2010
8
Feb
2010
8
Feb
Before we start, I would like to thank Paul for donating his copy of the "Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course" - now if I could get more readers to donate books and other related preparedness products for review I'd be set.
I admit being a little surprised when I opened the package. I was surprised that the "book" was nothing but 200 plus pages of 20 bound 8.5×11 copy paper printed on one side.
At first I thought Paul had simply sent a copy of the book, which would have been fine with me - but after doing more research, I quickly realized that this is the configuration as shipped from the publisher.
One thing is certain; The Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course, isn't short on wasted space or paper. By printing on both sides of the paper, length could have been cut in half. Font size is also larger than needed as is spacing between lines.
With proper editing and formatting the 200 or so pages, of The Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course could easily be reduced to less than 100. To be honest if I had paid the asking price of $149.95, plus $12 shipping for this "course" I would have felt violated, ripped off and lied to.
As for the quality and usefulness of the information, I didn't see anything dangerous or out of line, but I didn't see anything extraordinary either. Just an overblown shopping list for a trip to Costco with tidbits of information that can easily be found for free on the web.
Don't get me wrong Rawles has some good information on his web site and his other book "How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It" at $11.47 is much better. My advice is, stay clear of The Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course - if you're a Rawles groupie, I suggest his other book instead.
Have you read The Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course? What did you think? Was it worth the asking price?
"This may not be the latest post! Check out The Survivalist Blog dot Net to see if you're missing anything."
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2010
8
Feb
It looks like James Talmage Stevens author of the popular preparedness book Making The Best of Basics, has started blogging over at the Family Preparedness Guide go on over and take a look at what they have to offer.
"This may not be the latest post! Check out The Survivalist Blog dot Net to see if you're missing anything."
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2010
8
Feb
Hey, just want to tell you that was a nice, well written article on bug-out radios (which also applies to retreat radios). It wasn't so far in depth as to lose people and wasn't too high level to be useless. Honestly, it was just right.
At my retreat, we chose to use FRS radios. The reasons were:
1) You can get them real cheap right now used on eBay. The price for used FRS is so low, its easy to buy extras to cover possible breakages. We also all got the same model, so we're compatible for parts.
2) Since this retreat is under 100 acres, we didn't need the range of GMRS. FRS covers our entire retreat, plus the neighboring properties we collaborate with on security. Keeping the range down is better for OPSEC and extends battery life.
3) We did pick up a pair of GMRS/FRS base stations to run in our TOC. One is kept on the FRS "channel of the day" we use at the retreat, the other is set to scan GMRS/FRS channels for radio chatter in our area. They can also be used to communicate with neighbors outside the FRS range. We also keep a CB in the TOC for that purpose.
It may sound like we are going to be radio-chatty, but it's far from the truth. We're all ex-military and have OPSEC drilled into our heads. We have a dozen surplus field phones that will actually be our primary comms to our OP/LPs and immediate neighbors (with an old surplus SB22 switchboard in the TOC tying them all together). The radios are only for when a field phone isn't available (such as when patrolling), or if things suddenly "go tactical". And even then the cadre is already well drilled in only broadcasting when necessary and using brevity codes.
The one problem we haven't solve yet is battery recharging. It's simple if you're talking one or two radios, such as in a bug-out situation like your article described (there are good portable solar chargers available). But in the case where you've got a full cadre, with all adults carrying a radio on their belt, with TOC base stations running 24x7, and with other devices also needing batteries (AA's for night vision, D's for field phones, etc.), you can imagine how the small 4-battery solar chargers aren't nearly enough.
What we need is a design for a large-volume battery charger that runs off full-sized solar panels. The design should:
1) Hold 18-24 batteries for simultaneous charging.
2) Charge all batteries in under 10 hours, thus completing the charge in one day.
Problem is:
1) What size solar panel?
2) What electronics are needed to first step down the solar panel's power to charge 1.5 volt batteries, and second to control potential over-charging?
With this design, retreats can build one, two, or more of these recharging arrays … depending on the number of 1.5 volt batteries they need recharged in a given day.
It'd be great if you would put this out to your readers as a challenge. There's bound to be a smart electrical engineer out there who can design it for us and let you post the design on your web site. I put this same challenge to "the other survival site" last fall, but never got a response. I think it would help out a lot of folks.
Last thing, it might be good to mention to your readers that the privacy codes available on most FRS radios don't actually hide your chatter. They actually filter out everyone else's chatter on that channel who isn't set to your privacy code, so you don't hear them. It does nothing to "privatize" your own broadcasts. If someone sets their privacy code to "0" (no privacy code), they will hear all chatter on that channel, regardless if the others have a privacy code set.
Well again, good article on Bug Out Radios! Appreciate it if you would put the large-volume solar battery charger challenge out to your readers … let's see what they come up with.
Cheers,
Paul
"This may not be the latest post! Check out The Survivalist Blog dot Net to see if you're missing anything."
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2010
8
Feb
This was sent by a reader, I found it amusing - may be you will too.
New AR-15 assault rifles for the department $1,500.00 each.
Training time $100.00 per officer.
Picture on front page of the local paper with the female officer standing in full view, not using any cover, and with the magazine in backwards......PRICELESS!
New AR-15 assault rifles for the department $1,500.00 each.
Training time $100.00 per officer.
Picture on front page of the local paper with the female officer standing in full view, not using any cover, and with the magazine in backwards......PRICELESS!
"This may not be the latest post! Check out The Survivalist Blog dot Net to see if you're missing anything."
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2010
8
Feb
The East coast mid-Atlantic states got a helluva snow storm this past weekend. Some places got over thirty inches of the ugly white stuff. And they are to get more this Tuesday. If you read The Ornery Bastard you can get a view of a Safeway store that has been hit with anxious shoppers in the storm area. Pretty dismal picture. But Busted Knuckles put those store pictures in the blog for a reason. It is for you to get a glimpse of what is gong to happen when the collapse comes. The scatter brained American public is going to panic and the stores will be empty IN A FLASH. And this is just for a snow storm. When the word gets out that there has been an economic collapse, all stores everywhere will be emptied. And if you get there in time to get some supplies, you might not get them through the parking lot and get them into your car. There will be people of no money or very little money out in the parking lot that will take them from you. This puts you in the position of having less money and no supplies. It may put you in the hospital or the morgue. The people of this country are on edge, big time. And when they get pushed to the edge they will push back on whomever is in their way. This is a fact and not a theory. I got on the lists and forums after Katrina and it was survival of the fittest, jungle rules, for a lot of people. I read about this one young couple who had a old man Grandfather who was a bit of a prepper. He has the fuel in a shed out behind his house that would get him to Dallas, Texas, and the home of a good friend. Their story of how they made it to Dallas from their home North of New Orleans was very interesting. Twice when they were pulled over to put fuel from one of their cans into the truck tank, they had to show their pistols to keep others at bay. And this was a few miles North of their home. At least a five gallon can's worth.
But politeness and manners and just plain old consideration for others will be a rare event. The order of the day will be "grab and run" or just shoot and walk at your leisure. Any physical damage will be doubly bad for your continued existence. Medical help and assistance may be non-existent. Those people will be trying to keep body and soul together just like everyone else in town. You catch a ball bat to the head or the back and you could be messed up forever.
The thing we are talking about here is OPTIONS. One option is giving yourself the luxury of not having to go to the store. If you have a years supply of food then you don't have to go to slaughterhouse of the big box store or the supermarket. You just go to your pantry and select what you want for the day from you personal stocks. It may be chicken salad instead of pate de foi gras but it will be tasty enough and it will keep you alive. Pretty neat option. don't you think? Just don't forget to have plenty of sweet pickles on hand to sparkle up your chicken salad. Pickles are pretty much on a lot of things we eat besides hamburgers. You can't have Tartar Sauce without pickles. If you will be catching fish for your diet it might be happiness to have pickles.
An alternative water source besides what the municipality provides may be a good idea. It is an option that most people outside the prepper community never think about. The Handmaiden is wanting to get a water filter for home use and it may be a damn good idea. One of those Berky things will take care of us. You can't make it without good drinking water. If it is disease laden then you will be disease ladened also. And medical help may be hard to come by. But having good water to drink is NOT an option. You gotta have it. No way around it. If it has to come from boiling creek water then you got to do it. Some how, some way, the water has to be made drinkable.
Obama is a city dude, plain and simple. And he has money. He does not understand people who have to burn wood for heating and cooking. But here in the backwoods of Indiana we under stand wood heat very well. It is just part of life. And we understand saving ashes for the roads when they get icy and slick. You get your first lesson on burning wood when you are a kid and your mother, and then you, make smores. Yum. Especially if you have chocolate bits to put on them. Then you graduate to really GOOD food and start roasting hotdogs on a stick. We all know that hotdogs contain everything but the squeal from a pig but that smokey flavor sure does make that salty pork taste something wonderful. Somehow we survive the ravages of hotdogs and graduate up to a spit and turning a whole or half a hog for a Saturday picnic for the whole village. I've cooked so many hogs over an open fire I can't think of the number but I can think of how good they were. I did a lot of lambs too, and some big slabs of beef, from back in the day when we could afford such things. But we have that option and the city boys don't. The amount of venison I have roasted on a pit is in the tons. Hard to hunt them in the city. When the electricity goes out we just build a fire. Iron skillets and Dutch Ovens become our utensils. We have the option of a wood fire. The city slickers don't. The will get hungry real fast living their little "rat in a maze" life and come looking for your fire and your meat. Remember that old Simon and Garfunkel song? "Like a rat in a maze, the path before me lies. And the pattern never alters until the rat dies." Your job is to get out of the maze and create your own set of options. That is really what prepping is all about. Having enough options to choose from that will take you through a bad time with relative ease. And to stay alive.
Michael
mboone@rtccom.net
But politeness and manners and just plain old consideration for others will be a rare event. The order of the day will be "grab and run" or just shoot and walk at your leisure. Any physical damage will be doubly bad for your continued existence. Medical help and assistance may be non-existent. Those people will be trying to keep body and soul together just like everyone else in town. You catch a ball bat to the head or the back and you could be messed up forever.
The thing we are talking about here is OPTIONS. One option is giving yourself the luxury of not having to go to the store. If you have a years supply of food then you don't have to go to slaughterhouse of the big box store or the supermarket. You just go to your pantry and select what you want for the day from you personal stocks. It may be chicken salad instead of pate de foi gras but it will be tasty enough and it will keep you alive. Pretty neat option. don't you think? Just don't forget to have plenty of sweet pickles on hand to sparkle up your chicken salad. Pickles are pretty much on a lot of things we eat besides hamburgers. You can't have Tartar Sauce without pickles. If you will be catching fish for your diet it might be happiness to have pickles.
An alternative water source besides what the municipality provides may be a good idea. It is an option that most people outside the prepper community never think about. The Handmaiden is wanting to get a water filter for home use and it may be a damn good idea. One of those Berky things will take care of us. You can't make it without good drinking water. If it is disease laden then you will be disease ladened also. And medical help may be hard to come by. But having good water to drink is NOT an option. You gotta have it. No way around it. If it has to come from boiling creek water then you got to do it. Some how, some way, the water has to be made drinkable.
Obama is a city dude, plain and simple. And he has money. He does not understand people who have to burn wood for heating and cooking. But here in the backwoods of Indiana we under stand wood heat very well. It is just part of life. And we understand saving ashes for the roads when they get icy and slick. You get your first lesson on burning wood when you are a kid and your mother, and then you, make smores. Yum. Especially if you have chocolate bits to put on them. Then you graduate to really GOOD food and start roasting hotdogs on a stick. We all know that hotdogs contain everything but the squeal from a pig but that smokey flavor sure does make that salty pork taste something wonderful. Somehow we survive the ravages of hotdogs and graduate up to a spit and turning a whole or half a hog for a Saturday picnic for the whole village. I've cooked so many hogs over an open fire I can't think of the number but I can think of how good they were. I did a lot of lambs too, and some big slabs of beef, from back in the day when we could afford such things. But we have that option and the city boys don't. The amount of venison I have roasted on a pit is in the tons. Hard to hunt them in the city. When the electricity goes out we just build a fire. Iron skillets and Dutch Ovens become our utensils. We have the option of a wood fire. The city slickers don't. The will get hungry real fast living their little "rat in a maze" life and come looking for your fire and your meat. Remember that old Simon and Garfunkel song? "Like a rat in a maze, the path before me lies. And the pattern never alters until the rat dies." Your job is to get out of the maze and create your own set of options. That is really what prepping is all about. Having enough options to choose from that will take you through a bad time with relative ease. And to stay alive.
Michael
mboone@rtccom.net
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2010
8
Feb
Subtitle: A Demonica Novel
Author: Larissa Ione
Genre: Paranormal Romance
ISBN: 978-0-446-55682-8
Publisher: Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Suggested Retail Price: $6.99
From the cover:
Lore is a Seminus half-breed demon who has been forced to act as his dark master's assassin. Now to earn his freedom and save his sister's life, he must complete one last kill. Powerful and ruthless, he'll stop at nothing to carry out this deadly mission.
Idess is an earthbound angel with a wild side sworn to protect the human Lore is targeting. She's determined to thwart her wickedly handsome adversary by any means necessary - even if that means risking her vow of etermal chastity. But what begins as a simple seduction soon turns tinto a passion that leaves both angel and demon craving complete surrender.
Torn between duty and desire, Lore and Idess must join forces as they battle their attraction for each other. Because an enemy from the past is rising again - one hellbent on vengeance and unthinkable destruction.
********************
Ecstasy Unveiled is the fourth book in the Demonica series coming after Pleasure Unbound, Desire Unchained and Passion Unleashed. It easily stands on its own as a romance novel so don't worry if you haven't read the other three books yet.
Ecstasy Unveiled is the best of two worlds. It's a really hot romance and a fantastically captivating science fiction read. The men are always sexy and the action is fast building so you're hooked to the very last page.
Idess is the typical good girl heroine who falls for the bad boy demon, Lore. Lore, a Seminus demon, needs sex to survive and of course, Idess, an angel is supposed to be chaste and innocent. Lore has to make one final kill in order to be free from his Master and Idess is sworn to protect the man Lore is set on killing.
I really liked this book because it doesn't portray Idess as a helpless female. She's tough and can stand on her own to feet even if she is an angel. She's beautiful and powerful and makes a great match for Lore. The author has done a fantastic job with this book & I cannot wait to get Larissa Ione's other books!
Ecstasy Unveiled
can be purchased at Amazon.My thanks to Larissa Ione and The Hatchette Book Group for allowing me to review this book.
As required by the FTC: I received one book in order to write my review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
2010
8
Feb
Book Title: Love & War
Subtitle: Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of
Author: John and Stasi Eldredge
Genre: Relationships/Christianity
ISBN: 978-0-385-52980-8
Publisher: Doubleday Religion
Suggested Retail Price: $22.99
From the book's cover:
What the Eldredge bestsellers Wild at Heart did for men, and Captivating did for women, LOVE & WAR will do for married couples everywhere. John and Stasi Eldredge have contributed the quintessential works on Christian spirituality through the experience of men and the experience of women and now they turn their focus to the incredible dynamic between those two forces.
With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they’ve gained from the challenges they faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they’ve learned, giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic. They begin LOVE & WAR with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement: Marriage is fabulously hard. They advise that the sooner we get the shame and confusion off our backs, the sooner we'll find our way through.
LOVE & WAR shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their individual journeys are growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.
**********************
In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd bring you a book about love.
I hadn't read any of the Eldredge's books before so I was very glad to see that this book doesn't require that you've read any of their previous books. Romance meets reality. That's one of my favorite sayings in the book. Marriage is hard. That's another one. Actually this book is full of favorite sayings. Little bits of wisdom that convey oceans of understanding. It's normal for marriages to be hard. Even good marriages.
God created marriage and put desire in our hearts and he cares about our marriage. The Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve. It wasn't very long until they encountered problems though just like we do. The snake convinces Adam and Eve that they cannot trust God and the problems begin. The Eldredges write about that marriage of love in the middle of a battlefield.
Love & War shows us that our marriages are much like that. God gives us love but there is still a battle to be fought. As the Eldredges explain, in the beginning many of us think that our story will be something like "Love God, love each other, and it'll all work out". Another quote from the book is "Marriage is a rushing stream God uses to shape us into more loving people." I think that sums up what marriage is really all about much better that the first quote.
The Eldredges show couples how to fight for their marriage by travelling with them through their marriage and its ups and downs. Love & War is loaded with personal stories that I could so relate to. I love that they don't try to come off as perfect examples of how to have a perfect marriage. They each have their own little idiosincracies and annoying habbits.
This is not a self help book. There are no steps you need to follow to find the perfect marriage. It's not a preachy book either. Yes, it's a Christian book but the tone is so casual that it doesn't come off as preaching or lecturing which is extremely important to me.
If you're married, you need to read this. If you're thinking about getting married, you need to read this. You'll probably want to re-read it several times as you go through your own personal battlefield.
Love & War by John & Stasi Eldredge can be purchased at WaterBrookMultnoman.com
My thanks to WaterBrookMultnomah.com for allowing me to review this book.
As required by the FTC: I received one copy of this book in order to write my review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
2010
8
Feb
More behind-the-scenes dealings among TPTB, no doubt to discuss the next part of the agenda.
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Secret summit of top bankers | News.com.au: "THE world's top central bankers began arriving in...
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2010
8
Feb
The Devaluation and Fight for Survival of the American Middle Class – How Three Decades has Shifted the Concentration of Financial Wealth to the top 1 Percent: "The American middle class ideal is...
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