of flavor.

That is about the depth of my well as far as beans go. Sorry there isn't more. I will look around for other recipes. In Taiwan they make a sweet bean paste as a desert, but it might be an aquired taste.

Why 'Under the Coffee Table'? What's up with that?

2007-09-30T08:51:00.000-06:00

My oldest daughter doesn't like stress much, and as a little girl she would hide under the coffee table and suck her thumb when things weren't going too well. Sometimes I think we all feel a little like hiding under a table when things get a little rough. I am of the opinion that our lives are going to change wildly in the next few years, and it all might start sooner then we think. Yes, I think the sky is falling, but that isn't what this blog is going to be about. That is the foregone conclusion.

I don't plan on discussing at length any of the myriad of complications that can fall into our lives. I will leave it to you, Gentle Reader, to study the economy and the energy situation and come to your own conclusions. For the record I believe that the financial situation in the world is grim, and whether or not we experience an inflation of epic proportions or a deflation of similar magnitude, that the earth is shifting beneath our feet. At the very least, in the near term, expect to see sharply higher prices for everything that we import. The dollar is falling like a rock, and that means everything that we import take more dollars to buy. Look for things in Walmart and Target to cost more. Look for higher energy costs (oil already above $83 per bbl and climbing), and sharply higher food prices. Not long ago a bushel of wheat in Australia sold for $9 per bushel. The more ethanol that is produced, the higher grain prices will go, and the higher meat and dairy cost will go. If prices follow the costs, at least the supply will remain plentiful. If production costs continue to rise and our meat and dairy prices do not then look for availability to decrease.

Furthermore, I have little trust in the official estimates of our own government agencies, the estimates of the oil companies, and the estimates of the countries that have large reserves principally because it is in the best interests of all the financial powers of the world to keep consumption at a high rate. So, in conjunction with financial catastrophe, I don't think that we will have cheap and easy energy to rebuild our infrastructure. Hence the conclusion that within a few months or years, that life as we know it (cheap available energy, cheap and available money, high levels of consumption) will be gone. So, yes I believe the sky is falling, but I don't know where and when it will land.

Whether you are of the same mind, or believe that I suffer paranoid delusions, and that Dick Cheney was right when he said that our way of life is non-negotiable doesn't really matter. I propose to talk about things that we can do, changes that we can make in the way we live now that will make life a little better, and will increase our safety and security a little bit.

So, lets put theory aside for a while. We went to Boulder for Christmas in 2005, and experienced an amazing snowstorm. When we pulled in at Grandma's house the snow was up the front bumper of the truck and we had to push our way to the driveway, leaving a wake like an ocean liner. We made it fine, but found that we had to do some shopping for the dinner we were to attend. We also found that at the store that milk and eggs and some produce had been cleaned out as the snow had kept the trucks from making their deliveries. I got the last dozen eggs that from a rack that probably would hold 1000 dozen eggs. Last one. Annie got the last of the whipping cream that was in the dairy case at the store that she was in. Last one. This was not the kind of shopping that we were and are used to. But it can happen, and it is likely that it will for what ever reason.

For your own safety and security, for Heavens sake please take the time and invest some money and buy some food to keep on your shelves and under your bed. Keep some water too. What should you store? How much should you store? I have no idea what you like or how much money that you have to put into this enterprise so I can't really say. I would think you would at the very LEAST want enough food to last from paycheck to paycheck. Basic foods cost less than kits, and are more variable and adaptable. But then you might not know how to cook, or how to cook with basics. Store what you eat and eat what you store.

If you have some food storage, or think you cupboards are big enough but you don't know how well you would do if you didn't go to the store, then I DARE you to experiment. DOUBLE DOG DARE in fact. Eat nothing that doesn't come from your storage, or go one more step and don't eat anything that you cook in your kitchen using your normal cooking equipment, including your stove. Try it for a day, or a weekend. Better yet, for a week. But try it.

When Annie and I were younger and our kids were babies we lived on a farm and did just this kind of experiment. Inflation was zooming along at about 15% per year and things were kind of scary economically. We lived on our food storage for about a week, and decided that we HATED TVP (textured vegetable protein), and that we didn't have a good cooking setup, and nothing for baking. So try it. If you don't know how to cook outdoors, or at all, I will be posting on different recipes and cooking techniques. If you don't want to wait for me, I am sure that Google will have the answers.

I don't cook with anything but staples, so you are stuck with the basics. Here is my list of basics: flour (white and wheat), oil, butter, sugar, honey, salt, dried milk, beans, dried onions, bottled peaches, tomatoes, plums, apricots, pears, and peppers. Actually I really like meat, but and we have some home bottled chicken, but that is for another day.

I don't know what part of the sky will hit you. You might get sick, you might lose your job either to downsizing or what ever. Maybe the financial markets will smooth out, and the super oil fields in the middle east will magically refill themselves with oil and gas produced abiotically. Maybe. At the end of the day most of us get hit with at least one chuck of sky. Here are a few topics that I plan to cover to help be ready when and if the ice falls off the airliner:

Cooking, or 'No, I really like chewing wheat like a cow'

Cooking, or 'I'll just put it in the microwave'

Water, or 'I'll just get a case of bottled water at the store'

First Aid, or 'I'll just take you to the emergency room'

Family, or 'Whew, I don't have to see these people until next Christmas'

Money, or 'I'll just go down to the ATM and get some more'

Money, or 'Gold, silver or chocolate?'

Sadly, I am afraid I have a lot of opinions............

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