The End Is Near

The End Is Near
2nd Amendment



A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Grocery List For One Month For A Family Of Four

This is a re-post but works well with my getting ready now posting that I am doing over the next few days.
This is well more than a four week(one month) supply of food for a family of four. If you buy this over a few months is will soften the blow of the cost. Take the list and make a plan! My food cost is a little high just remember I live in the state of Kalifornia.

Grocery List Calories Protein Fiber Cost $

10 lbs. White Flour 15000 450gm 150gm $8.00
10 lbs. Whole Wheat Flour 15000 600gm 700gm $14.00
20 lbs. White Rice 30000 600gm 300gm $20.00
20 lbs. Corn Meal 30000 600gm 300gm $24.00
20 lbs. Spaghetti 33600 1120gm 128gm $15.00
15 lbs. Sugar 25500 0 0 $9.00
3-42oz. Oatmeal Box 13500 450 360 $12.00
3-16oz Box Potatoe Buds 5040 72 72 $9.00
4-2 lb Bags of Popcorn 11880 432 520 $8.00

Protein Foods
4-64oz Box Dry Milk 20480 2048 0 $50.00
30 lbs Dry Beans 33000 3300 3300 $45.00
10 lbs Nuts or Almonds 36600 800 480 $20.00
3-18oz Jars Of Peanut Butter 9600 336 96 $11.00
12-6oz Cans Of Tuna 1200 180 0 $20.00
12-Cans of Corned Beef 4080 168 0 $30.00
12-Cans Of Spam 4800 172 0 $45.00
2- Jars of Parmesan Cheese 1800 180 0 $7.00
12-Cans Of Chicken 3000 270 0 $15.00
15 lbs Of Dry Soup Mix 20000 960 480 $30.00

Vitamin Foods
16-14oz.Diced Tomatoes 1400 56 112 $20.00
5 lbs Of Raisins 8800 80 160 $15.00
6-Cans Of Tomato Paste 1050 38 48 $7.00

Oils & Flavorings
2-48oz Bottles Of Canola Oil 23000 0 0 $15.00
16oz Bottle Of Olive Oil 3960 0 0 $8.00
2-24oz Jars of Honey 3840 0 0 $12.00
4-12 Bars of Chocolate 7360 0 0 $10.00
6-Jars of Jam 7800 45 0 $15.00
32oz Jar Of Salsa 300 30 0 $6.00

Extra Items
2-Bottles Of Tabasco $3.00
Large Bottle Of Soy Sauce $4.00
2-Boxes Of Beef and Chicken Bouillon Cubes $10.00
1-Box Tea Bags $5.00
2-Big Cans Of Coffee $20.00
2-Small Jars Of Yeast $8.00
2-Boxes Of Salt $5.00
2-Bottles Of Lemon Juice $6.00
4-Bottles Of Vitamins 30 count(to cover all four people) $30.00
4-Bottles of Spices (You Pick them) $8.00
12-Cans Of Condensed or Evaporated Milk $15.00

Stock up and get your house in order!!!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

So What Can I Do?

What can I do to survive the coming collapse? What will I need to survive a nuke attack or a economic collapse? How will I feed my family or heat my home in the winter? How will I fight off hordes of the walking dead after a collapse and How will I keep my family safe?
Have you ever asked yourself any of the questions above and if so do you have the answer yet?
If not, then now is the time to start looking for the answers. Because when the collapse comes and you are not ready it will be to late. Start now and save yourself and your family. I'm going to be blogging about the ways to get ready over the next few weeks so check back and be ready to start prepping and if you already prep then help me out and post a comment to add your ideas to prepping.

Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State

If You Thought Police Brutality Was Bad … Wait Until You See What Congress Wants to Do Next Week




Washington’s Blog
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The police brutality against peaceful protesters in Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and elsewhere is bad enough.
But next week, Congress will vote on explicitly creating a police state.
The ACLU’s Washington legislative office explains:
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
***
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
***
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself. The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
***
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
***
In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”
***
The senators pushing the indefinite detention proposal have made their goals very clear that they want an okay for a worldwide military battlefield, that even extends to your hometown.

Part of an Ongoing Trend

While this is shocking, it is not occurring in a vacuum. Indeed, it is part of a 30 year-long process of militarization inside our borders and a destruction of the American concepts of limited government and separation of powers.
As I pointed out in May:
The ACLU noted yesterday [that] Congress is proposing handing permanent, world-wide war-making powers to the president – including the ability to make war within the United States:
***
As I noted in 2008:
An article in the Army Times reveals that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be redeployed from Iraq to domestic operationswithin the United States.
The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with “civil unrest” and “crowd control”.
The soldiers are learning to use so-called “nonlethal weapons” designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
This violates posse comitatus and the Constitution. But, hey, we’re in a “national emergency”, so who cares, right?
(We’re still in a declared state of national emergency).
I noted a couple of months later:
Everyone knows that deploying 20,000 troops on U.S. soil violates Posse Comitatus and the Constitution.
And everyone understands that staging troops within the U.S. to “help out with civil unrest and crowd control” increases the danger of overt martial law.
But no one is asking an obvious question: Does the government’s own excuse for deploying the troops make any sense?
Other Encroachments On Civil Rights Under Obama
As bad as Bush was, the truth is that, in many ways, freedom and constitutional rights are under attack even more than during the Bush years.
For example:
Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history — even more so than Nixon.
As Marjorie Cohen – professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild – writes at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy:
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material. He has been made to stand naked in the morning as other inmates walked by and looked. As journalist Lance Tapley documents in his chapter on torture in the supermax prisons in The United States and Torture, solitary confinement can lead to hallucinations and suicide; it is considered to be torture. Manning’s forced nudity amounts to humiliating and degrading treatment, in violation of U.S. and international law.
Nevertheless, President Barack Obama defended Manning’s treatment, saying, “I’ve actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures . . . are appropriate. They assured me they are.” Obama’s deference is reminiscent of President George W. Bush, who asked “the most senior legal officers in the U.S. government” to review the interrogation techniques. “They assured me they did not constitute torture,” Bush said.
***
After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley criticized Manning’s conditions of confinement, the White House forced him to resign. Crowley had said the restrictions were “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” It appears that Washington is more intent on sending a message to would-be whistleblowers than on upholding the laws that prohibit torture and abuse.
***
Torture is commonplace in countries strongly allied with the United States. Vice President Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s intelligence chief, was the lynchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program. A former CIA agent observed, “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear – never to see them again – you send them to Egypt.” In her chapter in The United States and Torture, New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer cites Egypt as the most common destination for suspects rendered by the United States.
As I pointed out in March:
Former constitutional law teacher Glenn Greenwald says that – in his defense of state secrecy, illegal spying, preventative detention, harassment of whistleblowers and other issues of civil liberties – Obama is even worsethan Bush.
Indeed, Obama has authorized “targeted assassinations” against U.S. citizens. Even Bush didn’t openly do something so abhorrent to the rule of law.
Obama is trying to expand spying well beyond the Bush administration’s programs. Indeed, the Obama administration is arguing that citizens shouldnever be able to sue the government for illegal spying.
Obama’s indefinite detention policy is an Orwellian nightmare, which willcreate more terrorists.
Furthermore – as hard as it is for Democrats to believe – the disinformation and propaganda campaigns launched by Bush have only increased under Obama. See thisand this.
And as I pointed out last year:
According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this.
An FBI memo also labels peace protesters as “terrorists”.
***
A 2003 FBI memo describes protesters’ use of videotaping as an “intimidation” technique, even though – as the ACLU points out – “Most mainstream demonstrators often use videotape during protests to document law enforcement activity and, more importantly, deter police from acting outside the law.” The FBI appears to be objecting to the use of cameras to document unlawful behavior by law enforcement itself.
The Internet has been labeled as a breeding ground for terrorists, with anyone who questions the government’s versions of history being especially equated with terrorists.
Government agencies such as FEMA are allegedly teaching that the Founding Fathers should be considered terrorists.
The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this andthis.
Claims of “national security” are also used to keep basic financial information – such as who got bailout money – secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.
The state of Missouri tried to label as terrorists current Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters, former Congressman Bob Barr, libertarians in general, anyone who holds gold, and a host of other people.
And according to a law school professor and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, pursuant to the Military Commissions Act:
Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
Obama has refused to reverse these practices.

There Is Still a Chance to Stop It

The ACLU notes that there is some hope:
But there is a way to stop this dangerous legislation. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is offering the Udall Amendment that will delete the harmful provisions and replace them with a requirement for an orderly Congressional review of detention power. The Udall Amendment will make sure that the bill matches up with American values.
***
The solution is the Udall Amendment; a way for the Senate to say no to indefinite detention without charge or trial anywhere in the world where any president decides to use the military. Instead of simply going along with a bill that was drafted in secret and is being jammed through the Senate, the Udall Amendment deletes the provisions and sets up an orderly review of detention power. It tries to take the politics out and put American values back in.
***
Now is the time to stop this bad idea. Please urge your senators to vote YES on the Udall Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

20 Signs That America Is Going Crazy (Infowars.com)

The American Dream
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Has anyone else noticed that America seems to be going crazy? I’m not talking about the “woo hoo – let go out and have some fun” kind of crazy. I’m talking about the “lock them up in the looney bin” kind of crazy.

Our society is rapidly coming apart at the seams and people are seriously starting to lose it. Criminals are going crazy, young people are going crazy, children are going crazy, law enforcement authorities are going crazy and the federal government is most certainly going crazy. Way too many Americans seem to be losing all sense of what is right and what is wrong. Way too many Americans seem to be losing all sense of what it means to treat others with dignity and respect. Yes, the economy is falling apart and people are feeling the stress of hard times, but it goes much deeper than that. It is almost as if some sort of mental illness is spreading throughout our society that is expressing itself in thousands of different ways. We are seeing anger, rage, malice and brutality rise to very dangerous levels. Our population has become way too greedy, proud, selfish and hateful. America is on a very dangerous road and we need to wake up.

The following list could contain thousands of examples, but hopefully the 20 signs listed below will be enough to convince you that America is rapidly going crazy….

#1 We are continuing to see mobs of criminals looting retail stores all over the United States. For example, last Saturday night a “flash mob” of approximately 50 young people looted a 7-11 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

#2 Respect for the elderly has totally gone out the window in America. For example, down in Georgia two “caregivers” were recently charged with waterboarding an 89-year-old woman that they were supposed to be taking care of….


Police charge two caregivers at a Jonesboro facility with waterboarding an 89-year-old woman.

Clayton County police said Jermeller Steed and Cicely Reed held down Anna Foley after an argument that started over ice cream.

#3 When the federal government first began putting naked body scanners into airports and began implementing “enhanced pat-downs” of travelers, many warned that hordes of sicko perverts would start applying for jobs with the TSA. Well, it turns out that one TSA employee is now being charged with a nightmarish sexual assault. The following is how WJLA in Washington D.C. describes what he is being charged with….


The suspect, Harold Glen Rodman, 52, allegedly was wearing his uniform and displayed a badge to the victim, a 37-year-old woman.

Police arrested Rodman on Nov. 20. He is charged with aggravated sexual battery, object sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and abduction with intent to defile.

#4 We have been seeing some really bizarre sexual crimes all over the country lately. The following examples comes from a town where I once lived….


Multiple male victims have reported being sexually assaulted by a male suspect in a series of nighttime incidents at residences near the University of Virginia, according to police and university officials.

Larceny is not a motive, and in each case victims reported awakening to find themselves being groped, officials said.

#5 Sadly, our society has become so “sexualized” that now even little children are raping each other. Just check out the following recent example from Ohio….


Authorities in southwest Ohio have charged a 13-year-old boy with raping a 5-year-old girl at a McDonald’s play area.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that the alleged assault occurred Oct. 29 at a McDonald’s in the Cincinnati suburb of Anderson Township. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Barnett says the girl’s grandmother was nearby in the restaurant at the time.

#6 Today, there are millions of Americans with STDs that are running around thoughtlessly passing them on to others. According to the CDC, there are 19 million new cases of STD infection in the United States every single year.

#7 As I wrote about the other day, all over the United States law enforcement authorities are spraying pepper spray directly into the faces of unarmed protesters. Pepper spray can kill you. According to Wikipedia, the use of pepper spray by police has been associated with dozens of deaths in the United States….


For those with asthma, taking other drugs, or subject to restraining techniques which restrict the breathing passages, there is a risk of death. The Los Angeles Times has reported at least 61 deaths associated with police use of pepper spray since 1990 in the USA.

#8 Predators are increasingly using websites such as Craigslist to find victims for their next crimes. The following comes from a recent article in the Columbus Dispatch….


Lost, covered in his own blood and unsure if the men who hunted him were still nearby, a man from South Carolina hid in the forested hills outside Caldwell until after dark on Nov. 6. Deciding it was safe, he then made a painful 2-mile journey to the nearest farmhouse to call for help.

Investigators say he was the lucky one.

On Tuesday, they found the body of a man buried in a shallow grave near the site where the other man was attacked.

By surviving his ordeal two weeks ago in Noble County, the victim, whose name authorities haven’t released, helped uncover an elaborate scheme by at least two men to lure people with the promise of work from across the country to Ohio. Authorities say the real plan was to rob and kill them.

#9 With all of the other problems we are having all over the nation, you would think that authorities would not be too concerned about little kids that are trying to sell cups of lemonade. But sadly, over the past year police have been sent in to shut down lemonade stands run by children all over the nation.

#10 The family unit continues to crumble in America. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 68% of all twenty-somethings were married in 1960. By 2008, that number had fallen to 26%.

#11 Many Americans would rather not deal with all of the problems in society and would rather “check out” instead. For example, a recent Gallup poll found that alcohol consumption in the United States is now at a 25 year high.

#12 The federal government has become so paranoid that they have been putting GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of thousands of people that have not even been charged with committing any crimes. The following is a short excerpt from a recent Wired magazine article about this issue….


The 25-year-old resident of San Jose, California, says he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man’s girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.

Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.

The young man, who asked to be identified only as Greg, is one among an increasing number of U.S. citizens who are finding themselves tracked with the high-tech devices.

The Justice Department has said that law enforcement agents employ GPS as a crime-fighting tool with “great frequency,”and GPS retailers have told Wired that they’ve sold thousands of the devices to the feds.

#13 Many Americans are so frustrated right now that even the smallest things will make them go crazy. For example, one man down in Georgia recentlyfirebombed a Taco Bell because they did not put enough meat in his Chalupa.

#14 All over the state of California, copper thieves are ripping the wire right out of thousands of streetlights and are leaving huge areas completely dark at night. For example, just check out what is happening in the Sacramento area….


Sacramento County officials said 1,000 street lights have been affected by wire theft in recent weeks, and the county has already spent $160,000 repairing street lights this year.

#15 The way that our government has treated those that have served in the military has been absolutely shameful. For example, according to the Washington Post between 2003 and 2008 the remains of large numbers of our war dead were actually dumped into a Virginia landfill….


The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

#16 Nothing is too big for thieves to steal these days. In the San Francisco area, thieves recently took off with a copper bell that weighs 2.7 tons.

#17 Some thieves have become so bold that they will literally steal thousands of animals at a time from ranchers. All over the United States, livestock is being stolen from ranchers in unprecedented numbers. The following is from a recent Associated Press article….


While the brazenness may be unusual, the theft isn’t. High beef prices have made cattle attractive as a quick score for people struggling in the sluggish economy, and other livestock are being taken too. Six thousand lambs were stolen from a feedlot in Texas, and nearly 1,000 hogs have been stolen in recent weeks from farms in Iowa and Minnesota. The thefts add up to millions of dollars in losses for U.S. ranches.

Authorities say today’s thieves are sophisticated compared to the horseback bandits of the rugged Old West. They pull up livestock trailers in the middle of the night and know how to coax the animals inside. Investigators suspect it’s then a quick trip across state lines to sell the animals at auction barns.

#18 The federal government is way too large and is interfering way too much in our lives. All of us should be horrified that the feds are spending a significant amount of time and energy on raiding organic farms. The following examplecomes from Natural News….


It is the latest case of extreme government food tyranny, and one that is sure to have you reeling in anger and disgust. Health department officials recently conducted a raid of Quail Hollow Farm, an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in southern Nevada, during its special “farm to fork” picnic dinner put on for guests — and the agent who arrived on the scene ordered that all the fresh, local produce and pasture-based meat that was intended for the meal be destroyed with bleach.

#19 Most of the big regulatory agencies of the federal government have totally gone crazy. For example, the EPA is now specifically targeting Americans that use traditional wood-burning stoves.

#20 Large numbers of Americans simply do not seem to care what happens to those around them any longer. As I discussed in another recent article, some of the things that we are now seeing young people do are almost unbelievable. For example, just check out this video of a young punk walking up to a defenseless elderly man in a Chicago subway station and knocking him out cold. What makes this incident far worse is that the friends of the young thug are cheering him on and laughing at how easy it was to knock the old man out cold.

It is so very sad to watch what is happening to this country.

Things could have been so much different. But now we are watching the consequences of decades of really bad decisions unfold right in front of our eyes.

So what do you all think?

Do you believe that America is going crazy?

Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Old Info From 1978 "The Coming Warlords"

 
THE COMING WARLORDS
by Kurt Saxon 1978
When governments fail, or are too weak to control the outlying provinces, warlords arise and take over those regions where there is no order. Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe and England, men little better than bandit chieftains established their rule over populations too weak to protect themselves. Lest the king bring together his troops and wipe out these bandits, they often pledged a kind of loose loyalty to the Crown and were given sanction to keep their territory. The king often granted such titles because the region wasn't worth his effort to conquer it. This was Feudalism and the warlords became titled lords and servants of the king and had the power of life and death over their subjects. The warlord part came in because neighboring bandits, or even other sanctioned lords were a constant threat to the territory. So the warlord had to be fighting off competitors on a pretty constant basis. In China, for quite awhile before Sun Yat Sen took over in 1911, that large country, too, was controlled by bandit warlords, often with no sanction from the weak central government. Nearly every American Indian chief was a warlord. With the formation of a strong central government, governors are appointed or elected. Since they can be recalled by the central government or voted out of office, they cannot be considered warlords. Heads of regional National Guard units are the nearest thing we have to warlords. They are held in readiness to put down civil disturbances, help out in cases of earthquakes, floods, or to bear the brunt of an enemy attack. Even so, their leaders are not warlords in the actual sense, because they have no authority over the general populace, except by order of the governor. Following the collapse of every civilization, warlords have sprung up to consolidate the territory they inhabited and to fend off neighboring warlords who wanted more. When our world system dies, Feudalism will again rise to replace the destroyed or critically weakened central governments. Upon the collapse of our civilization, due to war, economic blowout, an overload of degenerate dependents, or a combination of several factors, each region will be on its own. Aside from the big cities, which will perish in a burst of rioting, burning and plague, only the towns will be worth defending and so what I call warlords will not only be inevitable, but necessary. It might be commonly supposed that a modern warlord would be the district military commander. But military people are not qualified to administer local governments serving their national populaces. They might be used to head the local National Guard and serve in a purely defensive capacity. Their main function would be to fend off bands of refugees from the cities. Such refugees would be plentiful, desperate and useless to the local economy. Purely military units would be necessary to reroute them around the town and escort them out of the country, or slaughter them if such had to be done. After the initial fighting off of outsiders, the military types could be assimilated into the population, since they are used to discipline and could pitch into any community endeavor. You might consider the County Sheriff as the likeliest candidate for warlord, but he would not qualify. First, he is an elected official. As such, he is usually corrupt and in any case would not be adequate to administer to the needs of the towns under his jurisdiction. His staff might be excellent, but they are mainly involved in policing the outlying districts and are not familiar enough with the workings of the towns to administer. Forget the mayor. Another politician, he is a dingbat by nature, usually senile, and so crooked he needs his own accountant to keep him from cheating himself. In fact, any elected official should be automatically written off as a choice for warlord. Politicians have no other goals in life but to get and keep a place at the public trough. Therefore, they are natural parasites and are incapable of any gainful or useful employment. This is partly because their training consists mainly in appealing to the lowest common denominators in their constituency. In other words, they make their appeals to the average. As you well know, the average voter is a grasping ignoramous who believes the world owes him a living. So successful politicians are skillful only in telling the voters what most of them want to hear. Consequently, the most incompetent and unscrupulous get elected. I'm sure you've listened to President Carter. As aimless and moronic as is his political performance, he can give an off-the-cuff speech which projects hope to the hopeless and intelligence to the pseudo-intellectuals. This shows political refinement but such is the opposite of true qualifications for effective leadership. A local politician is so clumsy and obvious that he sounds like Captain Kangaroo addressing the residents of Sesame Street. The congressman representing my district is a dumbbell but has turned political degeneracy into an art form. I know these things because I live in Eureka. Eurekans are barely conscious, a fourth of them on welfare and many of the rest working on Federally subsidized projects. You can easily imagine the level of ethics and competency of our mayor, D.A., sheriff and city council. So politicians are out as warlords. In the more extreme category, are militant political groups and outlaw bikers. The political militants would be the first to be wiped out by the local militia. Many political militants fantasize that when the government collapses, the people will clamor for their bizarre solutions. As an ex-right wing fanatic, I realize my old comrades and their counterparts on the left would be lucky to be left alive in any community they tried to take over. Several readers have expressed concern that I am advocating rule by people like those in WHEELS OF RAGE. Actually, WHEELS was a satire on bikers in general. Its characters were composites of cronies I used to run around with. Even the best of bikers would be incompetent to be warlords. It's true that their kind became warlords during the Middle Ages. But then, as now, they were thugs. The thugs of the Middle Ages simply enslaved the populace. There was little or no progress under their rule and only when power was wrested from them was civilization allowed to mature. Bands of bikers might effectively protect communal groups from similar bandits. But to allow them any official authority over such a group would be disastrous. The best choice for warlord would be your local chief of police. In most cases, he is well trained, efficient, conscientious, courageous and honest. He generally knows more about the community than any other man in town. He is also mature enough to establish martial law in the best interests of the majority of the population. He could be trusted to appoint the people best able to bring the townsfolk through the crisis. Furthermore, he would be the most likely to step down when order was established and delegate authority to those professional people of merit who could run the town without coercion. Only the police chief could justly implement the harsh measures a warlord would have to impose on the populace. Not caring to remain warlord, as would a politician or military officer, the police chief could establish internal and external security, regardless of criticism. Like a surgeon cutting out cancer, a police chief could objectively eliminate the local parasites. A politician could never kill a degenerate whom he would later depend upon for votes. Since austerity would be a fact of life for some time, the local parasites would have to be destroyed. This would entail rounding up all habitual criminals, pimps and their whores, sex offenders, long-term able-bodied welfare recipients, winos and drug addicts, taking them out to the edge of town and killing them. There would be no practical reason for letting them survive. To enslave them would mean appointing guards with better uses to the community. To turn them loose would only be to inflict the vermin on decent people in other towns. If this seems harsh, consider; the collapse of world civilization will bring about such death and suffering that eliminating a town's criminals and assorted parasitical trash will be easy. Especially when you consider that the survival of the good people of the town will be accomplished only through great hardship and austerity enough without the town's predators and social refuse. The next task of the warlord would be a touchy one indeed. This would be the elimination of the town's hopelessly retarded, mentally incompetent, terminally ill and dependent aged. They will not survive anyway, and prolonging their lives would be not only a waste of precious resources, but would be an actual cruelty. Such an unwelcome task would have to be delegated to the town's most respected physicians, who would give injections to their hopeless cases. Lest parents and relatives protest on behalf of their loved ones, they would have the final decision. In such cases, those closest to the useless would be given sleepy-by pills by the doctors to be administered when their misplaced altruism was overcome by the reality of the situation. The warlord's only responsibility in the elimination of the physically and mentally hopeless, aside from authorizing the program, would be to see that no food or medicines out of the common store would be given to the hopeless. If relatives insisted on preserving such blighted dependents, they must do so out of their own rations. In the event of a war or upon the general recognition of the permanent collapse of civilization, the populace would panic. The warlord's first duty would be to station armed personnel in stores holding food, medicines, tools, weapons, and anything the community would need to survive. This does not mean the contents of the stores would be confiscated. Personal property is more than a right. It's a necessity. The store owner knows his inventory and how best to distribute it. Since he had the initiative to accumulate the supplies, he would most likely be able to get more, if possible. For these reasons, he must be left in proprietorship. If he is alienated by having his stock confiscated, he will be unlikely to cooperate in making or securing more supplies. Rather than confiscating the stock, it might prove practical to remove it to a common building more easily defended but with the inventory under the owner's continued proprietorship. In this way, for instance, all the contents of all the pharmacies could be removed to a common building and the respective owners could then cooperate in rationing the drugs and medicines, taking in exchange barter goods or whatever served as currency during the emergency. Without such a system, stores would be looted of their most attractive contents. The less attractive wares, and possibly the most useful, would be trampled and destroyed. After the worthless and hopeless members of the town were disposed of and the stores, utilities and other town necessities were secured, an individual census should be taken. Every householder should declare all his belongings. Again, private property rights must be respected, especially among those who have stocked up in anticipation of the collapse. The Survivalists will be the most important people in the region and consequently, the most supportive of the warlord. Their surplus might also be stored in common warehouses. But they must not be confiscated and distributed for the "public good". The only commodities which should be distributed to the general populace should be food from the supermarkets. The perishables will have to be distributed immediately, but with I.O.U.'s given to the proprietor by the warlord. The warlord will, in turn, collect I.O.U.'s from the recipients, to be paid for with work on public projects, especially agriculture. Since the majority of the town's food supply is brought in from outlying areas, food will be critical. The current supply must be strictly rationed as no new stock will be brought in. The warlord must appoint agriculturists to supervise the cultivation of all arable land in the area. Even so, the survivalist with a year's supply of food must be allowed to keep it. In turn, he will not draw on the communal food supply except by trading his surplus for food items he lacks. Every citizen should be required to submit a list of his possessions; food, tools, weapons, etc. Again, nothing must be confiscated, but aside from food, surplus tools, weapons, etc., should be freely loaned for the common good. There is an interesting incident on page 481 of LUCIFER'S HAMMER, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It tells of a farmer who had far more than he could use and didn't report it. He also took the help of those around him without meaning to help them in return. They took everything he had and drove him out. He took his wife and kids out and was probably eaten by the roving cannibals. He deserved it. So a warlord must be an administrator, judge, fighter, tactician and a sincere protector of his charges. The idea of a warlord being a tyrant is absurd in America. There will be enough killing to last everyone a lifetime without the warlord turning on his own. That's why only the most responsible and able should become warlords. The new warlords will save the culture, if anyone can. Only the local police chiefs qualify in all areas of such a responsibility. Only the police chief can properly choose townsmen to be deputized to help defend the region. And he can well realize that his deputies will eliminate him if he turns on the people. Supporting your local police is not simply a slogan. There will come a time, and soon, when your local police chief might save you and everything you hold dear.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

"BugOut" From 1981

SCRIPT OUTLINE FOR "BUGOUT" 
 The Collapse has come and the American people have finally
awakened from the American Dream to a nightmare reality.  A little
over a month has passed since the announcement of the bankruptcy of
Social Security and all its backup systems.
     Millions being unloaded from the Social Security system to the
already reeling welfare systems have caused a halt in most social
programs.  The cities are racked with violence, looting and
wholesale slaughter.  City police forces are quickly decimated.  As
fast as suburban police units are called in, they disappear, either
deserting or dying in the street fighting.
     National Guard units are giving up as their members quit and
go home to protect their own.  Army units not slated for the Middle
East are sent to contain the rioters and keep them inside the
cities proper.
     Social services and most utilities have broken down in most
cities and their suburbs.  All stores have been emptied, either by
looters or their owners, of all food and commodities used on a
day-to-day basis.
     Suburbanites are getting hungry and crowds of neighbors are
making house-to-house searches for stored food supplies.  Water is
in short supply as hot water tanks, car radiators and toilet boxes
are emptied for drinking.
     The commercial trucks are either out of gas or cargo.  No help
is expected by anyone.  Trucks appearing in the suburbs are
privately owned or stolen and guarded by armed profiteers.  Their
cargos are food, medicines, warm clothing, flashlight batteries and
anything else in short supply.
     A street sweeper with its water tank filled from a ditch
somewhere, appears to sell the precious fluid to the highest
bidder.  "Only gold, silver, jewelry; just what we can carry.  No
bills, yells its new owner, as his sidekick points a shotgun at the
customers.
     A frail old man leaves his home with a bucket and a pocket
full of gold coins.  "All I have you'd want is a Krugerrand.  Can't
you make change?  Can't you come back until this is used up?"
     "Hell no," says Sam.
     "But this Krugerrand cost me $600.00," whines the old man.
     "So," laughs Sam, "You just bought yourself a $600.00 bucket
of water."
     Elsewhere a $3,000.00 diamond buys a can of asparagus.  Five
aspirins for a sick child costs one mother her wedding ring.
     Urban survivalists shoot on sight, littering streets with the
bodies of both foragers and passers-by.  The noise and the bodies
aid mobs of marauders in finding more food caches.  Most urban
Survivalists are burned out, dying with their destroyed supplies.
     The brownouts continue and everyone who dares the street goes
armed.  Few believe the town's emergency power system can last long.
     Phil Blake shoots no one, except the three revolutionaries he
caught running away from the Glen Ellyn, Illinois power plant where
he worked the evening shift.  He got them all but the electricity
went off when the case of dynamite took out the transformer.
     Driving down back streets away from the prowling suburbanites
he remembers his wife insisting, "But the government will do
something."  It didn't.  "People will work together."  They didn't,
except in temporary cooperative looting.
     When he reaches his darkened house he gives the password and
Greta opens the door.  She only lowers her pistol when she
recognizes him by the light of the penlight she holds.
     "Are you ready to relocate now," he asks sarcastically.  She
doesn't answer but helps him load the four year old twins into the
cab of their camper-backed pickup.
     There is no room in back as it is filled with survival
supplies he had been gathering for months.  This was his Bugout
vehicle.  He had begun preparing it between silly arguments with
Greta about leaving such a good job, now non-existant.  Also, good
friends, two of whom she had been forced to shoot that afternoon
when they had threatened to kill the children unless she gave them
food.
     As the truck moves out of the yard the moonlit sky is further
illuminated by three flashes of blinding light.  Three warheads out
of the ten aimed at Chicago have hit at 11:00 P.M.
     As the three mushroom clouds converge in a ragged atomic
umbrella twenty miles away, earth tremors shake the street as Phil,
with lights out, makes his way down Park Blvd. to 55.
     The goal is Harrison, Arkansas where Phil's friend has a
doomsday ready survival complex.  The object is to get there before
Doomsday begins, if it hasn't already.
     In the twelve miles between Glen Ellyn and 55, Phil has to
shoot three people who try to open the truck door as he slows for
obstacles.  Whether they are looters or just wanted a ride is of no
importance.
     The twelve miles to 55 takes over an hour.  The 267
Interchange is surprisingly clear and Phil has to use his truck to
push only one car out of his path.
     The highway seems clear except for scattered vehicles
abandoned and looted.  Phil's Geiger counter is beginning to
crackle even though the slight breeze is blowing toward Chicago.
     On 55 Phil averages between 20 and 80 miles an hour.  Near the
larger towns the interchanges are so clogged with stalled and
wrecked vehicles, Phil has to go around on side roads.
     Leaving Interchange 33, Phil drives straight down to Chester,
bypassing St. Louis and crossing the Mississippi River at 9:00 A.M.
     The next several hundred miles are a nightmare of detours, gas
foraging and shootouts with both looters and citizens guarding
their territories.  They have escaped serious radiation from
Chicago as well as from the atomic pile which had been St. Louis.
     Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas are one great fortress
protected by hillbillies made savage by the events of the past few
weeks and hours.  Nearly every road is blocked and guarded by armed
citizens, shooting or turning away refugees.
     Killer caravans form, made up of desperate refugees
cooperating in storming checkpoints.  Most of them simply want to
get to a blocked destination.
     Outside Mountain Home, Arkansas Phil comes upon a firefight
between Caravaneers and a small group of townies.  He must decide
whether to join the Caravaneers or side with the outgunned townies.
     Since this is their territory Phil makes the tactical decision
of getting with the townies.  He turns on the Caravaneers and after
shotgunning six they retreat.
     The townies then let him through for a safe passage to
Harrison.  This is the end of the beginning.
by Kurt Saxon copyright 1981

Thursday, November 17, 2011

SURVIVAL THINKING From The 70's Still Good Info

SURVIVAL THINKING by Kurt Saxon  (c) 1979
     Dave Font asks for an article on how to think; or
how to put together all the confusing issues working up to the
crash into a set of workable rules. Throughout the letter columns
many have expressed confusion over how to handle all the
conflicting attitudes between survivalists and standing up to the
scoffing of non-survivalists.
     So many have said they felt alone in their thinking until they
read my works or those of other professional survivalists. Others
told of the walls they ran up against when they tried to convince
friends that civilization was in real trouble.
     What I'm going to try to do in this editorial is set up a
system of ideas which will give the survivalist a feeling of
rightness in his stand. I'd like to establish a kind of
belongingness among individuals who are widely separated.
     No one likes to feel he is alone in his thinking, unless he is
a paranoid fantasizing that he's the only one who has the truth.
Paranoids in the field just stumble on it. Without survivalism,
they would just as likely have fancied themselves in contact with
beings from outer space who would take them off the planet at the
last minute.
     But normal survivalists need a set of common sources of
identification so they will not think they are paranoid. Also, such
an identification would be useful in keeping the survivalist from
getting discouraged when people scoff at his preparations.
     Well, the survivalist is a loner by necessity, now. There are
no real groups to join, no armbands to wear, no dues to pay, no
demonstrations to participate in. So a survivalist can easily feel
very different from those around him without being able to focus on
an identifiable organization sharing his thoughts and ideas. This
can make one lonely, indeed.
     But there is no need for loneliness. There are more potential
survivalists around than you think. In fact, just about everyone
with any sense shares your fears, but has not as yet seen a reason
for optimism in the face of increasing adversity. This optimism is
what sets off the survivalist from the non-survivalist.
     Let me first explain to you that you are not alone in your
anxieties about the future. I will also point out why your scoffing
neighbor is even more afraid of the future than you are. I'll
describe him in an analogy which will let you know how afraid he is
and why he finds a kind of refuge in scoffing at your preparations.
     Let's say that your neighbor bought a plot of land and built
his dream home on it. When it was finished he believed his security
was assured. Then he went to get it insured.
     The insurance agent looked at a geodesic survey map of that
area and found the house to have been built on a major earthquake
fault. No insurance. No fire insurance, lest a tremor break a gas
main or cause an electrical short and cause a fire. Anything that
might happen to the house, except something like a burglary, could
be blamed on a tremor. The agent went on to explain that the area
is due for a quake any time. Maybe in a month, a year, three years
at most, since geologists have kept records of periodic quakes in
that area.
     So what does your neighbor do? He has sunk all he has in that
doomed home. He can't afford a new plot or the price of moving the
house to it. he can't sell it since anyone with the price would
also have the sense to ask why it wasn't insured.
     If he were a survivalist, he would sell the house and fixtures
to a salvage company or to a party who had another plot of land and
the money to afford moving it, either at a terrible loss. Then he
would take what little he had, move to a safer place and build a
shack. But he is not a survivalist so he rationalizes that a quake
will not hit in his lifetime. He develops an ulcer, takes up
bedwetting, gets a prescription for valium and says, "This is the
best of all possible worlds."
     Don't you realize by now that the average person who has given
you the horse-laugh has built his house on an earthquake fault? How
many of those scoffers have everything they own, their lifestyles,
their jobs, sunk in this floundering system?
     They know what's going on. They watch TV the same as you, read
the same headlines, pay the same inflated prices for food and
everything else. They just lack the guts to get out of the trap,
even if, like an animal, they may have to chew a leg off to get
free. Can you blame them for looking for pie in the sky, rather
than sacrificing all they now hold dear to survive the coming crash?
     Of course, I've pointed out in previous editorials that the
change need not be so radical. But too many non-survivalists seem
to believe that facing the whole picture would be too frightening
and find it easier to hope for relief from sources outside
themselves.
     My northeastern subscribers know many who had to dig their
cars out of record snows. The changing weather patterns have wiped
out the properties of hundreds of thousands of families in America.
Even Carla Emery's entire farm was washed out of existence by a
recent flood. But Carla toughed it out and is on her way back. How
many thousands are still living in government supplied trailer homes?
     Everyone knows that the surplus population, the increasing
government and technological incompetence, Moslem fanaticism in the
Middle East, communist crap-stirring worldwide, etc., is bringing
world civilization down. They know this, but refuse to admit its
application to their own futures. Any guy you meet in a bar, after
a few beers, will say the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
But the next day, he'll go on whistling in the dark, as usual.
     The only difference between a non-survivalist and you, is that
the non-survivalist lacks the confidence to prepare. He will scoff,
rationalize, call you paranoid and then fall on his knees before
the TV evangelist and ask Jesus to save him.
     Barring that, he might join a political extremist group and
set out to save the world by bombing a politician's flower box. He
might lose himself in drink or drugs. In his anxiety and
frustration he might batter his child. He may go into a mom and pop
store, shooting the old couple and taking $50.00 from the register.
He may turn to mugging. Losing himself in degeneracy, he might try
to crash the Guiness Book of Records by scoring the most rapes in
his area. You'll also find him in a leather club, beating or being
beaten. He may sexually abuse children. The fag bars are also
filled with people who say you're full of baloney. These are the
self-doomed, the damned and the undisciplined. They know the end is
near for their kind and before they go, they're going to indulge in
every primeval, infantile fantasy they've ever entertained.
     In short, the people of this planet are going mad through
anxiety over situations they can't cope with. Oh, you're not alone
in your anxieties. Your special kind of aloneness simply manifests
itself in facing reality, while those around you are going
collectively mad.
     A bit of Black Humor I like is the idea that the only one who
keeps his head while those around him are losing theirs is the one
operating the Guillotine. You've got to be in control. You've got
to approach everyone worthy within your sphere and tell them they
can ride this out.
     Don't preach at them or argue. If they can't handle the
situation, you're wasting time best spent on someone else. Instead
of making a debate of the issue, show them that you have a plan
which helps you to face the same problems inflicting them. Compare
your respective situations and show them they are not alone and
there are answers.
     I remember joining the John Birch Society in 1964. They would
create chapters made up of citizens who met in the members' homes
regularly. There they would discuss many of the problems which have
since grown into major concerns today. They talked over coffee and
made it like a cordial little party.
     The only thing wrong with them was they blamed all the
approaching troubles on the communists, especially the Russians. It
seemed that every bit of international and domestic skulduggery,
all economic woes and even teenage acne were caused by the
Russians. (I still get bulletins from various alert patriots
explaining how the Russians are behind the bad weather, even though
Moscow is being mobbed by peasants coming in from the countryside
for meat. Russia's weather has been worse than ours, causing major
crop losses. Dumb Russians for ruining the world's weather and
thereby starving their own people).
     The Birchers finally went out of business; at least, I haven't
heard of them for years. They told what was wrong, and quite well.
But they offered no solutions except to write letters of complaint.
Also, they blamed the communists for everything and our own system
for nothing.
     Even so, their ideas of local chapters where concerned
citizens could get together was good. Survivalist chapters might be
the answer to the need for community preparation for harder times
ahead.
     If you would like to start a survival chapter in your area,
I'll give you a few pointers on how to get started. First, put a
classified ad in your local newspaper. Such ads cost very little.
Put it in the "Personals" column and keep it running until you have
the group you need. You might word it like this; "Survival Seminar.
If you are worried about inflation, government bungling, job
security, the decline of the world's systems, etc., call --------".
     Of course, before putting in such an ad, you must have a home
suitable for such meetings. The Birch meetings I attended were in
middle-class homes with plenty of couches and easy chairs. The
refreshments were coffee, cake and cookies and general goodies
served guests dropping in for a little talk. Nothing fancy.
     When people call up to enquire you can tell them it's just a
non-political get-together to discuss individual and group
preparation to make it through the worsening conditions facing the
community. The discussions will deal with saving money on foods,
starting home businesses, storing commodities soon to be in short
supply, etc.
     If they seem interested, tell them your address and the
evening of the meeting; Fridays are best. If a caller begins to
argue and tell you everything is fine, you're talking to a boob who
is so locked into the system he can't consider an alternative. He
called because he's afraid and hoped you were some sort of phoney
who would reinforce his hopes that his fears were unfounded. He's
too far gone. Tell him politely that he must have had something
else in mind and wouldn't enjoy the group and then hang up.
     The ones who have the guts to act will be receptive. They are
the ones you can count on for a good discussion. They may not
accept all your ideas, nor you theirs. But such discussions will
consolidate the worries your visitors have in common. Then you and
they will learn to think concerning those survival issues
confronting those in your area.
     You wouldn't need to begin your first meeting with the rougher
aspects of survival. You could emphasize the logic of learning
alternative trades, dozens of which are in the four volumes of THE
SURVIVOR. Not one of the visitors could reject them all.
     You might also emphasize buying in volume or even creating a
food cooperative. The way this works is for everyone to list what
they regularly buy. Then you could arrange for a visit to your
nearest food wholesaler. Upon getting the wholesale prices for all
the week's order, you could collect each member's share for what he
will take. That way, the group would get all their food at
wholesale rates. There are thousands of such community food
cooperatives around the country and that's the best way to start a
survival group.
     You could also broach the idea of buying commodities by the
case or the gross to resell or barter later. About three years ago,
Johnny Carson jokingly predicted a shortage of toilet paper. There
was nothing to it but a lot of people took him seriously.
     One old lady panicked and bought 1000 cases of toilet paper.
It finally dawned on her that there was no shortage. However, she
had the cases stored in an outbuilding. A few months ago she
decided to sell them back to the wholesaler. She got back over
twice what she originally paid.
     This system would work with anything and is far more sensible
than putting money into a savings account. A member might buy 100
cases of 50 book cartons of matches. Another might buy several
gross of packets of sewing needles and spools of thread. Razor
blades, safety pins, office supplies such as ball point pens,
pencils, erasers, etc., would be relatively cheap by the gross and
would rise in value over the months ahead.
     You can get such commodities wholesale from jobbers listed in
your phone book or even from your local stores. The store owner
would be glad to knock off 10% on cases of canned goods and such.
And if you use the product regularly, you can be sure the price
will have risen by the time you had used half the case.
     The above money-saving ideas would immediately interest a
general survival group and make them more receptive to your ideas
on the harsher aspects. To get them to accept the harder stuff, you
could sell survival books to the members. For instance, you can buy
30 of my books in any selection for half price. You could resell
them to group members and make a profit or just enough over to pay for
refreshments. You could work the same arrangement with other
survival book publishers and your members would assemble fine
survival libraries and think more your way as the weeks went by.
     In a short time, you'd have a gung-ho survival group, the kind
of which so many of you have been wanting. Not only will you have a
fine survival group, but in helping others to think survival, you'd
be getting your own thinking squared away. You and your group would
then be the most stable force in the community when the crash
finally comes.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Efficient Fire-wood Harvesting

 Efficient Fire-wood Harvesting

                      by Richard R. Doucet

WANT a good supply of quality firewood with low cash expenditure?
Want more time to get other homestead chores done? Want some good
exercise, but not endless hours of backbreaking work? Care  about
the  area  you're going to harvest and don't want to scar  it  up
with heavy equipment?

   You  can accomplish all of these aims in one stroke -  if  you
know the "magic word". That word? Efficiency!

   A firewood harvesting foray can yield a far greater amount  of
product  than  would normally be expected in the same  amount  of
time when you use efficient planning, preparation and execution.

There is really no problem in locating stands or areas of poten
tial  firewood. They are usually too small to warrant  commercial
attention  or  too difficult to reach  without  heavy  equipment.
Perfect  for you to obtain, for no cash cost and perhaps only  an
exchange of "logging rights", a small share of the wood. For this
reason I wont go into where to find wood.

  I have a 15-acre homestead abutting a 47-acre lot. My neighbor,
who  has just built a log home on the front of that lot,  allowed
beavers  to set up housekeeping about 3 years ago. The pond  they
created effectively cut access to the back 80 percent of the lot,
making it impossible for her to cut firewood without crossing  my
property,  and  even then only with a great  deal  of  difficulty
because of the terrain.

  The  beavers,  on the other hand, had no trouble  reaching  and
cutting trees at all. Given the taste beavers have for the better
quality  trees,  it was not long before an amazing  abundance  of
large  oaks, birches, poplar and beech trees lay in  disarray  in
the  area. Even more trees stood, dead, from having been  girdled
by the beavers or drowned by the rising water.

We both wanted the estimated 10 to 12 cord of wood that could be
extracted from the area, but we also know the devastation loggers
would cause if we had them do it. And, of course, it would not be
cheap. Therefore, we settled on a simple exchange of part of  the
harvest for her if I could get it out.

With  the  aforementioned  in mind, I hasten to  add  that  this
article  is  not a review of proper safety  procedures  for  wood
cutting.  Anyone planning to do any work with a chain saw,  power
splitter  or any hand tool such as an axe or buck saw  should  be
completely  knowledgeable in the safe use and operation of  these
tools.  Extensive instruction and safety tips are  included  with
any  power  or hand tool you purchase. I can give you  no  better
advice than to tell you to study and understand the  instructions
for any equipment you intend to use.

  However, I will make these few points. By our very nature those
of  us who seek the more self-sufficient way of life, often  tend
to  work  alone.  Sometimes because we want to  and  other  times
because we have to. While it is never a good idea to work in  the
woods alone, especially with power tools, if you decide to,  then
I strongly suggest you do the following:

-  If there is any chance of having someone around for a  period
of time get as much power tool work done as possible,  especially
chain saw work.

  -  Have a first aid kit with you. Even a simple one  with  com
press bandages can save your life.

  -  Have a CB radio, whistle or "fog horn" (the kind carried  on
small boats and powered by a can of compressed air) as a means of
signaling for help.

- Last, but not least, THINK SAFETY AT ALL TIMES.

Frugal is a word we do not hear much these days, but its meaning
is  not lost on homesteaders. Keep it in mind as you choose  your
tools for the task. When it come to large items, such as a  chain
saw, borrow it if you do not need it for more than this one task.
You  can easily be sold a lot of expensive doodads and  "need-to-
have"  stuff  that you can really do without. Some of it  can  be
very expensive, such as a wood splitter; nice to look at and does
a  fast  job, but considerable money to spend for  two  or  three
day's worth of work, only to be stored for the rest of the year.

  You  can do a reasonably fast and "effort acceptable" job  with
only  these items: safety glasses, gloves, ear protection,  small
hatchet or machete, splitting wedge, maul, chain saw with  acces
sories, and a "measuring stick." you can quickly and easily  make
yourself a measuring stick. It will save you time and maybe  some
aggravation.

  Cut  a  pole about four feet long and about an inch  or  so  in
diameter and clean it up by taking all the branches and bark off.
Then decide how long your split wood has to be to fit your stove,
its "stove length".

  For example, my stove takes 24 inch logs so I cut my logs to 20
inches... just to make sure they fit. I marked off my stick at 20
inches  and 40 inches, making sure the handle end was  indicated.
Use  bright yellow or orange paint or tape for this.  Using  this
stick,  you  can quickly measure off multiples of  correct  stove
lengths and mark them on the logs with your hatchet.

When  To  Cut - Pick your season for wood cutting.  In  my  area,
southern  New Hampshire, the best times of year  are  mid-to-late
spring and mid-to-late autumn. During these times of the year the
weather may still be unpredictable, but usually it's good. In the
spring,  the leaves and fast growing ferns and grasses  have  not
yet  sprung  up to make work difficult. In the  fall,  especially
after the first good frost, grasses and ferns have died back  and
many leaves are off the trees. But, best of all, there are almost
no insects around!

  By  the time one of these two seasons rolls around, you  should
have already accomplished the next step - reconnaissance

Whether the areas you will "log" is on or near your property  or
further away, this is a step that is most important. By  choosing
the area in the first place, you have already decided that it  is
worth the time and effort to travel the distance involved to  get
the wood.

On your reconnaissance you should make the following notes:

-  How  far from your transportation do you want to  walk  to  a
logging area?

  - In that area, how much "dry" wood is available (including cut
and left by loggers, standing dead or hangers)?

- How much green wood is there?

Make  a sketch of where and how you will set up your work  site,
Mark the various stations. Setting up the work site is next.  You
may  elect to do it days before you start to cut or do  it  first
day  of cutting. The important thing to remember is that next  to
safety, efficiency is most important; so take the time to set up

  The  logging  area and the work site are set up  so  that  wood
flows  in one direction and is handled as few times as  possible.
Clear your work sits of grass, ferns, loose stones, and dead wood
that  is  in the way. The same is true for your walkways  in  the
work  site and throughout the logging area. You will be  carrying
some  good  sized logs and the painful consequences  of  tripping
over something will be greatly increased with the weight of a log
in  your  arms or on your shoulder. Pay particular  attention  to
special dangers.

  Closest to the transport should be the splitting area. When the
wood is split, it can be tossed directly into the transport. This
is  also the best place to leave items such as fuel,  tools,  bar
oil, lunch and refreshments. A note here: alcoholic beverages  of
any kind have no place when you are doing this type of work.

  Next  to the splitting area, set up two "bucking stands".  Both
stands  serve the same purpose: to produce multiple stove  length
pieces in a single cut and thus making the most efficient use  of
time and energy.

  Though each stand is made differently, there is one thing about
their  construction they have in common that is  very  important.
The  width  of the stands MUST be a few inches shorter  than  the
length of the bar on your chain saw.

  If  this  width is greater than the bar length,  the  saw  will
"tip"  on the log farthest out and cause the saw to kick back  at
you.  Both  stands are used at the same time. The  pre-built  one
holds smaller logs or branches, and you can put as many in as the
stand  will  hold. However, with the field-built  stand  relative
diameters  are important. Putting a much smaller log on the  out
side, or farthest from you, with a larger log closer is not safe,
because  the chain of the saw can pull the smaller one  over  the
larger one, hitting you quite hard. Basically, use the  pre-built
stand  for  logs and branches less than 4 inches and  the  field-
built one for over 4 inches in diameter.

  On  the opposite side of the splitting area, find a  space  for
"uglies."  Uglies are what I call short leftovers and pieces  too
hard to split, such as knots and forks. As I measure up logs  for
cutting,  I usually cut around these and leave them behind.  This
way, when it is time to split, I do not have a fight on my hands.
I  save  the uglies to burn during the day when I  can  tend  the
fire... "Waste knot, want knot."

  The last areas to set up are the stacking areas. This is  noth
ing more than a cleared area. As you bring your wood in, you fill
the  bucking  stands first, then stack up the rest. Now  you  are
ready  to  start. You arrive early on a nice sunny  day  and  are
ready  to  go. Stop! Take time to finish your coffee Now  is  the
time to answer the most important question of the day: "How  much
can  I really get done in the time I have set aside?"  Your  goal
should  be to get everything you cut home at the end of the  time
you have

  Now  you are ready to start cutting. Cut the trees in the  fol
lowing order:

  - Downed trees, green and dead.
  - Hangers and leaners (be careful).
  - Standing dead trees.
  - Standing green trees.

  Work  from  a point closest to your work site  outward  to  the
farthest point you will want to go. Do all the like work at once.
Cut  down  trees. Limb all the trees. Mark off all the  trees  in
stove lengths with the help of your measuring stick. Cut all  the
logs to carrying length.

If you can lift 100 pounds, do not try to carry logs any heavier
than  about 50 pounds. Not only will you get tired faster  trying
to carry your best load and risk a lifting injury, but the chance
of  a serious injury is much greater if you fall with 100  pounds
on your shoulder.

  When  cutting  the logs, cut in multiples of the  stove  length
marks you made. The shortest log will be one of one stove length.
If this is still too heavy, you will have to split it in half. As
you work up the trunk of the tree, the diameter will get  smaller
and  you will be able to carry logs of two and then  three  stove
lengths.

  The  maximum length you should carry is not more than  about  8
feet.  Beyond this length, they became very clumsy to handle  and
difficult to walk with through the woods. When you get to  diame
ters  of about 4 inches and less there is no need to  mark  them.
Your 2 x 4 bucking stand will do that for you.

Splitting  - Once all the cutting is done, the next chore is  to
get them to the work site. Just as with the other work, there  is
a best order to work in:

- The heaviest and farthest away.
- The farthest away for like sizes.
- The uglies.

By working from the farthest point with the heaviest ones first,
you achieve several goals. First, the heaviest are most likely to
be  the  single stove lengths and these can go  straight  to  the
splitting  area.  They will be out of your way from  the  logging
area  first  and ready to be split at the work site  first.  More
important,  you will move the heaviest the farthest when you  are
still rested and strongest. As the day goes on you will begin  to
tire,  but  the difficulty of the work will lessen with  the  de
crease  in your energy level... a definite  psychological  advan
tage.  Last to be brought in and loaded are the uglies. They  are
the  smallest  and represent the least valuable of the  wood.  If
some one shows up to help, like the children after school,  these
small pieces will be easy for them to handle and give them  some
thing  useful  to  do. However, should time run  short,  you  can
always leave the uglies behind.

  Now, all the work will be done in the work site. What you  have
accomplished  so far should have taken about 2/3 of the time  you
have to complete the task.

  Continuing  the  theory of getting the  most  energy  consuming
tasks finished first, the next step is to split the stove  length
logs,  and load them as you split. Use the field-build  stand  to
cut the multiple length logs and split and load them. Lastly, cut
the smallest diameter logs in the 2 x 4 stand. Each cut here will
give you armloads of smaller diameter lengths that will not  need
splitting. Once these are loaded, just throw on the uglies.

Before  you leave though, you may want to consider one of  those
nice, straight, tall, but very dead pines. Cut into rounds  about
a  foot  long, they split very nicely into  kindling.  Load  your
tools and any trash in the area... even if it is not yours.

You have gotten your wood home in the time you set aside.  Done?
Not yet! Follow through on the last task storage.

  You went through a lot of trouble and work to get this wood  so
take  care  of  it until you use it. There are  many  methods  of
storing wood, but keep these characteristics in mind as you  plan
to store:

- Try to store it out of the weather.
- Separate the green from the seasoned and the bone dry.
- Don't store it too far from the house... remember, you have to
      get to it in the dead of winter.

  Use the bone dry early in the season. It will burn faster,  but
chances  are you will need it mostly for getting "the chill  out"
more  than  serious heating. Stone the green wood  in  ricks  one
stove length wide, about four feet high as long as you like.  Run
the  ricks  east and west. Wrap the sides and ends  in  clear  or
black plastic, but not the top.

Put scrap boards or plywood on top, held down by rocks or  logs.
On sunny, winter days the plastic will cause a greenhouse  effect
and  help  dry  the wood. The moisture will  be  able  to  escape
through the top. By early spring it should be ready to use.

  Now  you  can sit back and have that cup of herbal tea  or  dip
into that cider barrel.

  You have efficiently, at little cash expense, brought  yourself
closer  to self sufficiency using what others did not  want.  You
have not harmed the environment in the process, and have gotten a
good physical workout that others pay big money for at a spa. Not
bad  for  a day's work! Be proud of yourself and sleep  well  to
night.
From: American Survival Guide Jan 1992


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Top 100 things that disappear from the stores in an emergency

1. generators
2. water filters/purifiers
3. portable toilets
4. seasoned firewood
5. lamp oil, wicks, lamps
6. all types of fuel: Coleman, propane, gasoline, kerosene, diesel
7. guns, ammo, pepper spray, knives, bows/arrows, clubs, bats, slingshots
8. hand can openers, hand egg beaters, whisks, paper/plastic plates & cups
9. honey, syrups, white & brown sugars
10. rice, beans
11. vegetable oil
12. charcoal & lighter fluids
13. water containers
14. mini heater head (propane)
15. grain grinder (non-electric)
16. small propane cyulinders and the adapter to refill from larger size
17. goats, chickens, pigeons, ducks, rabbits, milk cows
18. mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc.
19. baby supplies: diapers, formula, ointments, otc meds, etc
20. washboards, mop bucket w/wringer (for laundry)
21. cook stoves (Propane, Coleman, kerosene)
22. vitamins
23. propane cylinder handle-holder. Small cannister use is dangerous without this item.
24. feminine hygiene, hair care, skin products
25. thermal underwear, tops and bottoms
26. bow saws, axes, hatchets and wedges
27. aluminum foil
28. gasoline containers
29. garbage bags
30. toilet paper, Kleenex, paper towels
31. milk, powdered & canned
32. heirloom garden seeds
33. clothespins, clothesline
34. Coleman pump repair kit
35. canned tuna
36. fire extinguuishers
37. first aid kits
38. batteries
39. garlic, spices, vinegar
40. big dogs and dry dog food
41. flour, yeast & salt
42. matches (wooden matches go first)
43. writing paper, pads, pens, pencils, solar calculators
44. insulated ice chests
45. work boots, belts, Levis & work shirts
46. flashlights, light sticks (stock up on these at after-Halloween sales!)
47. journals, diaries & scrapbooks
48. plastic garbage cans
49. personal hygiene: shampoo, toothbrush/toothpaste/Listerine, soap
50. cast iron cookware
51. fishing supplies & tools
52. mosquito coils & repellants
53. duct tape and WD40
54. tarps, stakes, line
55. candles
56. laundry detergent
57. backpacks and duffel bags
58. garden tools & supplies
59. scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
60. canned food
61. bleach, 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite
62. canning supplies: jars, lids, rings, canners (especially extra flat lids)
63. knife sharpening supplies
64. bicycles, tires, pumps, chains, etc
65. sleeping bags, blankets, pads
66. battery powered carbon monoxide alarm
67. board games, cards, dice
68. rat poison, roach killer
69. mousetraps, ant traps
70. hand crank and/or solar powered radios
71. baby wipes, baby oil, antibacterial gel
72. rain gear
73. shaving supplies
74. hand pumps, siphons and plastic tubing
75. soy sauce, bouillon cubes, instant gravies, soup mixes
76. reading glasses
77. instant beverage mixes: cocoa, lemonade, Tang, Kool-Aid
78. Coleman and kerosene lanterns
79. woolen clothing: coats, mittens, scarves
80. hats & bandannas
81. gloves: latex, wool, work, gardening
82. graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, trail mix, jerky
83. popcorn, peanut butter, nuts
84. socks, underwear
85. lumber and plywood
86. wagons and carts
87. cots and inflatable mattresses
88. atomizers
89. wire of all types: bailing, fencing, barbed, electrical (all gauges)
90. screen patches, glue, nails
91. tea, coffee
92. cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco and papers
93. wine and liquor
94. candies and dried fruits
95. screws, nuts and bolts
96. chewing gum
97. stop smoking patches and gum
98. otc medicines of all kinds: analgesics, antibacterials, antacids, etc
99. nails, string, twine, rope, spikes
100. basic hand tools: hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, etc