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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Guerrilla Hoarding

Original Article

I came across a article on my facebook page which was very interesting , discussing food storage & the history of things that went down in the USA in prior bad times check it out It Came from /mises.org/daily. I can see this happenning again very soon...........

The headlines scream, "Is this Baby in Danger Due to Hoarding Grandma?"; "The Horrors of Hoarding"; and "Animal 'Hoarding' Often Tied to Mental Illness." Meanwhile, a popular TV series entitled Hoarders focuses upon people whose "inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of a personal crisis"; like drug addicts, they require an intervention. The vilification of hoarders as mentally ill, child-endangering animal abusers is in full swing.

What is this vile and dangerous thing called hoarding? The noun "hoard" is defined as "a store of money or valued objects, typically one that is secret or carefully guarded." The verb means to "save up as for future use." In common usage, anyone who stores more of a good than their neighbors do is often viewed as a "hoarder."

A common example of hoarding is stocking up on durable grocery items — such as canned goods, rice, or pasta — when they are on sale, so that your family has a year's supply of staples in the house. In rural areas, this is known as "keeping a good pantry."

Historically, governments have frowned upon hoarding. Especially in bad economic times, stigmatizing the hoarder for "causing" high prices or shortages because he buys more than his "share" serves a useful political purpose. They divert attention away from government policies, such as tariffs, that are the true cause of empty shelves and high prices. By stirring up resentment toward neighbors who own one more can of peas than you do, politicians avoid the full and just brunt of public anger.

In times of economic crisis, when governments flirt with rationing and price controls, the frown can turn into a scowl; laws against hoarding are then passed and goods are sometimes confiscated. The most notorious confiscation in America came in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, ostensibly as a measure to combat the Great Depression. The order commanded the American people (with a few exceptions) to relinquish all but a still-permitted $100 worth of gold coins, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve in exchange for a payment of $20.67 per troy ounce. Less than a year later, the government raised the trade rate to $35 per troy ounce. Thus, the government reaped huge profits at the expense of private investors and savers — a.k.a. hoarders of gold.

Hoarding, like any other human activity, can become obsessive. But in its common form, hoarding is nothing more than preparing for the future by laying aside a store of items you and your family may need. This is an especially valuable practice during economic instability, when necessary supplies can become scarce or suddenly double in price.

The Austrian investment counselor Jack Pugsley once explained another perspective on hoarding: it is an investment. A low-income family may not be able to afford precious metals, but they can afford to invest in dry or canned consumables. Last year, with some frequency, my grocery store sold a 900-gram package of pasta for 99¢. With wheat shortages, and with the American government diverting almost 30 percent of corn crops into producing ethanol, food products dependent on grain have skyrocketed. The same package of pasta now regularly costs $2.99. If a struggling family bought 60 packages of the 99¢ pasta for a future consumption of one package a week, then their hoarding would have knocked perhaps $100 off their grocery bill. By consistently buying more than they immediately need of bargain items, the family can build a solid pantry to sustain them through unemployment, inflation or scarcity.

Unfortunately, during economic crises, the government also acquires an interest in hoarding — specifically, in punishing the hoarder as unpatriotic. A historical example is the Food and Fuel Control Act, which became law in 1917, during World War I; the acts official name was "An Act to Provide Further for the National Security and Defense by Encouraging the Production, Conserving the Supply, and Controlling the Distribution of Food Products and Fuel." In short, the government became a food dictator, and anyone possessing more than a 30-day supply of food (which was considered reasonable by food administrator Herbert Hoover) could be arrested.

The May 30, 1918, New York Times carried the headline, "Navy Man Indicted for Food Hoarding." It reported on a man who had invested his wife's inheritance in a year's food for storage; and so they were held on a $3,000 bail each. The food was confiscated.

The navy man's fate is a cautionary tale in more than one way. The store of food for his family was discovered because a grocer and neighbors informed upon him. Thus, a sad corollary to the wisdom of hoarding food for your family is the need to do so with discretion. This is sad, because the natural impulse of people in a community is to assist those in need. Measures like the Food and Fuel Control Act mean that sharing food with a neighbor who has hungry children is no longer simply a gesture of compassion and generosity; such government acts make sharing into a danger to your safety and your own children's well-being.

There is still time to hoard the items upon which your family depends. Prices are rising, to be sure, but the full force of inflation and shortages is probably several months in the future. Hoard now; hoard quietly

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Episode 101 - Repacking for Food Storage, Part 1

Modified Podcast Logo with My Headphones Photo...Image by Colleen AF Venable via Flickr

Original Article

Up until recently, most of my food storage has been of the “pantry” storage type. Meaning, most of the foods that we eat on a regular basis bought from the grocery store. We have some long term storage foods in our storage plan, but recently, and for obvious reasons, I’ve started to increase these. I had some specific ideas on how I wanted to repack some of this food, but it didn’t go the way I had hoped.

Up to now, all of the long term food items that I had were packed in cans, most of them factory sealed. This time, I’ve decided to buy bulk food and repackage it myself in order to take advantage of lower costs and stretch my food budget. While I started my plan of increasing what I had, the first step was really to take an inventory of what I had. During this inventory, I opened a couple of cans and was surprised on what I found. Let’s just say that you should plan on storing more than you think you need.

Anyway, this is part one of the three part series on Repacking for Food Storage.

Popout




Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Simple Survival Tips - Treating Infected Wounds

Original Article





Survival conditions often require safe, effective, inexpensive, easy to use and non-toxic methods for the treatment of wounds and injuries that may become infected. A lack of resources or services to properly treat simple medical conditions could become a life-threatening situation to your survival. Quite often simple resources are overlooked when seeking a solution to problems that can affect your survival.


One of the simplest solutions to this problem is sugar. Sugar has been used to treat wounds for thousands of years by many different cultures. Sugar was used widely by early Egyptians to treat wounds and the infections that often occurred as a result. Sugar can be used to kill bacteria and germs in open and infected wounds almost as effectively as the best antibiotics available today.


Sugar will also help speed up the healing process of the damaged skin tissue and reduce any inflammation that may be present. This is in addition to its antimicrobial action which kills bacteria and germs. This is accomplished by the osmosis and capillary action of the sugar granules. Powdered forms of sugar will be somewhat less effective and will require more frequent treatment and changes of bandages to achieve similar results.



Simply clean the wound area thoroughly and sprinkle sugar over the cut or scrape until it is completely covered. This can be aided by using a cream (such as petroleum jelly) around the outside perimeter of the wound to keep the sugar granules in place. Then cover the wound with a clean bandage. Use gloves if possible or thoroughly clean your hands to keep conditions as sterile as possible when treating the cut, scrape or wound.


Most injuries will require the wound to be cleaned, re-treated with sugar granules and a clean bandage applied every 4 to 6 hours to obtain the maximum healing benefits. Make sure the wound is covered completely and evenly with sugar granules and covered with a clean, fresh dressing each time.


Caution: Sugar should never be applied to openly bleeding wounds as it may actually increase the blood flow and further complicate your condition.


Sugar can be used to sweeten your tea or coffee but it can also help you as a first aid treatment for infections in a survival situation.


Disclaimer: This information is provided for informative purposes only and should not be considered medical advice of any kind. Always seek qualified professional medical help when needed.


Staying above the water line!


Riverwalker






Apartment Survival: Food

Original Article



Assuming that you have your water supply squared away, it is now time to think about food. Again, the absolute minimum recommended by authorities is three days worth of food, but given what we’ve seen in Japan, where it has taken ten days or more to reach some communities, my personal recommendation is to have at least three weeks of food and water on hand. If you can store more than that, then by all means do so.

There are as many schools of thought about what you should set aside as there are types of food. One option beloved by the camo crowd is the military field ration. Known as MREs in the US and IMPs in Canada, these are pre-packed rations intended for troops in the field. They tend to be somewhat bulky until field stripped, may not be considered tasty by all, and their storage life can be considerably compromised by high temperatures. The advantage is that they may be eaten cold or hot (some come with a chemical heater) and each ration is about 1200 calories, with a complete set of breakfast, lunch and dinner giving you roughly 3600 calories. They are pretty much nutritionally complete for the short term, although they can be deficient in some elements (Canadian IMPs do not have enough folic acid or calcium to meet requirements long term, for example).

Another option is commercial freeze dried hiking/camping food. These usually come in packages of two or four portions, and generally require significant amounts of water to make them palatable. Add to the fact that in my opinion that they are fairly bulky versus the calories they contain, plus their high cost per serving, they would not be my preferred option. In their favor is a long shelf life, and that they are widely available everywhere from camping supply stores to Walmart.

If you decide on a commercial product as part of your storage, consider something like Datrex emergency rations. They are small in size, high in calories, and reasonable in storage life (5 year). Remember that you are always trying to get the most calories for the smallest size (and price). You will need to do some research to see what is most appropriate for your situation.

Then there is the bucket brigade, those storing buckets of wheat or beans and other things in food grade buckets, complete with oxygen absorbers, mylar bags and/or CO2 filling. While this option can be cost effective (bulk buying) and great for long term storage (25 years is claimed for wheat stored properly), the sheer weight and bulk of these buckets may make it a difficult option for the apartment prepper with limited storage.

An easy way to start storing for emergencies is to store what you eat now. It’s easy enough to buy three instead of two cans of tomato sauce or an extra package of noodles the next time you go shopping, and if you stick with a weekly buying program you will build up an impressive amount of food very quickly. The downside of this is that you’ll need to create a rotation system to ensure older stock gets used and replaced, but this is relatively easy to do.

I believe that if you are trying to get some serious food in reserve as an apartment occupant, your initial focus should be on the conditions in your living space. If you are in an apartment that swelters in the summer, you will not want to store foods that have their storage life adversely affected. The second thing to look at is your storage space. It might be damp, prone to insects or rodents (I’m thinking storage lockers here), or have other conditions that must be reckoned with.

All of this should help you decide on what type of food you store, whether IMPs or cans of tuna, and what you store it in. Don’t be discouraged if your space is limited as there are likely spaces you haven’t thought of using, For example, simple things like plastic containers that slide under your bed will allow you to store an impressive amount of food and not compromise your living space. Dual purpose wherever you can. A blanket chest holding a single layer of cans of tuna under your spare bedding is now a blanket chest plus!

Storing food is only one aspect of preparing to sit it out in your apartment. If you have good sunlight exposure, there is no reason not to be growing herbs by your windows. If you have a balcony, you are better off than you imagine. Using square foot gardening techniques (look it up) and containers, you can raise an impressive amount of food for the space available to you. I have seen one arrangement that used a bleacher like structure of containers that maximized both sun exposure and storage. Remember that in certain situations, a balcony full of tomato plants might make you attractive to others, so caution must be exercised.

Again, getting access to the roof of your apartment is a must. While caution must be used in loading the roof with the weight of containers, soil, and plants, there is likely a lot of unused space getting a lot of sunshine up there. You might even be able to get access now, and get practiced at container gardening.

Other usable room might be available if there are abandoned apartments in the building. This might give you additional balconies to use, or you might even have your own greenhouse of sorts if there is enough light and warmth.

The grounds around your apartment building bear looking at as well. There may be space where a garden plot might be dug. Gardening may be difficult if the area is not protected from animal or human poachers. Still, it is worth looking at if you are going to be in your apartment through the growing season. If so, you need to be prepared preserve your harvest. There is little point to going through all the trouble if what you grew rots before you can eat it. Remember that canning/preserving, like gardening, are skills you need to learn now, before they are absolutely critical.

Another thing to check on is the possibility of there being edible landscaping on the building grounds or on local streets. In my on neighbourhood, there are Nanking cherries, crabapples, and lingon-berries on public property within a block of me. Others may also be seeking the same supply, so cooperation might be necessary if there are a number of you trying to harvest the same resource.

A better strategy might be to go after wild edibles. Depending on where you live, there will be a variety of ‘weeds’ that are edible and contribute necessary nutrients to the diet. There are things like purslane with its high iron content, or the Vitamin C content of wild rosehips, as well as things like burdock and cattails that can supply some starch to the diet. Proper identification is the key to safe consumption, as nearly seventy-five percent of all plants are toxic to humans to some extent and even some edibles (like acorns) need processing for safe eating. Again, it is a skill you need to acquire now, not after your judgment is clouded by hunger.

Finally, consider doing some guerilla gardening right now. This can take a variety of forms. One is to garden a little plot in an out of the way spot. It might be the space between two buildings, a vacant lot or similar spot but it will allow you to practice technique as well as seeing where you can garden undisturbed. This should be at some remove from your apartment to avoid leading folk right to your home. Another is by planting certain crops in out of the way areas. The plants are then ignored and left to fend for them selves. My favorite for this is Jerusalem artichoke, a very hardy plant that will self propagate and has an edible root that stores very well. I’ve also done this with different varieties of squash, but with less success. The final method is to try to spread wild edibles. My choice for this is burdock, which I’ve managed to establish in several ‘secret’ locations by harvesting seed and planting it.

It might not be five acres and self-sufficiency, but I believe you can bug in to your apartment without sentencing yourself to death by starvation. It takes work, forethought and lots of practice, but you can develop a storage and gardening program that will boost your survivability.

Next, apartments as shelter.




Monday, April 25, 2011

Mugging examples and what to do to avoid them

Original Article






My wife went to the gym yesterday and some acquaintances told her of muggings they have recently suffered.
These occurred during daytime, the first during the morning and the second one about 4 PM. Keep in mind that this is my neighborhood, what is considered “very good” in local terms since we have private security in most of the street corners. These incidents occur usually in the blocks that still don’t have security, when the guard left momentarily for whatever reason (bathroom for example) or it just occurs in spite of the guards, the mugging being pretty fast.
In the first case this woman was walking calmly in the sidewalk. As she passed by a young kid walking the opposite direction, this kid about 14 or so simply turned around hit her in the back of the head, sending her to the floor. She was dizzy and had a hard time getting up. she said she started chasing this kid that took her purse before she realized she had a hard time keeping her balance. “ I can barely stand, what the heck am I doing chasing this mugger?” She said to my wife.
In the second case, a couple, man and woman, walking on the same sidewalk but opposite direction, both young, well dressed, fake surprise as they get near the victim “Oh! How are you doing!? Its been so long since we last saw you!”. Before the women even has a chance to figure out if she knows them, they both close in and hug her. As the couple hugs the surprised woman, she feels an object pressed against her side as someone whispers in her ear “If you move I shoot you”. She stays put, her purse is taken away from her, and the couple walks away. To the eyes of people just a few yards away, the scene is just a woman that happened to come across a couple old friends.


What to do?



These are probably the hardest type of crime to avoid. If the criminal acts normal, dresses well, you simply don’t have any warning signs because its just a person like everybody else. He’s not a dirty junky or gang member, but Average Joe and Soccer mom walking around.
When streets are fairly deserted and someone approaches, what I do is no matter what, if it’s people coming close I accept the possibility of them being up to no good. I just don’t like having people walk on my back, the sounds of footsteps coming from the blind spot feels uncomfortable. What I do is slow around, move towards the street (don’t do it in the other direction or you corner yourself) so as to leave enough space for the person to pass while I turn towards him. Usually it makes people feel uncomfortable when you do so but I try pretending I’m looking at something else or crossing the street. I’m not talking of hostile body language or anything, just moving to a side to leave space, stopping and turning toward them. Most people will think its strange but just hurry pass you. If it’s a criminal he may just be surprised and look for someone less aware, or if he goes for it at least you have more space to either run or fight. In any case you’re not caught by surprise and that’s good.
If its someone walking towards me I move so as to leave as much space as the sidewalk allows, and keep an eye on the person as he walks by, just turning your head and torso a bit allows you to keep an eye on the person as he or she walks five or six yards pass you. Also keep in mind the sound of the footsteps. Those usually give you some information. If as you keep walking and turn your head back to the direction you’re going you hear a fast pace of footsteps then turn back in case their moving against you. These are all very natural, basic instinctive things but as rational creatures we’ve been trying for generations to shut down this basic instinct because its considered impolite. Survival instincts may not be very polite at times but they have their reasons.
A woman who’s husband works for the local municipal government told my wife that they are going to implement “safe corridors” from schools to train stations and other points of public transportation. Seems that kids and parents are being attacked when picking the kids from school so they will post military personal (gendarmeria) to create safe corridors.
The rest of the neighborhood? Better stick to the blocks that are guarded.
Take care folks,
FerFAL

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