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SMG, anytime a person(s) try to overthrow a duly elected gov.(thru actions that work against the gov. and the law abiding taxpayer/citizen)for their own gain.
I’ve been reading this site on an almost daily basis for 2-3 years now. Politics inevitably come up from time to time, which is fine, and to be expected to some extent, I s’pose. Recently however, there seems to be a much larger focus on politics rather than, you know, “survival.” I don’t read these types of blogs for red-blue, left-right discussions. I’m more interested in knowledge, skills, insights, and experiences of other preparedness-minded folks. When – and why – did this site (and others like it) take a turn to include substantial discussion about politics? I mean, I get that there is a tangential relationship, but knowing how to build a fire, purify water, create a stockpile of 600 rolls of TP, etc. is for the most part separate from a D or R occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The inspiration behind this commentary is today’s post about Elizabeth Warren being nuts. Now, maybe she is – no argument coming from me on that. But, how does her lack of cognitive faculties or political leanings – relate to knowing how to build and use a solar oven? Mainly, I enjoy hearing about members’ ideas and perspectives on preparation, short-term situations, off-grid living etc. These political topics becoming a major focus on survival websites…it’s just disappointing, and does *nothing* to add to my knowledge or skill set.
Do others out there have a similar perception re: politics on prepper sites? Or maybe it’s just me, and I’ll be painted with a broad brush of being a total tree-hugging liberal commie socialist that simply doesn’t belong on a site like this?
Winston S.
This crowd isn’t gonna come down on you for voicing your opinion. Lot of open minded Patriots here.
I also didn’t like the title of this post either, but, we, as Patriots, and Preppers, must look at the whole picture of this world, not just starting fires and storing supplies.
These politics, whatever, are gonna affect our future, so, maybe, these kind of articles are a necessary evil. Knowing what coming at us politically is no difference than learning how to prep, In my opinion.
I have an older brother when confronted with facts of what’s happening in the government and such, outs himself by saying “There is nothing I can do about so don’t need to know about it”. I tell him there is nothing you can do about the weather either but you watch the weather report’s and radar so you can prepare for what’s coming at you do you not! He hang’s up on me when I say thing’s like this. We have to have these discussion’s on the politics that will effect our future, is that not one of the main reason’s we prep for. It is for me, keep’em coming Ken.
TXDAN
Same here, its not so much to react to the inevitible turns but to be prepared to deal with the wrecks that come when the bus goes over the edge.
I watch the weather to know if i need my vented hat or the one that doesnt leak, same for politics and the news, i like to know what sort of environment could possibly develop.
😎🤙🏻
Winston S.,
First, thanks for reading the blog. Let me try to answer this, since it is my blog.
A blog will tend to reflect the interests, whims, moods, etc., of the blogger. In this case, me.
I am very passionate about these political issues. As a freedom loving Patriot, there are times when my blood boils upon being especially ‘triggered’ by what may be going on during a given day or news cycle. I usually do not post about it. Though I could EASILY start another website that solely focuses on the political issues of the day. Maybe I will. That would be a good “vent” for me.
So yes, I do post articles when I get especially ticked off, AND if I’m in the mood to actually write about it on the blog.
Another factor I suppose is that I’ve been doing this for 10 years. And have covered lots of preparedness topics. Sometimes I get bored with one aspect or another – simply trying to repeat what I’ve written about so many times. Again, it depends on my mood.
My interests tend to shift or change over time too. And that may affect what I choose to write about.
But I get it. Everyone has their own reason for being here, on this blog. It’s tough to satisfy everyone. So the best thing for me is NOT to try, because I know that it’s impossible. So I go with whatever floats-my-boat on any given day of choosing an article topic.
Anyway, thanks for your complaint. I get it.
Maybe I will start that 2nd website… 😉
Ken,
As you said
“A blog will tend to reflect the interests, whims, moods, etc., of the blogger. In this case, me.”
Lots of folks read lots of blogs,
Some days or weeks, that blog might have a topic or portion that does not interest them,
So they go and read or do something else or they read it and carry on.
One or two people not liking your topic or opinion does not warrant that you change what you have been doing for near on a decade as far as i can tell.
You and Remus are at the top o the list in my book,
So keep on keepin on!
😎🤙🏻
Yep, I like Remus too. He has a unique insight. Thanks.
Winston,
Politics for me, serves as a sort of weather forecast for preparedness. Indeed it matters little if as you said, there is a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ in the white house. It more important who is occupying congress and the supreme court. Plus localized stupidity from my area tends to metastasize eastward, so it’s worth paying attention to, in my opinion. I’d really hate to come to this website one day and find the DoJ take down notice, as others have recently fallen this way. Unfortunately, I believe these two topics are inextricably linked.
I think the main point of the Warren article is NOT that she is a nut case….but rather that she is willing to erode our foundation of government. This is a thought that we should all be aware of, as doing away with an important piece of our Republic could be disastrous.
That being said, you are certainly welcome here, and welcome to voice your opinion on articles Ken presents. Hang in!
PW, the foundations of government, economy, and society have been eroding for decades 😯
Winston
TS
Winston,
I’ll add my 2c and say that I enjoy the range of topics Ken provides here. If this were a site strictly about “personal protection devices” or technical skills such as raising small animals for harvest or solar panels or tapping alternative water supplies then it would be about preparing in a vacuum. I recognize that not everyone wants to “talk” politics any more than I am going to comment on an article about concealed carry or something else that does not have an impact directly on me. I simply have no basis for commenting on some subjects.
Back to politics specifically, in Ken’s recent polls, many of his readers (including some who choose to read but don’t typically comment) think the direction of our nation (the erosion of personal freedom, the polarization of opinions, etc…) is a key concern and an important element behind preparedness. I personally find it interesting and even reassuring at times to know that many who visit Ken’s site see the same things I see, have some of the same concerns I do, and are bracing themselves for rough times ahead – politically.
Although we have little control of the political events around us, we darn well better be sure we know what’s going on.. and be prepared to take protect ourselves in every way possible as things continue to erode.
Ken, speaking only for myself… I enjoy your political articles and the responses from everyone as we all try to keep our sanity (and hopefully our cool) as we cope with the direction things are headed. And yes, everything Elizabeth Warren is peddling is outlandish and scary – a lot of people are buying into this nonsense and it is not good for our nation and our personal liberty.
Winston S., IMO, prepping is a good balance between keeping your ear on the ground, and your eye on the horizon.
The Boy Scout motto ” Always Prepared “, speaks volumes .
If you will search MSB, you’ll find volums of reading material on the subjects that you mentioned. Enjoy gleaning from the comments, as well.
A lot of people in the patriot, prepping community, want to be kept up to date with what appears on the political horizon. Sites like this one are one venue of acquiring valuable insights into the goings on.
For the same reason that many successful people enjoy playing golf, a site like this one, will broach a different subject. Prevents monotony, dullness, and boredom. While at the same time, keeping many relevant news items in the forefront.
P.S. You’ll find that a lot of people here like trees too!
😉
CR
Hehe
I like trees!
That being said I don’t believe I’ve ever hugged one.
They bring beauty in the spring and fall. Shade in the summer. Conifers are a wind breaks in the winter. Sad to see them die out and blow over. I don’t give em a hug then either…
….just take a chainsaw to em, to provide heat for the winter.
Have you never hugged a tree, lately?
No sir, but I do appreciate them. The human race probably would not have survived without them.
The good Lord knew that we needed them, so He gave them to us.
I think that if folks like em enough to hug em, then they should clear out the underbrush while they’re at it. 👍🌳🌴🌲
Winston S.
I look at it like this., it is psychological prepping. .. I am guilty of scanning long posts that tell of the corruption in the system .I have to unplug from the political pretty often. When i do , i just scan such posts, and move on to another.
There seems to be nothing we as individuals can do about it… Only by encouraging others to think about implications of Ms. Warren’s proposals can we see some of the dangers posed therein… For instance, Like the abolishment of the electoral college… would make a few high population centers make all the rules. The fly over states, basically only the west and east coasts would have complete control.
Another part of Psych. prepping is: Learning to take cues from behavior of others and make a judgment on they type of behavior one may expect from that person…
… IF there is an election, like is scheduled , there will be someone who “wins” and someone who “looses”. Whether the voting machines are rigged or not.
There is a well rounded group who comment pretty regular on this board.. When others voice opinions on which ever- what ever ..whether a product or a person, it is because they have observed something…
.Having others observations can help us to refine ours and can give us ideas, that may help us in dealing with our next door neighbor, our brother or In law.
This site has a very deep archive. If you need to know how others do a certain process, find a post on it read it and all the comments… if you post on it , will show up in the recent comments and could give others insight to your problem or an alternate way of doing things.
Have a good evening. Don’t let the political garbage of the day get you down… it is all a show.
In my view it already is. Sedition at the very least. But nothing happens…
Winston S
I agree with SmG.
Prepairedness, I my opinion, doesn’t stop at those things that you mentioned.
Prepairedness does include those things of: Politics…both sides
Weather,
Health,
Being aware of all aspects that can/will effect all of us, at some point.
Prep on
Just Sayin
Sounds to me like, YOU need to take it easy. You keep pushing yourself like that, recovery time will triple, if not permanently put you down.
You most definitely have the same mindset as me. I felt terrible and useless when FWTB called my son for some chore work on Tuesday.
But like ya say: we’re not pushing up Daisies.
Left the walk-in clinic….
Several rib fractures. At least 4.
Funny doesn’t hurt as bad as when the horse broke 3 ribs.
chevy
I am late to the party for answering your question but happily Anony Mee and Just Sayin gave you the information you were looking for on the plant.
It was I that spoke about it, and we(Just Sayin)learned about this plant from a lady who was in the course for certification on being an Herbalists. She wrote about how she used Graviola and Lobelia in a tea for a 4 stage cancer neighbor–but–she had to watch him closely as he was on a “Blood Pressure” medication.
Lobelia & blood pressure meds do–NOT–mix FYI and others who may read this. Reason ACDH does not use Lobelia as I do not want an “OH Crap” moment to occur, reason I research everything that is recommended just to make sure it will not interfere with other pharma medications his doctors have prescribed.
Understanding what will work & will not work together is a part of the learning process. Since I am not a professional in the medical field is the reason I study everything, pros and cons before making a wise choice.
Winston,
I think by now I think you get the drift of where folks are on this subject of politics here on MSB from their comments. I understand how you feel though. I hate talking about politics, and love talking/commenting on the technical aspect of prepping more. Just understand that what the folks here are doing is practicing one of the fundamental aspects of prepping, and that is observing and being aware of potential upsets to our “happy existence.” Yes, I would agree that there has been an escalation (IMHO) of political discussion in the past couple of years here at MSB. That is because many here recognize that with the country’s present “difficulties” comes a potential for serious upsets to, not only their lives, but the lives of every citizen. “Forewarned is forearmed” is an old adage that seems to fit here ( and I am not referring to firearms here either). I personally shy away from all the political discussions going on right now (that is my own issue), but I would like to thank those that are having these discussions and keeping us informed of what is going on in our country. We all need to know what is going on, so we can prepare for potential upsets accordingly.
Serious question: I’m gonna up-grade my body armor. I know some about armor, but, I would like some imput, on what you all think.
SMG, contact Bob Griswold at Ready Made Resources, about plates.
800-627-3809
Tell him you came from Modern Survival Blog (if you do call for input)
Stand if your looking for something you’ll actually WEAR look at Israeli HDPE plates. Good enough for the IDF very light compared to AR500 steel with anti-spall coating. Takes multiple hits better than our Military’s Ceramic Plates. Not rated for Armor Piercing but stops almost everything else.
Please remember though that even with side plates, groin plate and a good helmet (good only for pistol rounds BTW) your only covering some 27 percent of your body. Arms, legs and throat are out there. Cover and Concealment always.
Beware the serious squirrel hunter he regularly hits a 1-2 inch target that loves to move a lot.
Just did a quick search on the plates ‘me2’ mentioned. Wow, found one that’s level III and only 3.5 pounds. Interesting.
Related post:
https://modernsurvivalblog.com/security/body-armor/
Ken I’m glad you liked that plate. I’ve worn US Military Body armor from the old flak vest-steel pot through the Sandbox Ceramic plate system and Kevlar Helmet.
When I was visiting Israel professionally they fitted me up with IDF issue HDPE plate system. I was actually doubtful something that light would stop AK and 7.62 NATO but it does.
It’s the only armor I think I could really wear for long term needs.
I WISH I could have made a Large Roman Style Shield made of that HDPE. The Steel Police style Shields out there are HEAVY. Anybody know of a source of the HDPE?
Just remember there is a lot of you still unarmored so think cover and concealment.
Me2
Amazon sells the UHMW HDPE In a variety of weights and sizes
Ken I was just visiting Ready Made site they DO carry lightweight plastic plates.
It was an +300.00 upgrade for the Elsa Suitcase AR500 light weight plates armor they sell. However I was unable to actually find the plates to read the description and armor rating, weight and such.
Did I miss their search function? Could you help us find this information please?
Thanks
I just emailed. Will post the response when I get it…
Me2,
Just as an aside, HDPE AND UHMW-PE both have some radiation blocking abilities due to the high amount of hydrogen atoms. But you are going to have to be behind a big shield of it.
Minerjim the large rectangle shield of the roman army is actually well sized for using as a bump in the night quick armor. The mock up I made I could maneuver through and around my household obstacles pretty well.
Takes a fair bit of time to armor up in a plate carrier system, a shield (And Helmet) is grab and go but you need an effective one handed weapon for offense.
A couple of people trained to work together with such shields can form a sort of a mobile fort against projectile weapons. See Roman Army Turtle Formation for details.
Might be useful for recovering wounded or getting folks out of pinned down situations.
As long as it’s not in the 1-2K price of police shields it’s doable.
Already found a lot of interesting data about this stuff. Seem drift boat hulls are made of it as well as skid plates for a lot of off road vehicles due to it’s strength and light weight.
me2,
if by HDPE you mean high density polyethylene plastic, try online (eplastic dot com is one place I found). They sell it in thicknesses up to 1″. if you are thinking of making your own shield, I would get the specific specification of the HDPE from a armor plating manufacturer. There are many different kinds of HDPE out there, you want the right stuff. HDPE is used heavily in industry, so it is easily sourced. (first time I specified it was for ore bins in the Coeur d’Alene mining district back in ’82). if you do get the specs, would you please share with us??? thanks.
Will Do Minerjim. I expect getting the spec’s will be the fun part.
Joe C.
This is the 5th of 6th time i have hurt this shoulder in the last several months.This one is the worst. Ligaments /tendons are often as long or longer to heal than broken bones. So that cartilage damage you have between around the bones, takes as long as the bone break. Boneset has that name for a reason.
I am working on day 5 without further injury.. nothing as bad as falling out of a loft. I was cutting up potatoes, and squash to process. If i can get to day 14, should have a pretty good chance of getting it healed….sooner rather than always being an issue.
I have full mobility but NO strength , can’t reach up to even comb my hair… learning to improvise, glad i got this hair cut.LOL getting used to doing many things with my “off side”. I can type with wrists resting and i can crochet with elbow propped and only movement of forearm.
Take it easy… Be sure to do the deep breathing exercises. They will not be as bad as coughing to clear bronchitis or pneumonia.
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.
Happy Friday!
That statement (2nd Amendment) is like kryptonite to a liberal. Or like holding a cross up to a devil.
It invokes and triggers fear, terror, trembling — leading to shrieks, screams, convulsions, eyes bulging — and even heads spinning round-n-round…
Eyes bulging?
You mean like that fruitloop adamant ScHiFf
Idle thoughts of an old man who lives back in the hills with too many guns and time on his hands.
So much talk of civil war. Despair on the part of conservative folks wondering how they lost the country they love, how they could ever get it back, when it seems all is stacked against them. Crying about how one or two highly populated urban areas in each state are able to outvote and dominate the elections, negating the voice of the countryside. Forcing their liberal/progressive agenda on us. What can we do?
Ran across one of those red/blue maps of the country, showing the counties shaded in either red or blue according to how their people voted in the presidential election. Very eye catching.
Then I thought about the liberal/progressive tactic of declaring “sanctuary cities” even “sanctuary states” to openly oppose federal laws on immigration and marijuana use. Declaring they will not comply with federal laws/edicts they disagree with. Is that not “rebellion”? Is that not thumbing their noses at the federal government’s authority?
Now, some conservative Sheriffs in states that have passed draconian gun laws, have openly rebelled against enforcing those laws.
Someone once said “All politics are local”. Imagine with me, if all those red counties that voted conservative (or at least republican), elected Sheriffs that respected and took their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously. Sheriffs control the county jails. Sheriffs influence what laws are enforced, what laws receive a blind eye in their county. The federal government and states don’t have “jails” they have “prisons”. The federal and state governments are very dependent on each county holding their prisoners prior to conviction.
What if all those “red counties” refused to cooperate with liberal dictates that obviously fly in the face of our constitutionally protected liberties and freedoms, and became “constitutional rights sanctuary counties”, in bold defiance of overbearing liberal progressive counties whose greater populations dictate those oppressive laws?
Those Sheriffs who have openly declared they will not enforce “unconstitutional gun confiscation laws” have taken a stand, as have those liberal jurisdictions that have declared sanctuary status against enforcement of laws they disagree with. Is this the beginning salvos of a civil war? Or have the liberal/progressives pointed out a road map for rural conservatives to stand up against the laws being forced upon them by city folks, by declaring their counties/communities as sanctuaries for their citizens.
Oh well, got chickens to feed, some more work to do on my pasture truck, and some reloads to expend on my pistol range. Y’all have a blessed day.
Dennis,
Heres something that was on WRSA
Makes sense to me, “Gods will be done”
“What this [collusion ‘investigation’/impeachment scam/Deep State coup d’état/Red putsch] has shown is that the covenant is broken. We agreed that we would vote, and whoever won got to set policy and whoever lost would abide by it. We kept our end under Obama, even as we suspected there was major corruption, criminal activity, and treason. But then it was violated by Democrats with Illegal Alien sanctuaries. We retaliated with Second Amendment sanctuaries, and would have let it go there. But now the Democrats have shown they will not do the same, as they have tried to overturn the election for the highest leader in the land. Impeachment is the turning point, beyond which the national covenant has broken. Unless Q and Trump break out something amazing, Boogaloo it is.”
Kula
These hearings and the differing media/public interpretations of what evidence was presented reminds me of an old poem. I saw it post on another site but I do not have the exact wording – six blind men wanted to get an idea of what an elephant is so they went up and each felt a different part of the beast. What they came away with were completely differing opinions of what the animal looked like. And if it were today, three would be charged with animal groping.
See, theres the thing,
The ability of the government to govern,
Relies entirely on the willingness of the people,
To be governed.
Bureaucrats and polititians be damned
Dennis;
In my little spot on the map that is exactly the Sheriff we have in office.
Actually 20+ counties/Sheriffs of the 33 have stated they will not enforce “anti-constitutional” Gun Laws.
Sure the heck wish I had not lost all mine in Navajo Lake, DARN!!!!
Speaking on rebellion against the liberal/progressive tyranny, try this scenario on for size.
Suppose for a moment that the democrat controlled house of reprehensibles does impeach Trump. Then suppose that the senate demos get enough rinos to join them, find Trump guilty and remove him from office. Then suppose, we the people re-elect Trump in 2020 (there’s no law preventing that from happening). The impeachment and conviction would be for “high crimes and misdemeanors” (supposedly) committed during his first term. Removal from office would be the punishment. They would have to start from scratch in order to impeach him from office in his second, separate, term (double jeopardy would apply).
There I go thinking again. Best get back outside and do some work.
That poses two questions……….would that make Trump both the 45th and 46th president…….or would the left completely lose their cookies and start the attacks making the 2nd civil war go hot?
Dennis,
They control the voting machines, would not allow POTUS to be re elected. Evil abounds and is rewarded. Thankfully there will be an eternal reward for evil. So dealing with it temporarily is all we need to be concerned about.
another attack today., Naval air Station, florida 4 dead 7 injured according to Mary Greely news.
Just Sayin’,
re: Navy Air Station shooting. Suspect is/was a Saudi national receiving training at the base. Wonder how many gun laws he violated in order to carry out the attack. Weapons not allowed on base (surprisingly a killer ignored that “gun free” edict in place a NAS). Pretty sure he cannot legally purchase a pistol as a non-citizen. Murder is still a crime. Stand by for democrats to start demanding new restrictions on guns for law abiding American citizens due to this latest attack.
Sheriffs have great powers and the Left knows this…..it’s why there has been such a strong movement in the recent past to eliminate them all.
Can we all guess why?
MT
Some “deep dive” research will show you that Soros is now operating/funding at the lower levels of Gov. to “reseed” the liberal garden. County Supers, City councilmen, Board of Ed. Etc.
Want to let everyone know that the scammers are up to no good as usual.
Yesterday received a text message stating that I had been “Randomly Selected” to receive a $1,000 shopping card for Walmart. Ahhh my mother did not raise a dummy, ok. SCAM!
Erased it out of the phone & told ACDH that we had been targeted. He does not text, and only answers the phone IF he knows who is calling him, otherwise he will ignore the phone call.
IF it looks to good to be true……then it is.
AC,
Oh and the one that enables you to have a free back/leg/ whatever brace.. for those on Insurance plans like medicare…a 10$ brace for no out of pocket because. they bill at 10x that price. They no longer want to over those who don’t have insurance they can bill at will.
Oh and they regularly call for people that died 4 years ago. Once had someone decide Dad Needed more life insurance.. ( deceased 4 yrs) so I was a meanie. I tied them up for about 10 minutes with all kinds of questions about coverage, benefits, cost… Then asked, So i can pay a months coverage and receive full death benefit when I file his death certificate? when the answer was no. I said Mr. does not need your insurance bec. has been dead for 4 years. Please remove this number from your database.it is terribly outdated.
go to Dave Hodges.. title “we are in trouble” . Those on the west coast Washington to Mexico should at least hear this. They tell about monitoring of ocean temps, and magma, asteroids.. .risks.
. Distractions abound.. “What do they not want us to know.?”
yep, got that one too. Told hubby “scam”. We had just had a friend send us a text with some random attachment and list 15 people we don’t know. I told him not to send me his random crap, along with a ton of people that I don’t know – that now have my phone number. He got upset with me but one of the people on the list was someone I did know….he called to tell me that he said he agreed with me but he didn’t say that to our friend. I am going to block him if he sends any more group texts that include me.
To Mrs U:
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery free of complications from your procedure. Yes, they are done frequently these days but it is still scary going into the hospital and being put under.
Hoping your husband will be in tune with helping you post-surgical/recovering at home. .
Thank You for all of the nice thoughts!!! Home and doing well. Mr. does helps me. Don’t even need pain meds, just a little ibuprofen. Will follow doctors orders and not try to do to much. Sooo a big ole prep done! Finally!!! NO stitches they used glue on the appox 1 inch incisions. To you medical folks out there what is the name of the glue? Would be a good prep along with the Dyna Hex I took a shower with the night before.
Later MSB
Mrs. U happy you did well from the surgery!
The glues name is Dura bond they make a Vet version that also works well.
A variant on Superglue, PLEASE Do NOT use Superglue.
Also never use Dura Bond or other skin closures on dirty wounds, sealing up nastiness inside you is not a successful idea. Clean incisions only.
Worth a little research as I’ve found some so far excellent sites discussing SHTF medicine.
me2, thank you for the info…..
– The name is Dermabond, and I use it frequently. The Veterinary version is I believe called “Vet bond”. It’s the same thing, but cost is about a third. I’ve seen it at some of the Farm stores like Tractor Supply and Gebo’s
– Papa S.
Joe, careful with Comfrey.
Yep,
Be very careful
For ligament issues consider the homeopathic remedy called Ruta Grav,, which is Rue but in a very diluted tablet. Works very well.
Was just in Wal-mart today and noticed the 26 ounce standard round cylinder box of iodized salt and the plain salt has gone up from .37 cents to .57 cents each in the last month.
I checked dried beans and white rice and about a 15% rise in prices for the one pound bags.
Canned soups and Tomatoes using the same sizes I bought a month ago (I keep the receipt in my wallet for reference) also went up between 10-15% each.
While they are distracting us with Impeachment the real cost of food is climbing.
Anybody else notice sudden price increases? Food is a weapon, don’t be defenseless when the Just in Time system “Hiccups” in a serious way. It don’t take a real shortage to cause the shelves to go bare.
Just a “Shortage News Report” can cause some Sheeple to stampede in fear to the grocery store will work, this generates MORE News Reports of “Shortages” that generates MORE Sheeple stampedes and the cycle gets crazy.
If you doubt it look at the shopping craziness for a KNOWN Snowstorm as the snow flakes fly.
Prepare my friends THIS IS THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
Soon groceries will be like flat screen TV’s on black friday. When, who knows just pay the higher prices for everything, prop taxes, food, fuel, healthcare, ….
One person advocated for a solution for those willing to give up many conveniences and work hard – someone with his Galt plan. Other than that type of community, we must start our own mixed farm and plant a giant garden – just need to find the money and the hands to do all the work. We simply can not buy and store enough supplies for an extended period of time.
This is where bread and circus is leading us.
hermit us
I’m working on the very plan, as we speak. Soon, buying for commercial stores is gonna be futile. I have the land and infrastructure, just need to recruit the right Patriots, to get this going. AND, that is the problem. A whole lot of tough talk, but, NO commitment to a plan. I have “1” taker, just one.
SHTF, is gonna have to happen, before these sheeple get their eyes jerked wide open. Sad, but, you can’t fix stupid. You can starve it to death, hit it with a 2×4, but you can not fix it.
Stand my Ground
The sheeple have never gone hungry…YET!!
When they do, it will make a large change in their attitude about working in order to eat, striving to make a community into a family.
SMG
I wish distance wasnt an issue, id be there with my tractor and fuel tank
hermit us,
I think the Galt plan would be a very challenging proposition because of people’s personalties. It looked workable in the book, but that was a novel, not reality .
We worked towards that scenario with another couple for over 5 years.
Completely out of the blue they cut communications and will not speak to us. They are now separated, we did not see that coming at all.
Unfortunately we cannot have any trust in them at all.
Working with others will be trying to say the least, but that does not mean we will cease the search for likeminded folks. It was a learning experience.
Bluesman
Body language speaks volumes when the other clues are over looked as just a bad day in the household. Excuses that they(other partnership)will work it out, we have a tendency to over look the obvious clues.
The spoken word and facial expression do not trump the body movements. Become a people watcher when you are setting in parking lot waiting for our spouse, you will learn a lot about human behavior.
Agree 110% Hermit,
Hardest thing will be unknowns and people, people are awful,
hermit us, If you have a neighbor that does great on raising a certain crop, Lets say , corn and pole beans…. see if you can both plan to plant much more than you will need and trade excess w/ you doing an alternate crop and trade.what ever you do grow well. Maybe okra, potatoes,.tomatoes, winter squash.or zuchini.
You might even choose to help each other for the planting of the target crops and the harvest of large crop amounts. pulling corn, or digging potatoes is harder for one or two people to do than for 2 families working together.
…. extra seed now. for at least 3 seasons. store them properly- cool and dry.
When i was a child.. My Dad did this with one of our near neighbors. He provided land and fertilizer… they split the seed, and Dad and us kids worked the corn, was about 18 long rows. about 1.5 acre field.I got the opportunity to take all the weeds out of at least 12 of them., a couple times , “middles” were plowed.. I had a “helper”, ( he was not very motivated.) LOL
We have one family we may can do something on this order with… have been mulling it over.
crop growing days will be getting shorter, days of sun may be reduced each year for several years, abrupt season changes,etc…..interfering with crop growth…Growing many things in small quantities, inside -consistently.. lettuce, spinach, radishes?…and a few things in big quanities. corn, beans,peas, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, onion.
….also look at many alternate ways to grow… sprouting to have sprouts and microgreens… hydroponics, do your research and get the water soluble fertilizers. Learn to trouble shoot your system, what ever you use…..hoop hose vs greenhouse. (method to use compost to heat a greenhouse?)….look at wicking tubs, they require less attention .. to maintaining water../fertilizer is in t he water. permaculture, ..stealth gardening.foraging… to be able to provide for our family needs we will need to use every available resource and method. These are our thoughts…ways we are leaning…
me2 – I’ve been seeing this for awhile now. Wife and I regularly make rounds of at least 8 different grocery chains, more out of fiscal necessity than simple variety. Even staples like rice and beans have doubled and tripled, respectively. One notable exception… booze. Liquor seems to be holding price; maybe even deflating a bit. Intentional, or simple paranoia?
One side benefit with my dear sweet wife… she’s gradually stopped pickling at me for bringing home “more stuff” to put up. She’s remarkably quiet now as I catch her ‘shopping’ at our built-in store.
tmcgyver
Why are you not shopping at Smart Foods(aka Cash & Carry)for your rice and beans? They carry 25/50lb bags of rice different varieties and assorted beans that come in 20/25lb bags sometimes larger. Price per pound is less than grocery stores and you do not have to shop at 8 different stores for your basic requirements.
I signed up for their grocery notices and they come to an email account. I do not have a restaurant business but the general public can purchase food there if they pay cash or have a c. card for the items. Signing up is your name and email account nothing else.
Hi AC,
I’ve never heard of Smart Foods. We have Smart and Final, which is more restaurant oriented. When looking up the other place, there are three permutations of the name Cash N Carry, Cash & Carry, Cash and Carry. I’m not sure which, if any, are related to your recommendation. Although one of them is in Rancho, not far at all; I never knew about it.
We could probably cover ‘basic’ needs at a couple of stores. It’s more a matter of finding deals on specialty foods that typically are cost prohibitive. Since my wife and I were raised very different culturally, probably half our food comes from Asian markets anyway. Things like Thai jasmine rice and veg products can vary by multiples of 2 or 3 between stores and sales.
“Beans”, like lentils, are typically several different varieties beyond brown pinto, etc. Grocery Outlet is still a blessing, although my AST there has been creeping up north of $100 per trip too. Whole Foods has actually become more viable since Bezos bought it out, selection is terrible, but what remains is fresh and reasonably priced. Likewise Aldi has it’s place for several categories.
Geez, it’s dead slow at work today. I’m happy for the chat.
tmcgyver,
It used to be Cash & Carry , now it is Smart Foods. Good assortment of larger quantity products. Prices are pretty reasonable.
tcmcgyver
As Bluesman said it now under the new name, but many know it under the old call sign.
They do carry a Thai Jasmine rice, it comes out on special every so often. Believe it is in a 25lb bag fyi, and they do carry lentils but what specialty brand I do not know.
Thought this may help you with the grocery shopping. There frozen vegetable section is really nice, and they carry a good variety of those for your choosing.
tmcgyver
That rice will be out on special for the Chinese New Year. Will let you know when the special is advertised. That way IF you have a store in your area you can pick up that for your wife.
They have a 50lb bag of long grain white rice on sale now but probably not what you are looking for.
Antique Collector and Bluesman:
Do you have a website? I can only find one ‘Smart Foods Co’, they deal in South American grocery exports. Searching by my location only turns up Smart and Final wholesale locations.
AC – I had a couple of years worth of rice put up. But I eat it too, often with my packed lunch. We got low on it without noticing. That’s right! Lunar New Year comes early this year; 25th Jan. 99 Ranch will probably be blowing out 25 or even 50 pound bags of the good stuff at a loss-leader price. I still want to check out this Smart Foods place, as soon as I can find one. Lentils… brown are fine for utility recipes. But I really like the small green French variety and the tiny orange ones found in many Indian dishes. A sale on those is always a welcome sight.
Hi tmcgyver
Cash & Carry became Smart Foodservice Warehouse Store.
smartfoodservice.com
Good Morning Anony Mee, thanks for the link. It’s a shame the closest location is 400 miles away. It looks like a fantastic resource.
Just keep the location in mind and drop in if you’re on vacation or something. : )
Me2, I did check grocery prices when I visited my son in Alabama on the way back from Dad’s in Florida. Their prices for staples was the same as here in western NY. But I have not been in a store since I returned so tomorrow I will have that pleasure.
I did listen to a video yesterday while cleaning the house about how we are having a shortage of cane and beet sugar. He also mentioned that most beet sugar is 95% GMO, which I did not realize. Fortunately, I only buy cane sugar. But that must mean canned beets are most likely GMO also…and I do like my beets. I better get better at growing enough to store my own.
DAMedinNY looking forward to your report on the latest shopping trip. Prices and general stocking levels-shortages is important.
The nice thing about Beets is they are easy to grow. The leaves can be enjoyed young like salad (I use thinning’s) older beet leaves can be treated like collards or even be chopped into bits dried and added to soups and stews to add greens nutrition.
I grew a patch of sugar beets once and chopped up the beets, stewed them down and got raw sugar from them. A LOT of work. However the greens and left over pulp were loved by the chickens. I KNOW now why Sugar used to be the real Christmas Treat and on a rich mans table.
As so much of what you buy prepared and eat at restaurants is likely GMO I don’t give it a lot of concern. I make my own yogurt and Kimchee’s so I feel my intestinal flora and general gut health to be pretty sturdy.
That was not always true a couple of years after I retired from the Army. And when I visited some old Korean friends and get back into Kimchee all my gut and flu-allergy type problems went away.
As Hippocrates said “Let your food be your medicine, let your medicine be your food”. Works for me. Maybe I need to get serious about growing some old heirloom wheat-oats-rye and start baking again.
As far as I know, normal eating beets have not been approved for GMO. Current list of GMO approvals/pendings here: isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase
For what it is worth. Lots of light up Xmas ornaments at Dollar Tree powered by various sizes of button batteries. DW had some decorations that needed batteries and found cheap substitutes.
CR2032 in a light up toy wand and LR44, 3 of them in a plastic glitter globe tree ornament about the size of a soft ball.
By now most of you have heard of the murders at the Pensacola, FL Naval Air Station committed by an islamist “aviation student” from a Saudi Arabia that our Navy was training.
What evil bureaucrat at the Pentagon thought this was a good idea? I am appalled and if you had asked me if this was possible after the events of 9-11 I would have called you crazy.
Blood is on the hands of the Pentagon for this idiocy.
It’s worse than that now Red Dog. He had buddies that were filming it and had advance knowledge. They’re being rounded up.
FiveSides is FUBAR and has been.
How many Trillions have gone missing???
How long have they gotten away with it?
How many audits does it take to find Big Thieves?
Who is ultimately responsible for running FiveSides?
Red Dog Master, yep and nothing has changed at the base where I spent a lot of my youth in Alabama. Still lots of Saudis walking around without monitoring. I have been told they did arrest the Saudis that filmed the killing spree and other Saudis that they felt may have been involved. But no further protection at any of the other bases.
tcmgyver
It is the ‘whole sale locations’ that you are looking for in your area.
Chevy your last post in the Debt Thread concerned me.
Having well armed but unprepared neighbors is a serious THREAT. Do they see themselves as Preppers? Or are they gun lovers-hunters-sports shooters NON-Preppers? Do they have Night Vision gear? Do you? I don’t need your answers on the internet friend.
You need to figure this out for your family. Unless your a super secret squirrel sort your Neighbors suspect or know your prepping. So you need to work a plan on how your going to deal with HUNGRY “Armed like the Calvary” neighbors. True HUNGER is a powerful motivator. Casual friendships will fall by the side once you have to say NO to their demands for food support. Even good friends well armed will not stand by and allow their family’s to go HUNGRY.
Even if you give them a share in your food when you say it’s all gone, sorry, they will not accept that as truth and may get quite brutal about searching-interrogating you about your clearly hidden stash of food.
Praying that you receive wisdom about this situation. Your situation is WHY I have so many Plan B Olive barrels so if I have to flee my home after the neighbors storm it to search for my food stash etc. I will “Surrender” if I must my ONLY Cache… To wander away a “Broken Man” in the hope they will fight each other over the “last” supplies.
Stuff IS Stuff. The Survival of my Family is the point. Pride is nothing if your family suffers and dies over it. The extra Olive Barrels will allow my family to survive and rebuild. After all IF it get’s THAT Bad in my neighborhood THEN it IS SHTF in America. With Out Rule Of Law and all that.
Your in my prayers friend.
I totally comprehend all you’ve stated, and it is complimentary to my many thoughts on the subject that I have had for quite some time.
I am posting one last time. I have a new glass top stove and posted on another post but it seems to have been deleted. I cant get my canner to stay at the right pressure. Just bought 40 lbs of chicken and I need to can it quickly. Can anyone please help with recommendations on propane or portable electric burner. Bought an electric burner and it would not get me to pressure either.
Not sure how to advise you, then. I use an electric burner and it brings mine up to pressure nicely.
Km in NC
You had a posting from ‘NRP’, he explained that you should purchase equipment at Harbor Freight. If I recall correctly it is an open flame cook top with a propane hose extension cord for using your pressure canner outside.
Look for his posting under the posting you used previously.
In the future we use the OFF TOPIC for questions or discussions so it does not interfere with Ken’s articles he wrote for us to read and comment on for this site. Hope you find that information to help you.
Km in nc
If you have bought already, an electric burner, check your pressure gauge, is the hole in the bottom clear? Does the needle move at all? What model is it? Does it have the weighted pressure gauge or the rocker gauge?
You can use a pressure canner without the gauge (I DO NOT RECOMMEND), as long as you keep the rocker moving steadily, which will be 10lbs PSI, or watch the weighted gauge start to escape steam on the desired weight setting. LOWER TEMP, JUST ENOUGH, TO STOP THE ESCAPING STEAM. It has 3 settings, 5lb, 10lb, and 15lb PSI, Again, THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS, and I DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Amazon- IMUSA USA GAU-80305 Electric Single Burner 1100-Watts, Black $11.99
Amazon- Proctor Silex 34103 Electric Single Burner, Compact and Portable, Adjustable Temperature Hot Plate, White & Stainless 1000w $13.49
I don’t know where your at, but call your County Extension office. They should have a Master Canner on staff or access to one.
Glass top stoves are not recommended for use with pressure canners. Check your stove manual and you will probably find this warning hidden in small print somewhere. Part of the heat problem is that the canners are so much larger than even the largest burner. It makes it very difficult to maintain a steady heat to maintain the needed pressure. I’m speaking from experience here. Used a glass top for 3 batches and had issues all through them. I now have gas stove and had purchased a god burner for outdoor use to can specifically. Sorry I don’t have better news for you. Also they type of pressure canner and how it touches the stovetop plays an part I. The issues also. Hope this helps some.
Good evening! I just wanted to offer a friendly reminder to any of y’all looking to add a good pistol. Smith and Wesson will soon be ending their rebates and promotions on some good little conceal carry guns. The original Shield series has been on serious discount, and with the rebates you can get the .380 or 9mm version for $199 plus taxes, S&H, and transfer fees. Dealers like Palmetto State Armory and Smokey Mountain Guns are running these deep discounted specials. you can even get the 2nd generation shields for a deep discount right now.
Ken,
Thanks for your measured and considerate response to my posting. Please excuse me making this a new (and longer) post rather than just a reply to your reply.
As far as the diversity of your content and the need to vent about tangential stuff, politics, the occasional blonde joke post, etc., yeah, I get it too. You’ve been at this for a while, and it can get rather redundant posting only about directly survival SHTF stuff. You have an amazing cohort that follow your site, and being able to have a personally cathartic post or two is completely understandable. Plus, you can’t be all things to all people all the time. So yes, I get it, and for the most part, agree with your overall approach to your site – which is why I’ve stuck around for so long.
For me personally, I try to avoid political commentary as much as possible – i.e. can’t watch Fox, because they go too far right; can’t watch CNN because they go too far left. As a result, many westerners have come to see the socio-cultural-political landscape as being all-or-nothing, black-or-white; we have become a world of extremists. The idea of “civil war” over ideological beliefs – which are mostly nonsense if you ask me (and are certainly not reasons to fight brother vs. brother, red vs blue) – is absurd and artificially created in my opinion. That there can be no more middle ground or grey area has become increasingly disturbing to me in the past decade or so. There’s so much us vs. them mentality that it seems to be insurmountable. We’re so polarized it’s insane.
Your MSB posters are not 100% right in their views. Maybe not even 50% right. For instance, most Dems are not Commie Socialists that want to take your money and guns and give freebies to the entire populous. I’d even argue that none of them are deep state whack jobs looking to actively destroy our nation.
Readers of leftish sites are also not 100% right in their perspectives. Maybe not even 50% right. For instance, most righties are not card-carrying Klan members flying a Gadsden flag on the back of their pickup truck with 3 shotguns racked in the back window, while proposing marriage to their pregnant first cousin. I’d even argue that most R’s are rational, reasonable people that simply have a bit more conservative views than the D’s.
(Except for Joe c. He’s his own kind of unique.) Kidding! 😊
That we no longer have a middle ground is what’s bothersome. This insistence – on both sides – that “my way is the only way” has to stop. The art of listening and compromise seems to be lost – both from politicians and the citizenry.
That’s why I avoid politics these days. That’s why I killed my social media. That’s why I have lost friends and family. The inability to at least *understand* others’ perspectives has been erased in this country. And I’m sick of reading about it, sick of trying to change things, sick of trying to engage people in perspective taking, done with debate. Debate is pointless if people already have their minds made up on what their beliefs are and are unwilling to hear other ways of thinking. The first part of debate is to listen to – in an attempt to understand (not getting ready to reply and destroy) – the opposing view. And that’s seemingly gone. Blaming “the other side” is also way too popular in our culture. Seeing all of this in vivo on MSB is discouraging, and what prompted my initial posting.
A couple of common examples – abortion and the death penalty. I am pro-choice re: abortion. But I understand – and genuinely respect – that many people disagree with this view. I have heard their arguments and consider their perspectives mostly valid to varying degrees. We may never agree wholly, but the conversation about the topic shouldn’t lead to fisticuffs, literal or metaphorical. (Except outside of Planned Parenthood, when a protester decided to verbally and physically threaten me. Once.)
With the death penalty – if a person has done a crime that leads to a death sentence…I’m all for it; as a matter of fact, speed up the process. However, I also understand that others don’t feel the same way and have differing rationales on this topic. Can we agree to disagree, without escalation and the anticipatory cell phone videography of a manufactured altercation?
Take for example the 2nd Amendment – many people have already made up their minds where they fall on this issue. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of not actually hearing the legitimate concerns of differing views, regardless of D vs. R perspective.
In these cases, there is no language that we can use that will suddenly persuade someone to take on our line of thinking. So why not honestly try to understand what’s valid from another perspective?
***
So yeah, I prep. Not for a political zeitgeist doomsday, but for the more likely short-term issues – weather, local stuff, etc., although I am fairly well prepared for quasi-longer-term stuff as well.
Much of my SHTF readiness has come from info found on sites such as MSB, books, videos, as well as my own upbringing and life experiences. I’m grateful for it all, big time. I just don’t like dealing with the unipolar thinking that encompasses our political and social world, especially in cyberspace. It involves intellectual and emotional energy that I no longer want to invest. The political ramblings in our cyber world are enough to make me want to completely disengage from it all.
If nothing changes, it won’t be our political differences that leads to the end of days – the lack of cognitive flexibility in our world will be our ultimate downfall.
As noted in sparse MSB posts before, I rarely comment on sites, but I’ll still be around lurking and learning on MSB, as long as I don’t wind up too deep in the political ramblings – though it can be hard to resist at times. Otherwise, I do appreciate the vast amounts of knowledge and experience found on MSB.
Winston Smith
Very well written and thought out commentary. Thank you for sharing.
Rants allowed and that was a very good one.
Appreciate the insightful post Winston! I understand and respect quite a lot of what you wrote and also have enjoyed your posts.
I do wish and pray that your heart and mind is changed regarding the killing of the most innocent and precious humans in their Mother’s womb.
Be well and continue your Preparedness Quest!
Winston, a well thought and articulate posting, worthy of the time to ponder all you have mentioned. I agree, the biggest problem is the lack of a middle ground and a lack of civil discourse. The “Loyal Opposition” simply does not exist any longer, everything is being treated as all out warfare. Compromise is a foreign concept, lost on the idealogue and entirely beyond their reach.
I, for one, will mourn our Republic, I fear it is already gone, the announcement has not been made yet.
When the blue helmets arrive, it will be too late.
Winston S
Good post, yes. We can all agree to disagree. And all will stand strong with their reasoning. That’s what makes us all unique.
What stood out to me in your post was this:
“(Except for Joe c. He’s his own kind of unique.) Kidding! 😊”
Now, in the past, there has been another poster, with same ideals/opinions (maybe you?) ,that likes to throw my handle out there, with no clarification, when questioned.
And I am pleased as punch, that I am seen as unique. Right or Wrong. Good or Bad Different drummer, so to speak. (I probably won’t fit in as the gray man.)
Just curious in your explanation and if anyone else would like to chime in, to help out WS, that’s fine too.
Joe c – I posted here a couple of months ago when I lost my mind over some of the insane sounding conspiracy theory stuff I was reading. I may have mentioned you at some point during the diatribe. I don’t think I’ve posted to this site under any other name, as I rarely post stuff online. But I’ve read enough of your stuff to appreciate your humor, hence my ribbing in your direction.
Winston, I tend to look a historical precedents. Governments have tried at different times to legislate morals, sexual behavior, language, how many children you can have, religion, and even what farmers can plant. It never turned out well and was often the pretext for revolution.
I keep hearing people say “That would never happen” which is an exercise in ignorance. Right now the US is legislating language (hate speech, illegal immigration, pronouns, etc), religion, and so many other things that I lose track. I see England, where “We just want a fair share” turned into a nightmare of lotteries to live in the “best” areas regardless of whether they can afford it and a school system that indoctrinates rather than teaching. The downward progression was clear and unambiguous. Same with many other countries.
If you look at any one item you can see “We only want,” repeated a million times. In some countries now, abortion is mandatory. It didn’t start out that way. Homosexuals had some very legitimate concerns at the beginning. Now it’s “we want it all.” It didn’t start that way.
I tend to watch trends. In the next few years I think we’ll see homosexual training mandated in schools, abortion clinics brought into the schools, religion removed from nonprofit status or banned entirely, and so on. This isn’t based on “us vs them” thinking, but watching what has happened in the past, both in this country and others. Who would ever have imagined “protest rooms” being built into the schools and children encouraged to leave class to protest? Based on the progression in other countries, I think within 20 years we’ll have a socialist president. The left is ONLY fielding socialists, which is a definite idea of where THEY think their bread is buttered. Why do they feel that way? Maybe because a majority of their constituents ARE, or lean, socialist?
Once you start looking it’s hard to miss the historical precedents, even to politicians who look at socialism and say “If I’d been in charge, it would have worked.” History doesn’t lie, which is why I think so many people are trying to eliminate it.
I see a lot of fear being spoken here, and on other conservative sites. I don’t think it’s because of polarization, or hate, or people being only able to see one side. I think it’s simply because they sense that they’re being squeezed from all sides and something has to give. Ironically, the left is feeling the same.
I think I figured out at least a part of what’s going on with the hydroponics–the root systems are too small. I think they’re getting plenty as soon as they hit the water, so why try for more? Then once the fruit comes on the tiny root systems can’t keep up and no energy left to extend the roots. Each test that has died had that tiny root system, with just a few roots actually down in the water. I didn’t make the correlation until now.
Next test, not putting the nutrients in until the root systems are actually down IN the water. Also reducing the total amount of nutrients.
Lauren…..Had the odd idea that some folks used a bit of aspirin in water to develop roots, so looked it up…MMMM might help?
“Rooting hormone helps in propagating plants from cuttings and using it improves the success rate. Take a cup of distilled water and dissolve one uncoated aspirin tablet and then keep the cut end of the plant in this rooting solution for a few hours before planting.”
I’ll try just not adding anything until the roots are established–probably a week, until the seed leaves are dried up. By that time they should have a good root system established and I can add the nutrients. I’ll see if it works.
I’m piling up new tests faster than I can do them. : )
Lauren, is your system an ebb and flow system?
Liquid pumps in and saturates medium then drains out and then pumps in at an interval?
Nope. Kratky. Totally passive. The nutrients go in and (theoretically) I do nothing except add more water as needed. His system was designed for greens, though, and commercial nutrients.
The idea is that the plant is only partially submerged, allowing for “air” roots above the water level. It seems to work very well. The tomato root mass last summer was about 18 inches long at the end of the season, 6 inches above the water level, and (aside from my own stupidity) it thrived and had fruit on it when frost hit. Same with the cucumbers, and using the same nutrients that I’m using now. So the theory is proven. It’s a matter now of working out the details.
Well, today is Saturday BEFORE the BIG MOVE. Last of the livestock goes to market Monday, Movers arrive Monday, last goodbyes to our mountain paradise take place on Monday.
We are downsizing….not quitting the whole prepping, live a sane lifestyle, caring for any/all around us….just doing it on a slightly smaller scale. And I have to say, I am relieved. (permit me to share WHY)
For a couple of decades, DH and I have provided safe haven, prepared for ALL family members, trained whomever was interested etc….result? Some folks actually trained and learned and have transferred their skills to their own lifestyles…..(FEW). Most have simply “taken”.
In “downsizing”, we have had an opportunity to review all the “stuff” and the reasoning for it. Monday we have the “last rotation” so to speak as things actually get loaded on the moving trucks, and Tuesday as they come off the trucks at a new location, to review and decide whether to be bothered or not. This in itself has been a HUGE but wonderful opportunity for us. As some items have presented themselves, we have laughed/cried and made serious decisions about what we may actually do/support going forward.
DH made an interesting observation to me…YOU can not save the world…and it appears we can not even save some family members from their own STUPIDITY. So, we work to save/prepare for a smaller camp and with fewer parameters.
I rarely jump into political, religious or even economic discussions because many don’t read enough diverse opinions or information to have a good grasp on the subjects. Few, even in our own family, have had the luxury of the world travels that DH and I have had, to see first hand the impact of many of the above issues. Few, even in our own family, have had the courage, determination or energy to sacrifice for their beliefs and or lifestyle.
DH and I are OLD now. We have seen a lot, lived a lot and cared a lot. We will continue to do all of those things on a smaller scale.
My wish for fellow MSB’ers is that you continue to value self, each other, and sharing of a lifestyle. I remain, as ever, grateful to Ken for this site and the ability to learn, laugh and cry in a safe, usually fruitful, and anonymous environment. Peace.
Pioneer Woman
Very well said. Very well said.
Blessings for a smooth move this coming week.
Pioneer Woman, thanks so much for sharing your ‘adaptations’ — these issues are familiar to us, as well. We are beginning to downsize, and we have come to terms with having adult children who want nothing to do with planning for a life after collapse.
Do you have heirlooms that have no destination? We are wrestling with that problem now. Throughout my adult life, I have been given many family heirlooms, and some of them are exceptionally precious to me. I have my Grandfather’s Bible — it was used at my wedding, and again at my youngest son’s funeral service. It has already been bequeathed to my oldest son, with script by his great-grandmother (my Grandmother). My son will probably never even open this Bible….
I also have a family Bible that dates to the early 1800s. Inside, are the names of family members as they were born into the family. The Bible is rare and has been examined by a curator at a Bible organization in NYC who remarked about its condition. It has been expected that this Bible will be passed on in our family but I am afraid the Bible will be unappreciated, and certainly not used for genealogy purposes. I’ve already asked my elders (my mother and my uncle) about donating it to a large state genealogical organization. We have all agreed that this Bible would be better served if it was placed elsewhere. So we will donate it, to keep it safe, and to provide others with recorded evidence of birth and death dates of one family.
There are many other heirlooms that have been passed to me. We are in the early stages of deciding what to do with quite a few of these items. Many are antiques and with my children, being millennials, they place no value on “old things”. Sadly, there are 3 handmade clocks that my Grandfather made (he was a carpenter). Two are Grandfather clocks, and one is a Banjo clock, made during the Depression when there was no work.
All are ‘things’, yes, but some have grand stories to tell….if only the youth in my family would learn to be silent and listen, and then respect those who walked before them.
MT,
You could donate that Bible to the LDS Church in Utah. I have sent them a few Bibles I have come across from estate/garage sales with family history in them that were destined for the trash heap. They will archive them most likely with all the records in a vault for future generations. They will take care of it and revere it for its family history.
Just my 2 cents…
BJH,
This Bible will go to the Ohio Historical Society, a fairly large and well established genealogy center. The family was a “First Family” in Scioto Ohio, and along with that, the patriarch (a farmer) became involved in the Courts and other government and political activities. So we feel the Bible will be better served there, and in time, records will be added online.
So good of you to get Bibles and send them on their way. No doubt you have made people very happy! I have happened upon a few records, too. My best “find” was a very large photo album of a family from the early 1800s, with tintypes and old studio portraits. I bought it to ‘save’ it — to prevent the photos from being separated and sold separately. The back of many photos had full names, along with the city where the studios were located. So I researched the family via Ancestry census documents and tax records. I contacted the genealogical society (in Indiana) and they were interested in the photo album. Someone contacted me privately, because I also had a request at Ancestry, and that person was offering $200. It wasn’t for sale, though — it was to be a gift to the society for everyone. It turned out that person was from the Martin family and was a volunteer at that society! He was thrilled to know that the album was being donated. He would see what his elders looked like.
MT, what a wonderful story! Yes, sometimes the right place is with another family or place that will properly maintain the heirloom for future generations.
Modern Throwback & Pioneer Woman
As a researcher into the families genealogy, the most beloved item was the family bible that was passed down through the generations. It opened up worlds of data that was not available through the ancestry sites.
Example acdh’s family history was non existent until his father let me photograph the pages from their family bible. Long story but he did not know his dad until the year 2000 when I found him through genealogy. His parents married young, his mother divorced his dad before he was born during WWII. Without this history from the bible he would not have lineage from his father’s side of the tree.
You are correct the younger generations do not understand the love that comes with heritage. Have a saying that I repeat to my family, & young ones.
“We do not know who we are, until WE know where we come from”. Try that mantra your younglings.
AC, That’s a fantastic story! How exciting for ACDH!
I do fill the boys in on the very old lineage when I see them — I will give them a brief story or a new finding. They think it’s “cool” that they’re actually part Viking (very old Celtic lines) and part Swedish, along with German. They also think it’s interesting that one line came to Virginia and settled just beyond Jamestown right after the first colony. They studied Jamestown in school (but nothing else), so they’re intrigued by that. But they’re not interested in history, and they’re certainly not interested in ‘patriotism’ or anything political unless it’s far-left ideology that involves ‘social justice.’ They’re millennials, and without having belief in God, it seems to me that their overall outlook is more of a social connectedness, not a familial connectedness. To me, this is fairly typical of millennials I know and have observed….and to me, this is why so many of them are so lost.
Pio – I do not envy your moving! But as DH and I did last year, we downsized and moved, and now are very well settled into our acreage in a different state, in a downsized home (640 sq feet!) with lots to do outdoors. I think we have all found that we can lead those horses to water but not make them drink….
Good luck. Praying for your move!
Picked up some used food grade barrels for water storage. One held something like Dr. Pepper syrup. I washed with dish washing soap, soaked will bleach, and rinsed and repeated. Anyone have a good way to clean the residual smell, taste out of the barrel? If not it will be good for water storage for sanitation. Thanks in advance.
Deep South
You did not indicate what type of material the barrels were constructed out of, therefore assume they are plastic. Vinegar sprayed on the sides(if possible)left for about 30-60 minutes then rinsed with water should remove the majority of the smell. If it is a normal plastic 55 gallon barrel, put in a gallon of vinegar close the holes and tip over roll it around to coat the inside walls. After an hour of the solution being inside dump then rinse the vinegar out of the barrel. Let it air out(dry)then fill with small amount of water to see if you still smell vinegar or Dr. Pepper solution. If you do rinse again, dry, add small amount of water it should be good to fill with your water supply.
Thanks. I will give it a try!
Help-Advise please. My source of Desiccant packages has dried up so to speak. Looking for a source of cheap shoebox sized (generally they almost fill your palm sized) desiccant packages or ideas as to making my own.
Thanks!
Maybe small packages of baking soda or salt? Either one will absorb water.
Lauren and Jane planning on adding them to dehydrated veggies and dehydrated just add water and cook meals in a jar.
Food safe important. Being re-useable is also a plus.
me2 – as Lauren said, Baking Soda might work. I have used these quite often, but not for anything crucial or long term. You might have to do a few test runs and “see”.
I am thinking that craft shops, shops which teach about flower drying, might have Desiccant (believe it is used for drying flowers).
Also, for some odd reason, I knew someone who purchased Desiccant in a supply shop for making homemade beer/wine.
and..how about a hardware store/farm supply store/homecare store?
There is a product that Mom used to use for dried flower arrangements (where the flowers need to keep their original color etc). I don’t remember what it was called, but it took about a day to dry most flowers. Craft stores would be a good one. I believe it came in a 2 pound box or some such thing.
Lauren, it’s probably silica gel. That’s the stuff that I sometimes use if I want to retain petal coloring on a dried or pressed flower.
I have no idea whether that stuff would be ‘safe’ around food or not. Maybe if it’s contained in small muslin-fabric drawstring bags, but that product has very very fine particles and might work their way through muslin. Maybe make a stitched bag using coffee filter paper?
Should be safe, silica is supposed to be totally non-toxic unless it has additives.
Oris root (wild Iris) is used to dry flowers and keep them pretty. Makes a great ORGANIC dessicant. Use fresh coffee filters for packaging.
Hi me2
Uline has a variety of dessicants. Have found this company a useful source of supplies.
Thanks Anony Mee! I looked at that site some time ago. Thanks for the reminder.
Merry Christmas to you and yours
Check Amazon, through the link, of course, for Silica Gel Cat Litter. That’s a pretty cheap way to buy it.
This week I am grateful to the television networks for pandering so far Left that my husband is now convinced that TV by way of Dish (or any other ‘service’) isn’t worth his time or money.
So what did it take?? First, about 2 years ago when I refused to watch any televised propaganda (aka MSM), including Fox News, he began to truly analyze what was happening. Seeing Judge Nap and many others morph before his very eyes concerned him. The “me too” garbage that some of the Fox-Blondes pulled on the male anchors was another issue. Then came the actual subliminal propagandized segments, and controlled story-telling. And then there are the shows that allow blatant anti-Trumpers like Chris Wallace to trash Trump weekly…sometimes daily.
There was enough going on that he agreed with me and we cancelled the Dish package that included Fox. (That was Phase 1)
Next came the gay shows, and the tranny garbage (I Am Jazz), followed by a ridiculous amount of LGBTQ-Z advertisements, followed by the preponderance of mixed-race “families” and “couples” seen on ads and shows.
It isn’t normal, it isn’t statistically correct, and we’re paying for it. I quit watching that crap ages ago, and now he realizes it is getting worse and worse.
So Phase 2 is happening now: my husband is going to cut it all.
This has taken me more than 4 years to get him to see what has been taking place, and what he has actually been paying for. He has now realized that we can even use our monthly Dish bill and bump-up our Internet plan for more/unlimited Internet usage. Or buy a few movies every month if we want to waste $$. 🙂
Win-Win!!
DH and I “unplugged from tv back in 2008. On the few occasions we turned it on in a hotel, we looked at eachother, laughed and turned it off again…went for a walk instead.We are certain we have NOT missed it in a decade!
Modern Throwback:
I will add, I cut the cord about 8 years ago.
That extra money is sure nice and dont miss the ×_$&$ shows at all.
The internet has what I want when I want it.
Mixed bag this week. Did a tune up on the old ’77 Chevy pasture truck (and emp proof vehicle should that occur). Broke a short rib on my right side during the process, so don’t know if the effort was worth it, but the old pickup is purring like a kitten now.
Decided to put a horn on my side x side so that I can aggravate the road “hunters” I encounter on our back roads. Picked up one at Harbor Freight while in the big city where wife’s pain management doctor practices. Package said it was an ayooga horn. Either it is defective or those Chinese folks don’t know what a ayooga horn is supposed to sound like. Sounds more like a grizzly bear trying to hack up a hairball, but it is loud and obnoxious. When aggravating road “hunters”, obnoxious works for me.
Son starts his chemo and radiation regimen this Monday. Insurance approval was slow, but came in yesterday. He did have good insurance before Obamacare. His company now only offers one plan. He’s already out $12,000 out of pocket.
Chickens still below average egg production. Cold, rainy, windy weather, plus shorter days probably the reason.
Not much time on the range this week. Did get in a couple of short sessions. While I doubt they will, if by chance the democrats win 2020, you can bet on a hard attack on gun rights. If you are not where you plan/want to be on weapons and ammo in your preps, now is the time. Don’t get caught up in the panic that will come with a democrat win.
Maybe more later. I’m suffering a little burnout. Too many things hitting from too many directions at once. Would be easy to just drop out of the fight. I won’t, but I’m beginning to wear thin. Y’all have a blessed day.
Hang in there Dennis. Keep the faith. You are a good man, with a lot of heart and wisdom to share. You and yours remain in our thoughts.
Psalms 61 my friend. Ask and HE will give you strength.
And as I mentioned before WATCH your billing as to keep things INSIDE your son’s Insurance Plan. My wife and I are like yapping dogs protecting our 94 year olds from bad billing.
Your in my prayers
Agreed. Once they have any procedure scheduled call back to check the anesthesiologist and any other “specialties” that will be billed separately. If that individual is not in his plan, ask for someone else. Keep a close eye on medications, particularly medications that are administered in the hospital. They tend to bill for “recommended” medications as if they were actually given. If it’s something minor, find out how much the co-pay or coinsurance would be and see if the hospital will give a discount for cash. Sometimes you end up paying more than the whole cost of the procedure by going with your insurance.
There’s a maximum that most plans will require him to pay out of pocket. It may be 500 or 15,000 per year, but if you’re not aware check the documents. If he’s above that, work with the insurance company to find out why the difference. It could be out of network providers or they may have billed something incorrectly. Billing codes are still often entered manually, and while errors are rare they do happen (years ago I worked with one gentleman who ended up with an $8k bill for something minor. Turns out they’d billed for dialysis, which code was one digit off).
Keeping you and yours in our prayers.
Dennis, you can be easily over whelmed with everything going on in your life, especially with your son’s illness. Prayers are being said for a successful outcome and Peace and Strength to all of you.
Trying to do the impossible. Shopping for DW for Christmas. I’m thinking of proposing that this year we each buy what we want. I have decided on a rechargeable cell phone power packs for the daughters. Anyone with any recommendations on good brands? I would appreciate thoughts on this.
@m,
The Anker brand is the most popular among power bank chargers for cell phones. I have one that I purchased years ago. It’s still fine. The most popular one is ( this one ).
Thanks Ken, it is on my short list.
m, I bought two of the 4Patriot power cells a few months back before things went kablooey around here. It is very sturdy solar unit. It is an 8000mAh battery that is water resistant, is 2 LED flashlight, 1.5 watt solar panel, 6 hr charge time. I bought them on special – seems like they were $25 each. So far, so good. I did have it in my safety bag when I traveled south for a few weeks.
Pearl Harbor.
NEVER FORGET!!!!
Most all news sites,
Noting about it,
The sheeple need a good smack
Just watched the History Channel on the ‘back side’ of the attack. Much that I did not know about the bumbling fumbling of the military and the blame placed on Kimmel. Pitiful really pitiful.
December 7th 1941, a day that will live in infamy .
Wondering if anyone has or does use buckwheat? I’m experimenting with it (never had it before) and pancakes were good- as a cooked cereal, not so much.
aka, I store buckwheat groats (long term storage). My favorite use with buckwheat is with pancakes and also muffins. I agree w/ the cereal, but hunger will overpower ‘tastebuds’ and for us, it would not be eaten daily because we’ve stored much more in other grains.
Thanks MT- hadn’t thought about muffins but I bet most things baked would be good. I’ll try that this coming week. I’ll have to see about making the noodles that Calirefugee mentioned too- muffins sound easier though. The buckwheat groats that I ordered off of amazon came from Russia!
aka, I mostly use buckwheat as seed. We broadcast sow it. Really good to improve the soil and my poultry and pigs love it. I have not ground it for our own personal use though. I do plan to sprout some to see how the greens taste though.
To Mrs U, Papa Smurf or others out there thinking of stocking up on some medical supplies:
Check the expiration dates on some expensive items like the Dyna Hex pre-surgical cleansing agent or the Derma Bond that was mentioned by Papa Smurf. I was not pleasantly surprised to find out their expiration date rarely exceeds 1 year.
Rather than stock up on stuff at home, I hope to pass on knowledge for people out there to use so you can limp into the pharmacy and you know what to grab off the shelf and are reading the ingredients on the label for one-time use or to treat family at home. It is not a good idea to buy and stock up on large quantities of supplies that will expire within 6 months or less. The discount outlets tend to carry medications that are very close to expiration dates. (1 month or less.)
There are many gimmicks out there ( yes, I include the Isreali bandage in this catagory as well. Matt in OK was the only poster that mentioned having one expire in his first response kit. He also mentioned how his use of the Israeli bandage got him a sour response from the professional emergency responders out there )
Hospitals and clinics have lots of supplies on hand because the get used most every day. It sounds like Papa Smurf uses lots of Derma Bond at his location the way I was using epi-pens in my location when people were running barefoot through the clover last Spring.
As you check your supplies and car-kits, check the expiration dates, keep plenty of the basics on hand like sterile and non sterile gauze pads, telfa pads to prevent sticking to the wound, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, sterile water for irrigation of surface wounds. Your favorite NSAID pain reliever, stomach medication for GI upset. Tape will tend to go bad sitting in a hot car and many are allergic to the adhesive so I carry gauze roller bandage and scissors.
This time of year with all of the holiday cooking, the frequency of thermal burns on the hands and forearms goes up dramatically.
Califrefugee
Regarding the thermal burns for hands and forearms. This year the family are receiving the silicone oven gloves and mitt for a Christmas present.
At Thanksgiving dinner the baby sister pulled out the bil BBQ silicone glove we bought him last year for his birthday present to go along with the BBQ he received. Talking to her she ‘loved it’, so that made up my mind what she needed so bil could have his BBQ glove back..lol.
Each family member(female)will receive the color they like so they are not walking off with their mothers present which usually happens a lot in that family.. OH mom,, can I borrow it…never to be seen again. rowl
Response to aka: regarding Buckwheat in the diet:
Very high in fiber. I like buckwheat pancakes myself. My parents and grandparents liked Buckwheat noodles. ( ask for soba, soba noodles and specify buckwheat soba.). They can be found in asian markets and tend to be more expensive than standard ramen noodles.
The thicker, richer broths were the ones where buckwheat soba was used. ( like duck broth ). This type of soup, soba tends to be very popular in Northern Japan where there is a lot of snow and cold weather.
Since it costs more than regular noodles, and I am not wild about it, I do not cook with it much butt there are many asians that may be fresh-off-the-boat that really love this stuff in the cold winter weather. These days, on the left coast, there are many places to buy asian foods including the Kroger chain.
The winter rains have started; good thing as it was a drier than normal year. Piglets tore through wire fences while I was away so are now in a solid pen. Goats doing a great job on wild blackberries. Chicks are fully feathered out so they and mama will go into orchard. Boar and girlfriend are in there. Notice that no predators get to chickens when pigs are around.
Bought 100# of whole corn to put into LTS for cornmeal. Had an early Christmas with the millennials last week. Looking forward to a quiet couple weeks with beloved offspring in the mountains at Christmas.
Been listening to Ice Age Farmer while I drive. Got extra sugar at today’s price for next year’s canning.
Glad to hear from everyone on the blog. Keeps it real.
Update on using old flour (unbleached, organic) from 2016:
Used for pancakes, taste and rise was fine.
Used in muffins tasted fine, but the rise is not as high as with fresh flour.
Used in “beer bread” (a quick bread), bread was more dense, taste was fine, but bread did not rise well.
Used for bread (yeast), but the rise was so terrible that I tossed the dough.
So 4-year old flour was okay for use of ‘quick cooking’ breads like muffins or pancakes, but not worth using for loaf breads.
Thanks for that real world test info!
Very good Modern. Thanks
WE were gifted pink lady apples from a dear friend and his wife. He was amazed at how many apples their little semi dwarf produced this year. The apples are not very large but they are free so I will be using them for cookies, and what ever I have time for in the next week(s)or so. Have to find my small water bath canning pot, it holds about 7-1/2 pints at a time.
Well the apples are waiting for me to slice & dice.lol
Hey let’s gather round for a righteous bashing of California. I just got back from filling propane tanks, first time this season; apparently there is yet another new nanny law. The pomp and circumstance around filling a BBQ jug starts with a live scan photograph of the tank expiry and tare. Assuming permission is granted to fill the tank, venting is no longer allowed, because, you know…. huh – it’s propane. Whatever. Now they have to set the whole rig on a scale and stop at something close to full… they think. The filling attendant, speaking of the new regulations told me: “I hope your OPD’s are working, cuz I’m not too sure about that scale”. Lovely. Thank you Sacramento scumbags, thank you once again, very hard, and very much indeed.
My DMV appointment for “Real ID” in this sh*thole state is Monday morning. God help me.
…from cradle to grave, “the state” knows better. You know – they’re saving us from ourselves.
tmcgyver
Be sure to take your ‘passport’, birth certificate, bill with your current street address. If you have an old ID from the military take that also.
Do not forget they may want a pint or more of your blood……….just to make sure it is you…you know.!!
Oh & a big..no if they ask for your retinal scan., they can use the passport to verify you are you.
What ever you do,, watch out if they ask for proctologist for a further examination. lol sorry could not pass that up. As I know I have to go through the same horse BS sooner than later.
Soon you’ll need an RFID implant.
I heard something really crazy, but now days it is hard to tell what is and what isn’t so. Is it true that California is banning gas stoves in homes and restaurants, which would put those using gas grills out of business?
During fire season (whenever that is….), many local ordinances are now banning warming/cooking fires on your own property, and banning BBQ grills on your own deck. I have not heard about CA banning gas stoves YET.
Pegasus
Friends who lost their home in CARR fire were informed that they could not put back their wood burning fire place. He will not put in a natural/propane gas fire place as it would cost him money to operate for back up heat where the wood fire place he can get wood from all the old neighbors property for free just cut up & haul away. So they are opting out of a back up heat in their home. Illogical to me, but it is what it is. 🙄
It was local city codes that would not allow gas lines to be laid for any new housing, perhaps Los Angeles, somewhere in that state. How hypocritical as there is more gas coming out of their politicians mouths than out of all the cars in the state.
There was an article on it, maybe last week? I can’t remember where. It was restaurant owners saying they wouldn’t be able to work with the new restrictions (their main draw was apparently gas grilled steak or some such thing)
Hi Lauren
Berkeley. Have friends who live there and who are restaurateurs. Fortunately in the next town over.
Cleanest burning, most plentiful, least exotic, and one of the most reliable power sources. Of course the libsiders want to get rid of it.
Yikes tmcgyver, yes CA sucks, which is why we left it. Regulating everything and yet allowing illegal everything…. Which is why State of Jefferson has raised over $600,000, spent over $550,000 on the legal fees ONLY, and is still no further ahead. But, as you do, State of Jefferson will persist in CA.
Does anyone have a CCW insurance they recommend? I have searched for articles here on MSB but have not found any info on this site. There are various articles on the internet about which may be the “best”, but I would prefer real-world peoples’ opinions!
Not much done on the home front. Winter finally came and it is wet and muddy outside. With the new year coming I need to organize my expenses for the lovely tax time (I like to have my stuff ready to go January 1st!), and I do need to take my computer to the storage room and build a spreadsheet of our preps. I *think* I have about 8 or 9 months of food for 2 and some for giving as handouts, but I do not really know.
Pegasus
I asked the same question for insurance a few months back.
There was support for US Law Shield.
We signed up with them several months ago, hoping to never use it.
Thanks!
Pegasus – There are a few different maps floating around of what a split between ‘blue’ and ‘red’ California might look like. Every one of them has the borderline running through my yard. Seriously, my next door neighbor lives in a different county – and pays half the property tax, same house. If and when things go hot for a separation by ideology… I can only hope I’ll get bought out by someone with a more vested interest in being the front line.
calcium chloride, can be used as a drying agent.
I have used it in my storage area, to keep the humidity at levels compatible with storing long term storage. It is caustic, so metal storage containers will not work. I use large clay flower pots. I have not used it for food.
Maybe do some research? I get mine from my tire dealer, as it is used to weight our rear tires on our tractors.
One of the BIG reasons why MSB, and many preppers, are involved with politics is because some politicians are trying to remove our Constitutional rights.
Here is what Virginia has been up to lately (much more going on this upcoming week):
Virginia Sheriff: ‘I Will Deputize Thousands of Citizens To Protect Their Gun Rights’
Culpepper County, VA — It looks like what Virginia gun owners needed was a wake up call. Or more accurately, a wake up slap in the face.
Ever since Bloomberg bought himself a blue Virginia and stacked it with eager anti-gun legislators, we’ve told you how the state is on fire with pro-gun rights sentiment.
County after county has joined the Second Amendment Sanctuary list, totaling 42 counties in less than six weeks.
Add one more sheriff to the list of Second Amendment heroes.
Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpepper County, VA made a post on his official county Facebook page pledging to support the Second Amendment. In the post made on December 4th, Jenkins went so far as to say that he has a strategy if gun control comes knocking:
“I plan to properly screen and deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms.”
That’s right.
Jenkins wants to deputize thousands of law-abiding citizens who would otherwise be denied their right to defend themselves and their families by tyrannical gun control laws that might pass in the 2020 legislative session.
And Scott Jenkins isn’t acting alone or flying by the seat of his pants.
Just this week, the seven members of the County Legislators voted unanimously to declare Culpepper County a Second Amendment Constitutional County.
This is what Virginia counties are calling their “Second Amendment Sanctuary counties.”
Not Backing Down One Inch
Sheriff Jenkins whole statement is a rock-solid kick in the teeth for anti-gun legislators and police everywhere. We’re including it in it’s entirety below.
“Every Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia will see the consequences if our General Assembly passes further unnecessary gun restrictions. “Red Flag” laws without due process will create enormous conflict as well.
America has more guns than citizens and murder has long been illegal. At best, the proposed gun restrictions will disarm or handicap our law-abiding in their defense and possibly cause a criminal to choose another tool for evil.
I’d like to thank our Board of Supervisors for their resolution of support of our citizen’s natural right to self defense as protected by our Constitutions. My office will always encourage and support our citizens in firearms training, concealed carry permits, and the ability to defend themselves and their families.
I remain very optimistic that our General Assembly will not pass the proposed bills. Obviously, if passed, there are many of us willing to challenge these laws through the courts. In addition, if necessary, I plan to properly screen and deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms.”
-Sheriff Scott Jenkins
“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves…and include all men capable of bearing arms.” (1788) -Richard Henry Lee
Source: secondamendmentdailydotcom
Modern Throwback
That is awesome, to bad more counties in every state had a sheriff’s pull this on the brain dead over paid derrière kissers who are elected.
CA is dealing with the same mind set but we only have a few sheriffs that are willing to tell Sac to go fly a kite.
As for the quote..
Thank you great grandfather many times removed.
CDC Map for Influenza spread, Week 48 (Week ending Nov 30) shows widespread Influenza in these states:
CA, NV, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, TN, VA, IN, PA, NY, RI, and MA
There is a rapid spread going on — get prepared!
Source: CDCdotgov
Modern Throwback,
Thanx for the spread of the FLU news.
Oh yes had this on my mind when I went for surgery. At least I was in a women’s and children’s hospital. Not a every kind of illness hospital! Worked a boosting my immune system before hand too.
Time article is excellent
BUSINESS FARMING’THEY’RE TRYING TO WIPE US OFF THE MAP.’ SMALL AMERICAN FARMERS ARE NEARING EXTINCTION
‘They’re Trying to Wipe Us Off the Map.’ Small American Farmers Are Nearing Extinction
What is happening with the economy of scale and globalization forcing out small farmer families due to corporations buying out all small farms.
Pay attention to this trend as it will impact most Americans by controlling food availability, prices, and food safety.
The link is Time.com and search upper right for “farming”
hermit us
Thanks for the heads up on the article will go over to read it.
Not for those of us who grow our own!
Kula
I worry about you too, not for the lack of food but what the sheeple will do when they can not longer afford to eat.
Ya,
Well, it will get interesting
Chevy that is part and parcel of my insistence on disinformation and concealment.
You cannot successfully FIGHT the Elephant BUT you can deceive it….
They CAN disallow your seeds as “Contamination”. They CAN decide that for “Public Health” that your livestock must be confiscated and destroyed. Doubt this? Ask farmers that Montesano sued out of business. Oh MY there’s a Swine Flu thing going on MUST destroy the vectors (aka Your healthy Pigs). Or “Chicken Pox” or….
Socialists are ALL about Power and Control. Sometimes I have to hold my nose quietly and “Obey”, (Yeah Right, fat chance) to avoid that nasty Armed and Armored set of Boots on the ground they like to use on troublemakers. If you can give them what they demand (at least on the face of the situation) them your checked off the bean counters list and the Troops move onward to next target….
IF I “Happen” to save my heirloom seeds AND I Have an Approved packet of seeds not likely they will gene test my crop don’t you think? I can recycle that Approved Packet of seeds for years, even “loan” it to other scofflaws along with my heirloom seeds.
Animals take a little more Ahem..Creativity. IF you consistently use Disinformation with them about what and how much you have THEN you might have to HIDE a core stock of Livestock while “Surrendering ALL of your Livestock” to the destroyers.
During the Great Depression there was a lot of unknown-forgotten-rewritten History that you find in family diaries and such. Such as Price Controls and attempts to FORCE Farmers to “Produce” when there was no value to the farmer for it.
Some of my family history involved hiding the actual number of milk cows (indeed some were HIDDEN in the Root Cellar during a Government Visit. A “Broke down” flat tired truck ‘Happened” to be blocking the root cellar door……
That’s where my Good Friends, seeds, skills and tools mantra comes from.
me2
The root cellar was that here during the Depression, or in Germany?
I can imagine it was here in the USA…sounds like the revenuers were trying to make money off the backs of the poor family farmer.
Sad to say America. Having escaped the Nazi-Socialist Brown shirt chaos to come to America the Free and see the same kind of troubles here.
Happily their eyes were open to possible troubles and they knew how to stay out of trouble with a bit of disinformation and concealment.
The same kind of thing happened in Germany before the family fled. There too they had to hide valuables with the broken down vehicle situation.
Soldiers hate to do dirty WORK to “search” count on that. Thus I suggest hiding valuables where No Soldier likes to dig, like maybe a Blackberry patch?
At a good blog I like to read but don’t post on I saw such a true comment.
“Don’t attack the pointy end of the Spear, you’ll only get impaled (Ask Stand My Ground about that) attack the shaft that supports it. Soon the spear fails.
Using semi-Gault tactics like disinformation and concealment you take away from the Spear Point daily. Their operational costs remain the same but their “Taxes” shrivel. Pretty soon their operational radii shrinks…..
A GOOD Sign of your Success is that “Zones of control” get established. Like they did in Iraq and there too with out the support of the People even the “Green” Zones are not safe….
When the Socialists To Quote Margret Thatcher “Run out of Other Peoples Money” the Bread and Circus’s crowd will become an UGLY Mob and nobody including the Socialists will be safe. Plan ahead for that. Has happened at the END of many a Socialist Governments “reign”. Names change but the storyline repeats.
In the coming Greater Depression many Un-Just Laws will be passed to steal more money and freedom from the people. The Boomers and such are in their “Sights”.
The winner in a Depression/Social Collapse is the family that is still alive and able to provide their own needs.
They’re coming after you; saving seeds will become illegal as it will contaminate patented hybrids.
For the most part “patented” seeds are only patented as a variety–the ancestors were un-patented varieties, and the descendants will be un-patented varieties providing that they are not self pollinated. Which is a big part of why they want to prevent seed saving.
Recently there has been a move toward tying up all the ancestors by contract–there’s one seed bank (one of the major ones, I can’t remember which at the moment) where if you pledge your seeds to any of their seed providers (other smaller seed banks) the contract states that all the ancestors of that variety are also legally tied up. I was going to donate some seeds, then I read their contract. Oops.
These seed banks can also contract seeds to commercial companies for genetic modification, and THAT contract also ties up all the ancestors of the seeds. Thus the move toward OSSI.
Over time I think that yes, they’ll try to make seed saving illegal. That could get complicated when, for example, all my seeds are from open pollinated and un-patented varieties. I’m sure they’ll eventually find a way, legally or extra-legally.
The big AGRI companies are truly a very scary group. Most of you have probably seen the documentary Food Inc. If not take the time and let your children watch it too.
Ken any reply from Ready Resources about the specs on the HDPE body armor? I suspect it’s VHDPE like AR500 uses.
Looking forward to researching shield building in this material.
Anybody got suggestions? Thanks
This post is probably TMI, but Dec7th, is a very, very tough day for me.
Dec 7 1941, my Fathers brother went down with USS Arizona, (BB-39).
Dec 7th, My friends found me, 50 miles up in the mountains, wandering around, tryin to accept my fathers death
And the one that REALLY hurts, Dec 7th, the love of my life, died in my arms, from stage 4 Breast Cancer. I have NEVER got over this.
I don’t like this date. I’m strong, but, I have my very weak moments, Dec 7th is the worst one.
I don’t want sympathy, don’t feel sorry for me, this is just real life, we ALL have these emotions. Besides, I have my Heavenly Father watching over me
God Bless every one of you MSB Patriots
😎🤙🏻
Sorrow and grief run deep and make the heart heavy. Healing is augmented by refusing to associate dreadful events to times, places or things. Deal with those issues one by one , but don’t let the calendar haunt you because of them.
Don’t do what mourners of traffic accidents do and place grave markers along the highway where the tragic accident occurred; I speak figuratively, isolate, don’t associate, hurtful memories with anything outside of themselves. Do not allow them to destroy more than what they have. A day on the calendar is not guilty of your grief nor should you allow it to be a marker of your memories and emotions. I have a day coming up shortly that is an anniversary of a loss and I will approach it with thanksgiving for another day of life to live. I will not degrade my days that I have left by associating any one of them with loss, pain, regret. So, I’m there with you buddy, may God bless and heal your hurting heart.
So sorry for your losses. I lost my mother when I was a young teenager, and that date made me so sad for many years….until I learned my best friend and now my nephew-in-law have that date as their birthdays. So I celebrate it now and I thank God for showing me it can be a good date and that I should celebrate my mother too. We each have to travel this road, and each in their own way.
Stand, Peace be with you!
I came across a random question today, and Sr. Google was no help. Who better to ask than MSB peeps?
So, I occasionally use magnesium firestarters to good effect.
As I was going through a stash of supplies today, I found a bottle of magnesium vitamins that I must have gotten for free. (I’m a couponer.)
Could I smash those magnesium pills into a powder on some tinder that would then provide a sufficient chemical reaction with a flame spark to start a fire?
No, that would like trying to grow oranges by planting a bottle of Vitamin C capsules.
Now thats funny 😆
Winston S —
well, you might take this tongue in cheek, but maybe it is and maybe it isn’t…grin…
so
disregard the naysayer.
Give it a try a few times (after all you have an entire bottle full….), in different sort of situations, and “Report Back”….
Myself, am curious as to your results..
Some suggestions..
-crush one inside a bit of paper or dryer lint…see if it “expands” the flames/etc
-crush one and toss on lit candle…
-well you get the idea….
If so taken with my “suggestion”…please report back..
Jane – see, that’s what I was thinking! I thought about adding it to my dryer lint, and giving it a whirl, just to see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve heard of more bizarre strategies for SHTF working out, even if they may be a bit impractical at times. But yeah, I have the bottle, so….
And the vitamin C/orange tree comment – funny stuff! But I do think the chemistry may be a little different. Although, I may have to try that as well. I guess I should use Sunny D as fertilizer? 🙂
Perhaps those magnesium capsules would work as a firestarter if you soak them in some gasoline. This is actually quite a fascinating topic; is it possible to clone from a vitamin or herbal capsule?? Just think of the possibilities; live salmon from fish oil? Skeletons from bone broth? A cow from beef jerky? A chicken from egg powder?
Winston S — but Seriously…Magnesium, is the same whether it is in a capsule, your water (yes, some is quite high in water), your “fire flint” , or your body. Chemically it IS the same element. Only limitation I can see, is if it is present in a Magnesium supplement in much too small quantities to ignite (and too many incipient ingredients). But, Magnesium powdered is highly flammable.
I admire your spirit of enquiry, and hope you pursue it.
(and report back).
Here’s another “experiment” to try….coat a hard metal “bit”/shiv with glue. Liberally sprinkle your powdered magnesium supplement on it. Let dry and harden for day or two. Then try striking it with something else hard (metal?). Let us know all your results…
Winston S….”Sunny D as a fertilizer”…may work better than you (or others) expect…..It has lots of Vitamin C (I think it supposed to), and it has sugar. In separate situations, I have known gardeners to add Vitamin C to their garden rows, and also to add plain old white sugar to their Garden rows. Both gardeners had amazing results. At the time I put it down to their “green thumbs”…But recently, I researched something like “sugar added to gardens/plants”, an was surprised to find it is used/suggested in a variety of countries/situations. Apparently sugar changes the microbiota of the soil, and amazing things can happen.
Winston S — others too have pondered this…been googling…came across a YouTube video “Magnesium: Health Supplement or Fire Starter -What’s the difference? ” Travis Heinze – He makes a interesting comment about creamer from MRE (in military) being demonstrated to spark and notes it has magnesium added.===
Golly gee, maybe the mystery of humans who spontaneously combust has been solved— too much magnesium in the body…
Winston, I know you’re just teasing us…..so okay, we’re a captive audience. Pls report back when you have your findings.
Fritoes can start a fire, doncha know?
Vasoline lip gloss and petroleum jelly can start a fire, too.
(The oil is combustible)
Actually, I am indeed serious. Magnesium is magnesium. The problem may be what’s the concentration of Mg in relation to the other filler stuffs in the pill. I have the bottle, worth an experiment next time I go to light a fire. I figure I’ll break up a few pills into powder form, place it with the tinder, and see what, if anything, happens.
If it does work, it’s just a neat tidbit to add to the data banks. It’s not like I’mma go buy a pallet of Mg vitamins for SHTF purposes. Nor would I keep a stash for Doritos on hand for fire starting, or olive oil as a primary fuel for an oil lamp; but those are at minimum neat concepts to know the variations that are out there for all sorts of situations.
Anyone have any guesses as what you’d expect? My hypothesis is that it will indeed catch fire enough to get the tinder going eventually. I’m not expecting a strong reaction, but I’m betting it will at least partially work. Next time I have the chance, I’ll give it a whirl and let you know what I found.
Search for “magnesium capsules firestarter” at YouTube and there is a product ( sold by Amazon ) for doing that, but nothing about using dietary mineral capsules. My guess is that magnesium supplements are not going to work as they are a complex of some sort.
Anyone want to make a wager on the IG report being the usual bureaucracy fluff that brushes off the blatant wrong doing as just business as usual and nothing to look at?
The government is our enemy,
(Not the average military service members)
They look at us as nothing more than inconvenient
Kulafarmer,
Why would you think that? (sarcasm)
Righteous and just laws………..equally applied to everyone……binds together and protects a society. When any one or class of people become exempt from following the laws that less privileged or connected are held arbitrarily accountable to……….that spells tyranny and breeds rebellion.
I fully believe that the average, work-a-day American, recognized the divide between the “connected class” in our government, and how they are treated compared to the masses, and saw Trump as a possible disruptor in the 2016 election. I believe the American people recognized the existence of a entity (call it deep state if you are a mind to), and saw Trump as the monkey wrench to throw into the gears of that machine.
Whether I’m right or wrong, that sure has become reality.
BUT but but
The real truth will come out in the expanded Durham report – no kidding this time – just wait for it – all the deep state crooks will go to jail (after an unbiased trial in the basement)
Kula, Horowitz will be a gloss-over waste of taxpayer money. It’s a report that’s very limited in scope, and limited in the people (and their actions) being scrutinized. Not much will come of it.
Good perspective on Horowitz at TheFederalistdotcom — read Molly Hemingway’s latest article about it. She’s warning people to be prepared for another ‘nothing’…
I just read Kunstler’s latest piece at Zero and he wrote:
“The Horowitz report is necessarily limited to the DOJ inspector general’s narrow mission scope: the IG can only interview current employees of the agency and its stepchild, the FBI, which means that key players in the Gotcha game such as former FBI director Comey, former acting director McCabe, fired special agent Peter Stzrok and notably ex-CIA director John Brennan were outside of Mr. Horowitz’s sphere of operations. His scope was also supposedly limited to the issues around FISA warrant mischief — though those complex shenanigans may have led the IG to other related dodges, cons, and crimes outright. The IG has no real law enforcement powers. He can only refer or recommend further action. Nevertheless, a great miasma of anxiety oppresses the Democratic Party now as it awaits whatever Mr. Horowitz has to say about these matters.”
Personally, I’m waiting for flamethrowers Durham and Barr to begin the indictments.
MT,
So basicly
I have more of a chance of Santa Claus bringing me a new Unimog AG for Christmas!
Personally, I’m waiting for flamethrowers Durham and Barr to begin the indictments.
Your gonna be a waitin a long time.
Some small snakes, maybe, King Cobra, NO WAY..!!
@ SmG, I also agree with you. I have my doubts that the knife will cut very deep in this regard, so to speak. Which will only amp-up the anger from “us”.
Something just doesn’t feel right. These Democrats pushing impeachment are not this stupid, they KNOW, they will fail. Then why keep pushing? We are lead to believe, it’s now a life or death struggle to get rid of Trump. That’s what they want us to believe, Orange Man Bad. Must impeach.
MSB Patriots, we are being played. Plain as DAY.!! Wag the Dog.!! This whole process just doesn’t pass the smell test, If it smells like horse shit, it probably is.
The left or Democrats, or what ever you want to call them, are not this stupid, something else is going on, that’s not in plain sight. Hey, look over here, but don’t look behind that curtain.
I have made myself, a brand new, “tinfoil hat”, and here’s an idea.
President Trump, will be impeached by the House, but, not guilty by the Senate.
Whose is THIRD, in secession to the Presidency? Speaker of the House, that’s who.
There is a reason, NOBODY, has been tried for NOTHING.
We are LIED to everyday, about every detail, that we soon don’t see that other alternatives. Economy Great, nope, Trade Deal, never happen. Global warming? Only 12yrs to live. ect.
Antifa, Bamn, Black lives matter, they do what ever they want, No consequences, none. Us? Lavoy? murdered. Bundy? tortured. Hammonds? railroad so bad, President Trump pardoned them. Joey Gibson? harassed. This list is endless
There is a HUGE False Flag, in our near future.
Just look at ANY news, are they covering anything else? Food shortages? Solar Minimum? Health care? Debt bubble? ect.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Assassination? Heart attack? Stroke? Plane crash? Died in his sleep? alien kidnap? Maybe? Pence also. Maybe? Both Kennedys were hit, tried on Regan. Epstein didn’t kill himself. It’s not out of the question.
I don’t know, but something is just not right here. They aren’t that STUPID, they just aren’t.
DANGER ahead..!!
Stand my Ground;
OK, here is one for the Tin Foil Hat.
Food shortages….. Sounds stupid huh? Here in the good old USofA???
Take a look at the Harvest reports coming out of the Midwest.
Look at the lack of surplus coming out of CA.
How about those Tariffs we are facing from imports.
How about that JIT Inventory… Sure that food is stored somewhere… Right?
When was it the .gov shut down the Grain Silos for JIT supply?
Look overseas, what’s China, India, Europe and others doing? NOT selling to the USofA?
I did my Monthly shopping trip the Safeway this morning….
HOLY CRAPO the prices are going up!!!!
Also an interesting note, the Prepackaged Salads, Prepackaged Fresh Vegetables and Fruit were gone… Not as in sold out, but 100% pulled from the shelves, ZERO, NADA. So as the curious one that I am, I took a stroll through the Vegetable dept.…. I’m betting 50% empty, Imagine that huh? Meat is up 20% at least I’m guessing and Dairy is up at least 10% all in ONE MONTH.
So for the Tin Hat… Control the food; you control the people, simple as that.
NRP
That is exactly why we have to support local farmer’s markets, buy from local butchers, use local welding/blacksmith shops, …
Okay so maybe we won’t be eating as many out of season fruits and vegetables, but that local economy may still survive when the JIT for the major metropolitan centers collapses.
Initially, your local supply of food may be more expensive – the only low wage agri worker is usually the local farmer. But, with a good relationship, that cabbage or ham may still be available when others are drooling over their pets.
Now how many rolls of TP for one cabbage head?
ps
That is why I recommend the reading on Time.com about small farms – I do not need a tinfoil hat to have this trend scare the crap out of me.
hermit us
In order for me to find that article I had to put in the wording ‘small farms’ as it was no longer on the front page you mentioned.
Thought everyone who looks for it should know.
Sorry
The search word I just used is “farms” is still there showing a couple in a dairy barn.
hermit us;
A point I did not make very well I guess was the fact the Prepackaged was simply removed. Now in-of-itself that sounds may sound benign, but if those items could just disappear how about other items???
Maybe Rice from Thailand or China, how about French Wines, Speaking of the French, how about French Fries???? And yes I did look, empty, Man was I surprised……again this may sound a little Tin Hattie…. But, are we not to be watching for these sorts of things and recognize “Something Happening”?
Ok Tin Hat off…… Just Saying that’s all.
French fries? French fries are now in the news — there will be a shortage of french fries because of potato crop failure. ( see what crazy things I’m finding? lol)
So, I’m guessing that there’s a run on the available fries right now.
Recent fairly recent history, the food lines in Russia. Well ya’ll know what I say,,, whisper, grain………………..
NRP,
There was recent recall on salad kits containing romaine lettuce from Salinas ,Ca. The recall was around 50,000 tons , that’s a lot of lettuce.
Bluesman:
Kinda figured as much.
Sure makes ya trust the food suppliers just that much more don’t it?
So what is really in that Spam anyways???
LOLOL
NRP — I have been digging and digging into the ‘food shortage’ issues for the past month. I have been finding data on harvest shortages from reliable sources, but I’ve had to look hard for these things. It’s gotten my attention!
I’m still not seeing food shortages in the stores where I shop, but I’m watching. This week, we’ll be making a big purchase at Costco, just as we did last Fall, to avoid shopping in large stores during flu season. (Yes, TP is on the list!) More rice, sugar, coffee, and some extra fish & meats.
It’s also about time to put in the yearly seed order. For those who are concerned about gardening w/ cooler weather, consider Johnny’s Seeds — from Maine, selling open-pollinated, heirloom, F1, and organic seeds. (They sell tomato seeds for greenhouse growers, btw.)
Modern Throwback;
How about tossing a short Article together for Ken?
I know I’d sure be interested on what you have found, and a good way to open up more discussion about this
Most of the crop shortages were being discussed here, and I went from there. What I haven’t found ANY info on are ‘official’ reports — maybe after end of 2019?
The IceAgeFarmerdotcom site has a great deal of links to look through, and to springboard from. Have a look around there (the past 3 months of entries or so). Also, check Youtube for food shortages because watching 1 video will bring forward many more. If I find anything revealing, I’ll post it. Maybe you and others can do the same?
Would be helpful to have percentages of harvest reductions of each crop that has suffered losses. Would also be helpful to know more about govt interference — For example, how have price controls affected farmers (ie deciding not to grow due to low profit). Then we could put the current shortages into perspective.
NRP
I happen to be checking out the price of 93/7 hamburger at a store similar to Safeway. Now mind you it was not grass raised or ‘organic’ hamburger but every day ground meat. $6.99 per pound………..and I thought at $5.00 per pound was pricy. Gentleman next me saw the cost & I commented to him time to purchase a whole beef for the freezer at these prices and he agreed.
Antique Collector;
I just cringe when I walk by the meat Dept.
Steak at $15-$18 a pound???? OMG!
And like you said burger at $6-$7 for a stinking pound?
I personally have a friend I buy burger from, tis Grass Feed, no of the nasty chemicals and so on, I do actually have to add a bit of oil to fry it….. Gata LOVE IT, tis probably 95-98% at least maybe more.
Now to the part where I pizz everyone off…. $4.00 a pound, and I once weighed one just for the heck of it. 1-Pound 4-Oz… Not bad I figure.
As minerjim suggested, and many others have. “Get to know your neighbors, barter and trade with them”. Also Gift them a LOT, it always comes back many fold.
NRP, yes, know who you are buying your meat from. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful source for ground beef, which is used for burgers, meatballs, ravioli filling, tacos, etc. Our friends raise their meat the same way we raise our animals – no chemicals in them or on their grasses or grains. We pay $4.00 per lb for amazing ground beef and they grind the entire cow so you get all the good parts too. We don’t buy a half side of beef because our “steaks” are either pork or deer meat, which we prefer.
Our American Guinea Hog meat is also amazing. Our friends bought one of our hogs this year and said it was the best pork she has ever had…and they purchase a hog every year, but this is the first year that we had extra hogs to sell to others for eating and the first year they purchased one from us.
Once you eat meat that has been raised and fed naturally, without the GMOs and chemicals, you will never enjoy store bought meat again. And if you purchase in quantity, you generally get a better price than in the supermarket.
AC,
I buy that exact hamburger all of the time at Safeway when it is on sale at $3.99/pound. I have no problem doing that and repackaging it into 1# packages wrapped in SaranWrap and then placed into zip lock freezer bags. Buy 20 – 25 pounds at a time and keep rotating it through the supply.
What’s the problem?
Anonymous
I did that during a sale before the price jumped up. Originally it was $4.99 per pd then, now $6.99 per pd. I have no problem, it was the fact it cost more than the organic beef.
We will be come our own raiser of beef once again, then have it harvested by the local butcher cut to our specifications. A whole beef for this household it takes up a long time to go through that much meat.
and then you have to wonder if it will be recalled due to some nasty bio lurking in the meat. Especially the plastic wrapped ground meat that comes from who knows where!
That’s right.. China has shifted nearly all of their surplus capacity for former US-bound goods to many other places, especially Germany and Russia. For all who cheered this foolish tariff stunt; don’t worry, you got your way – Vietnam, India, et al are ramped-up. .. Your Spring 2020 goods are hitting the ports right now. All The Donald did was advance the Belt and Road Initiative way ahead of schedule. You may come to miss the good old, made in China days. Seems to me we’ve been down this road before, around the 1980’s, Japan was the great Satan of manufacturing; going to eat our lunch; had to be stopped, etc.
I’ve been pulling the alarm on grocery prices for awhile – not good. Even quality dog food is outrageous… now in those 12.5 oz cans. T’was thinking of you the other morning NRP, while deploying some vintage 2014 Costco TP that was perforated funny, batch problem. …. Folding it back into a perfect square, I wondered how are things in the, um, four corners. —-runs….. -door slam-.
NRP-SMG-hermit us-Modern Throwback
I have been searching for which president started the down grading of food storage in the USA. Remember one sold grains to Russia during their time of need, Reagan gave away the cheese for the low income citizens & school food programs.
Yet I know we had more food in storage, as in chicken/turkeys/beef/pork. The school where I worked as a yard duty to help out received the majority of their meat supply through this type of program. Somehow the historians made sure it was wiped off the internet.
As in “how” could a president give away the nations ‘back up’ food supply in case a catastrophe should befall this nation. Look at what is occurring now do to mother nature, etc. If you can find those presidents that signed away our food for this country, you will doing better than I am. Forget using the G or Bing, even DDgo, and start page all come up with the same information…not a darn thing.
Hillary sold Uranium to the Ruskies. The US Powerful do stupid things for what? More Power and control of some sort……………….. At the base of most any seemingly stupid political strategy is the all mighty $$$$$$.
Antique Collector
Ok, I’ll look.
President Lyndon B Johnson, signing the War powers act in 1973, (50 U.S.C. 1541–1548), made food prepping, (hoarding) a crime.
SMG
I never liked that piece of dung!! He took an old law from around 1900’s where a Naval office was charged with a crime trying to make sure the families in his area did not go hungry during a time of need.
Discovered the news paper article when I was researching genealogical data and it popped up.
AC, NRP, and others:
Towards the bottom are some current commodities reports from USDA for 2019.
As for surplus foods, here you are —
For FOODS: The drastic decrease in government food surplus took place during George W. Bush’s presidency. It was USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program where the government provided excess foods to low income families.
In 2003, the govt gave $243million to food banks and other programs. By 2007, the govt gave $59million.
“Government cheese” was a food giveaway program to low income Americans that was expedited under Reagan. The program was eliminated in the early 1990s when it was determined that the threat of dairy shortages no longer existed.
For COMMODITIES: WHEAT (info from USDA)
The USDA, National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) Prospective Plantings report projects 2019/20 all wheat planted area at 45.8 million acres, 4 percent below 2018/19 and the lowest since all wheat records began in 1919.
o The current NASS forecast is below the 2019/20 planted area forecast of 47.0 million acres from the February 22, 2019 Grains Outlook presentation delivered at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum.
o Seed use for 2018/19 is trimmed 1.5 million bushels on revised planted area expectations.
• The March 29-released USDA, NASS Grain Stocks report indicated aggregate stocks of all wheat on March 1, 2019 totaled 1.59 billion bushels, up 6 percent from a year ago.
o The implied December 2018–February 2019 disappearance is 456 million bushels, 10 percent higher than the same period a year ago.
• All wheat annual feed and residual use is lowered 10 million bushels to 70 million based on lower-than-expected third quarter disappearance.
CORN: (info compiled monthly from USDA, Nov 2019)
Another Reduction in the 2019/20 Projected Corn Crop
The NASS Crop Production report lowered yield for the 2019/20 corn crop by 1.4 bushels per acre, resulting in a 118.3-million-bushel cut in production to 13,661 million bushels, and supplies of 15,825 million bushels. The harvested area is unchanged. 2019/20 demand is projected 100 million bushels lower at 13,915 million, due to lower feed and residual, corn for ethanol and exports. As a result of tightening supplies, the season average price for corn is raised $0.05 per bushel to $3.85 from last month’s forecast.
The pace of U.S. corn exports continues to lag behind, as Census export data are the lowest since 1976. With reduced projected U.S. corn production, U.S. exports are projected 1.5 million tons lower on an October-September basis, which further decreases the country’s share in global trade. For Brazil, corn exports are projected up 3.0 million tons this month.
I seriously hate using wIKIpi for anything, but here goes. PL408 programs are ONLY for food emergencies in other countries. It can’t be used IN the US. I’ve taken out a section in the middle that was just historical stuff.
“The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust (BEHT) is a strategic grain reserve of commodities and cash held in trust to supplement food aid made available under P.L. 480 programs. The Trust can hold up to 4 million metric tons of wheat, corn, sorghum, and rice. The authorizing statute also authorizes the Trust to hold cash in lieu of commodities.
The Trust is the successor to the Food Security Wheat Reserve established in 1980 (P.L. 96-494, Title III).
…..
In 2008, as global food prices spiked, the remaining commodities (about 915,000 metric tons) were sold. Since then, the trust is solely a cash reserve, invested in low-risk, short-term securities or instruments.[2] The trust allows the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Food for Peace (FFP) to respond to food crises in other countries and release and use funds for famine relief in cases where other resources are not available.
NRP,
If you buy monthly you can’t always take advantage of the sales. Try for weekly shopping, and City Market is usually less for the same item than Safeway, and the Sam’s in Farmington sells certified Angus beef for a good price, and Del Monte canned fruits and vegetables @ 8 cans/ box with a price lower than CM, and considerably lower than Safeway. As for the salads, they’re being restocked at least at CM. And before you shopped at Safeway did you bother to download the coupons to help save you some money, like eggs @.99/dozen, limit 4, or SPAM, $2/can limit 4 (normally $3.29 at Safeway), or Wesson cooking oil at CM for $1.69 each, limit 5?
Think of shopping the sales like investing in the financial markets. You pay attention to what you can buy low and stock extra as you have the chance. In the long term the savings adds up. Get the credit card at CM and now save an additional .55/gal. when you redeem at least 100 fuel points, or before Tuesday get the 4X’s fuel points digital coupon and buy some gift cards for yourself or someone else and you get the fuel points. Just this morning I bought a $25 Amazon gift card and got another 100 fuel points. So far this year I have saved Annual Savings $1107.58 (cut and pasted directly from my CM fuel savings page) on fuel alone. That is close to what we spend for 2 months combined spending for groceries, personal care items, and going out to eat. But I’m willing to put in an hour or so weekly looking at the sales.
I shop the same stores and am content with the savings, but I’m willing to invest the time to find some savings.
Steve:
The monthly shopping list consist of restocking the a few Deep Pantry itemsthat I don’t need bulk.
I will guarantee you if it’s not on sale I don’t buy it….
You do bring up a good point about the Fuel points, and I agree they can be a huge plus, fortunately where I work provides all of my fuel, and a few other perks.
1000% agree on Sam’s Club, 90% of my stock supplies come from there or the Wholesale joint in San Juan Plaza.
My thinking, buy in bulk, it will sit in my Pantry just as well as some wearhouse. And I can control the storage condition’s a lot better.
Add to that the home canned and wild game processed….
Well let’s just say Life is Good 😎
Thanks for the input, is what makes this Site a GREAT place.
There was apparently a major recall of romaine lettuce this week. When I went to look, I found this (a complete list). You’re close enough to CA that they might have had to recall much of the produce department.
mannpackingproductlist11-2019.us/
Outbreak of E. coli Infections Linked to Romaine Lettuce
http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2019/o157h7-11-19/
This will end up as a duplicate post, probably. I suspect the link got caught in the spam filter.
The information I put up there is incorrect–that one was November. The newest recalls are on the CDC website.
Stand, I completely agree…..it’s theatrics. Watching this Impeachment activity unfold, the only ideas I can come up with are (1) upcoming indictments brought by Durham and Barr will be more serious than we have been led to believe (and none of this intel comes from any type of MSM), (2) the Dem Party knows that Trump will win in 2020 and that they don’t have a viable candidate.
But what is the reason for so many other staged events and the hate-fest going on?
I firmly believe the Deep State has gotten incredibly aggressive with their psychological tactics of provocation. Why the need to be so aggressive against normalcy and everything that our Republic has stood for? What are the reasons behind ‘white hate’, anti-1A, anti-2A, controlled ‘messaging’, suppression of thoughts/statements on all social media, etc? From where I sit, we are watching a Coup against America.
Unless a number of major players are indicted and brought to justice SOON, there will be revolutionary actions.
@MT, I agree 100%.
Modern Throwback, Exactly a coup… It is strategy for converting us to a communist country. The socialism regimes have failed and now they want to bring us down, because our people have been allowed to thrive where others have only survived by the skin of their teeth.
they have to divide the country because they can not fight us all at one time. and if the society is at odds with each other then they can take us out a little at a time. Dave Hodges has a video out on it in last 24 hours as 6 stages… /you tube.
They must interfere with the information getting out..shutting down various internet opportunities…fake news is on every TV station and the talking points and headlines are all the same. can listen to one, turn to a recording of the other station and hear the same words/phrasing… over and over again. This is not accidental.
They hate our POTUS because he is able to unite the country because they have self worth and jobs to provide for their family. He knows the system because he was a part of the inter-circle in the construction industry.He knows he swamp. His values of no smoking and drinking allowed him to remain mostly clear of the blackmail they use on the average politician. Just my take…
MT
I think there might be a little warning in the current Dimms actions/kabuki theatre in that they are sending a message to any non-politician considering running after Trumps terms are done, the message being, “don’t even think about running for the office of the President as this is what we’ll do to you too!”. Not sure anyone else in our lifetime could have withstood this barrage of crap.
All,
I attended a ribbon cutting for HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS yesterday here in Colorado. These folks provided a fantastic handicapped accessable home for a severely wounded Iraqi war vet and his family. They are so greatful, this will really help them live productive lives. The support from sponsors is just amazing. I urge you all to support HFOT when it comes to donating, this organization is really making a difference in helping disabled vets!
Think of how many homes could be built by Bloomberg instead of him wasting his money on running for president. Of course it his $$ and in our country we still have the freedom to choose.
Mrs. U We do?…say’s who? oohh! you mean the first amendment,.. that’s STILL AROUND? But, WAIT, .. NOBODY even follows/uses that anymore, do they? (sarc)
Minerjim
I looked at the sight HFOT, and sent the web page to the financial controller for acdh’s military chapter. Had not heard of this organization before, so maybe more military chapters may get involved. I will be sending it to someone who has a lot of contacts, he will pass it along. As we all know it is ‘not what you know’—it is who you know.
This looks like good charity group, and I know how the VA works on rehab & updating homes before they release said funds to a contractor.
AC,
Thank you for doing this. This group completes maybe 8-10 fully handicapped accessible houses a year for disabled Vets across the country. Not a big number, but they really make sure that the Vet is taken care of.
Response to Winston S.:
Metals found within dietary supplements are at low enough concentration that the metal itself not the flammable part. The metal present is in the form of a salt that is water soluble and not toxic to the body so the GI tract can break down the metal ions and absorb them through the walls of the intestines.
Besides, metal supplements are usually expensive and there are a variety of things from both hardware store ( #0000 steel wool ) and the grocery aisles that can be used as impromptu tinder. ( Fritos and Doritoes corn chips ). Lastly: Be careful ingesting too much magnesium salts as it tends to act as a laxative. ( i.e.: Milk of Magnesia, Epsom salts )
On politics on this site: I try to stay silent on this topic as much as possible myself butt I never ignore politics in my daily life as these days it is almost impossible to avoid. I relocated from my last state during the low point in the last Great Recession and a large part of that relocation was due to the political changes that were taking place within California at the time. ( I wrote my story many times so I will not repeat myself here again.)
Over my 55+ years, and most of that working in a variety of government or private sector jobs, there is very real danger if one just goes to work and does not look up periodically to scan the horizon, smell the air, take a moment to find out what is going on in the bigger picture. For me, this hit home when a group of firefighters and smokejumpers got caught in a canyon blowup in Rifle, Colorado and it took out most of a hot shot crew from Prineville Oregon. Recently happened again to a hotshot crew in Arizona.
Though I fought fire while I was in college, I ended up switching my studies to Economics because I did not want to be caught in a disastrous situation like that in an economic sense. The one habit I still do from my time in college is to read the paper. ( Wall Street Journal or the New York Times and read a select few sites on the net.) I like to read and I choose to not say very much as the conversation out there at present time is pretty divisive. Why should I throw gas on the fire?
Most of us on this site are older, Many are former military or spouses of military. many are also current or retired LEO’s and their spouses. Most of us are either working or retired on a pension or limited income. Quite a few people from the trades like farming, ranching of cattle, people who work in the propane industry.
In short, many of the people who contribute to this site are the ones that keep the lights on and the gas and electricity flowing. We are the ones you may see if you end up in the hospital after 7 pm in the evening on a Sat night, Driving the black and white toward the section of city that is burning with gunshots heard above the din. We were the ones wearing yellow shirts and green trousers carrying hand tools and heavy backpacks cutting fire line in the hills above Palm Springs or San Bernadino, CA.
These experiences tend to make us a bit conservative in our outlook on life, pray to God each night and thank him for keeping us and our families safe.
Calirefugee,
Very, very, well said. Thank you.
Response to Dennis in regards to the AYOOGA horn from China:
So sorry, this sound does not translate well in Mandarin. Perhaps TMgyver can broach this subject with his hosts on his next trip to the land of Han.
I do recall a bumper sticker that was making the rounds in SoCal when I was driving ambulance down there in the 1990’s: “Keep honking, I’m reloading…”
Of course, if you drive like I do, there is a greater need for using the horn…better to clear the sidewalks that way.
Calirefugee,
” Ohh MCGoo! You’ve done it again!”
I can’t even get them to trust me on market demand for reinforced XL seats, lower CG and cup holders.
Finally ordered the Excalibur 3926TB 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator following the link here through Amazon. If I always go through this site, will the blog benefit? How do I confirm it helps? I know its a way off topic question, I have just been curious. Thanks All!
Ken in CT, I have had this dehydrator for years. You will love it. And yes, if you order through our links (within 24 hours) then this site will get a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks.
( articles with ‘Excalibur’ dehydrator )
On Fox news with Maria Bartiromo, on the bottom was the following information about the attack at the base in Florida.
The week of the attack the shooter had a dinner party where all his guest watched video’s of mass shooting. Three who were caught, one video taping the shooting, while two were setting in the car observing. The law enforcement have 10 other Saudi’s in custody, and several that are missing, no specific number given.
No mention if they are still here running around loose in our country or left for Saudi to be under the protection of their government. JUST LOVELY!!(snarky)
I shake my head at what we are witnessing in our times. The violence that I would unleash on our enemies would be swift, brutal, and astonishing. Enough so that they would no longer act on our soil. But that’s me.
Fox news:
Judge’s order fails to halt privately funded border wall construction.
Construction of 3.5 miles continues, finish date, 1-15-20.
LMAO. GET’ER DONE..!!
Modern Throwback
It was brought to light during Trump with the Priminister of Canada. He spoke of the “frozen crop failures” in Canada & Idaho. That they(farmers) were trying to ‘salvage’ what potatoes they still had in the ground and hoping that they did not lose their entire crops from the deep freeze which hit those growing areas. Trump went on to say do NOT expect French fries at your local store and hamburger stand.
What has been the leading holiday commercial for a certain specialty restaurant– yes–people shoving French fries into their mouths. Pigging out……
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. (some of us later than others)
It was wonderful to go to see Vivaldi’s Gloria an unabashedly Christian Anthem and full on Christmas Songs in a College Hall with out feeling underdressed because I wasn’t carrying.
Also an odd feeling to even give thought that maybe I should have been carrying.
Celebrate the joys in our world before things get darker.
Gloria in excelcis deo
Got music to lift your spirits when things get dark?
Proverbs 18:14 The human spirit can endure in Sickness, but a broken spirit who can bear?
Good read over on CTH about the motivations of CONgress to stop any investigation in a trial,
Hint
It will implicate ALL of them in BS to enrich themselves.
I hope DJT insists on a trial moving forward
Kula
I believe even Trump is afraid to let out the entire truth about the corruption in government because the uprising may be so great that the country is blasted to hell by the citizens. Why do you think he would not release the FISA applications way back, or all the emails that were sent around by Hildabeast – you know the NSA has them. Why do you think they push out the traitors from their positions so they can not be questioned by Horowitz or the IRS crap by Learner was buried in a hurry. They call it in “The National Interest”. I believe they are more afraid of the III% than they let on.
hermit us:
“I WANT THE TRUTH”
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”
Can one just imagine the chaos if the general public was actually told 100% the truth of the Deep State and corruption within the entire administration?
OR maybe the general public just don’t give a damn anymore???? As long as they get their freebies and Sunday Night Football.
My God how far down the rabbit hole have we gone ……
We need to go farther,
All the way down
Hermit,
They better be because we are everywhere
Re: food supply
If we lose our small independent farms, we lose the diversity of supply, we lose the diversity of animals and crops, …
Someone mentioned that a ship load of lettuce was recalled. That is the biggest problem with corporate factory farms – when a farmer loses 30 chickens to an illness it is a problem but when a factory loses 50,000 or more is is a catastrophe.
Then there is the ethics problem encountered in factory farms where the low wage earners do not take care of the animals or have been found to hurt animals. Also the problem I hate to mention, where field workers contaminate crops or process workers contaminate the food in the packaging line – why? because they do not care or actually want to hurt others. This has been shown to happen often in fast food outlets as well. Morals and ethics gone to hell.
Contaminated food from field workers is easy to explain. I spent a day picking in a field where there are no facilities, you are paid by the bushel so you take a dump or a spill where you can.
Here in Wisconsin there are family farms lost every single day.
The ones that survive have gone from 30 head to 3,000 with massive debt.
Remember the potato famine from your history class? It was because there was only one variety and was easily overcome by an infestation. Did you know that there is only one variety of bananas today and that a similar fate awaits perhaps the world’s most popular fruit?
The midwest crop failures are real and extensive and if it were not for Trump’s tariff war there would be a massive shortage and skyrocketing prices; which are not impossible yet.
chevy
Any factory farm operation that can not provide portable toilets for the workers within a reasonable distance, should be fined out of existence – human dignity must be preserved in this country – or we become San Francisco.
Under food safety rules they are required to, but who is inspecting that, and even if you provide the relief station will the labor use it?
I guess it will take some major spread of illness brought on by contaminated food before food safety becomes a priority. Until then, I only eat produce that I grow myself.
Hermit
We already have the law, the regs, the fees
FSMA
Food Safety Modernization Act
So glad the gubermint keeps us all so safe
Thats why i stopped growing
chevy
The banana’s read an article about 2-3 years, there is already a problem with them.
Sorry it is a type of fungus that is attacking the fruit if I recall correctly.
One should never try to typing with a cat laying on their arm. It is falling asleep..
Bunchy top virus
Spread by aphids.
Incurable
Kulafarmer
Tabacco soaked in water bringing out the nicotine which then can be sprayed on the aphids killing them. It is really toxic to bugs, somewhere one should be able to find a spray recipe for this plant material.
AC
Yes, it sorta works,
Is good for veggies, in your home garden.
But i know two banana farms that went under from this, not so easy to control the aphids or the virus as the habitat for those aphids is huge and wildly varied and they are impossible to get rid of And the virus is one that is widely distributed throughout other plants,
Its easier said than done
Kula, AC, all
PyGanic is a certified organic pesticide that will take out most types of pests from gardens/farms/livestock producing facilities. It is basically pyrethrins from the chrysanthemum family of flowers. I have used it in our vineyard for infestations of white fly to good success with multiple applications. I would not hesitate to use it on our garden vegetables if I had an issue. Also used to take out flies around poultry and other livestock. It is “listed” for use in a variety of veggies/fruit/ livestock. You can check it out online.
Always good to grow our own food without any sprays, but sometimes you will get infestations of bugs, and you are done. Part of my preps is having a quart or two of PyGanic in my farming supplies for the garden and fruit orchard/vineyard blocks. In a SHTF situation, it might mean the difference between having a crop and surviving, or not.
Aphids will infest a plant that has *white fly, *spider mites they can & will damage plants to the point of no return.
Banana peels placed next to the root system will stop the white fly, spider mites which bring the aphids to prey upon your plants. If you need a quick absorption into the plant(s)/tree(s) some have taken the peels placed them through a blender with a little water making a slurry for the tap root system. This same process will also illuminate rust on the leaves, along with powdery mildew.
MinerJim
I use Pyganic regularly, also Evergreen, same thing just not OMRI approved. Also Dipel and a slew of other stuff, for some things good old fashioned chemicals work best,
To see current food recalls and alerts I google , fsis.usda.gov . Click on food recalls.
Food Safety & Inspection Service
United States Department of Agriculture
I think it is critical to grow and preserve as much of what we eat as we possibly can.We are going shopping tomorrow at Costco,Winco and Smart foods for LTS products , it will be interesting to see pricing and inventory.
Control food and control people.
“Food recalls” never heard of 20 years ago….
My friends now the. gov has many sites to advertise the “recalls” REALLY!!!!
I just read about a famine a long time ago in Egypt .Genesis ,chapter 47,verses13-26. For food the people paid all their money to the government , then traded all their livestock,then traded their land .Then seeds were given to the people and they could grow crops with 20% going to Pharaoh.
There ware seven years of ample warning,they did not prepare and lost it all .
There are reasons to be alert to the world around us.
Depending on how you read it, it could get even more complicated. Did they have the opportunity to prepare, or was the .gov so busy preparing for its own survival that it either didn’t warn the people or took everything they had so they couldn’t prepare? The pharaos weren’t exactly known for being civic minded.
Lauren,
My read on it is that the Pharaoh was building granaries and storing grains for seven years , It would be a topic of discussion throughout the land.
Sure. The building couldn’t have been much of a surprise. But the pharaos weren’t much for talking to the lower classes, or thinking about them. I do agree that many of them probably knew what was going on. “And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the fields, which was round about every city, he laid up in the same.”
Whether that meant “all” the food or a percentage, it was taken from people who were already living in what we would consider poverty. The food taken was on top of whatever taxation burden they were already living under. My guess is that they were so close to the edge already that they had no opportunity to prepare. The Pharaoh then proceeded to sell them food taken from them by force, ending in them selling themselves to Pharaoh for a continual living.
Seems a major trucking company Celadon has declared bankruptcy. Why is this news? Aside from truckers being literally the blood supply of America some 3200 full time drivers have had their GAS CARDS shut off away from home.
Folks are already setting up Facebook pages and such to fund their family members GETTING HOME.
Hopefully the publicity of this event will get those Gas cards opened up. Otherwise a LOT of truckloads of cargo will be LEFT where ever they are as drivers struggle to get home.
We talk a lot about getting home when SHTF.
When SHTF they will not have an announcement. It will be a series of cascading events some unforeseen even by the Socialist-Democrats/Deep State.
The good old days are staggering into chaos. Prepare.
I looked up some news articles. It seems that their contracts with suppliers have been on their last legs for a while. Their credit card processor shut everything down as soon as news of the bankruptcy hit. Truckers are abandoning their trucks and some trucks have been repossessed with cargo onboard. Clients were pulling back and cancelling contracts late last week, some switching to new trucks even as the trucks were being loaded.
It’s going to be a royal mess, getting everything straightened out. As of this morning Celadon was asking the court for permission to pay their employees.
My BIL works as a contractor, fixing the electronics in these trucks, so he’s up a creek. Loads aren’t getting delivered, so the stores are out. A reefer (refrigerator truck) needs fuel in order to keep the cargo cold, and if there’s no fuel the cargo is undeliverable. Will insurance pick up those claims, or will they say it should be part of the bankruptcy and leave it hanging for years?
This is just a small SHTF that probably won’t directly affect everyone, but the spreading ripples WILL.
Lauren – The Celadon thing is huge. It’s been coming for years, surprising it took so long. It seems the XPO guy couldn’t pull them out of a dive. I know they are mostly N-S truckloads, but such a big player, I have to believe LTL rates will be affected. Interesting times.
What makes it so dangerous is that this failure occurred at Historically LOW interest rates. This company was unable to refinance it’s current debt load and fell into bankruptcy.
This has been occurring to Sears, and many other Retail and Restaurant companies. BUT when a Restaurant closes it’s an inconvenience, you can Still Cook at home, If the mall closes you can shop at Amazon.
This Trucking Bankruptcy is the one from what I call “Critical Industries”. Almost nothing I buy on a daily-weekly basis Did NOT come here by truck aside from electricity. Trucking disrupted is not a good situation. Ken did a good article on “When the Trucks stop”. I don’t need to repeat it here.
Amazon prime members have been annoyed by lack of fast delivery promised by the Amazon Prime agreement but they are blaming it on lack of trucking BEFORE this bankruptcy. Even L L Bean has been apologizing for slow deliver for the same reason.
As Warren Buffet has been quoted “When the tide goes out you find out WHO has been swimming naked”. The tide is going out and the first canary in the coalmine has died.
When the Fed is “Forced” to raise the prime interest rate a LOT of Solid looking but weak companies will fall. This raising the interest rates event occurred during the Recession that grew into the Great Depression.
Watch for Fed speak about the need to raise rates to combat “Insert latest chatter here”.
If the Deep State really needs to stop Trump in 2020 they can use the Fed to raise rates and choke off credit to trigger a Greater Depression.
Celadon’s biggest problem was a couple of those “smart businessmen” stole about $50 million from the company. It is too much to overcome.
BG in TX
Did they steal or do a hostile take over? Where they helped themselves to the bank account(s) of this trucking company? This type of corporate hostile stripping of businesses is on an up tick.
Seeing it again in the hospitals. Few years ago saw an out of area corporate raider strip one medical facility of its supplies to their benefit. When there was nothing left they sold it for what ever price they could squeeze out of the next purchaser. It has taken “years” for this hospital to recover, and even now most patients will avoid it. At one time it was the place to go when you needed a good medical care.
“Bumstear” wrote:
I have some baofeng uv5r radio that need to be programmed. Could you do an article on that please. I am a long time lurker and enjoy this blog very,very much! Thank you for all you do to help us!
Answer: yes, I can work something up about that topic.
Bumstear,
Seems to be some “invisible” interest in radio comms. Ham can do whatever ya need it to do. I only know about a tiny portion of ham. I strongly encourage you to explore ham for whatever your needs may be; phone calls, text, email, video, voice, morse code (cw), etc. etc. etc…………
Kinda like digging your own taters. You are in charge. You decide what ya need and build/buy the stuff to make it happen. Ham is very much worth the effort required. Your Baofeng is a good start.
Bumstear,
I agree with Plainsmedic. Ham radio is a very broad subject. Try looking at ARRL dot org. They are the national organization for hams. They have educations sections that are pretty good. they also offer a number of books on a variety of subjects. Programming your Baofeng can actually be pretty easy, but there are so many “bells and whistles” on the units that if you do not know what they are for, can get you “wrapped around the axle” so to speak. I am sure Ken will come up with a good article on programming this, but you can help yourself by studying up on 2 Meter radio from online or book references. It will help you get full use out of your new radio. Good luck!
To hermit us, Lauren, Kulafarmer: Regarding the survival of the small farm in America.
You folks are the secret to maintaining biodiversity within the U.S. Small farmers who raise fruits, vegetables and livestock on their own yards along with state agricultural extensions usually attached to the state college that has an active agriculture program.
I saw this partnership work to expand the genetics of the peach crop in California. ( A land where the big, beautiful butt tasteless free-stone peach dominated the market in order to be canned and shipped all over the U.S. ) Decades later, some genetic researchers from U C Davis went to the backyards of many Japanese farmers because most of the first generation folks grew their own peaches for their consumption within the U.S. ( yes, they had permission. many of the researchers that came to collect pollen, fruits and grafts from trees were the children of the farmers.)
The peach is a highly prized fruit within the land of the Rising Sun so for first generation immigrants, it was a logical first tree to be planted, coddled and tended for their fruit. Most Japanese still in Japan would be envious to be able to grow their own peaches on their own land. This was possible in the U.S.
My first jobs in pest control on the small farm were to spread mist netting on the trees to protect from birds, put up fencing to minimize deer intrusion and to head-shoot the squirrels that would raid the orchard to steal fruits or nuts starting to ripen.
Most of the varietals I saw were small, white fleshed, blush colored peaches that were very sweet and were the best I have ever had. They never made it to market because of their short shelf life/fragility. If you were lucky and went early, you may find these at the farm stands on the side of country roads. With flavor this good, they do not stay secret for very long.
The back yards of gardeners and small farms throughout the U.S. have been referred to as “mini-arks” by those within the field of agriculture and genetic engineering. This is why I was happy to see the growth and rise of permaculture, the return of the small farm or large garden when the last Great Recession hit. Now days, more people know what heirloom vegetables are. ( it was not in popular lexicon prior to the housing market crash. )
So I would like to conclude my pep-talk to the many growers on this site to keep doing what you are doing and keep sending in your stories of success and failures. The knowledge base here on this site is establishing quite a legacy for the self-sustaining and genetically diverse homestead.
The research continues to go forward in efforts to save the Cavendish ( #1 varietal banana that is sold and purchased within the US for table consumption. ) both in the fields and in the lab. ( the virus that affects the Cavendish banana plant is a relative of the tobacco mosaic virus. ) I look forward to getting an expanded variety of plantains shipped into this country as well as a varietal of the Cavendish that is disease resistant. ( most bananas and plantains need to be cooked prior to eating and the Cavendish is the exception to this rule. )
Calirefugee,
I am reading “Wisdom of the Last Farmer” by David Masumoto right now, a story written around this very topic, and of course the quest for the best peach. Good read.
If the US.Gov has any brains left, they will stop making cuts to the USDA and continue to fund/increase funding for block grants to the Universities and state college agriculture programs in order to continue research and expand biodiversity under the food security umbrella. These programs have taken big hits in recent years.
Calirefugee;
That is a hell of a HUGE “IF” !!!!!!!!
Personally I doubt it, just think if the .gov would stop giving BILLIONS to some diplomat to hire their Son, imaging the world of good that would be accomplished.
Stand my Ground,
I don’t know if ya got in on this or not, but just tried the cosmic crisp apples developed by WSU.
Great taste crunch and storage.
I understand that if ya invested in the trials and error period, ya get to market them.
Hope you did and make a bunch of money , cause they r great but pricey at 299 a pound.
Peace to all
MadFab