The Purpose Behind Engineered Economic Collapse

It is a joy to find someone so articulate in expressing the political/social/economic truths that I have come to myself over the last few years.

Read. And shake your mind free of the last vestiges of the left-right matrix that blinds so many to what is really happening.

Labels: conspiracies, fascism on parade, financial ponderings, politics, society and culture, statism, watching the skies

Today's Ear Worm, brought to you by the Electric Light Orchestra:

You got me running going out of my mind
You got me thinking me that I'm wasting my time

{Refrain}
Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no, ooh ooh
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

You want to stay out with your fancy friends
I'm telling you it's gotta be the end

{Refrain}

Stick in the mud
Stick in the mud
Oh don't you be
A stick in the mud!

Labels: art appreciation, earworm

Ok, you have read the first tutorial here: Guide To Getting Started. You have enough staples to keep you cookin' for at least three months of a major disruption in food supplies. You have stored up as much water as is practical and have identified outside water supplies and how to make them drinkable. Now what?

First before storing any more food or taking any further actions, you need to examine your physical security situation. Where do you live and who lives near you? What would happen if they too had no food and discovered that you do? Would you be able to defend what you have, or would you lose everything (plus your life) to a band of looters? Do you take steps to fortify your home, make it look abandoned and already looted while you hide in a concealed shelter until the looting stops, or do you make plans to Get Out Of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) with your Bug Out Bag (B.O.B.) in your Bug-Out Vehicle (B.O.V.) to a pre-determined remote retreat location? I am not going to cover this vast topic in this post. There are other sources that cover these questions and how to implement your decisions. Perhaps I will take a shot at some aspects in a future post.

Assuming you have addressed this crucial question adequately, the next topic is how to select, package and store foods for the long-term (three months to several years worth).

I am going to shortcut a whole lot of redundant writing and direct you to right-click on this link and choose "save" to download this Tome of Preparedness: LDS Preparedness Manual. This tome covers what foods to purchase in what quantities and a whole lot of how-to information for storage and packaging. You are going to save this document to your computer, then burn it onto a CD or copy it onto a thumb drive and take the file to your local copy center. You will print it out in double-sided book format, have it punched for a comb binder and assembled with a heavy stock back cover and clear plastic front cover. You will then read it thoroughly before embarking on the implementation of your long term storage plan.
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ok, now that the laughter has died down (I know my readers--most of you will do nothing of the sort, from sheer inertia if nothing else), from that manual here is an outline of a very basic one year supply of staples for one person:
400 lbs grain
60 lbs legumes
10 quarts cooking oil
60 lbs honey
8 lbs salt
16 lbs powdered milk
Not very exciting, but it will keep you alive. Obviously there is much room for how to implement the grains and legumes, spice it up and add variety to keep you from dying of boredom after the end of the world. Plus you need to supplement that with fresh green stuff to stave off certain diet-related diseases. I would also add to this a supply of multi-vitamins enough for a year, if it turns out you cannot supplement your diet.

Narrowing down the topic further, I want to focus here on the first two items: Grains and legumes. You're probably looking at those quantities and thinking that is a lot of food! But really it is not. It is just over a pound of grain and about 3/4 cup of legumes for your basic daily sustenance--not all that much, especially considering you will probably be working your ass off trying to make your way in a post-apocalyptic world. The combination of grain and legume gives you complete protein, together with the carbohydrates necessary to do your work.

Of all the grains, wheat is the long-term storage champion. Properly packed, it has a shelf life measured in decades. Unless you have a wheat allergy, make wheat your primary grain. You will be able to pack it away and never think about it again until the day (someday) that you (or your grandchildren) need it. In addition to wheat, corn, oats, rye, rice (white) and millet can be stored to give your diet variety. I note white rice only because whole gran rice is subject to becoming rancid fairly quickly in storage due to the oil content of the germ. If the thought of white rice as a major staple is not appealing, I recommend millet. I never knew anything about millet until recently. We discovered how very good it is recently. To me a cooked millet porridge tastes somewhere halfway between a wheat and a rice cereal. Cooked as a pilaf it would make a very acceptable substitute for rice in dishes that require rice. In fact I learned that in northern China the dietary staple is actually millet and not rice!

For legumes, you have the whole world of beans to choose from, plus lentils and dry peas. The ratio noted above works out to about 85% grains to 15% beans by dry weight. Personally I like legumes well enough that for my long term storage I plan to increase the percentage by weight of legumes up to as much as 25% or higher. This is acceptable without throwing off the amino acid (protein) balance.

Storing these items in 5 gallon pails is the most practical and low-cost method of storage. It is possible to purchase these items already packed in 5 gallon pails or in #10 cans, and if you live near a Mormon community you may be able to take advantage of their canneries to have your own #10 cans packed. But these options are all more expensive than do-it-yourself 5 gallon pails.

There are several ways to pack these items for long-term storage, including sealing the foods in containers that have been purged with dry-ice or nitrogen, but my favored method is to use a 5 gallon pail with an aluminized mylar bag liner, together with oxygen absorbers and moisture absorbers in the sealed bag. This method ensures that there is no oxygen or moisture to permit grain weevils to destroy your food, and the low oxygen/moisture environment also greatly retards most other forms of spoilage. For grains that you may wish to sprout or plant however, this same environment will eventually kill the grain germ. Grains stored for this purpose can be packed after being well-coated with diatomaceous earth (DE). The DE destroys the outer coating of the weevil body which causes the weevil to dessicate and die. Food-grade DE is safe for human consumption, but would not be difficult to rinse off prior to sprouting. The majority of your stored grains and beans should be stored in mylar.

It is possible to fit about 35-40 lbs of grains and legumes to a 5 gallon pail with the methods I will discuss below. This means you will need about 13 pails to store these two items of your year's supply. These *should be* food-grade pails, however I don't believe this is an absolute requirement if your food will be packed in aluminized mylar bags. (If you are packing grains in diatomaceous earth, then you must get food-grade certified pails.) You will also need that many aluminized mylar bags of the correct size, and a sufficient number of oxygen absorbers and moisture absorbers.

There is considerable debate about the "food-grade" designation of plastic pails. According to survivalblog.com's JW Rawles, the crucial difference is the release agent used on the forms that the plastic is molded in. Most PE plastic resins are "food-grade", however the release agent may not be. Therefore to be 100% safe you would only purchase plastic pails that are certified "food-grade".

However!

If your food will be placed inside an aluminized mylar bag in the pail and sealed, there is no opportunity for the food to come into actual contact with the pail. The mylar renders the bag impervious to any outgassing from the plastic or the release agent. JWR worries that a pinhole leak in the mylar bag could still expose the contents to toxins. My take is that if your mylar bag develops a pinhole leak, then you have more problems than just trace chemicals from the release agent! You may have to toss the food because it spoiled for other reasons. Personally I am inclined to rinse out the non-certified pails with a strong detergent solution before using, for an added measure of caution. But ONLY when using an aluminized mylar bag liner! For direct storage I will use a food-grade certified pail.

The issue is one of cost. From This Site a food-grade pail with a lid runs $7 to $8 dollars each. Home Depot sells non-certified pails for about $2.50 ea and lids for $1 ea. To be perfectly safe, get the certified pails.

The next item you need are the aluminized mylar bags. This Site sells them for $2.50 each. However if you know you will be packing more than one bucket at a time, This Site sells them in quantities of 25 bags at a unit price of $1.35 per bag (20"x30"). Much better deal! Especially if you're packing food for two people for a year, or one person for two years, 25 bags works out to just about what you need. Or you can share the cost with a friend who is also prepping.

With the above two items in hand, the next item is the oxygen absorbers. This Page discusses how to calculate the size of oxygen absorber needed for various containers with various materials and various amounts of head space. The bottom line is this: for a 5 gallon pail with marble-sized contents or smaller, with a modest headspace to permit the mylar bag to be sealed, you need an oxygen absorber capacity of about 1500cc. For a margin of safety this can be increased to 2000cc. This Site sells 750cc packets in quantities of 25 for 54 cents each. Two packets would provide 1500cc capacity and cost $1.08. Three packets would provide 2250cc capacity and cost $1.62. They also sell 1000cc packets for 42.5 cents each and 1500 cc packets (in quantities of 50) for only 30 cents each, plus 2000cc packets for 99 cents each. Clearly the volume discount on the 1500cc packets allows one to add a generous safety cushion for a nominal price.

This Site has a much smaller selection, but sells their 2000cc packets for 95 cents each in a quantity of ten.

(this faq is incomplete and probably deserves to be broken up into a couple separate posts, but...I've been sitting on this for weeks! Time to get it up and accessible.)

Labels: preparedness

Even Positive Thinking Motivational Speaker Tony Robbins Is Warning That An Economic Collapse Is Coming

**snork!**

I dunno. It makes me cackle. Maybe I'll do stuff with it.

Labels: felicity and jocularity

I wired up a few outlets for the solar 120v circuits...

...and made holes in the wall for a few more.
But I ran into a stiff limit, a psychological barricade that made it very difficult for me to continue crawling around in dirt and dust while drenched in sweat, creating sweaty mud, while running wires under the house. I did not, therefore, get as much done as I had hoped.

I did get my B.O.B. put together (sans a few items on order) and back in my vehicle. I bought a couple hooks from the hardware store to hang the pack up in back...
The satchels below is the extra food and toiletries and a (probably unnecessary) tent that won't go in the pack in a "hoof-it-out" scenario.

My water jug is now secured so it no longer hurtles around the interior when I drive like I typically do...
...and likewise the gas can has been secured.

I'm not all the way there yet--I need to either find the collapsible water container I used to have or get a new one. The pack must hold at least three, maybe five gallons total, and not much else if I'm trekking out in the summer months. I have a couple items ordered and a couple more yet to order. My boots came (yay!) so as soon as I get a new pair properly broken in, my current pair will get cleaned up, waterproofed, and get stored permanently under the seat.

Three weeks.

Three weeks and this godawful weather will break. By the second half of September we are usually out of the woods. It cannot come soon enough this year.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Speaking of Diana Krall...


Yes-s-s...

By way of contrast, here is Elvis Costello...

Labels: art appreciation

Afternoon Extended Play

Labels: art appreciation, morning mood

Yep. Earworm.


Go figga. I heard this just once a while back, and a casual comment this evening brought it up again. It took a while to locate it on YouTube! Loads of possibilities to sort through to find it...

(Yes, yes, Desert Cat has some eclectic musical tastes...)

Labels: art appreciation

Since my recent topic of interest has been bugging out, I found this article to be a great distilled summary full of excellent guidance on the topic:
Survival Skills and Gear, Part 1: Bug Out Kits and Bugging Out, by E.F. - SurvivalBlog.com

Most of this is stuff I have ready-to-go or am in the process of reorganizing. Some stuff is a reminder of what I have yet to address, and so I'm also linking it for my own ready reference.

From Neithercorp press, which is back after an extended hacking attack (by agents of TPTB?):
Neithercorp Press� Blog Archive � U.S. Dollar Now Ripe For Catastrophic Devaluation

Pretty much confirms what I already know, although I find it interesting that this article confirms my prognosis of simultaneous deflation and inflation, as noted below.

...that the short bus has tumbled over.


Linked at Vox's place. I think I've posted this before, but it doesn't hurt as a graphic illustration of where we are. As noted in the comments, the text at the arrow should read "The Long Run" (ref: Keynes defense of his theory).

Labels: financial ponderings, watching the skies

No pics of most of Friday and Saturday's work though.  I never got around to dragging the camera under the house.  Friday I finished installing the conduit and junction boxes under the house for the solar electric.  Saturday I pulled conductor and wired up the junction boxes on either side of the house for the runs along each side.  That is where I stopped.  I didn't get any actual outlets wired up.

Sunday I got going on a half-dozen miscellaneous items, among them, going through my bug-out bag and reviewing the contents.

I asked Daisycat to put these together about 3 years ago because I was too busy with longer term preps to get to this important task soon enough. I gave her the general direction and some links to lists and let her go at it.

Well at the time I knew there were a few problems with her choices of bug-out foods, specifically the shelf-life of some were very limited:
Crackers in cellophane wrapper...Ramen noodles...um, wait. What's that front and center all misshapen with scary looking white stuff in the wrapper...

UGH!!  Those are three-year old summer sausages!  I...well...er...WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?!!

...shudder...

This food will mostly be replaced with some 3000 calorie bars available through Emergency Essentials.  Better shelf life than *urk* summer sausage...

 My mess kit, including my excellent Wisper-Lite white gas stove is there.  The cleaning tool is nowhere to be found however.  It's been missing for years though.

Unfortunately the white gas canister has a cracked o-ring again.  Seems the last time I used the stove (years and years ago) I had to replace the o-rings.


My old candle lantern was converted to an oil lamp.  However I pulled it out and opened it and...no oil!  She packed it into my bug-out bag without oil...  How useful...

There was a flashlight however, with two sets of batteries.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover the batteries were still good after all this time.  However for the sake of certainty and lighter weight, I will be replacing this flashlight with a good quality shake light.  Never needs batteries, never runs out as long as you can shake it for a while to recharge the capacitor.

Late afternoon the power went out.  A call to the power company indicated 2 to 6 hours before it would be restored.  I've seen eight to fourteen hour outages here before when they said 2 to 6 hours.  I had a minor panic as I did not look forward to trying to sleep without cooling or my CPAP machine.  And  I was beginning to gush sweat as the house warmed up.

Well I was 90% of the way to having back up power.  I just lacked an outlet to plug into.  So I pulled one of the branch circuit wires and installed a temporary outlet in its place.

Ran a cord over to the vicinity of the evap cooler...
...and plugged in a fan.
Voila!  We have wind!

Then the power came back on. 

Nevertheless, I spent the rest of the evening setting up and programming the inverter and system interface devices, and plugged in the evaporative cooler cell.  Now the evap cooler will always run on solar power until the low battery trigger point switches it back to grid power.  I still have to wire the house but I am, for the first time since I installed the system, actually using the power I'm generating.

Labels: preparedness

Vox sez inflation (defined as an increase in the total money supply) can't or won't happen. However price inflation (which is what most people think of as inflation) is already underway:

FOXBusiness.com - Wal-Mart Prices Are Rising: JP Morgan Study

I made a prediction for simultaneous deflation (monetary) and inflation (price) about a year ago.

Here we go...

Labels: financial ponderings

Friday we hiked to Maverick Spring. This was the third attempt on our part to hike this trail successfully. The first attempt probably ten years ago, we started from the lower end of the Green Mountain Trail and lost the trail somewhere a few miles in. The second time maybe five years ago, we started from the upper end of the Green Mountain Trail, got off on a false trail initially, then found the correct way, only to give in to Daisycat's whining to turn back after about a mile because of the steepness of the trail.

Finally this time we started on the top end of the Green Mountain Trail, got turned around at one point because I had forgotten what we figured out five years ago, then successfully hiked to the Maverick Spring side trail and arrived this time!

When we arrived we saw that the Forest Service had just done some repairs at the spring not two weeks prior, so the catchment basin was clean, fresh pipe had been laid to the spring itself, and rocks had been stacked at the seep to protect the water. I drank my fill. Daisycat didn't dare until the next day she had some from a bottle, after it was apparent I wasn't about to keel over.


This handsome devil was perched on a branch above the seep.

What made us turn back once before was what made this a killer hike this time. It was only five miles round-trip, but it was a brutal trail--rough, steep and rocky, and we were not in shape for it. My quads were literally locking up as we climbed the last mile or so. Hard, charley-horse cramps.

We spent Saturday in recovery mode, taking a leisurely breakfast in the cabin I rented, then walking down to the shopping areas in the Village of Summerhaven, enjoying a plate-sized cookie at the Cookie Cabin and shopping at the Living Rainbow Giftshop. In the evening we walked about a half mile up the Upper Sabino Creek drainage, above the top of Turkey Run Road where our cabin was located. We decided that would be our hike Sunday.


The Aspen Fire in 2003 obliterated most of the Village of Summerhaven and the surrounding forest. The cabins along Turkey Run Road, the Upper Sabino Canyon drainage above the road, and the area around the ski resort were spared. The crown fire jumped the ridge above this valley and left the valley bottom alone. Still there was a ground fire, and evidence of it is still present. Many of the charred logs have become host to mushrooms of various sorts.


The village water supply is fed by a series of springs up this valley. As a water system engineer it was all of great interest to me. There are larger and newer storage tanks further down the valley, but this is oldest and smallest one we saw.

The trail along Sabino Creek ended at the parking lot for the ski resort, so we turned at that point up the Aspen Draw Trail, which climbs the same hill as the ski runs, except back in the forest.

Another charred log, this one with moss filling the cracks with green.


Columbine


More mushrooms


A ski run in summer

This was the top of the mountain and the end of the trail.

Aspen Draw Trail on the way down.


I didn't get any pics of the cabin, though I should have. But it is here on the web: Mount Lemmon Getaway. We had the upper unit for the weekend. It was very quaint--obviously the owners have been going up there literally for decades. The kitchen has stuff that would be at home in a 1940's kitchen, and indeed the cabin itself probably dates from that decade. It's been added onto a few times over the years--the giant skylights over the waterbed obviously date from the 1970's--but it is very charming nonetheless.

Labels: vacation

I'm having a hard time getting my head wrapped around what is coming. If John Williams is correct about the intensity (and I think he is), and the timing (he's got a fair shot at being right), then we're about to see 99% of the people in this country in some state of shock or denial fairly soon.

I am projecting myself forward and seeing it in myself. Me, of all people. Certainly there are many who are more prepared, but I figure I must be somewhere near that 1%, and still I know it will hit as a gut-wrenching shock when the collapse is fully underway. I am going to regret what I did not do, regret what I did not purchase when I could.

I really need to take some time this week and coming weekend to reassess and reprioritize, so I can minimize that feeling to the greatest degree possible. Certainly the bathroom remodel can take a back seat, as can the purchase of floor tile we were anticipating.

I bought a couple more pairs of the Bates Durashock boots that I love wearing yesterday. Those will be worth their weight in gold going forward. I've got some lists to go over and some more shopping to do. The solar electric project is still high priority, as is the solar thermal tower. I need to buy the fiberglass panels for the tower soon, and get back on constructing it as soon as the weather permits. I have to find a source for that high efficiency chest freezer again (Walmart no longer carries it). I need to get a 12 volt pump for the evap cooler. I don't want to use 120v power for that. Then I also need that load balancer for the 24v/12v side of the solar electric first, so I can actually run 12v appliances off it!

Whew! Stuff to prioritize, lists to write.

Are you ready to face something like the Sarajevo war and the Argentine economic collapse all wrapped up in one? Ready or not, Phase II of the New Great Depression is about to be underway, if it is not already.

Labels: financial ponderings, preparedness, watching the skies

Economy Heading for a Systemic Collapse into Hyperinflationary Great Depression :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website

We had the signal in December of 2009 indicating intensification of the downturn, in this case, within six to nine months. We're in that timeframe now and see softening numbers. People are talking about a weaker economy. Even Mr. Bernanke has described the economy as 'unusually uncertain' in terms of its outlook. Wording like that from the Fed is a pretty good indication that something's afoot.

"Unusually uncertain" in that context is not 'troubling'. It is not 'disturbing'. No, it would be positively 'panic-inducing' if I didn't already know approximately what is on the way.

We're beginning to see the data break. Some unusual factors have been at work. I expect an accelerating pace of downturn in the next couple of months. The numbers will turn sharply worse. Consensus estimates are already moving in that direction and most everything will follow. Industrial production is still up but retail sales have been falling. Payroll numbers have been flat when you take out the effects of the census hiring. Those employment numbers will turn down in the next month or two, providing an important indicator of renewed economic contraction.

So we'll see how it develops, but we're at that turning point. It is happening as we speak.
...
The popular press will describe it as a double dip, but we never had a recovery. Actually, this is just a very protracted, very deep downturn that has had a pattern of falling off a cliff, bottoming out, having a little bit of bump due to stimulus and then turning down again. Sort of shaped like the path of a novice skier going down a jump for the first time. Speeding sharply down the hill, he goes up in the air and starts spinning wildly as he tries to figure out which end is up with his skis. Then he takes a pretty bad tumble. We're beginning to spin in the air.

Hey, this is fun! He's using similar imagery to mine. Except we're tumbling through the air in the Short Bus in my version.

Click and read the whole thing. His bottom line (whatdowedo?!whatdowedo?!) echoes my advice. He expects a barter system will be all that is left in the intermediate term, before any new stability emerges. In addition to stocking up what you need, stock extra of certain commodities to use in trade.

Labels: financial ponderings, preparedness, watching the skies

Pics to follow when I can. It was nice to get up into some cool weather for a change of pace in the midst of the worst part of the summer on the valley floor.

When we topped the ridge near the summit of Mount Lemmon, the breeze blowing up from below was chilly whenever the sun went behind a cloud. Far below us stretching across the valley was the city of Tucson, sweltering under yet another swampy day in the upper 90's. But up around 9000 feet elevation, the perspiration from our climb dried quickly, leaving us chilled. We moved back from the ridge and ate our lunch on a grassy spot sheltered by a rock.

In the evenings on the porch of our cabin, the temperatures dropped into the 60's. Just because I could, I lit a fire in the woodstove each evening and we enjoyed the ambiance while we watched a movie.

This week temperatures are heading back into triple digits as the air dries out a bit. Down in the valley we have a choice: frying pan or fire. When the humidity abates, the temperatures soar. When the temperatures abate, it is because the humidity is soaring again.

Fortunately I spend my workdays inside an air-conditioned fabric-covered box. Which is where I intend to sit as much as possible for the next week. My quads are rubbery and my calves are knots. Apparently what I do on the weekends is not enough to offset what I do during the week. My legs were not ready for the ten miles of steep trails we hiked this weekend.

Labels: vacation

This stinks. They are discontinuing the Paypal Plugin, including the secure one-time use card as of September 22.

THE PayPal PLUG-IN WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE - PayPal

This was a great way to pay online, especially if there was any question about the security of the card data. One-shot payment and the card is expired--useless to hackers. For overseas payments especially, this was a valuable service. It has happened to us more than once that the card data leaked somehow and a scammer ran with it and ran up illicit charges.

Now what? I messaged PayPal to see what, if anything, they intend to replace this service with.

Daisycat take note of the date. After then we will need to work out something else for secure transactions.

Anyone taking bets on whether this is related to "anti-terrorism" BS?

Labels: financial ponderings

Commodities - Wheat Soars; Rogers Sees 'Much Higher' Food Prices - CNBC

The July rise in wheat prices, the fastest in 51 years, indicates that shortages in agriculture are coming, Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC.com Tuesday.

Wheat prices in Europe hit their highest level in two years, rising almost 50 percent since late June as Russia's wheat crop was affected by drought.

Global Wheat Shortage Feared as Prices Surge

Yeah, go ahead and laugh at that FOOL trying to grow his own wheat!

Labels: financial ponderings, preparedness, watching the skies

Vox is having a SITYS moment here:
You were warned

And of course I've been tracking the same. Noteworthy at the link is the downward revision of GDP for the past three years.

The percent change from the preceding year in real GDP was revised down for all 3 years: from 2.1 percent to 1.9 percent for 2007, from an increase of 0.4 percent to 0.0 percent for 2008, and from a decrease of 2.4 percent to a decrease of 2.6 percent for 2009.

The bottom line: There is no recovery. This will not be a "W" shaped recession, as there was no recovery whatsoever over the last two years (to make the middle part of the W). There is only a continuing slide into the New Great Depression.

That would be singular, yes. I've been fighting a cold that threatened to go bronchial and did. My head is nearly clear, but I'm chasing it around my upper chest now. So I did little work and more resting.

I did get the inverter 120v branch panel wired up, and conduit extended to below the floor.

Next time I get to grub around amidst the spiders and dust beneath the house and run it out from there.

And sitting in draft form, I still have a tutorial to finish writing. Thankfully the man for whom I am writing it is fully occupied at the moment.

Labels: San Pedro homestead