Too many grasshoppers?

At work I mentioned the fact to a few friends that the fires in southern California are very bad. I then asked what they would do if they had to run or stay in place. How would they deal with no utilities, food, water or contact with the outside world? Well, sadly, most of them came up with the standard answers. Go to the store and buy stuff. The government will take care of us. (!!!) And "I'll just drive to a safe place" (and then what?) I asked if anyone had ever been in an emergency situation and one person remembers something about an earthquake shaking the bed at 3 am. When I told them what really happens in such scenarios all I saw were looks of horror. They mostly said "I can't afford to prep. It will take too much money and too much time" or "its too late to start now and besides, what if I never need it". My favorite was "you have all kinds of stuff, right?" My answer to the last statement was "sure I do but its far, far away in the mountains and if you show up at my house, I won't be there. You had better bring everything you need and hope you survive sitting in my driveway." This is a most common thought pattern. Either some one else will take care of you, you can run away, or you can go to some ones place who has thought ahead. All of which will get you very disappointed or maybe even killed. Depending on the circumstances of the situation I plan to leave most hurriedly. If its something that I know will be a very short term "uncomfortable situation" I will probably stay in place. Many things can be the deciding factor on whether I stay or leave. I have already warned people NOT to come near my house if something go's wrong. I'll take care of my immediate family and if I have a little extra, well maybe, just maybe. Its not a mean spirited thing. They all make way more than I do and if they didn't take the time and effort to prepare, that's not my baby. Sounds cold, doesn't it? Well, that's life. I have given folks more than ample opportunity to learn to prepare. What more can I do? It reminds me of the story I read when I was about 6 years old about the ant and the grasshopper. The ant and friends worked their butt's off storing up and the grasshopper laid around on his lazy ass watching and laughing. When TSHTF (winter came), Mr. Grasshopper went looking for Mr. Ant who was hunkered down with the goodies and Mr. Grasshopper ended up freezing his lazy, dumb ass to death. The ants ate his remains. The end.

Retirement? What retirement?

It happened to a friend of mine. He worked all his life for a steel mill in Johnstown, PA. Cambria Steel, to be exact. The company or whoever is responsible, lost all the retirement money. Can you frigging believe that? And that bastard, er I mean bastion of leftist, Democrat/communist politics, John Murtha, had the balls to say "Sorry, fellas, cant do shi-at about it. Too bad." This was several years ago. I couldn't believe my ears. Now, roll forward to the spring of 2009. I get an email informing me that my $400,000 retirement fund has disappeared. I dig deeper and find out that the filthy rotten bankers/money launderers who were responsible have disappeared, too. Probably to some Caribbean island where they have the dough stashed in their off shore account. And, of course, the big time "for the people" politicos "can't do shi-at about it. (I'm wondering how much of my $ they are getting paid off?) What a country! Justice? Where? We're on our own boys and girls. Beans and bullets never made more sense. Second rant for the day is over.

Knowledge is power

Heres a linkto a great portal that has tons of relevant information: http://www.drum-runners.com/ You should bookmark this as well as the other links I have posted to the right in the links column.

A good resource for preppers

I found a gold mine of information today. Go to this blog: http://arizonapreppersnetwork.blogspot.com/ and look at the right hand column. See the "State Prepper Networks"? That's it. I went to several of them and WOW, what a lot of great information! Its never to late to start preparing and if you can't find the info your looking for, you ain't trying hard enough!

Good reasons to be prepared

This is one of many blogs I follow: http://wwwstayalive.blogspot.com/ Be sure to read his guest article for today. I find that most knowledgeable peoples opinions differ 180 degrees from what the government run media (all of it is government run, basically) and "Dear Leader, the Anointed One" have to say about the economy. I have read quite a few books about the Federal Reserve and I can't believe we have been letting such thievery take place for all these years. Some folks say that presidents have been assassinated for even attempting to get rid of the Fed Reserve (JFK). When the uber greedy bankers are threatened they do what comes naturally. They use any means, no matter how dirty, to hang on to their filthy lucre.
Anyway, I see so many things falling into place with this dieing economy. We have the water issue here in California and the politicians are only doing lip service to remedy it. Do they really want the people affected to take up arms and force them to turn on the pumps? Yes, there are folks who feel this is the only way its going to get fixed! Well, when it comes to that, we're all going to be in deep do do. Another thing is the price of gas and food here in the workers paradise. I paid $3.05 a gallon for el cheapo gas the other day meanwhile listening to KMJ in Fresno all week about the price of oil falling. Gee. Who's making out on this deal? Take a guess! We have such an obscene cost of living here due to all the illegal aliens living here on welfare and the stupid irresponsible people on welfare. I mean, come on, a woman has 1 kid out of wedlock and the state bends over backwards to give her a house, money car, and food. They are rewarded for being STUPID!!! So what does she do? She has 3 more to a few low lifes and gets even more welfare!!! The illegals come here and the whole damn family is treated like welcome guests! They even give them "proxy" social security cards so they can apply properly. Sickening. What ever happened to deportation? Well, ask Boxer, Feinstein and Pelosi. They think its "inhumane". What BS!! So, we who work and live here have to pay out the wazoo to support these morons and meanwhile the economy tanks so what next? I don't think its going to be very pretty when the fan is shat upon. Just imagine how these creeps will react when there are no more food stamps to sell for their drugs and the check is NOT in the mail. Its pretty bad now, wait till these things take place! I won't be staying around any towns, no matter how small. Everyone who even looks like they have anything will be a target. This is also a good reason to tell NO ONE about your preps. Rant over, Ron signing off.............................

Its nearly harvest time

Here in the central valley of California its getting close to harvest time. The fruit trees have been at peak for a few weeks now. The nut trees are up next and the veggies are in full bore and lots more to come. At the local farm market you can pick up anything from green beans to fresh herbs. All of these can be put up some way. I prefer to freeze a few things like peppers, eggplant, green beans and a few others. I just don't have the room to store canned (as in mason jars) goods and I don't have the equipment anymore. You have to give things up when you live in a small apartment. Another way I put food up is by drying. You can get a sizable larder of dried food in no time!
The reason I'm saying this is now that the food is available for fairly cheap, its a good time to stock up. We don't know what next year will be like and with this crazy government we presently have who knows whats next.

Book review: "How to Survive Anywhere" by Christopher Nyerges

I bought a copy of this book at Borders and I'm very pleased with it. Instead of the usual litter shelters, stick compass's and other common survival topics, this book goes quite beyond the norm. It does cover these items but it covers things you wouldn't find in most survival guides. It has a good balance of primitive skills and modern techniques. It has a lot of how to projects such as a capote, solar box cooker, water filter and water storage techniques. There are also bark containers, cooking tips, hygiene, a pack made from plans and other useful items.

One thing I like is at the end of each chapter he makes a chart showing different items discussed in the chapter with pro's, con's and comments on each one.

Christopher Nyerges is the editor of Wilderness Way magazine, runs the School of Self Reliance and has written many other books and articles.

Heres a breakdown of the contents:

Water
Fire, Lighting, Energy
Health and Hygiene
Clothing and Shelter
The World is Tied Together with Fiber
Food
Tools and Weapons
First Aid
Navigation
What is Survival?

On the down side, some may view the book as an area exclusive one due to the many plants discussed such as agave, yucca, soaproot, etc. Granted these are western plants, but, the information and techniques discussed in the book can be used anywhere in the world.

I give this book an A+ rating and highly suggest you buy a copy.

Rabbit sticks

This is an article about rabbit sticks. Some folks call them throwing sticks which can cause a bit of confusion because atl atl's and throwing boards, related to dart throwing, are also called throwing sticks. The rabbit stick was used over a large part of North America since prehistoric times. It was most popular in the west and southwest. This is due to the open areas and the ease of seeing game at a distance. I have seen some rabbit sticks which were no more than a straight piece of limb with no wood removal including the bark. These must be the most rudimentary form of rabbit stick. Most tribes used a refined stick that was carved to an aerodynamic shape like an airplane wing in cross section. This made the stick glide over the ground for a long distance and the skilled thrower could take out a rabbit at quite a distance. Some sticks were not worked to the point of being aerodynamic but they were more heavy and may have been used for larger game like small deer. I have seen some that were almost round in cross section and fairly heavy.

The picture below shows the normal throwing stance for throwing the rabbit stick. Its kind of like throwing a flat stone to skip over the water. Some throwers use the "across the chest" throw which is holding the stick in your right hand with the stick slightly over your left shoulder. Kind of like a frisbee toss.



The next picture shows a stick I made from cedar. Its somewhat oval in cross section. It's 24 1/2" long, 2" wide and weighs around 8 ounces. The stick below it is made of sycamore and weighs around 5 ounces. Its 21 1/2" long 1 3/4" wide and is aerodynamic in cross section.


The next seven pictures show the process of working the limb into a rabbit stick. The first photo shows the beginning of the wood removal. I use a small hand plane (shown in fourth photo) to take of shavings on each side until I get an idea of how the shape will come out.



These next two photos show the stick with both sides equal in flatness and ready to start final shaping.

This photo shows the still unfinished stick and the tools I use: a small hand plane and my Gerber Freeman. Not shown is a "four-in-hand" file I use for final smoothing.


This next photo shows the cross section.


This photo shows the handle which is simply a few notches for a good grip.


Here's the finished stick. It shows how much wood is removed in the shaping process. I save the shavings for making fire starters and I always carry a big bag full for ready made tinder.



This next photo shows the piece of incense cedar I used to make the big rabbit stick.


Here's a shot of the end of the stick showing the cross section. This stick is not made to be aerodynamic but to be a heavy killing stick. It's for close range hunting.

Here's a shot of the handle. Like the sycamore stick, I only used the small hand plane, Gerber Freeman and "four-in-hand" to make this one.

This shot shows how thick the stick is.

Here's a shot of the finished stick.


If you care to learn more you should check out Paul Campbells book "Survival Skills of Native California". It has an excellent section on the construction and use of rabbit sticks. I fashioned the cedar stick after one made by the Mojave Indians of the Arizona/California border area.