Stockpile Progress, Part 3

I have started to develop my food stockpile. I already had a dozen MREs and a handful of backpacker's meals, and some electrolyte gel packs. This, I figured, was a good 48-72 hours worth of emergency food for the family.

In terms of an emergency lasting longer than 3 days, I was in really bad shape. To that end, I have started a program of purchasing freeze dried and dehydrated foods. I am spending $25-$40 a paycheck buying these foods from Emergency Essentials (http://beprepared.com/). If you're looking for a site to buy supplies for long term storage, I haven't found any place better online (or anywhere, for that matter). If you know of a place, I'd gladly check it out.

This isn't much, I know, but it's what I can afford right now. That $25-40 translates into one or two cans of dehydrated or freeze dried foods depending on what you're getting. So far I have placed two orders consisiting of:

• TVP Chicken Bits
• Quick Oats
• Carrots
• Spinach

My wife is a vegetarian, hence the TVP chicken bits. Sounds yummy, right? Haha. Hippy-chow like that actually isn't too bad. Now, what's a crime is any tofu or TVP product that masquerades as bacon. Some things are just holy and shouldn't be messed with, ya know?

I figure I have roughly $800 more to go before I have a good month's stockpile for me and my immediate family. At this rate it should only take me somewhere just shy of a year to finish!

Mindset

Let me be clear about the way I view our future and why I consider myself a survivalist... and for that matter, what I think of when I use a word like "survivalist."

The Future

Succinctly put, it's bleak. We've seen two million jobs evaporate this last year alone. Our manufacturing base is in serious trouble. Banks are clamming up with the credit and all our economy does is consume, consume, consume. We make nothing.

Politicians are more interested in scoring short term political victories than laying the foundation for long term sustainability and growth. The term "mortgaging our children's future" is such a cliche these days that the poignant image it is meant to convey is utterly lost. In short, politicians are long on gathering power und to themselves, and very short on actual, real leadership.

Our leaders, be they corporate or government, are no longer expected to produce results. They are bailed out or golden parachuted or pardoned when they fail or even commit criminal acts. There is no accountability. The meritocracy that once made this nation great is no longer. Our democratic ideals are dying out in favor of a nouveau nobility. Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, and more.

Our executives in the governmental realm behave more like kings than officers of the public trust. Our corporate chiefs act like spoiled children of nobility who are given a small fiefdom to run... often into the ground. Corporate boards are comprised of executives from other, often competing, companies. One CEO may have a board whose members are CEOs at companies whose boards on which they themselves serve. Can anyone say mutual masturbation?

Our leaders are modern day robber barons; thieves, confidence men, and thugs. I mean that with no poetry and in all ways literally. We have yet to see the Obama Administration in action, of course. While I am allowing myself to hope a bit, I know history too well to get my hopes too high. Washington has a way of changing those who mean to come to town and root out the rotten core of our government.

The momentum of this financial crisis has not slowed one bit. No one talks about this, but the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are as much to blame for our financial problems as the mortgage crisis. The defecits we run (roughly $400 billion a year for the last few years) do not count the cost of the wars we are engaged in. They are funded with emergency supplemental spending bills - off books. The true defecits we have been running are north of half a trillion dollars a year.

Do you hear that sound? It sounds like a giant toilet flushing... and we're on our way out with the crap.

"Survivalist"

This word is oft maligned as meaning "gun nut", "militia freak", "racial supremacist", "radical", or "wingnut." This is not what the word means to most of the community.

While I am not a prominent member of the survivalist community, I do consider myself a survivalist. To me the word "survivalism" means, in its most basic form, "preparedness." So to be a survivalist means to be someone who is prepared or who strives to be prepared for the day when the trucks stop delivering me my food and when the lights go out.

To be honest, no one can foresee exactly what shape the coming gridcrash will take. Will the markets melt down and banks fail causing currencies around the globe to go into a hyper-deflationary spiral? Will there be an attack on Washington which will cause a lapse in centralized authority leading to riots born of panic? Or will budget shortfalls in the fed, state, and local levels coupled with high unemployment cause government to essentially be ineffective and overwhelmed leading to defacto anarchy? We saw how well the fed responded to a disaster like Katrina. Or, on the radical end of the spectrum, will a bug escape some Army lab and wipe out 90% of the world a la Stephen King's The Stand (minus the supernatural stuff)?

The point of the last paragraph is to say that there's no telling how, or even if, the shit will truly hit the fan. How does that influence the survivalist's mindset? I can't speak for others, but for me it means having a flexible, generalized plan that can handle as many eventualities as possible. It means learning a whole metric ass ton of information on the basics:

• Prioritization - What must you have? What can you do without if you had to? What do you do first?
• Water - Treatment and sourcing
• First Aid - Not bleeding to death
• Growing and Storing Food - Gardening, composting, and food preservation
• Hunting - When the supermarket runs out of meat, you'll need to hunt, kill, and prepare game of some sort. This will be especially important years when your garden's yield is less than expected
• Sanitation - Getting rid of waste and possibly using it as compost
• Energy Engineering - When the lights go out, can you get them back on? Can you setup a wind turbine? Could you construct one? How about biodiesel? A tractor would make that farm way more productive...
• Outdoorsmanship - If you had to spend a night outdoors in the winter, could you? How about a week? A month?
• Gunsmithing and Marksmanship - Fixing, cleaning, and shooting guns
• Construction - If a tree falls on your roof and knocks a hole in it, could you repair it?
• Brewing - Making your own beer, because what the hell is life without beer?

Just think of all the stuff you call on others to do. Do you have even the slightest clue how to do that yourself? Some things will just go away. For most, electricity will simply be gone or could be unreliable, at best. How will you preserve your food without the handy-dandy refrigerator?

Not too long ago we knew how to take care of ourselves. My grandparents canned food from their garden and so did my father and mother. They didn't do it because they were poor and had to, either. To the contrary, my grandparents and parents were on the more afluent side of the middle class. Our great-grandparents didn't have refrigerators and it was a way of life for them to grow food and preserve it themselves.

In hard times, can you trust the cop who hasn't been paid in two months? They may be in as tough or tougher a bind than you are (more likely the latter). They are just like you except they have authority and a gun. I have to admit, if my family were hurting and I had the gun and authority, I'd be sorely tempted to use it to my family's advantage.

A survivalist, in short, does not take for granted the notion that the cushy comforts of modern life will always be there. In many ways, a survivalist is a rationalist. Look at our economy. Unsustainable and obviously broken on a fundamental level. Look at our energy consumption habits. Unsustainable and terrible for our environment. Look at our modern society. Stupid, lazy, and isolated with no signs of improvement. Look at our leadership. Incompetent and corrupt.

Who wouldn't be concerned? Who wouldn't look at all of that and wonder when we'll reach the tipping point which brings it all crashing down? A survivalist is someone who sees the big picture and resolves to not be a victim. A survivalist may be your savior one day...

Another Apoca-List

Sometimes my mind starts racing and I have to dump it all to a list if I hope to remember half of it the next day. Last night I was thinking about the pending gridcrash and I realized that I needed a clearer idea of a) what needed to be done ahead of time, and b) what my goals would be after the gridcrash.

I'm the only one in my entire family spending any time preparing. Most people have just learned that this is part of who I am and they humor me when I talk about how close to the edge our unsustainable society is. Well, that's fine. I'll do my best to prepare for my entire family.

To that end, I have divided my Post Apocalypse Task List into two main goals. The first is to improve our farm to make it a useful part of a cooperative. Goal two is to setup and initially lead the aforementioned cooperative.

Really the big idea with our farm is to grow enough veggies to feed ourselves and enough hops and barley to make enough beer to trade and for a little personal consumption, of course. With the law being gone (or utterly unenforceable) we may even branch into some other types of cultivation...

• Pre Apocalypse Tasks
• Top off ammo supplies
• Obtain Barley Seeds (en route) [edit: 01-09-2009]
• Obtain Hop Sprout/Seeds
• Build Hopvine Trellis
• Get Planted
• Increase long shelf life food stocks
• Post Apocalypse Tasks
• Start a Cooperative on Our Road, resources including:
• 2 Vinyards
• Brewing
• Corn Farm
• Horses (Plows? Hauling?)
• Metal Working
• Close to railroad tracks
• Multiple ponds (fish?)
• Our Farm
• Build a Root Cellar
• Rain Collection System
• Build Composting Outhouse [edit: 01-09-2009]
• Gather Firewood (tree down by road)(uses last of chainsaw fuel?)
• Compost Pile
• Start Crops, depending on season
• (Peas, Radish, Onion, Spinach, Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Beet, Carrot, Lettuce, Kentucky Wonder Beans, Corn, Cucumber, Squash Zucchini, Green Pepper, Winter Squash, Tomato, Barley, Hops)
• Water Distiller
• Setup Butcher Shop (for hunting: deer, rabbit, & squirrel are abundant)
• Get Some Dogs
• Beer Brewing Equipment Setup
• Gather Rocks
• Spring Improvements
• Firepits
• Landscaping
• Sources
• "New Driveway" & Back by Alamo (a part of the farm on which we used to play "Alamo")
• Scavenge Electrical Resources From Town
• Solar Panels (be on the lookout for those now)
• Electrical Wiring
• Generators (for use in hydro or wind applications) [edit: 01-09-2009]
• Turbines (for use in hydro or wind applications) [edit: 01-09-2009]

Ex-Commie Doom Prognostication

A Russian bloke by the name of Igor Panarin predicts that the U.S. will disintegrate by 2010. I'm not sure that I completely buy his prediction on how things will go down, but I do think it's interesting that notable people moving in high circles could openly espouse such an idea.

Reading a bit about him I see that he's basically a Russian talking head - like one of our Sunday morning pundits. According to one site, he moves around in Kremlin circles quite a bit, so maybe he's a step above punditry.

He's also a professor and published author. Okay - maybe two steps above punditry, seeing that many TV pundits in this country have no more qualifications than hosting a radio talk show in Albuquerque and a high school diploma. On slow news days the 24 hour news channels will probably put you on with just a diploma.

In any event, for an apocalypse junkie like me this is interesting stuff.

Gridcrash

We are teetering on the edge, my friends. The auto industry nearly collapsed, and still may in the near future. Three million jobs down the toilet - nearly. Can you imagine the fallout from that?

• Three million people (nearly all at once) added to the already bulging unemployment rolls.
• Three million more people without any health insurance...
• Three million more people with drastically reduced buying power. A real problem since our economy is fueled 2/3 by consumer spending and all.
• Hundreds of thousands more foreclosures in relatively short order... this could have easily sent an already weak new housing market into oblivion.
• The possible collapse of foreign automakers' operations in North America. All of these companies worked with the same suppliers that would have gone out of business if GM, Chrysler, and Ford went down. How many more people would that have put out of work?
• Repeat all steps above as service industries related to auto plants, parts, dealerships, etc fold - everything from fast food joints, to stores, to office supply companies, etc, etc, etc.

We are staring economic oblivion right in the face. If you haven't woken up to just how close we are to another Great Depression, then you need to pay attention. The Fed finally admitted to a recession dating back to December 2007. As of the very moment of that announcement, we were in the longest running economic downturn since - you guessed it - the Great Depression.

Each new day we wake up still in this recession is another day added to the record of the longest recession ever. Most economists think there is no chance we'll come out of this in 2009.

Once the mightiest manufacturing sector the human race had ever seen - the Big Three - now is reduced to begging for taxpayer money like some homeless child. What's worse is that the guys who got us into this mess, Wall Street, came asking for twenty times as much money and got it without so much as a batted eyelash.

Let someone who actually makes something come ask for a paltry sum in comparison and it's like the Spanish Inquisition. What does that say about us? It says if you're white collar and take a shower before you go to work, then you can do no wrong. Be as greedy, corrupt, and stupid as you want - we'll bail you out no questions asked.

But if your collar is blue and you shower after you get off work, then expect to be demonized when you come asking for a loan. Expect to be treated with suspicion. Why? Because we don't respect hard, honest work these days. We respect money, and the making of it, above all else.

We respect it above hard work.

We respect money more than honesty.

We respect the acquisition of wealth no matter the means.

In short, we are sick. We have lost our center - and I don't mean that in any sort of religious manner. I don't mean that with any political bent whatsoever. I mean that when we don't respect that which made us great, then we will be great no longer.

Hard work and opportunity used to be at the center of the American ethic. We no longer respect hard work in and of itself and I fear that the same opportunities that were afforded me coming up will no longer be available or attainable to my children.

Why? Because the wealthy and elite have been allowed to run our ship aground - again. The difference is that back in 1930 people actually lived closer to the land, They knew how to darn socks and plant crops and raise animals. Many didn't have electricity.

Nowadays the dispossessed will not know what to do when there's no supermarket. They won't believe any of it until it's already happened - until the lights actually go out.

Well, my friends - I am not one of those people. I have a piece of land to retreat to when the sh!t hits the fan. This land has a source of clean water - a source spring. I have guns and seeds. I have the skills needed to protect my own (first aid, CPR, marksmanship). I have the skills needed to provide for my own (hunting, fishing, basic gunsmithing, gardening, construction, electrical engineering). I have a library of books dedicated to things like making drinking water safe, emergency shelter, gardening without petroleum fertilizers and pesticides, composting, shelter, and more.

Batton down the hatches. Gridcrash is a-coming.

Stockpile Progress, Part 2

As of now, my Apocalypse Stockpile consists of:

• Guns
• SKS, mounted on a Tapco Fusion Kit with BSA Red Dot sight (350 rnds)
• Remington 870 Express 12 ga. shotgun (100 buckshot, 50 slug)
• Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum Revolver (250 .38 rnds, 100 .357 rnds)
• Ruger 10/22 with 30 shot clip (1000 rnds)
• Outdoor Gear
• 3 tents (6 person, 4 person, 2 person)
• collapsible trench shovel
• Solio solar battery charger
• mini propane camp stove (3 fuel cells)
• deluxe first aid kit
• 6 rain ponchos
• hatchet/hammer
• machete
• buck knife
• 4 sleeping bags
• freshwater fishing gear (pole & decently appointed tackle box)
• 4 camp cook kits
• 6 lightweight plastic plates
• complete set of 6 utensils (fork knife, spoon)
• hand crank flashlight
• hand crank AM/FM/ShortWave radio
• various other cooking gear
• flint and steel kit
• waterproof matches
• stakes
• 100' rope (500 lb test)
• compass
• small binoculars (Bushnell)
• Army ALICE pack
• more... (can't recall at this point)
• Food
• 12 MREs
• 2 Other MRE-type meals (backpacking dinners)
• 5 lbs dried lentel beans, stored in an airtight container
• hermetically sealed can of various non-hybrid vegetable seeds
• 36 energy gels (little packets used by runners to speed electrolytes to your system)
• Miscellaneous
• playing cards
• silver coin (for water treatment)
• 100 M80's

There's more. This is what I can recall off the top of my head.

Recession Finally Admitted by the Fed

Finally there are rumblings from Washington that seem to admit to a recession. I think the American people have been tuned into the reality of an economic downturn for quite some time.

As of now, the Dow is down another 502 points. The other day it was up by around 900, but I knew that was mere volatility. This downturn won't stop until the actual fundamentals of the world economy are repaired.

The U.S. especially needs to put its economic house in order. We need to start making things again. That is what is fundamentally at the core of our floundering economy - we don't make anything any more. We make money off of money. We flip houses. We use credit.

There are many things that have gone awry, don't get me wrong. However, increasing manufacturing jobs in America would have the effect of decreasing unemployment, putting more money in the pocket of Americans. Two thirds of our economy is based upon consumer spending.

I think retail stores are going to take a major hit this Christmas. Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their confidence. Watch the stock market in late December and early January. Look for a big drop when the retail numbers prove to be abysmal.

I think the turnaround here will take a good long time. I think Americans have been shocked into waking up from a credit card coma. Spending will slow. Savings will increase. Less cheap crap will be bought in stores. Bad news for China, really.

If Americans are smart and we have good leadership we can come through this better and stronger. If the focus is on technology and research into alternative energy we have a chance. If America leads the way with a whole new fleet of battery driven and alternatively fueled cars we can again be the auto manufacturer of the world. If we invest in infrastructure like schools, roads, a new solar and wind electrical grid, and college we can again become competitive.

If our leaders have the political will to raise taxes we might be okay. If we are honest with ourselves then we see that raising taxes is unavoidable if we are to address our national debt and other needs simultaneously. If Americans can change their ways and refrain from spending what they don't have then each of us may yet find economic salvation.

If we hold our leaders accountable on the issues that matter to all of us we can save ourselves from ourselves. Issues like education, roads, jobs, a stagnating economy, and the environment are all interrelated and can all be solved on a single line of attack.

The simplest answer is usually the best answer. I usually denounce Occum's Razor as a means for oversimplification of complicated issues and ideas. In this case, however it is right on.

Problems like crumbling roads, vaporizing jobs and a worsening environment can all be solved by investing in green technology and providing government subsidies for green infrastructure projects. This would lay the foundation for jobs and a revitalized economy. It would allow us to export this technology and put America back on the economic map as a producer and exporter rather than an importer and borrower.

More Americans with good jobs boosts consumer confidence and provides the fuel for two thirds of our economy (consumer spending). More good jobs means a larger tax base. Government subsidies for technology research means many many small businesses getting startup money from either the government or venture capitalists.

And to cement the continued growth of this new economy you invest in education. A smart workforce is an efficient and innovative workforce. You also ensure this new boom is sustainable with massive infrastructure investment in both existing and new techologies (as they come online). Improve roads and build a new sustainable electrical grid. This will create jobs in and of itself as well - this will feed back into the positive cycle by putting more money in the pockets of Americans and growing the middle class.

That is a lot of "ifs." Believe me, I am aware of that fact. Every pay period I am putting a little bit towards survival gear and supplies. I am trying to hope for the best, but I am planning for the worst without a doubt.

EDIT: At close of trading today the Dow was down 733 pts.

The Butt-Rape of Main Street

Mao Tse-Tung and Lenin might have been on to something. How many times do we have to be screwed by the titans of industry before we wake up? When does enough become enough? When do we pick up the gun?

I'm not advocating it - not yet. I'm just wondering when it is that people get so fed up with the bullshit being shoved down their throat by Washington and Wall Street that they go armed into the streets. Bullshit like:

1. "We can't have national healthcare because it's too expensive. But you sure as hell better cough up a $700 billion bailout in just a few days!"
2. "Bankrupt due to medical bills? Well, see we just made it easier for the hospitals to take your house. Oh, you're welcome!"
3. "We have to cut education spending because we just can't afford it. We have this $10 billion a month war of choice we have to fund."
4. "Sorry about college being unattainably expensive, but we just can't afford to help you with that. See, we have these regulations we need to loosen and then we'll be cutting the taxes on those who benefit from that deregulation."
5. "Hey, remember how I outsourced your jobs and stagnated your wages? Yeah, haha! Good times. Hey, I got real fucking stoned and was doing some plain retarded stuff with that mortgage I sold you... yeah, yeah. I repackaged it and sold it for like 20 times what it's worth. Hey... I need to jack your payment by like 120% to try to cover my losses."

These same guys that have had Main Street bent over the barrel, slapping us in the face with the cock of outsourcing and donkey-punching us with stagnant wages now want us to pay the bill for this date rape.

Wall Street to a crying Main Street, skirt torn and dirty: "Hey, sorry I punched you in the fucking mouth, called you a 'whiner', and then ass-raped you in the alley behind the restaraunt I told you we'd eat at. Who am I kidding? I'm not sorry for that. I actually ended up taking Congress out to dinner, Main Street. Yeah - I know you're bleeding, but I need you to pay for my date with Congress. Yeah, and you better pay right now or things will get fucking awful."

Fuck them. No matter what there's going to be pain - bailout or no. There was a bailout during the Great Depression and the Depression still happened. Fuck these assholes. Let them all lie in the bed they've made. Let the chips fall where they may and we'll just have to deal with the fallout.

We don't even know if the bailout will help. This is the actual consensus of the economic intelligensia. They admit it. How did they come up with $700 billion as the pricetag for this bailout? Just a guess...

Grrrarrrr! I could just scream. Nah - I'll go shooting instead.

Hilda Makeover

Things have been busy lately, hence the lack of posts.

Anyway - I recently completed a project to take my SKS off of it's original wooden body and stock and replace it with a Tapco Fusion system. And what a difference it's made.

I now have a pistol grip, composite body, stock, and magazine, as well as a telescoping stock and rail for mounting a sight. It now no longer looks like an antique. I have a shoulder strap and the pistol grip has a stash.

It took me about three hours to complete. Before you laugh, keep in mind this was the first ever gunsmithing of any kind I have ever undertaken. In terms of understanding how to do it, the Y00Tube video I linked you to above is very helpful.

I should mention that the strap was bought seperate from the Fusion system (for about $10). All told, the bill came out to $120 with shipping. I would link you to the Tapco site, but it seems to be down at the moment. [edit] Tapco site is back up. Here's a direct link to the kit I bought.[/edit]

I ended up removing my bayonet. Hopefully one day I'll replace it with a bipod.

Tomorrow morning I'm going out to Barboursville to try it out. I'll post on how that goes. This will be the kids' second time out to the range.

Stockpile Progress

I had to scale down on some of my stockpile goals. It's just too much money. I may get there over the long term, but in the short term I have accepted the following goals:

COMPLETED:

Remington 870 Express Pump Shotgun
SKS Assault Rifle
GP-100 Ruger .357 Magnum Revolver

300 rounds .38 special
50 rounds .357 magnum
360 rounds 7.62mm x 39 FMJ
500 rounds .22 cal rimfire (fer critter & bird hunting)

INCOMPLETE:

Shotgun Loader Kit
Gunpowder (qty?)
Shot (qty?)
Other Loading Supplies (qty?)

100 rounds 12 gague 3 in 00 buckshot (have 30)
50 rounds 12 gague 3 in slugs (have 5)

3 Heirloom Apple Trees to plant in Barboursville (have 0)
high quality non-folding blade knife

Financially this puts me nearly 3/4 of the way there. I'm probably going to a gun show in Richmond soon, so maybe I can find some deals on ammo, a knife, and maybe even a loader kit and loading supplies.

In With the New

I have recently replaced Harry with a new revolver. See below:

Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum Revolver
Reliability:	Very High
Accuracy:	Good (as pistols go)
Stopping Power:	High firing .357 mag, Moderate to Low firing .38
Time to Fire:	Low
Ammunition Commonality:	.357 is Somewhat Common, .38 special is Common
Simplicity:	Very Simple
Ammunition Capacity:	Low (6 rnds)
Manageability:	.357 round is Moderate while .38 is very manageable

Of course I'll get out there and shoot this bad boy ASAP and let you know what the deal is in terms of its accuracy. I'm hopeful.

The grip on this revolver is especially comfortable. It just fits well in my hand (I have big hands) and the rubberizing is very nice.

I'll wait util the accuracy results are in before I name this one. I don't want to get attached to it, only to have to trade it in like I did with Harry.

Harry's Out

So I'm going to Ye Olde Gun Shoppe today to trade in my Taurus .357 Magnum Snubbed Nose Revolver in favor of something else. Another .357, more than likely. I'll just pass on the snubbed nose this time.

Other stuff on my list as I build my "Oh, shit!" st0ckpile:

• 1 box 12 gauge 3" OO buckshot
• 1 box 12 gauge 3" slug
• 1 box .22 cal standard
• 1 box 7.62mm x 39
• Ruger 10/22 Rimfire rear sight (to repair my step-Dad's rifle)
• 2 lbs dried green lentil beans
• 2 sets earplugs

My kids live with me during the school year and visit their Mom every other weekend. During the summer they live with her and visit me every other weekend. Anyway, the next time they're with me for the weekend we're going to go out to Barboursville and shoot a bit. This will be their first time ever holding a real gun.

I'm going to break them in on the same Ruger 10/22 Rimfire my step-Dad used to let us shoot. It's a little .22 cal rifle that's a great intro gun for those who have never shot a gun before. It has a 10 shot magazine, is light weight and has just about zero kick.

I'll also teach them the same strict gun safety that my Dad taught me. It's pretty simple, really:

• Never, ever, ever point a weapon at someone you don't intend to kill.
• When there's a man down range keep your weapon trained on the sky.
• Never look down the barrel of a gun unless that gun is disassembled. (Sad that such a rule must be stated, yes, but a whole bunch of people are killed in such accidents every year)
• If you are not shooting, the safety on your weapon will be engaged.
• If no one is down range and you are not shooting, your weapon will be trained on the ground, slightly ahead of you, and down range.
• When holding your weapon and not firing it, your finger is not to rest on the trigger regardless of the state of the safety on that weapon.
• No goofing off of any kind for any reason. None whatsoever. No excuses. No second chances.

Preparing for the Squeeze

It's all going to hell and probably faster than even I would like to consider. I'm the kind of guy with his eyes open, too. I just don't see anything encouraging.

The fundamentals are all screwed. We're mismanaging the land, our water, global warming, our national defense, our infrastructure, our education, and our economic base.

Every place I've ever worked has featured multiple (not just one, but multiple) managers with college degrees that were barely literate. These guys made much more money than I did and they wrote unintelligible emails. Emails that my ten year old daughter would have been embarrassed to send.

I'm not talking about a misspelling here and there. Hell, we all do that (although with spell checking I can't imagine why). I mean that these guys wrote emails that featured strings of alphanumeric characters which bore no resemblance to complete thoughts, let alone sentences. These are managers! Managers! They are supposedly our leaders and examples.

I don't need to get into the environmental stuff. At this point if you aren't on board with this notion you're an imbecile or you're on Chevron's payroll.

Everyone remembers the bridge that collapsed out of the blue in Minnesota and the tunnel collapse in Boston. Now there are cranes collapsing in New York. I read this Popular Mechanics article that made my toes curl. Popular Mechanics tries to look at this crisis in the best light possible, citing technology as our possible savior. I have to say that it takes will and people and dollars to apply technology. Where is the will and where are the dollars that will bring the people who will apply the technology?

I don't see them.

A staggering statistic from that article:

"One-quarter of the 599,893 bridges in the United States have structural problems or outdated designs."

That's 149,973 bridges in need of replacement or repairs. I could tick off three in my hometown alone that make me nervous. And that's just the ones I've noticed casually passing them by.

On national defense - every source from within the military will tell you our military is at its lowest state of readiness since before WW II (back when we basically had no military). Regardless of where you stand on why we got into Iraq or if we should have or if the public was lied to in the lead up there is one fact that stands undeniable:

Our military and our nation are being bled dry in Iraq. We are losing the lives of our valiant men and women in uniform and for what? For freedom and democracy in Iraq? Don't make me laugh. An altruistic invasion to spread democracy at bayonet-point? Really?

People keep comparing Iraq to Vietnam and I tell them they're wrong. While there are some similarities to America's involvement in Vietnam, our struggle in Iraq is much more like the Soviet Union's struggle in Afghanistan which started in 1979.

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan for murky reasons and ended up running 40 divisions through that meat grinder. This is what defeated the Soviets, not Reagan or Bush the Elder. The Soviets were economically and thus militarily ruined in Afghanistan due to a low grade insurgency like the one we're experiencing in Iraq and the one the French experienced in Algeria in the late 50's and early 60's.

We're bleeding out in Iraq. Our budget has massive defecits and here's the kicker, kids:

We aren't even counting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into the regular budget. They've been entirely funded by emergency supplemental spending which isn't factored into the budget and therefore wouldn't show up in any deficit numbers.

In short, as bad as you think the nation's budgetary crisis is - it is in fact much, much worse.

That is why, no matter what you think about our nation's War on Terror, we must withdrawl from Iraq. We simply cannot afford to continue. Despite what you think about our nation's treasury it is not a limitless treasure trove. If it were only empty there might be some hope.

Sadly our treasury is full to the rafters. It is not full with money or gold or reserves of any kind. No, our treasury is full of debt. Our treasury is, as of this moment, so bankrupt that only the continued denial of this obvious reality on the part of our creditors allows us to keep up our illusions of power and wealth. We are less than poor. We are absolutely destitute.

With no manufacturing base left we stand little hope of reversing this trend. During the Great Depression we were still a mighty manufacturing nation - our factories just stood silent, all full of potential jobs. Now these factories in many cases have literally been packaged up and shipped overseas. They simply aren't present any more.

We can't all work in high end service jobs like information technology. Somebody, somewhere has to actually make something in order for our economy to function. This isn't happening.

The thing that really scares me is this - it may be coming faster than I can prepare for it. I may not be able to complete my preparations for these hard times to come before they arrive.

Solidarity!

I've found that a friend of mine seems to share my thoughts on the potential for gridcrash. At least it would seem so based upon the brief email exchange we had. He may be coming with my brother and I on our Hike-n-Shoot* on June 8th. If not, then we're sure to get together for a beer soon to mill over the topic.

Also, my wife just read the book Peak Oil Survival by Aric McBay (linked in the Required Reading section to the right). That's a good thing. I'd hate to think that if anything happened to me that all of the survival-type knowledge in our family would go with me. She seemed to find it an interesting read.

My brother and I also may have made some headway on getting her to come out and shoot with us. Not sure how the logistics of that would work (with the kids), but it's encouraging that she's at least opening up to the idea.

* Hike-n-Shoot: A morning of backpack hiking in the mountains followed by an afternoon spent target shooting in Barboursville. An event we will be doing every other week.

Armament Complete

I bought a used revolver the other day. It's a Taurus .357 magnum snub nosed. Why a .357 revolver, you ask? Well, let's evaluate based on the parameters in The Survivor's Guide to Firearm Evaluation:

.357 Magnum Snub Nosed Revolver
Reliability:	Very High
Accuracy:	Good up to 50', degrades quickly after that
Stopping Power:	High firing .357 mag, Moderate to Low firing .38
Time to Fire:	Low
Ammunition Commonality:	.357 is Common, .38 special is Common
Simplicity:	Very Simple
Ammunition Capacity:	Low (5 rnds)
Manageability:	.357 round is Moderate while .38 is very manageable

The big selling point on this pistol, to me, was two-fold: Reliability and Versatility. The revolver in general is a very reliable weapon type while the .357 revolver has the added bonus of being able to fire two different types of fairly common ammunition - versatility.

I bought my pistol (a Taurus .357 Snub Nosed Revolver) used for $309. Given the prices around here, that wasn't a bad deal. Now I'm done on firearm purchases. In keeping with my stupid tradition of naming my firearms, I have dubbed this revolver Harry (after Dirty Harry, of course).

As far as the Accuracy evaluation above goes, I'll admit that I am guessing. I haven't fired the weapon yet, but I have to imagine that the snubbed nose on this weapon would reduce it's accuracy at any sort of range. I'll test it and let you know for sure, though.

The Basic Plan

This will be the first time I’ve written down plans that I’ve been brewing in my head for quite some time. I’ll be totally honest about my preparations and what’s done or not. I’ll start this off in very rough outline form for this entry and then flesh it out as time goes on.

This plan is to cover the eventuality of a rapid collapse or a major emergency. The idea is to get out of the urban center in which I live and get out to Barboursville (my chosen Evacuation Destination).

(*) = not done

The Basic Plan

1. Everyone heads home immediately – no side trips
1. Detail who gets who. Do not assume anything.
2. Upon arrival home we gather emergency packs and bring them to the front door
1. Each person has their own pre-packed backpack (*)
2. Each person’s backpack is in their closet(*)
3. Each car has an emergency pack(*)
4. Gather camping gear and bring to front door
1. In my closet
5. Gather emergency food and bring it to front door
1. 5 gal. dried lentils
2. Non-hybrid garden seeds
3. 5 gal other dried food(*)
6. Gather weapons and distribute
1. Me
1. Cletus – loaded with safety engaged
2. Hilda – loaded with safety engaged
2. Son
1. Harry(*) - loaded with safety engaged
7. Gather Ammunition and bring to front door
8. Load Gear Into Cars
1. One person stays armed and alert, on lookout
2. Load People into Cars
1. Detail who will ride in what car in advance so there are no arguments or confusion.
9. Drive To Evacuation Destination (Barboursville, in my case)
1. My car in front
2. Route:
1. Directions Here
10. Evacuation Destination Arrival
1. Unpack Gear
2. If No Electricity Setup Hand Crank Radio – Monitor for News
3. Take Stock
1. Is everyone OK?
2. Anyone missing?
3. Anything missing?
4. What family members have not arrived?
5. What supplies are lacking for the immediate future?
11. Formulate Immediate Plan
1. The Immediate Plan addresses the aforementioned items as follows:
   
   1. Is everyone OK?
   1. If no – administer first aid as needed
   2. Anyone missing?
      1. Where are they? Are they able to get out to Barboursville?
   3. Anything missing?
   1. If critical – how to replace?
   4. What family members have not arrived?
   1. Get in contact if possible
   5. What supplies are lacking for the immediate future?
   1. How to acquire?
2. Formulate this plan quickly
12. Enact Immediate Plan
1. It is called an Immediate Plan for a reason
2. From the time when you arrived to the time you enact the Immediate Plan should be no more than 5 minutes.
3. If the plan calls for a trip somewhere, send no more than two people out