Sunday, February 3, 2008

Survival trading with the Amish

[The Handmaiden speaks. I turned her on to the Amish and to Sally Fallon. She has gone way beyond my expectations. She has a knack for getting to know people.]

About 6 months ago, the Gruff Lord (Michael, the blog-owner to you) suggested that we get some of our produce from the Amish--good, organic, natural produce. So an older gentleman in our community, Fred, and I began to go to an Amish farm so we could purchase fresh, raw milk, free-range chicken eggs, farm-raised bacon and any other goodies that these kindly folks were willing to part with for agreed-upon prices.

It’s been a wonderful thing. The milk, butter, eggs, meat are tasty, fresh, and healthy. Not only that, but Lydia and Joaz sell them to us for much less than we would have to pay in any local organic grocery store. We know, we’ve priced it.

Joaz and Lydia have kept their farm free of chemicals--insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers--for the required three years. This year, they can begin to sell their produce as officially organic. In a nearby town, a new food coop has opened, the Lost River Community Coop, that sells predominantly organic produce. So they have a great market for their home-grown veggies, besides us and all the other “English” who drive out to buy the produce.

Slowly but surely, people are becoming aware that standard American food products are rotten and poisonous--full of chemicals and nearly totally lacking nutrition. Turns out “junk food” is more junk than it is food. And that includes ALL processed foods.

Fresh milk that could be full of enzymes is pasteurized, thus killing all of the health-giving enzymes. So why bother drinking it? Same with butter--but even worse than butter is the pack of chemicals that food companies came up with to surplant natural butter--all the “I can’t believe it's not butter” crap. This kind of “food” not only fills you up with chemicals which will eventually kill you, it gives you nearly nothing nutritionally. A modern American can be fatter than one of Joaz’ pigs, and yet have malnutrition. Only in America!

Both Fred and I have studied Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook, but also an entire course on traditional nutrition in itself. A person can spend hours reading Nourishing Traditions and learn everything he needs to know about nutrition. Those of us in the Sally Fallon school want a traditional 19th century diet of natural, wholesome, healthy foods.

Which is why Fred and I go and buy our goodies from the Amish.

If you are fortunate enough to live near Amish farms, you might want to take a drive out to their neck of the farming lands and see what kind of trade, barter or purchase you can arrange for these good natural foods. We have found the Amish to be wonderful people, kind, good-humored, hard-working. The children are polite, helpful and fun to be around. As we have gotten to know Joaz and Lydia and their kids a bit better, we find we are doing small things for them--research on the web, print-outs of this and that, information about the evil NAIS bill--and they do small things for us--toss in a pound of bacon for free. A friendship gets established. Connection and relationships. These are good things to have when TSHTF. It isn’t all guns. It’s also butter. If you don’t already have your own cows and goats and small farm, get your good butter from the Amish.

More on this topic as I find the time.
Handmaiden

Links:
Nourishing Traditions http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735

Sally Fallon http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/articles/p148.htm

Weston Price Foundation http://www.westonaprice.org/
(Check out the whole website)

SURVIVAL SUNDAY MORNING

It's Sunday morning and I am up before the wife, as usual, and thinking about things. One of the things I am thinking about is J.W.Rawles statement that Prophecy went away from us with the last of the Apostles. What a huge dose of malarky! To think that God has left us with no word is just about as defeated an attitude as I could envision. Where do these little small-minded ideas come from? It's pathetic.

God has not left the human family but rather the human family has left HIM. But I will tell you this. I pray to no man. I pray to the Father. If there is any help for us poor humans it is with the Father. He only has immortality. He only knows the date of the fullfilment of the prophecies of old. He is the key to the whole deal and he can help you survive the coming tribulation. And true prophecy is not gone. Far from it. There is a shortage of it right now but that is because it is a special time when things are being prepared.

I am a survivalist for many reasons and one of them is a question. "Who can make war with the Beast?" Hah! I'll give old Beastie a few rounds anytime he shows his ugly face. I might not be the deciding fighter but I can still squeeze off a few shots. I don't believe the propaganda of the Beast. He ain't invisible and bulletproof. He goes down just like regular folks when hit with a properly aimed round.

I saw an advertisment for Ragnar Benson's book on Urban Survival this morning. Now I don't know who Ragnar Benson is and I don't know where he lives , but I can tell you that anyone who talks about surviving in an urban setting is not hitting on all cylinders. Or else he is trying to make a quick buck off the poor hapless folks before they turn in their right-to-live cards The great urban settlements of America will become the great killing zones of the tribulation to come. Get out of town, says the Michael. When the trouble starts the denizens of urban America will become pieces of meat hanging in a butcher shop. GET OUT OF THE CITIES!

How plain does it have to be spoken? The cities are doomed. And that means the urban sprawl around them is doomed also. The supermarkets aren't going to work any more. Wally World will be empty. The police and fire departments are going to cease to exist. Medical assistance will be non-existant. Your commodes won't flush anymore. The water taps in your home will be dry. If you have any food it will become a target of opportunity for freebooters. The cities will become a den of rats. The televison you all love so well will be silent and dead. But a lot of you will never make it out. And you will become victims of poor thinking. I can't help that. I can offer help and advice but you have to listen or it is for naught.

If you trust the word of any government then you have not been paying attention to the world for the last few decades. Governments are for the survival of governments, not the poor dumb pukes who feed them tax money. Come election time the candidates are all full of talk about the importance of voters and the necessity of lowering taxes. But the day after the election it is back to business as usual. They cheated the electorate again. They got the line of BS over to the public once more.

The ignorance of the voting public in America is almost humorous if it were not so damned dangerous to life and limb. And they fall for the BS election after election after election.

I am reminded of a scene I watched over 30 years ago. A young man had raised a large flock of chickens over the Winter. He must have had almost 300 chickens in his little flock, with about 10% of them roosters. And he had quite a mixture of species. I remember Buff Arpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Domineckers and Leghorns, to name some of them.

And the young man put them to an old barn and put up a chicken fence and the whole flock would get be out in their little chicken yard looking for bugs and other goodies. They had a time.

One peculiar trait of those chickens was the ruse that the roosters used to fertilize the hens. At least it was peculiar to me. A rooster would go around scratching in the earth and looking for bugs. Then he would pull back and crow like crazy. And some little hen would immediately run over to see what the rooster had found that was so appealing. She would figure is was a tasty morsel of food and her head would go down to seek it. As a chickens head goes down, it's butt goes up. That's the way chickens are made. And when that hen's butt would go up in the air that rooster would mount her and give her a good dusting to fertilize her next egg with
his own kind.

The crazy part of the whole ordeal was that the hens fell for this all day long. A rooster never failed to attract a hen to his little game. The hens were eternally locked into falling for the trick. Was I watching the American electorate? I think I was.

Stay alert and stay alive.

Michael

Saturday, February 2, 2008

SURVIVAL OFFHAND SHOOTING

OFFHAND SHOOTING
Offhand shooting is, beyond doubt, the most difficult type of shooting
to do well. It is the most likely to result in your missing your
target. Plain fact is, I am not, and almost certainly you are not
David Tubb and are surely not Carlos Hathcock. It is, however, well
worth your while to learn to do offhand shooting as well as you can
manage. Sometimes, you simply have to bring the rifle to your shoulder
and fire if you are to have any hope whatsoever of shooting your
target.

Competitive shooters who compete in 'offhand' matches typically use a
'shooting jacket' which is intended to support the body and the arms
to provide the most stable shooting platform possible. As I
understand, having never worn one, they are not comfortable nor do
they lend themselves to 'field shooting'. They are designed very
particularly for one purpose, and that is to maximize accuracy for the
shooter in competition.

I will describe the method which works best for me. Others have
different methods, some radically different. If your rifle has a
sling, it will be worth your while to learn to use it correctly. Using
the sling for a shot is intended to place tension on the sling, and
use that tension to build a triangle-bridge between the gun, your off
hand, and the body. In use (I will describe its use for a right handed
shooter), it typically needs to be let out longer than would first
appear, or would be comfortable for carrying the rifle on your
shoulder while tramping through the fields or woods. The method is to
hold the rifle in the right hand, with the sling hanging slack. Place
the left hand, the off hand, through the gap between the rifle and
sling. Then, bring the off hand around so that the sling makes a full
loop around the wrist/forearm.

As you shoulder the rifle, and naturally bring the off hand elbow in
towards the body, if the sling is adjusted properly it will come into
tension as you achieve your shooting stance. If the sling remains
slack, it is too long. Adjust accordingly. If it is so tight that you
cannot comfortably shoulder the weapon and bring the off hand elbow in
towards the body, it is too short. Adjust accordingly.
When you come to your shooting position, the off hand elbow close or
actually resting against the rib cage, the sling should provide good
tension and build a stable bridge between the body and the off hand on
the forend stock. It is, in fact, not a 'relaxed' position, is truly
intended to provide a stressed but stable bridge between the body and
the hand on the forend.

But the above describes what is truly a more advanced technique. Now
that I have jumped ahead of myself, let's backtrack a bit.
If you are going to shoot offhand, you need to choose a rifle with
which you are maximally comfortable. Some people are more comfortable
with a longer, heavier rifle, which can provide some natural stability
by nature of its weight, on the theory that a mass at rest tends to
stay at rest. The mass can resist movement. Further, a 'long polar
moment of intertia' resists angular change.

To better describe this, envision a bar with weights. Place the
weights at the ends of the bar, hold the bar as you would hold a
suitcase, and attempt to rotate your wrist, twisting or 'aiming' the
bar right and left of you. You will find that the bar resists this
movement. Now, place the weights on the bar very close to your hand,
which is again holding the bar like the handle of a suitcase, with the
two weights very close to your forefinger/thumb and to the little
finger. Now again twist/rotate the bar, and you will find that it is
much easier to perform the movement. The bar does not resist the
movement nearly so much as it did when the weights were far removed
from the center of the bar. This phenomenon is referred to as 'polar
moment of inertia'. It is seen in race car design, by placing driver,
engine, transaxle as closely around the center of mass of the car as
possible. This makes changing the direction of the car much easier,
which in race cars which must quickly and often change direction more
easily accomplished, than would a design which placed the engine at
one end and the transaxle at the other.

Regardless, for some shooters, and I often find those shooters to be
powerfully built, this massive rifle provides for their strength and
style a more accurate offhand shot. I am not powerfully built, and
find that a lighter, shorter-barreled rifle to be more amenable to my
strength level and style.

I am not a particularly good offhand shooter. When I am in practice
and using a short, compact, relatively light rifle, I can shoot
perhaps with a 3 minute of angle accuracy. This translates to within
roughly an inch of my point of aim at 30 yards. In real terms, I can
regularly hit a 'regular sized' plastic vitamin bottle at 30 yards.
This presumes a target width of 2 inches, or a bit more. But it has to
be a comfortable rifle. I have a rifle, an air gun in fact, which is
truly massive, probably 15 pounds, very long, and for me, very
difficult to shoot offhand. I can say with truth that I have
difficulty hitting the ground with it, shooting offhand.
Anyway, the point is, if you are going to shoot offhand, find a rifle
with which you are very comfortable.

Take the rifle, unloaded, and verified unloaded, and in a safe
condition. Find a target by eye in a verified safe direction, almost
any discrete object will do, and position yourself as though you were
going to raise the rifle to your shoulder and fire at it. DO NOT FIRE
AT IT.

Close your eyes, and shoulder and aim the rifle. Then open your eyes
and using the sights, see if you are in fact aiming at it. If you are
not aiming directly at it, ADJUST YOUR FEET and again use the sights
to check your aim. Do this until you are dead on when you shoulder the
weapon with eyes closed and aiming with your NATURAL POINT OF AIM
directly at the selected target. Practice this process until you do it
naturally and quickly.

The point of this is to illustrate a point. If you wish to shoot as
accurately as you can offhand, you do your 'gross' and most of the
'fine' aiming BY MOVING YOUR FEET. If you twist your body to bring the
rifle to point of aim, you are imposing an unbalanced and unnatural
strain on your body, the shooting platform, and it will make hitting
your target that much more difficult.

If the rifle you are shooting has a scope on it, turn down the
magnification, if it is a variable scope, to the minimum
magnification. High magnification wildly exaggerates the movements of
the gun, and makes offhand shooting, at least for me, a most difficult
exercise.

I find that I am able to shoot most accurately by taking a stance
where I have a bit more weight on my 'back' foot than on my front. I
shoot right handed. I am most able to shoot accurately by allowing my
left, 'off' elbow to actually rest against the left side of my rib
cage, and I do not 'grip' the rifle with my off hand, but rather use
my palm as a flat rest. This is the method which works best for me. I
would suggest it at a starting point for someone learning to shoot
offhand.

Some people seem to find that actually holding the forend of the rifle
stock with their more or less extended left hand, elbow not supported
by the rib cage, to be more comfortable and accurate. Again, I would
suspect that these are shooters who are more strongly built than for
those who are thin or less strongly built.

Regardless, this leaves out any discussion of sights and their proper
use. I presume that you know, at this point, how to use the sights.
Now, I will make a suggestion about 'non competitive' offhand
shooting. There are no rules. The only consideration is hitting the
target in the most accurate way. If you can get any sort of rest, any
sort of stabilization of your position, use it. If you can lean
against a tree, do so. In the field, it is generally considered that
the standing offhand shot is the most difficult to make accurately.
Then, in the field, you sometimes may kneel or sit with a knee up for
stabilizing the forend, or shoot prone. Depending on your own physical
peculiarities, you may find sitting with a knee up uncomfortable or
even impossible. Use the best position for you that you can. Take
advantage of ANY support or rest that you can. If you have the luxury
of providing a make-do rest from field expedient items, do so. One
note-- do NOT rest the barrel against or on anything. Rest or support
the stock, not the barrel.

Some shooters swear by a piece of gear known as 'shooting sticks',
which are nothing more than a pair of relatively sturdy sticks which
are crossed at the top and placed and held to provide a more stable
forward rest for the forend of the rifle. Cut to proper length, they
can also serve in the sitting and perhaps the kneeling positions. You
can test this method with something as simple as a couple of 1x2
pieces of lumber, or a couple of handy saplings cut to proper length.
Anything that helps, helps. Use any method you can which helps. And I
find, personally, that almost any rest is better than no rest.
As with any and all shooting exercises, good trigger control is
absolutely essential for accuracy, and safety is the prime concern,
ahead of hitting the target..

W.M. Kemp
minutemn@gmail.com

Sittin' around...

I was out on the porch having my first cigarette of the day. It was dark, of course, and it was a really clear sky. Most morning skies have been cloudy of late. Even when it has been bitter cold. As an old logger I have a habit of looking at the sky and seeing what the temperature is gonna be like during the Winter. The problem of Winter logging is when it does not freeze. Unfrozen ground can quickly turn into a quagmire when a skidder is running back and forth across it. Not good. The enviromentalists get all upset about the ruts in the mud. The logger is upset because he knows his skidder is getting double wear and tear while it fights the mud.

It's very nice when you get up in the middle of the night to take a leak and then step outside and look at a clear sky. That means there is no cloud cover holding the heat in on the planet and the ground will be frozen. And frozen ground is the loggers friend. A good cloud cover is a bummer. The ground is going to be covered with snot-like mud that gives way when it even hears a skidder coming. This is the sign of a long day. Just an old trick from an old logger. Don't always work but it gives you something to do.

Sitting out on the porch in the dark of the morning with a clear sky gives you an idea of what it's like to be on a rock hanging in outer space. You see all those other rocks and suns out there and you know you are in a precarious position. If the laws governing the universe are ever broken then we Earthings are in a whole lot of trouble. But we would not be in trouble for long because we would be dead. We would freeze very quickly if we went spinning away from the Sun and we would be incinerated if we went towards it. We used to get up on the morning of the Winter Solstice. We had a place where we all met and we looked in a certain direction for the rising Sun. We didn't worship the Sun but we took that view of the Sun as a sign that God still had the universe under control and we were alright. Comforting.

I have a post from an elderly lady down in Alabama that has the names and the uses of various herbs. You might like to get into studying herbs and seeing what they do or are reputed to do. They grow wild out in our woods and fields.

HERBS YOU CAN GROW

aloe-for burns, etc...

Balm-calms nerves, soothes cuts & stings,fights herpes,repels mosquitoes

celery seed- sheds water weight, lowers BP, reduces cholesterol, diuretic

chamomile- calming agent

cilantro/coriander- prevents infection,relieves arthritis, improves digestion

cayenne- ease pain, digestion, cuts cholesterol

Dill-digestion,ease colic, fights gas

echinacea- fights infection, cold & flue,stimulates immune system

fennel- for gas, digestion, colic, add to salads...DO NOT HARVEST IN WILD
it resembles poison hemlock....grow your own...tastes like licorice

fever few- prevents migraines,for indigestion, grows from root cuttings..
don't grow near plants that require bees for pollinating

garlic- fights infection, heart disease & stroke, helps control diabetes

marsh mallow- relieve coughs, boosts immunity, sooth sore throat.
wild or grow your own

meadowsweet- head aches, reduces fever, controls diarrhea, natural air freshener
has salicin, form of salicylic acid, same as aspirin

peppermint- sore muscles, sinuses, relieves pain

rosemary- prevents cancer (tumors), helps cramps,food preservative, put in your
food to prevent food poisoning.

sage- helps heal wounds, preserves foods, aids digestion, helps control sugar levels

This is how she sent the post and this is how I pass it on to you. Use it for a reference. You might change some of her findings. And BUY AN HERB BOOK. One with pretty photographs that you can use to identify the plants you are looking at. The Handmaiden and I have a few herb books and they really help.

Herbs will become our pharmacy of the future after TEOTWAWKI. I can't get that out as much as it is needed. If the bombs go off then you can kiss CVS and all those guys goodbye. It will be a blessing to have a stash of whatever medication you are taking. But the stash is going to be used up and then what are you going to do?. My diabetic friend is stockpiling as much insulin as he can get his hands on. And syringes also. If he runs out before the pharmaceutical companies get back into gear, he could have a real problem.

Sitting out on the porch in the dark, studying the presence of God, is a marvelous thing. You never know where it is going to take you. You never know what path you will be following.

Stay smart and stay alive.

Michael

Friday, February 1, 2008

SURVIVAL ACCURACY SHOOTING

I will be the first to admit that I am a bit daft on the subject of accuracy shooting. Others of my acquaintance will tell you that, no, he is not 'a bit daft'. He is in fact, plumb crazy about the subject. And, I suppose, I will submit to the majority opinion. That is not something I often do, just for your information. It is my long held personal opinion that if 'everybody thinks that way', or if 'everyone knows it', I will by reflex suspect that it is incorrect. I don't know if the majority has ever been right about much of anything, and I strongly suspect that if 'everyone knows it', very likely it is not important enough to be worth knowing, or it is false.

Regardless, I have long held the opinion that a rifle is to be used to strike things at a distance from me. If I can see something, have a good rifle and a good scope and good ammunition, there is absolutely no excuse for my not being able to put a bullet on it. Otherwise, why have the good rifle, good scope, good ammunition? While it may be theoretically possible to scare a deer to death, it has been my experience that your chances are a lot higher of having it fall dead if you blow through its heart with a chunk of lead traveling very fast, than by having that chunk of lead strike the ground beneath it. Or into the tree next to it. And I'm lazy, I admit it.
Particularly if I'm hungry, I do not want to wound said deer and then be required to chase it through brambles and up and down hills and through creeks and whatever to find it. And presuming that I do find it, I will just have to tote it back. I'll pass, given the opportunity. And this piece is intended to give you the opportunity.

At one point in time, I was relieved of the possession of my weapons. It's a long story, but I did get them back. Anyway, to feed my shooting jones, I would go to the rifle range before hunting season and just hang out. I saw some amazing sights.

I watched grown men with expensive rifles with expensive scopes carry a 5 gallon bucket 50 yards downrange, get on a rest, and fire a round at the bucket. If the round hit the bucket, they considered the rifle 'zeroed', fetched back the bucket, and left, presumably to go hunting.

Judging by the (lack of) skill exhibited in their methods and technique of shooting, and given the laws of chance, they probably stood about as good a chance of hitting their targets as they would with a properly zeroed rifle.

I watched men who were more serious about the effort get on the bench, fire a few rounds, walk the 100 meters to the target frames, tape over holes or put up new targets, walk back disgustedly, adjust their scopes, fire a few more rounds. Repeat. Perhaps several times.

When I observed them to be thoroughly frustrated, I would say 'mind if I shoot a couple of rounds?'Almost always, they would readily agree, giving me their rifle with expressions such as 'damned thing won't shoot', or 'damned thing shoots all over the place'.

After making sure the barrel was not overheated, and with a judicious check of the tightness of the screws which attach metalwork to stock, I would load a round and fire it. Oftentimes, the rifle was ridiculously out of zero. Most scopes are marked with the calibration data, such as 4 clicks to the inch at 100 yards, and I have a fair amount of experience with scopes of various brands and models. So I would mark the point of impact, make a judicious adjustment, fire another round, perhaps make a final tune, then put three rounds within a couple of inches of each other, or better, and give it back. 'Nice piece', I would typically offer.

Typically, they would look through the scope, and if they could see the holes with the scope, would look up in amazement and say 'howinhell you do that?!' Often they would say something like 'sheeit', or something similar, and walk downrange to see it up close.So I would tell them. 'Get on the gun, get it very close to on target on the rest, get comfortable, get loose, get still. Only then put your finger inside the trigger guard. Then very carefully apply pressure to the trigger until it breaks.'This does not mean 'get on target and pull the trigger'. The actual moment the trigger breaks should come as a surprise. 'Pulling the trigger' is not a discrete act. It is a process of feeling the point where the trigger stops with very gentle pressure, while making sure that you are absolutely on target and as absolutely still as you can manage, slowly apply more pressure, carefully maintaining stillness while maintaining the crosshairs on the target until the trigger breaks, firing the round and mildly surprising you simultaneously.

The 'secret' to this is, first, learning how to get on the gun, on the bench or rest, and getting still. This is, truly, a most difficult operation. When I say 'still', that is what I mean. It is easily seen, through good optics on a good rest, how even aside from breathing and heartbeat, the crosshairs will dance around the intended target. It is a conscious act of will to use those dancing crosshairs and feedback to gently slow the dance and shrink the distance they cover. As you get better at this, and the better and more powerful your optics are, you will see how much disturbance first your breathing, and later your heartbeat will affect this stillness or lack thereof. As you improve, you will learn to take a few breaths to clear the carbon dioxide from your lungs, then slowly let air out until you reach a point of neutrality. You will not be holding your breath, you will not be exhaling, you will not be straining at the limit of exhalation. You will be neutral and relaxed concerning your lungs. You will also learn how to be conscious of your heartbeat. At this point, breath-neutral, you should no longer see a dance of the crosshairs, but a steady small twitch coincident with your heartbeat. You will learn-- your brain will learn-- to apply your pressure to the trigger in the pauses between heartbeats. The 'process' of pulling the trigger is not a long, drawn out affair. It is a process, but it is not of long duration. And, with practice-- let me repeat that word-- PRACTICE-- you learn that, particularly on 'good days', you quietly and naturally go 'into the zone'. Time slows... focus sharpens.... the automatic part of your brain has already noted breath and heartbeat and tells the finger to begin the application of pressure and.... BOOOM. Round on target.

The first time, the first day you do this right, regain your sight picture and realize that you have broken the X of your target, you simply are bemused by how easy it seemed. Why hadn't you been doing this before? It's like a zen thing... in fact, given my ignorance of zen, it probably IS a zen thing. Your entire world is the bench, the rifle, the scope, the trigger, the target.... your spirit and your will. You WILL the bullet onto the target. If everything, all these physical things plus your hara and your will are one, the bullet CAN NOT MISS. Why you haven't done it before is simple. You had not been doing everything... EVERYthing... right. And when you do it right, it just happens. It seems magical.... but it IS under your control. You just have to invest the time and effort and ammo to learn it.

William Michael Kemp


Staying Alive sez: This is how it's done. This is not Viet Nam spray and pray. This is hitting where you aim and hitting it the first time. Remember, ambushes and sniping are the way to go. YOU get off the first shot and the bad guy's blood mists in the air. If there is more than one bad guy, they will be looking for someplace to hide. They wil be looking to get the hell out of Dodge. If you and some buddies are walking along and one of you erupts into a crimson cloud then YOU will be looking for a hole to hide in. Good shooting. And PRACTICE.

Stuff and such on Feb. 1

It's February 1st and I think it ought to be a national holiday. I don't like January weather and I am glad it's gone. We were in the deep freeze most of January and a reminder fr0m the calendar that is it about over for Winter is a good thing. It's really not even half 0ver as but I can dream that it is. In a few months I can start dreaming about all the heat and humidity of Summer.

I wanted to say that while I profess to being a constitutionalist and a Populist and a group oriented person, I am really a monarchist. Yes. I am a Monarchist. Remember that passage in the Book of Matthew where the Christ is asked how men should pray and he gives them the Lord's Prayer? I always remember that part about THY KINGDOM COME. I really want to see that Kingdom established. I want to serve the Father of us all. What a difference between the Father and the candidates we have for President!

I'm trying to get a woman down in Alabama to write an article on herbs and such. She will when she gets time, she says. She is a good person and you will like what she has to say.

I have been thinking about barter items for when TEOTWAWKI comes and we might set up a bit of commerce with the local survivors. Cigarettes would be a nie item to have. You catch a guy in the right mood and he might let you have his beautiful daughter for a cartoon of cigs.

You can buy Gambler Tobacco in sealed bags for about $6 for 6 ounces. Or, you can buy 16 ounces for $16. Is it geting through to you that cigarette tobacco is going for $1 an ounce? You can get a good stuffing machine for about $42. Filtered cigarette tubes cost about $1.65 for 200 tubes. I can knock out a couple packs of cigarettes in about 10 minutes. You can keep the cigs in sandwich bags and they won't go stale if you seal them up. But if you become a known source of smokes you might get visitors that you don't want so be careful. When they come to trade always let them see a gun or two. That can have a lasting impression. DO NOT HAVE THEM TO YOUR HOUSE FOR BUSINESS. Never let them come to your residence. Anyone with alcohol or tobacco will get visitors at all hours of the day and night and that is not good security. Don't do thi unless you have very good security.

I would like to mention Cajun cooking. Cajun cooking is a state of mnd. It is the making of food for your table that tastes good and is good for you. And the secret of it is to use whatever is local. Real Cajuns serve what is grown right in their area. They serve a lot of Shrimp. We don't have Shrimp in southern Indiana but we can find mud flats that grow crawdads! Damn straight we can. And they are good. Make a little a sauce from some of those tomatoes you are growing in your garden and you have a good hearty meal that will break the tedium of a survival diet. The old timers say that Beaver is a delicacy and I believe them though I haven't tried. Killed a beaver just last week to keep him from killing our 4 acre pond but I never skinned him. Dogs got him. But in TEOTWAWKI I would be skinning that beaver and brain tanning it's hide and putting that mutha to good use. Waste not, want not, is the buzz for TEOTWAWKI. Don't waste a damn thing. The stores aren't going to re-open any time soon.

Although I have read this womewhere I can't remember, a bicycle is good transportation for local business. Just for running around to close neighbors. I would take no trip to outlying areas on a bicycle. You are too vulnerable. Always go in groups if you travel to outlying areas. A lot of people you meet will come from the bottom of the gene pool and that can cost you your life. Not that you can't help somene. But it is better to help from a position of strength than a position of weakness. 'Nuff said.

I'll go now. Sty alert and stay alive.

Michael

The Road Home

I drive the road home. I have for years. 37 years to be exact. I wonder how many years YOU have driven the road home. You know the road I am talking about. It's the stretch of road that takes you to your house or village after the last turn on the way. For me the last stretch is at the top of a hill where I turn and drop down into our valley. That turn at the top of the hill is an occasion on the regular drive. You know you have it made if you can make that turn and go down that hill.

All the cares of business can fade from your mind. The problems with the Mill and the problems wth the Market. They can all fall away from you and peace can enter your being. You are where the people are. You are where there is some security. You are on the way home, at last.
Some people drive that road and never see it. They shoot down that gravel road with one purpose and that is to get to the nest, and to the meal table. These are what we call commuters. They put in their time and they cover the distance. Nothing more.

But that road is intersting. It has little highs and lows and curves and all sorts of interesting geological formations. Have you ever driven your road and thought about how to defend it? Where you could be and somebody coming in to do you harm could be met with resistance?

Preparedness is thinking about things in advance. It is thinking about trouble before trouble gets there. I have driven that road many times in the effort to see where I could lay with a rifle and defend my home and family. Have you ever done this on YOUR road? I have found many little ambush spots on the almost 5 mile stretch of road to my door. Places where I can see with my own eyes that can be defended. The best place to be when an enemy comes is where you can see him and he can't see you. You get the good shot and he gets the bullet. How admirable. How triumphant!

Deer hunting is essentially acting the role of a sniper. The people who want to charge you good money for shotting lessons don't want you to know this. But if you can hunt deer you can snipe. You now the drill. You scout out the land and find out where the deer are moving. This is the same as scoping out the road home. Then you find a spot where the deer can't see you but you can see them and then you wait. You find a spot where an invading force will likely have to come through and you hide yourself where you can take advantage of their ignorance and kill them. You want to make it as easy for you and as difficult for them as is possible.
As a note of caution, when you go out to meet a mob of freebooters or folks of other nationality who might be invading, don't take over half your men out to meet them. Leave the other half at your main base in defense positions. Have them where they have a good field of fire and have them with plenty of ammo. They may be the basis for your continued existance. They will have to evacuate the women and kids if the situation is hopeless. These are the guys who need to know what to bring in a Bug Out Bag.

Good luck and stay alive.

Michael