Category Archives: Uncategorized

Article – What to Eat After the Apocalypse

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In 1841, an invasive water mold began to infect the world’s potatoes. Starting from Mexico, the infectious agent of blight traveled up through North America, then crossed the Atlantic. Eventually it reached Ireland, where, as the journalist Charles Mann described it, “four out of ten Irish ate no solid food except potatoes, and … the rest were heavily dependent on them.”

The Great Famine, as it came to be known, could have been avoided in any number of ways, not least by ceasing the export of food from Ireland to Britain. But the British government failed to take effective action. The question of avoiding starvation becomes harder still if some apocalyptic event causes the whole world to starve. How might a government prepare for a worst-case scenario?

As a survivalist, I’m all about caring where my next meal is coming from. I am less about caring where the rest of the worlds next meal is coming from.

Assuming some sort of “The Road”-esque disaster that reduces the global supply of food, I would imagine that the global supply of people will also suffer in very short order. Or, put another way, when the freeze dried porkchops and barrels of rice are exhausted in a year or so there are going to be a lot less people out there needing food.

Honestly, the notion of some sort of global famine ranks pretty low down there on  my probability list. Localized famine, maybe. But it’s interesting to see that there are people thinking about the subject.

Interestingly, the article seems to take itself seriously about ‘feeding the world’ after some sort of global disaster but even now, in a time of relative calm, we still can’t feed the entire world. Additionally, I’m not sure we have an obligation to do so but thats another argument.

Article – Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k

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One local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a “mid-century fixer-upper”: an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate.

The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force.

Yawn..another article about a flooded missile base being up for sale, right? True enough. But the 3D virtual tour is utterly fascinating. Highly recommend. It’s like a video game.

I’m still rather partial to the old decommissioned long-line microwave relay stations that dot the US. I looked at one in Whitehall years ago and it was a nice, unassuming little bunker with some serious muscle to it. Ah well…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else whats a heaven for?

Gaming the system

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There’s a Cabela’s down the road from me. They are grossly overpriced on most things but once in a while something gets in there that catches my eye. On a whim, I picked up their Cabela’s credit card. It returns 2% of the purchase price of anything you buy there as ‘points’ that can be redeemed on future purchases. In other words, buy $100 worth of gear and you get $2 in points. On your next trip you use that $2 against the price of whatever your next purchase is. Follow?

Here’s where it gets… interesting.

Cabelas is having a ‘Cabelas Club’ event this Sunday. That means that theres a few things on sale but, more importantly, people who have the Cabelas card get some bonuses: a 10% off coupon for their purchase, and ‘triple points’..meaning that if you normally got 2% back in points you will get that 2% and another 6%, meaning you really get 8%. Annnnd…Cabela’s gift cards are 10% off this weekend.

And thats when my brain kicked in.

For the sake of argument let’s say a gun is $1000. You’re going to buy that gun using your 10% discount coupon. That means you need to fork over $900, right? (Because $1000 x .10 = $100 and $1000-$100=$900) Okay, so the gun will now cost you $900. BUT…gift cards are 10% off, right? So you go to the customer service counter and buy a $900 gift card. With a 10% discount on the gift card, that card will cost you $810. So far so good. You’re buying a $1000 rifle for $810. But wait, there’s more! You use your Cabela’s card to pay for the gift card. So you get 8% in points….and $810 x 8% = $64.80.

So you head to the checkout with your $1000 rifle. The gal says “$1000 please”. You hand her the coupon for 10% off. She says “Ok, that’ll be $900 please”. You give her the $900 gift card that you paid $810 for. Then you say “Id like to use my Cabelas points” and hand her your Cabelas card. She discounts you another $64.80 for the points you earned paying for the card.

Your final cost on that rifle is $1000 (orignal cost) – $100 (10% coupon) – $90 (10% for gift card) – $64.80 (points you earned paying for gift card) = $745.20, and you’ll still have some money left on the gift card. Or put another way, you’re looking at a 25% discount.

It’s also worth pointing out that Cabela’s price matches on non-internet competitors. So if your local gun shop has a gun in stock and at a cheaper price that Cabela’s can verify, they’ll match it. So..match the price first, and then hit ’em with the discounts. I did this a couple weeks back when Sportsmans Warehouse had Ruger 10/22 rifles in the $180~ range.

Gonna try this over the weekend since they have a rifle I’m kinda desirous of. (Although its not a $1000 rifle, but the math should still stand up.)

Stay sharp

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One of the knives that I stockpile for Der Tag is the BK&T… it is basically a sharpened crowbar. It has the end-of-the-world durability Im after at a reasonable price. But the sheaths that come with them suck. So I usually replace them with these highly recommended SpecOps sheaths. Note that the sheath has a pocket for a sharpening stone or similar device. I was having a heck of a time finding a stone that fit that pocket correctly. Then, as I was perusing the knife section at Cabela’s, I found this:

Very much me likey. It puts a fast edge on pretty much anything, has built in angle guides, two grades of diamond plates, a leather strop, and a ceramic for fior sharpening fish hooks and serrated edges. But…while its an awesome tool, it doesn’t fit in the pouch on the sheath.

Intrigued, I looked at what other products these guys made and picked up a couple other things:

This one does fit in the sheath, so I picked up a couple of these. I also picked up a couple of their small pocket sharpeners. They have a carbide feature on them sor they are no t something you want to use every time you sharpen a particular knife, but the ceramics and diamond on it are great for keeping the knife sharp once you put the new edge on it:

Now, I do have a nice set of stones on one of those Smith-brand three-stone setups. And I use it when I need to. But it isn’t exactly portable or pack/pocket sized. These sharpeners seem to fit the bill for throwing into a small pack and keeping a knife properly sharp out in the field. And, considering some of the really awful things we are going to subject a knife to in a crisis, being able o resharpen them in the field seems a solidly prudent move.

Silver

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Silver was down a bit the other day, and I had the treacherous combination of a few extra dollars in my pocket and a bit of impulse control issues. As a result, there’s another tube of silver dimes sitting in the safe.

Why? Well, thats an interesting question. Intellectually, I know that the odds of there being an event where greenbacks are worthless and we’re trading silver and gold like some sort of Roman market are pretty slim. And if the world collapses in on itself, its probably more likely that a box of .22 or a package of AA batts will get me more merchandise than silver or gold.

On the other hand…. we have plenty of episodes in the last 100 years where a national currency became worthless and people who had silver and gold were able to get the things they need.

Somewhere between “Current standard of living” and “Mad Max” is where the metals will be handy, in my opinion. Today, you can walk into a 7-11 and Apu might not take silver for a pack of Marlboros, and when the bombs fall and we’re all eating our children it is also likely that silver and gold won’t be very valued. But there’s that in-between….that point where the currency still has some worth but is rapidly becoming worthless, and there is the opportunity to purchase needed items. Thats the sweet spot, I think, for the use of metals.

There’s always the wag who thinks he’s being clever and original with some pithy line abou t how ‘if you can’t eat it it, shoot it, or live in it, it’s worthless’. And yet….he’s at the Kroger paying for his groceries with greenbacks that he can’t eat, shoot, or live in. Hmmm.

Now, I’m not saying that after the end of the world we’ll all be trading silver and gold for our transactions. I’m saying that its during the ride to the end of the world where the metals will have the most utility.

And…for some reason I cannot precisely express… I just feel better having some shiny metal on hand.  So…a little more silver in the safe.

 

Article – Switzerland is getting rid of its emergency stockpile of coffee

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ZURICH – Switzerland on Wednesday announced plans to abolish the nation’s emergency stockpile of coffee, in place for decades, after declaring the beans not vital for human survival, though opposition to the proposal is brewing.

Nestle, the maker of instant coffee Nescafe and other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee. The country stockpiles other staples, too, such as sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed.

If you’ve spent any time as a survivalist, you know that the Swiss are the closest thing to a country that has institutionalized preparedness (the Israelis probably get runner-up). Their ‘secret’ bunkers that litter the countryside are famous…as was their mandate about new home construction including shelter space. Add into the mix the long-standing (though that may be changing) access to military arms for its citizenry and you have a recipe for nation that could be said to have made preparedness a national platform.

And…apparently….coffee was part of that preparedness plan.

In just about every classic piece of survivalist fiction (“Alas Babylon” springs to mind) there is always a little section about how the lack of coffee is greatly lamented by survivors (with cigarettes and alcohol coming in a close second). The Swiss, apparently, hedged their bets and stockpiled some java to get everyone started when they wake up in the morning.

I don’t drink coffee, but I do keep some freeze dried coffee around. I am told by aficionados that although freeze dried coffee is regarded rather poorly, it is magnitudes of order better than no coffee at all.

My own personal addiction is CocaCola. I can go without if I have to, but I won’t be happy about it. I find that my cravings for the sugar and caffeine can be met with long-term-storage-friendly drink mixes such as powdered ice tea mix. However, for the folks that smoke or have a less-than-healthy relationship with alcohol, well, I don’t envy them.

Part of me is a bit disappointed that the Swiss are slowly dismantling the policies and practices that made them a beacon of preparedness. For a while they were a great example of ‘civil defense’ to point to when discussing national policies on the subject.

But, in the end, the only person responsible for your safety and security is you. It’s nice when governments make it easier with things like tax breaks, flexible building codes, and free ammo, but you always need to operate as if it’s going to be just whatever you can do for yourself… which is often how it actually goes.

Article – The first map of America’s food supply chain is mind-boggling

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Our map is a comprehensive snapshot of all food flows between counties in the U.S.—grains, fruits and vegetables, animal feed, and processed food items.

As you might expect, the midwest produces a lot of grain which gets fed to a lot of animals which get fed to a lot of people. What’s interesting is what the map suggests – crippling or disabling a few key points can have a disproportionately large effect on a region. Remember the Boston marathon bombing a few years back? Two guys managed to shut down an entire citys worth of airports, ports, tunnels, and major transportation hubs…and thats just two guys with DIY training from the internet. Get a group of dedicated, focused individuals with some more serious training, and perhaps some real backing from some source, and you’ve got the potential to cause some major mayhem.

Note that the article mentions the regions/localities that export the most food, but also the ones that import the most food as well. Its fascinating to note that some of the biggest exporters of food are also the largest importers.

Although it may not necessarily have been the intended point, I think this article demonstrates quite nicely some vulnerabilities that exist should someone get their act together enough to have the muscle and materiels to try and create a little manufactured crisis.

Interestingly, the article suggests that should something….dramatic…happen to southern California the repercussions through the national food supply would be rather pronounced.

The moral here, I suppose, is to keep in mind that relying on a ‘long tail’ for your food exposes you to a significant risk and that the smart individual might be prudent to develop closer-to-home sources for foodstuffs.

Warmth

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After some rather uncharacteristically cold weather, things have stabilized into a more normal range of temperatures. Still cold, especially by the standards of people from states where “y’all” is considered good grammar, but tolerable.

Whether it’s sitting out a power outage from an ice storm, or you just happen to live in a hermit shack where the BTU’s come from whatever fuel you brought with you, staying warm is a priority in the winter. I live in a decent house with forced air heat from a gas furnace. Double whammy…in a power outage there’s no electricity for the blower (although the Honda EU2000 could be made to work in such a situation), or something may occur that disrupts the flow of natural gas (say, foreign hackers getting into the system that controls the distribution system.) Being me, I try to keep several options on hand. The most notable of which is the old standby – kerosene heaters. No fuel puts out as much heat as kerosene. And it’s remarkable stable and safe to handle. You could drop a match into a 5-gallon bucket of the stuff and…nothing.

I also keep one of those smaller Mr Buddy heaters around with a few dozen bottles of propane, as well as the 20# bottles out by the BBQ, but I find them not as efficient as the kerosene. Theyre nice if you want to justhear one small room, which is pretty much how to deal with a heat problem in a really bad situation…you retreat to one room and heat that room. but, I prefer the kerosene.

Of course, once its time for bed, you can crank the heat down considerably. Wool blankets are nice, but for keeping yourself comfortable warm when the temperature in the house is only a few degrees above freezing there is nothing that beats a big down comforter, and if you throw a heavy wool blanket on top of the comforter you’ve pretty much made yourself impervious to cold. Im one of those freaks that sleep better in a cold room and I often turn off the heat to the bedroom, shut the door, open a window, and sleep with my head right by the window when its below freezing.

The only reason a stunt like that works is because your bod has fuel to burn to keep your dumb butt warm. Going to bed hungry is a great way to not stay warm. Eat a good meal, go to sleep, stay warm.

Staying indoors, even in a house that is hovering in the low-50’s, is a far sight better than sitting out in the 5* weather. On the few occasions when we’ve lost power here in the winter I’ve managed to barely be inconvenienced…kerosene heaters and lanterns, along with judicious use of closed doors to isolate various rooms, kept me warm and my pipes unfrozen.

I mention this because, as I was straightening a few things up today I came across a stash of military wool blankets I forgot I had. Theyre not very attractive, and perhaps a tad scratchy, but I’ll take warm and slightly itchy over cold and frostbitten any day.

Cold, 22/45

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I’m amused that pretty much everyone interpreted the last post to be about water storage when, clearly, it was not. It was actually about the gulf of ‘repurposing items’ vs. ‘purpose-built items’ and people’s attitudes on the two. But…you get your blog fodder where you can.

It got icy last night. Snow isn’t that big a deal here, but ice is what kills you. Or, at least, makes driving an exercise in applied physics. Fortunately, the roads I had to travel were major thoroughfares so they self-groomed pretty quickly. nonetheless, once the necessary driving was out of the way I stayed put. There is no point in taking unnecessary risks for little reward…I can just as easily head to Albertson’s the next day to pick up a some English muffins or orange juice. I’m not totaling a vehicle and rearranging a vertebra over some Tropicana. Pick your battles.

And, once again, temptation triumphed over common sense:

It’s like some sort of John Wick starter kit. Just the thing for a little trash panda remediation..I call it ‘Racoons Unlimited’.

Recycled pop bottles musing

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I was lurking around a discussion forum and the topic of water storage came up. As the thread progressed, the statistically predictable comment came in from a couple people about how they either a) used recycled two-liter pop bottles or b) they had a 55-gallon drum that once held corn syrup but they cleaned it out really, really well and use that.

I was a dissenter in that I opined that I would rather pay for new purpose-built containers (Like Scepter or blue barrels) rather than use what was basically post-consumer trash. I suppose that you could, in theory, wash and rinse a used container enough that it wouldn’t transfer a taste/smell to stored water over a long period of time…and I suppose that in a disaster you probably wouldn’t care if your drinking water had a barely discernable hint of 7-Up flavor to it. But I do. On things that are important to my safety and survival it makes no sense to cheap out on gear/supplies/materiel. I would be as reluctant to trust my future well-being to scavenged two-liter pop bottles as I would to using a bargain parachute, discount SCUBA gear, or the cheapest heart surgeon.

Does that make me a snob? A fool? Or even…gasp…a despicable ‘Yuppie survivalist’? Beats me. Nor do I care. The simple facts are that I can afford to pay $40 for a brand new ‘blue barrel’. I can afford to pay $40 for a 5-gallon Scepter water can.

When the dust settles after the apocalypse, and some sort of calm is restored, there will not be awards issued to the people who survived with the least outlay of cash for gear. No Congressional Medal Of Frugality will be awarded to the people who stored their rice in rinsed-out Gatorade bottles. But, neither will there be awards to the people who made it through using the most expensive or razoo piece of gear either. In fact, the only award given to anyone for their efforts will be the fact that they are still alive.

If you want to ride out the apocalypse in a 20-year-old travel trailer, eating rice and beans at every meal, drinking from salvaged pop bottles, protecting yourself with a Mosin Nagant and a Taurus Judge….knock yourself out. And if you want to sit out the apocaplypse with freeze-dried pork chops, Wilson Combat guns, and a nice concrete bunker on a huge spread of land you purchased….have at it. We all have the agency to choose what we feel is best for our interests. For me, that means buying what I feel is the most practical and proper item for the task at hand.

Am I ‘flexing on the poors’? Heck no. Dude, I am the poors. If you’re living on SSDI, or welfare, or on the money you make recycling aluminum cans you pick up along the roadside…..more power to you. And if you’re living on a six-figure income and have rental properties and a mighty investment portfolio….good on ya, mate. We all do what we can with what we have. BUT… if you purposely go the cheapest route possible when you dont have to…well, then I start to question the soundness of your decision. It’s one thing to prep like a pauper if you’re a pauper, but if you’ve got a pretty solid income and some money….well…

I mention this because I don’t think I’m a snob. If all you can afford is to store drinking water in a 2-liter pop bottle, then thats what you do. At least you’re looking towards the future. But if you’re a dentist knocking back $95k….

But…thats just me. I willingly trade off some things like going to movies, binging on Netflix, or taking vacations, in order to free up cash for that which is important to me. And to me, what’s important is my continued relative safety and security…which is worth more to me than the cost of scavenged Coke bottles.