Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

Water Storage Quiz

How much do you know about water storage? We've made up a fun quiz to test your knowledge on various aspects of water storage, filtration and purification. See how well you do by clicking the button on the bottom of the page.


1. The Katadyn® Combi microfilter can filter up to how many gallons of water before the ceramic element needs to be replaced?

A) 100
B) 750
C) 4,000
D) 13,000

The correct answer was D

(D) The Katadyn Combi water filter can filter up to 13,000 gallons of water (depending on turbidity) before the ceramic element (0.2 microns) needs to be replaced. It is effective against bacteria and protozoa and also reduces chemicals and bad taste with its carbon element. It has an output of approximately 1 quart per minute.

2. A 55-gallon water barrel weighs approximately how much when it is full?
A) 125 lbs
B) 220 lbs
C) 470 lbs
D) 510 lbs

The correct answer was C

(C) A 55-gallon water barrel weighs approximately 470 pounds when it is full. It is important to have both portable and non-portable water in your storage. A 55-gallon barrel is considered non-portable or permanent water. Portable water is easily carried in an emergency kit (pre-packaged) or can be put into a vehicle (boxed).

3. At a minimum, how much water should you store per person for a two week period?

A) 7 gallons
B) 14 gallons
C) 21 gallons
D) 28 gallons

The correct answer was B

(B) For your permanent home water storage supply, you should store approximately 14 gallons per person for a two week period. For minimum water storage, a 55-gallon barrel will supply a family of 4 for 14 days.

4. Which of the following is NOT a commonly used method to purify water?

A) Boiling
B) Aeration
C) Adding a chemical
D) Ultraviolet (UV) light

Correct!

5. Boiling water destroys which of the following?
A) Pollutants
B) Poor taste
C) Foul odors
D) Most types of disease-causing organisms

Correct!

6. How much liquid bleach (regular, unscented) should you add to a gallon of water to help disinfect it?

A) 1/16 tsp - 4 drops
B) 1/8 tsp - 8 drops
C) 1/3 tsp - 21 drops
D) 1/2 tsp - 32 drops

The correct answer was B

(B) According to the EPA, 'If you can’t boil water, you can disinfect it using household bleach. Bleach will kill some, but not all, types of disease-causing organisms that may be in the water. If the water is cloudy, filter it through cleans cloths or allow it to settle, and draw off the clear water for disinfection. Add 1/8 teaspoon (or 8 drops) of regular, unscented liquid household bleach for each gallon of water and let it stand for 30 minutes before you use it.'

7. A ceramic microfilter will filter all of the following EXCEPT:

A) Viruses
B) Bacteria
C) Giardia
D) Cryptosporidium

The correct answer was A

(A) The best ceramic microfilter system may not get all viruses out of your water since those organisms are smaller than the smallest pore sizes available on ceramic microfilters. The most common pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms in untreated water are protozoa and bacteria. Viruses are normally not a problem in water in North America. However, there is always the possibility of viral contamination in a disaster situation and in other parts of the world.

8. Solar stills are capable of distilling tainted water from which one of the following sources?

A) Radiator fluid
B) Seawater
C) Fuels
D) None of the above

The correct answer was B

(B) Solar stills operate using a 'greenhouse effect' and are capable of distilling almost any kind of tainted water or moisture source, including seawater. A solar still cannot distill water from liquids that give off volatile toxins such as radiator fluid or fuels.

9. Although protozoa (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, etc.) are removed by most filters, how long does it take to kill them with Chlorine or Chlorine Dioxide?

A) 1 hour
B) 2 hours
C) 4 hours
D) 6 hours

The correct answer was C

(C) Protozoa take up to 4 hours to kill with Chlorine or Chloride Dioxide. In contrast, they are removed with most types of filters. Interestingly, Chloride Dioxide tablets will kill both bacteria and viruses within 15 minutes, even in cold, dirty water.

10. The combination many experts now recommend when viruses may be present in water is first microfiltration, then:

A) Boiling
B) Distillation
C) Only filtration is needed
D) Chemical Treatment

The correct answer was D

(D) The combination many experts now recommend when viruses may be present in water is first microfiltration, then chemical treatment. Only a 15 minute wait time is necessary. As a bonus to other methods, dirty water will be cleaned up and if the microfilter has activated charcoal (carbon) in it, it is possible that harmful organic chemicals may be removed.

http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/

http://beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_ ... SID=ppblog

"Preparation through education is less costly than learning through tragedy"
- Max Mayfield, Director National Hurricane Center

We have produced many preparedness articles to help you. Please click from the categories below to find the articles that fit your interest. You may use them for non-commercial applications. Every effort has been made to be accurate in the information presented.

If errors are found please email us at sales@beprepared.com.
Information provided is not comprehensive but designed to give helpful hints and suggestions. Submit requests for more articles to us at the above email.

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_635

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_636

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_637

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_638

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_639

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_640

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_641

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_642

http://www.beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_755


http://beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_ ... SID=ppblog

Food Storage Recipes Home Page

Select By Category

http://beprepared.com/recipes.asp_Q_ai_ ... SID=ppblog

Investments for Preparedness and Wealth Preservation That Your Financial Adviser Will Never Mention

Author: Mac Slavo
- March 31st, 2011
8 Comments



For the last several years we’ve been providing our readers with news, commentary, strategies and tips for weathering the economic and political storms sweeping the world.
As the economy continues to sputter, even two years after the great financial collapse of 2008, many state sponsored media analysts and talking heads would have you believe that we’ve managed to get through the worst of it, and that bright and sunny days are ahead of us.
While our views have been considered to be pessimistic by some, many others understand that we’re not making these things up, and that our recommended SHTF planning strategies have been grounded in the reality on main street, not the scripted quasi-realities depicted on television.
Last year, we opined that the current economic and political climates in the United States and abroad demanded a different perspective for those wishing to protect wealth, preserve individual liberty and maintain peace of mind. In Wealth Preservation, Investing, and Prepping For Hard Times (January 2010) we put forth the notion that traditional stock investments, 401K’s and other asset classes recommended by university or workshop trained financial advisers were inadequate for preparing you and your family for the crisis in which we find ourselves today. Among other things, we advised our readers to look seriously at non-traditional, non-mainstream assets like precious metals, food, clothing, and other commodity-tied assets that would sky rocket in price as the dollar lost value and uncertainty in government’s ability to mitigate economic collapse reached a boiling point.
For those just joining us, the same strategies that applied in the first quarter of 2010 should be closely considered today.
Jim Sinclair, a precious metals specialist, foreign currency trader and publisher of Jim Sinclair’s Mineset, also agrees with our sentiment, urging his readers to take action immediately if they have the means to do so:

Truth be told, the major theme of JSMineset has been one of self reliance in a monetary, physical and Emersonian sense. Our focus has been on your assets, your debt positions, legal matters and investment.
…
Has Trader Dan not moved from Houston to an undisclosed location in Idaho? I am writing to you from a farm in North Western Connecticut, a rural part of the state. We provide our own water, can provide our own power, have a radio system fallback for communication, satellite phones, furnaces that burn coal or oil, an indoor pistol range that can take up to .50 calibre cartridges into a Detroit bullet trap, perimeter lighting, 16 camera day and night camera security and much more.
We have focused on conservative financial structures which were in truth taking you into the position of being your own central bank.
…
There is one more step that you really need to consider. The housing market is in a black hole from which it very well might not recover for generations. Land is cheap. When homes or small farms have been foreclosed on, resulting in bank owned property, they are sold in a fire sale to buyers with cash in hand.
Do as I have done. Do as Trader Dan has done.
…
I strongly suggest that if you have benefited from JSMineset, as many of you have, consider buying yourself a hobby farm and seriously go for the exercise of self reliance. I am certain that if even to cut costs you are going to need it.
The financial system is screwed up beyond any repair. On top of that there is no desire to repair anything because the wise guys know it is impossible. It is the world that the flushing of Lehman Bros. has created. It is not a brave new world. It is more like an audition for a world of Mad Max and the Day After.
It does not matter whether or not there is more QE. The damage is done and there is no solution.

We want to believe that the corruption in the White House, Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and the halls of our federal and state legislatures will cease, that our leaders and those in control of our policies realize where we’re headed and put a stop to it.
But given that absolutely nothing has been done to curb the status quo that brought our country to the brink in 2008, we reluctantly remain pessimistic about the state of our union today and for years to come.
Jim Sinclair describes our sentiment in the most simplest terms possible: “The damage is done and there is no solution.”
For those who have come to the same conclusion, now is the time to take action.
While we can’t predict exactly what will happen – slow and drawn out depression, hyperinflation, economic collapse, stagflation, riots – we feel confident suggesting that life in America as we have known it for the last three decades is about to change drastically – in fact, it’s clear that we’re in the process of transformation right now.
Prices for essential goods will rise. Wages, in terms of real purchasing power, will go down. Taxes will increase across the board in an attempt to counter out of control spending. Government interference in our personal lives, on every level, will expand. Politicians and media will turn the people against each other. Food riots and violence may become commonplace.
Thing will get worse, much worse, before they get better. Thus far, the effects of the economic paradigm shift taking place have been, for the most part, muted. But this will change. And when it does, you will want to be as far removed as possible.
While owning stocks, bonds, and other traditional financial investments may remain a part of any growth or retirement portfolio, we urge those concerned with the coming changes to make the necessary changes in their lifestyles to insulate themselves, as much as possible, from the coming storms.
Today’s savvy investors are planning not just for retirement, but for living in a system that will undoubtedly fail to provide for the millions who have become dependent on easy credit, cheap food and gas, and a government safety net in case things don’t go as planned.
We believe in maintaining a diversified portfolio, but our definition of diversification, and that of your financial adviser may differ. Here’s where we’re putting our money, time and energy:

• Invest in precious metals. Yes, we know, you can’t eat them. But so long as gold and silver hold value by central banks in China, India and pretty much everywhere in the world except the USA, there will be a buyer for this asset. As things get worse, prices will go higher, which means that if you need to buy other hard assets, you may be able to do so by trading in your metals.
• A farm, ranch. Like Mr. Sinclair and his friends, the Slavo family is getting out of the burbs. While we have come to love the suburban lifestyle in which we all grew up, including the ease of patronizing name brand retail outlets, we prefer to exchange our quarter-acre lot for a larger, more self-reliant compliant property. Larger scale food growth, micro farming and open space, available at cheaper prices when compared to suburban living, is our next destination. While hyperinflation, economic collapse, and city-wide riots are low probability events, being outside of a major metroplex is much better than being smack-dab in the middle of it all. Plus, did we mention the nice, open views of country side or mountain living? For those unable to buy, consider renting. With a three year backlog of inventory, homeowners are willing to work deals. They’ll rent for cheap, lease-to-own, sell without a down payment, and jump through hoops to put you into their property – so getting into the country on a low budget is certainly feasible right now. For those who have made huge gains in gold or silver, maybe trading some of that in for a tax sale property or foreclosure would be a good barter. The point is, there are very cost-effective ways available right now to get out of the city and into a safer, more productive property today.
• Bulk Food. There’s a reason that the largest freeze dried food manufacturer in the world is unable to keep up with demand. Now, imagine for a second that the even a small percentage of the general population realizes that costs are hyperinflating. Prices will go up that much more, and your local retail outlet may put a limit on how much rice or beans you can buy. This happened in late 2008 at major retailers like Target. And it can certainly happen again. We hear professional traders talk about investing in commodities, and we agree that buying wheat, beans, rice, and other essential goods is a good investment. But where we differ, is that we prefer to hold the physical asset. Using the proper storage techniques, dry grains, milk and other foods can be stored for 20 – 30 years. We’re not suggesting you just buy buckets of rice and throw them in a closet, though. Buy several hundred pounds of food, package them correctly, and rotate them into your food consumption on a regular basis. Rinse and repeat. For those who followed our advice in 2010, you would have saved 40%Â – 75% on today’s prices. For those with animals, consider stocking up on feed as well. This strategy will help to not only preserve wealth, but provide an emergency supply of goods in case of a food supply interruption. But something like that can’t happen right? Ask the people in Japan, and you’ll get a starkly different opinion on the matter.
• Micro farming and Micro Livestock – Animals, Veggies and Fruit. Wifey Slavo is getting a Dexter cow. While we love our organic milk, we’d prefer to have the ability to produce our own on demand. The same goes for chickens, rabbits and goats. You’d be surprised how easily you can establish a small-scale bartering system in your local community or neighborhood. Brother Slavo, who is already setting up the infrastructure at our new homestead, regularly interacts with neighbors, friends and community members, trading everything from tomatoes to fresh eggs. In return, he builds personal relationships with those in the surrounding area, gets fresh produce that we have yet to grow ourselves, and assistance with building out our homesteading infrastructure. You’d be amazed how valuable fresh, organically produced food is and what people are willing to trade for it. Also consider storing some seeds, heirloom variety, just in case. Even if you don’t have the ability to get out to a farm, do what you can at your suburban home or apartment dwelling – there are lots of options available.
• Alternative Energy. We’re all about alternative energy, just not when it’s mandated on us by government. That’s why our position is that alternative energy should start from the needs of the individual, not the carbon exchange credit system set to make billions when costly laws, taxes and fees are passed by our Congressional representatives. If there’s one thing that will continue to rise in price and lead to economic despair, it’s energy. Oil, coal, electricity – it’s all going to be expensive. That’s why we recommend finding ways to create your own. There’s solar, of course, as well as wind or micro-wind, and hydro if you have running water. Even if you were to take yourself partially off the grid, it’s worth it. Start small, and build from there. Solar systems, especially do-it-yourself systems with the help of neighbors and friends who have already built there own, can be quite cheap and often pay themselves off in a matter of a few years. In addition, building for yourself and continuing to expand may actually put money in your own pocket when you feed power back to the grid. If you don’t have the up front cash to buy a system outright, financing is available – and since we’re talking about an essential good, energy, taking a small loan for such an asset may not be a horrible idea if you can get good terms.
• Get Skilled. The days of working in cubes (for the most part) are numbered. In the future, if you don’t produce a necessary product or service, you will be obsolete. These jobs, like it or not, are migrating to countries where workers are willing to do the labor for 80% less than Americans. We recommend investing time and energy to acquiring new skills. Physical skills. Welding, machining, carpentry, sewing, installation of alternative energy platforms, farming, raising animals, alcohol distillation, etc. Skills like alternative medicine will be useful as health care becomes rationed. Look to the past, as in the 1800′s and early 1900′s, and you’ll get a good idea of jobs and skills that may pay well in the future.
• Guns and Ammo. It might sound a little excessive, but the fact of the matter is that guns retain their value for the most part. Ammunition, as we saw in 2008, is subject to supply and demand crunches as well. As metal prices continue to rise, and uncertainty pervades the American psyche, people will continue to stock up. You may very well be able to trade ammunition for cash, silver or other items. The system doesn’t even have to collapse for this. A host of ‘gun trader’ type web sites already have bartering systems in place. Plus, if the worst does happen, and the system goes catatonic, wouldn’t you rather have a few thousand rounds of 7.62×39 than none?
• Clothes. The CEO of Walmart recently said that inflation is going to affect prices in months to come. If you’ve got kids, purchasing clothes in advance, especially things like socks, underwear, pajamas, jackets, jeans, shoes and shirts may save you money down the road. And again, if the worst were to happen, you’d have apparel for the kids (or for trade) for years ahead. For those who know how to sew, buying fabric now can save hundreds of dollars later.
• Tools. You can never have too many nails or screws or too much equipment. If you can, start investing in tools that you’ll be using around the house/farm. Everything from standard toolbelt accessories to quality farming equipment like shovels or even a tractor. A close friend recently built his own alcohol still for production of drinking alcohol and ethanol fuel. Like everything else, prices for these types of assets will continue to rise – and in a SHTF scenario, they will become invaluable and highly sought after. If you can, buy two of everything, especially when it comes to food production or raising animals.

These may not be the investments vehicles of the baby boom generation, but, we’re not living in the boom times of the 20th century anymore.
There are a host of other investment opportunities out there. Take the time to think about where we’re headed, or might be headed, and make your investment decisions accordingly.
It’s impossible to predict exactly what to expect. We certainly can’t do it, and neither can your financial adviser or an investment pundit on television. But we can try and plan a strategy that covers most of our bases. While we don’t recommend investing your entire retirement portfolio into the above assets, some diversification is certainly prudent.
The assets recommended above will come in handy, whether or not a complete and total economic collapse is in our future. If you invest properly, and with forethought, most of the items will not be locked away in a closet for 15 years waiting for disaster. They are investments that can go to work for you right now.

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-pr...ntion_03312011

Walnuts May Be The Best Choice Among Nuts

March 31, 2011
by Personal Liberty News Desk



When compared to the nutritional and antioxidant content of pistachios, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamia nuts and pecans, walnuts came out on top as the most nutrient-dense of them all, according to researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Walnuts are high in protein, fiber, vitamin E and other essential vitamins and minerals. Despite this, Americans consume very little of the nut.

"A handful of walnuts contains almost twice as much antioxidants as an equivalent amount of any other commonly consumed nut. But unfortunately, people don't eat a lot of them. This study suggests that consumers should eat more walnuts as part of a healthy diet," said study author Joe Vinson, Ph.D.

In addition to dominating other nuts in the nutrient department, walnuts are also commonly eaten raw. This is an advantage since roasting nuts — and other foods — has the ability to destroy vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Study authors noted that while walnuts are rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fats and high in calories, they are not likely to cause weight gain since they have a tendency to quickly satiate hunger, which prevents overeating.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/wal ... 03_31_PLA_[P11806743]&rrid=238434262

Garden As If Your Life Depends On It, Because It Will

There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up the spade, make some compost, and start gardening with a vengeance. March 29, 2011


Photo Credit: di the huntress

Spring has sprung -- at least south of the northern tier of states where snow still has a ban on it -- and the grass has 'riz. And so has the price of most foods, which is particularly devastating just now when so many Americans are unemployed, underemployed, retired or retiring, on declining or fixed incomes and are having to choose between paying their mortgages, credit card bills, car payments, and medical and utility bills and eating enough and healthily. Many are eating more fast food, prepared foods, junk food -- all of which are also becoming more expensive -- or less food.

In some American towns, and not just impoverished backwaters, as many as 30 percent of residents can't afford to feed themselves and their families sufficiently, let alone nutritiously. Here in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina where I live it's 25 percent. Across the country one out of six of the elderly suffers from malnutrition and hunger. And the number of children served one or two of their heartiest, healthiest meals by their schools grows annually as the number of them living at poverty levels tops 20 percent. Thirty-seven million Americans rely on food banks that now routinely sport half-empty shelves and report near-empty bank accounts. And this is a prosperous nation!

In some cases this round of price hikes on everything from cereal and steak to fresh veggies and bread -- and even the flour that can usually be bought cheaply to make it -- will be temporary. But over the long term the systems that have provided most Americans with a diversity, quantity and quality of foods envied by the rest of the world are not going to be as reliable as they were.

What's for Supper Down the Road?

As they move through the next few decades Americans can expect:

• The price of conventionally produced food to rise and not come down again;
• Prices to rollercoaster so that budgeting is unpredictable;
• Some foods to become very expensive compared to what we're used to;
• And other foods, beginning with some of the multiple versions of the same thing made by the same company to garner a bigger market share and more shelf space, to gradually become unavailable.

Tremors in food supply chains and pricing will make gardening look like a lot more than a hobby, a seasonal workout, a practical way to fill your pantry with your summer favorites, or a physically, spiritually and mentally healing activity, or all four. Gardening and small-scale and collective farming, especially of staple crops and the ones that could stave off malnutrition, could become as important as bringing home the bacon, both the piggy and the dollar kind. Why?

Why Is Gardening So Important Now?

There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up spade, rake and hoe, make compost and raise good soil and garden beds with a vengeance, starting this spring and with an eye toward forever.

1) Peak oil. Most petroleum experts agree that we shot past peak oil in the U.S. around 1971. Lest you've missed the raging, that's the point at which more than half the readily, affordably retrievable oil in reserves has been used up, what remains is more expensive to retrieve, and the dregs are irretrievable. We've shot or are about to shoot past peak worldwide, estimates of when ranging from 2007 to 2013, with many oil company execs agreeing to at least the latter. There are no new cheap-easy oil fields coming on line. Any new fields you hear about or new methods, like tar sands drilling are expensive, water guzzling, dangerous, environmentally disastrous and unlikely to produce more than a few years worth of oil, and that a decade or more down the line. That means abundant, cheap oil is about to be history. What difference does that make?

For one thing, there is no replacement for oil that can do all that oil has done as cheaply and universally as oil has done it. I offer an exercise in Life Rules, "The ABC's of Peak Oil" which helps readers imaginatively subtract from their lives everything that depends in one way or another on cheap easy oil. It doesn't leave much. (See Beth Terry's Web site, for example, for what subtracting plastics may entail.)

The global economy that presently supplies us with our food, runs on cheap oil and lots of it. It runs slower and less predictably on expensive oil that's hard to get because it's located in hard-to-reach or high-risk conflict-ridden zones. Cheap, abundant food on the shelves of grocery and big box stores and food banks, on our tables and in our bellies depends on cheap abundant oil for fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and to power farm machinery and transport food from fields to processors and packagers and then to purveyors and consumers, around the world. Past peak, that system's going to have the half-life of the strontium 90 that's escaping the Fukushimi Dai-ichi reactor: 29 years, or thereabouts. One good global crisis, and not that long.

2) Peak soil & space. A couple of links between peak oil and peak soil: First, it matters that one of the proposed alternatives to oil is biofuels. Acreage around the world is being converted from production of corn, wheat and soy for human and animal consumption -- i.e. food -- to production of ethanol and biofuels to put in trucks and cars and ... which makes remaining corn, et al., more expensive. Some energy economy geniuses are proposing that Afghans, for example, convert the fields of opium poppies that are their primary agricultural export, not to growing grains or legumes or other staple foods, but to biofuel, which would, not coincidentally, make the gasoline that goes in American military equipment much cheaper and provide Afghans with a profitable market item rather than food.

According to a 2009 National Geographic staff report, "The corn used to make a 25-gallon tank of ethanol would feed one person for a year." Tell that to Archer-Daniels-Midland, Al Gore's deep-pockets friend and mega-ethanol and corn products producer. Second, the huge oil-gluttonous machinery that has made factory farming possible has compacted soils, literally crushing the life out of them.

Arable land in the developing or so-called Third World has been at a premium since time immemorial, thanks to geographic location and/or persistent plundering by empires old and new. Revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are occurring not just to obtain more democratic governments but also to obtain more food and more affordable food. Revolutionaries are barking up a tree that's seen better days.

In the United States and elsewhere in the developed, read "First" world, arable land has reached peak production. All those petroleum-based products that fueled the Green Revolution of the last century, also produce so many crops, constantly, with support from toxic chemicals and without concern for the microbes that make soil a live, self-regenerating system, that most American farmland -- if its farmers didn't go organic a while back -- is comprised of dead soils. Peak oil makes a repeat of the petroleum-driven 20th century Green Revolution impossible, which is good for soil and other living things, not so much for food prices and supplies.

After peak, in soil like in oil, comes descent. Adding insult to injury, every year farmers lose thousands of acres of arable land to urban and suburban sprawl and more tons of topsoil than they produce of grain and other field crops to attrition. Half the Earth's original trove of topsoil, like that which once permitted the American Midwest to feed the world, has been lost to wind and erosion. Millions of years in the making, it has been depleted and degraded by industrialized agriculture in only a couple of centuries. China's soils ride easterly winds across the Pacific to settle out on cars and rooftops in California while the American Bread Basket's soils are building deltas and dead zones at the mouth of the Mississippi. Like oil, that soil isn't coming back. We can only build it, help it to build itself and wait.

3) Monoculture. We can cut to the chase on this one. The food we eat is produced on industrial-strength, fossil-fuel-driven super farms. Those farms practice monoculture: the planting one crop, often of one genetic strain of that crop, at a time and sometimes year after year over vast landscapes of plowed field. When thousands of acres of farmland are sown with the same genetic strain of grain, uncongenial bout of weather, disease or pest to which that strain is susceptible can wipe out the whole crop.

At present the Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, which emerged a decade ago in Africa, could wipe out more than 80 percent of the world's wheat crops as it spreads, according to a 2009 article in the L. A. Times. Recent studies follow its appearance in other countries downwind of eastern Africa where it originated, including Yemen and Iran (where revolutionaries are already protesting rising prices and shortages), which opens the possibility of its emergence further downwind in Central and Eastern Asia. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches Canada or the U.S. But it can take a decade or more to create a universally adaptable new genetic line that is resistant to a new disease like stem rust that can travel much faster than that. The current spike in the price of wheat is due in part to Ug99 which might properly be renamed "Ugh."

4) Climate instability. Bad -- uncongenial -- weather has lately devastated crops in the upper Midwest, Florida, Mexico, Russia, China, Australia, parts of Africa and elsewhere. Many climate scientists believe we've passed the equivalent of peak friendly and familiar weather, too. And while increasing heat will bedevil harvests, intense cold, downpours and flooding, drought and destructive storm systems will make farming an increasingly hellish occupation if profit is what's being farmed for.

The transitional climate will be unpredictable from season to season and will produce more extremes of weather and weather-related disasters, which means farmers will not be able to assume much about growing seasons, rainfall patterns and getting crops through to harvest. If the past is precedent, the transition from the climate we've been used to for 10,000 years to whatever stable climate emerges out of climate chaos next, could take decades, centuries or even millennia. Especially if we keep messing with it. When a whole nation's or region's staple crops, especially grains, are lost or on-again-off-again, everything down the line from the crops themselves become more expensive, from meat, poultry and dairy to every kind of processed food. I.e., the food we shop for as if supermarkets were actually where food comes from.

5) The roller-coaster economy. This isn't the place for me to offer my explanation for the probability of global economic collapse. (More on that here.) No pundits, talking-heads or economic analysts (well, very few) deny there are rough economic times ahead. Even many of the cautious among them acknowledge that we may be looking at five or six years of high unemployment and many of the lost jobs won't be coming back. The less cautious, like me, predict the collapse of the whole fossil-fueled, funny-money, inequitable, overly complicated global economic system in the lifetimes of anyone under 50. Well, at the rate we're going in all the wrong directions politically and economically, I hazard the guess, anyone under 80.

Clearly, depending on the present system to provide us with most or all of our food reliably or long-term, is unwise in the extreme. Which is how we get back to why we need to garden as if our lives depended on it. Bringing food production processes and systems closer to home is going to prove vital to our survival. We need to take producing our own and each other's food as seriously as we've taken producing a money income because growing numbers of us won't have enough money to buy food in the conventional ways and there will be less of it to buy. So what's our recourse?

Gardening Like Everybody's Business

Under the influence and auspices of the prevailing economy, most Americans have forgotten how to provide for themselves. We've become accustomed to earning money with which we buy provisions. That process is about to have the legs kicked out from under it. Instead of earning money (or its funny-money kin like credit cards) to buy the things we need, we'll need to start providing more of those things for ourselves and each other locally and (bio)regionally. Gardening -- and small-scale farming -- while they will need to be undertaken in a businesslike fashion will be less about doing business than about everyone's having something to eat and more people being busy providing it. And while not everyone will be able to garden or farm, we are all able to get up close and personal with those who do.Ellen LaConte, an independent scholar, organic gardener and freelance writer living in the Yadkin River watershed of the Piedmont bioregion of North Carolina, is a contributing editor to Green Horizon Magazine and the Ecozoic. Her most recent book is Life Rules (Green Horizon/iUniverse, 2010). LaConte publishes a quarterly online newsletter, Starting Point.

http://www.alternet.org/food/150428/...es?page=entire

How to Hide in Plain Sight

if the photos don't show, go to the link below. The photos are worth looking at

In this short article I will show you step by step how to hide while in plain sight and within seconds of your wanting to disappear from view.

Avoid displaying your silhouette

These simple techniques require no special gear and will work in nearly any situation as long as you know the basic principles and are dressed according to the environment in which you find yourself.

While looking at the following pictures, remember that you know I am featured in them. You will be looking for me in the very small area represented by the images.

However a real outdoor environment is very much larger and your eye will have a huge amount of area to cover that has many distractions. Also, you will likely not know I am in the area and so will not be actively looking for me. These factors will greatly lessen your ability to see me in a real world situation.

Now on to learning how to hide while in plain sight...

Your Silhouette will give you Away

As you draw your eye across a landscape, your subconscious brain will quickly alert you to regular shapes against solid backdrops. For example the shape of a human body against objects like the sky, a green meadow, a sand bar, or body of water.

Use background and shadows

As your eyes scan the first picture you will immediately pick out my basic body shape silhouetted against the bright sky. Even if I were wearing camouflaged clothing, humans and animals can easily discern this shape as being human. So if you want to hide from view while in plain sight, the first thing you want to be sure of is to not expose your complete silhouette in any way.

Shadows and Backgrounds Break Up Your Lines

In picture number two, while hardly camouflaged, I am not so easily seen as in the first picture. To greatly increase my invisibility I simply stepped down the embankment so that the lines of my silhouette are broken up by the natural objects and shadows behind me.

As in the first picture, I continue to face the entire shape of my body toward the camera. I am displaying the immediately recognizable human form – a trunk, a head, set of limbs hanging down from the sides, and another set of limbs planted on the ground.

If I were some distance away or you were pre-occupied you may not notice me even with this low level of camouflage. Once the eye detects my form, it is easy to make out the human being standing in the shadows. Upon seeing this shape, animals will typically flee. Humans will do what humans do to one another according to the situation.
turn sideways

Display a less-human shape

A key to good camoflauge is the breaking up of easily recognizable lines and shapes that make up a view of the human body. This can often be done quickly and efficiently in surprisingly simply ways.

Avoid Displaying the Human Form

On a number of occasions I have accidentally stumbled upon people or wild animals that are unaware of my immediate presence. For example, while in the forest I've come upon hikers walking along a trail or animals such as bears noisily digging for grubs in rotten logs. The first thing I will do is turn sideways to them.

Why? Because animals and humans instantly recognize the unique shape of a human being.

In picture number three I have turned sideways to the camera. If I stand completely still in this position, oftentimes my form will not be seen by others as being human. I could be the trunk of a broken tree or other natural object. This stance is particularly effective with wild animals, which will often stare directly at me for long periods of time, cocking their heads at different angles while wondering what I am.

Note how the lighter colored skin of my arms and face continue to be a weak point in this simple type of camouflage. Simply by covering these lighter areas the ability for others to see me will be greatly dimiininshed.

Another problem is the exposure of my face to direct view. The human brain is keyed into facial recognition, so much so that even a casual glance by a passerby may be enough for them to lock onto your position by first seeing your face amongst the surrounding clutter. This may be one reason why you are often discovered when you stare directly at someone.

alter the human form

Change Your Shape

The human shape can be further camouflaged by simply crouching, as shown in picture four. Hiding my face from direct view is an additional aid in hiding in plain sight.

A quick glance by animal or human eye may not be enough to discern my crouching shape from the natural elements of the landscape such as logs rocks, or splotches in the shadows. As long as I stay completely still, many animals and people would not notice me in this position.

Once again, in this crouching pose a weak point in my camouflage are small areas of light colored skin that reflect more light than my clothing and surroundings. The more I can hide these, the less chance there is that an animal or human will notice my being there.

Become Something Else

In picture number 5 I have camouflaged myself further by bringing my arms into my t-shirt, pulling the shirt up over my head, and crouching with my back to the camera. Even though the sun has changed position since the last pictures and I have lost the advantageous patchiness of sun and shadow, I am still well disguised. In this position, even placed as I am right out in the open and within 30-feet of the camera, I do not appear to look much different than the nearby rock.

Shape Shifting - what have I become?

If you didn't already know I was there, you would have a difficult time seeing my shape as being human. There is no discernible head or limb, my face is hidden, and the typical human trunk form has been morphed into a rounded and irregular shape.

I have essentially disappeared in plain view while wearing ordinary outdoor clothing. In this way there is an excellent chance that an animal or human would pass close by without noticing my presence.

This is just the beginning of what you can do at a moments notice to camouflage your body from view even in plain sight. For increased camouflage you can obtain specially made clothing or gear that will break up your outline using color, shape or a combination of both.

You can also utilize the natural materials around you including vegetation, dirt, or even urban debris. These will be the subjects of future Survival Topics.

Have fun with it, practice, and learn to hide in plain view at will. It could very well save your life.

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/ ... ain-sight/

SIGNALING TECHNIQUES



One of your first concerns when you find yourself in a survival situation is to communicate with your friends or allies. Generally, communication is the giving and receiving of information. As a survivor, you must get your rescuer's attention first, and second, send a message your rescuer understands. Some attention-getters are man-made geometric patterns such as straight lines, circles, triangles, or X's displayed in uninhabited areas; a large fire or flash of light; a large, bright object moving slowly; or contrast, whether from color or shadows. The type of signal used will depend on your environment and the enemy situation.

APPLICATION

If in a noncombat situation, you need to find the largest available clear and flat area on the highest possible terrain. Use as obvious a signal as you can create. On the other hand, you will have to be more discreet in combat situations. You do not want to signal and attract the enemy. Pick an area that is visible from the air, but ensure there are hiding places nearby. Try to have a hill or other object between the signal site and the enemy to mask your signal from the enemy. Perform a thorough reconnaissance of the area to ensure there are no enemy forces nearby.

Whatever signaling technique or device you plan to use, know how to use it and be ready to put it into operation on short notice. If possible, avoid using signals or signaling techniques that can physically endanger you. Keep in mind that signals to your friends may alert the enemy of your presence and location. Before signaling, carefully weigh your rescue chances by friends against the danger of capture by the enemy.

A radio is probably the surest and quickest way to let others know where you are and to let you receive their messages. Become familiar with the radios in your unit. Learn how to operate them and how to send and receive messages.

You will find descriptions of other signaling techniques, devices, and articles you can use. Learn how to use them. Think of ways in which you can adapt or change them for different environments. Practice using these signaling techniques, devices, and articles before you need them. Planned, prearranged signaling techniques may improve your chance of rescue.

MEANS FOR SIGNALING

There are two main ways to get attention or to communicate--visual and audio. The means you use will depend on your situation and the material you have available. Whatever the means, always have visual and audio signals ready for use.

Visual Signals

These signals are materials or equipment you use to make your presence known to rescuers.

Fire

During darkness, fire is the most effective visual means for signaling. Build three fires in a triangle (the international distress signal) or in a straight line with about 25 meters between the fires. Build them as soon as time and the situation permit and protect them until you need them. If you are alone, maintaining three fires may be difficult. If so, maintain one signal fire.

When constructing signal fires, consider your geographic location. If in a jungle, find a natural clearing or the edge of a stream where you can build fires that the jungle foliage will not hide. You may even have to clear an area. If in a snow-covered area, you may have to clear the ground of snow or make a platform on which to build the fire so that melting snow will not extinguish it.

A burning tree (tree torch) is another way to attract attention (Figure 19-1). You can set pitch-bearing trees afire, even when green. You can get other types of trees to burn by placing dry wood in the lower branches and igniting it so that the flames flare up and ignite the foliage. Before the primary tree is consumed, cut and add more small green trees to the fire to produce more smoke. Always select an isolated tree so that you do not start a forest fire and endanger yourself.



Smoke

During daylight, build a smoke generator and use smoke to gain attention (Figure 19-2). The international distress signal is three columns of smoke. Try to create a color of smoke that contrasts with the background; dark smoke against a light background and vice versa. If you practically smother a large fire with green leaves, moss, or a little water, the fire will produce white smoke. If you add rubber or oil-soaked rags to a fire, you will get black smoke.



In a desert environment, smoke hangs close to the ground, but a pilot can spot it in open desert terrain.

Smoke signals are effective only on comparatively calm, clear days. High winds, rain, or snow disperse smoke, lessening its chances of being seen.

Smoke Grenades

If you have smoke grenades with you, use them in the same pattern as described for fires. Keep them dry so that they will work when you need them. Take care not to ignite the vegetation in the area when you use them.

Pen Flares

These flares are part of an aviator's survival vest. The device consists of a pen-shaped gun with a flare attached by a nylon cord. When fired, the pen flare sounds like a pistol shot and fires the flare about 150 meters high. It is about 3 centimeters in diameter.

To have the pen flare ready for immediate use, take it out of its wrapper, attach the flare, leave the gun uncocked, and wear it on a cord or chain around your neck. Be ready to fire it in front of search aircraft and be ready with a secondary signal. Also, be ready to take cover in case the pilot mistakes the flare for enemy fire.

Tracer Ammunition

You may use rifle or pistol tracer ammunition to signal search aircraft. Do not fire the ammunition in front of the aircraft. As with pen flares, be ready to take cover if the pilot mistakes your tracers for enemy fire.

Star Clusters

Red is the international distress color; therefore, use a red star cluster whenever possible. Any color, however, will let your rescuers know where you are. Star clusters reach a height of 200 to 215 meters, burn an average of 6 to 10 seconds, and descend at a rate of 14 meters per second.

Star Parachute Flares

These flares reach a height of 200 to 215 meters and descend at a rate of 2.1 meters per second. The M126 (red) burns about 50 seconds and the M127 (white) about 25 seconds. At night you can see these flares at 48 to 56 kilometers.

Mirrors or Shiny Objects

On a sunny day, a mirror is your best signaling device. If you don't have a mirror, polish your canteen cup, your belt buckle, or a similar object that will reflect the sun's rays. Direct the flashes in one area so that they are secure from enemy observation. Practice using a mirror or shiny object for signaling now; do not wait until you need it. If you have an MK-3 signal mirror, follow the instructions on its back (Figure 19-3).



Wear the signal mirror on a cord or chain around your neck so that it is ready for immediate use. However, be sure the glass side is against your body so that it will not flash; the enemy can see the flash.

CAUTION

Do not flash a signal mirror rapidly because a pilot may mistake the flashes for enemy fire. Do not direct the beam in the aircraft's cockpit for more than a few seconds as it may blind the pilot.

Haze, ground fog, and mirages may make it hard for a pilot to spot signals from a flashing object. So, if possible, get to the highest point in your area when signaling. If you can't determine the aircraft's location, flash your signal in the direction of the aircraft noise.

Note: Pilots have reported seeing mirror flashes up to 160 kilometers away under ideal conditions.

Figures 19-4 and 19-5 show methods of aiming a signal mirror for signaling.




Flashlight or Strobe Light

At night you can use a flashlight or a strobe light to send an SOS to an aircraft. When using a strobe light, take care to prevent the pilot from mistaking it for incoming ground fire. The strobe light flashes 60 times per minute. Some strobe lights have infrared covers and lenses. Blue flash collimators are also available for strobe lights.

VS-17 Panel

During daylight you can use a VS-17 panel to signal. Place the orange side up as it is easier to see from the air than the violet side. Flashing the panel will make it easier for the aircrew to spot. You can use any bright orange or violet cloth as a substitute for the VS-17.

Clothing

Spreading clothing on the ground or in the top of a tree is another way to signal. Select articles whose color will contrast with the natural surroundings. Arrange them in a large geometric pattern to make them more likely to attract attention.

Natural Material

If you lack other means, you can use natural materials to form a symbol or message that can be seen from the air. Build mounds that cast shadows; you can use brush, foliage of any type, rocks, or snow blocks.

In snow-covered areas, tramp the snow to form letters or symbols and fill the depression with contrasting material (twigs or branches). In sand, use boulders, vegetation, or seaweed to form a symbol or message. In brush-covered areas, cut out patterns in the vegetation or sear the ground. In tundra, dig trenches or turn the sod upside down.

In any terrain, use contrasting materials that will make the symbols visible to the aircrews.

Sea Dye Markers

All Army aircraft involved in operations near or over water will normally carry a water survival kit that contains sea dye markers. If you are in a water survival situation, use sea dye markers during daylight to indicate your location. These spots of dye stay conspicuous for about 3 hours, except in very rough seas. Use them only if you are in a friendly area. Keep the markers wrapped until you are ready to use them. Use them only when you hear or sight an aircraft. Sea dye markers are also very effective on snow-covered ground; use them to write distress code letters.
Audio Signals

Radios, whistles, and gunshots are some of the methods you can use to signal your presence to rescuers.

Radio Equipment

The AN/PRC-90 survival radio is a part of the Army aviator's survival vest. The AN/PRC-112 will eventually replace the AN/PRC-90. Both radios can transmit either tone or voice. Any other type of Army radio can do the same. The ranges of the different radios vary depending on the altitude of the receiving aircraft, terrain, vegetation density, weather, battery strength, type of radio, and interference. To obtain maximum performance from radios, use the following procedures:

* Try to transmit only in clear, unobstructed terrain. Since radios are line-of-sight communications devices, any terrain between the radio and the receiver will block the signal.

* Keep the antenna at right angles to the rescuing aircraft. There is no signal from the tip of the antenna.

* If the radio has tone capability, place it upright on a flat, elevated surface so that you can perform other survival tasks.

* Never let the antenna touch your clothing, body, foliage, or the ground. Such contact greatly reduces the range of the signal.

* Conserve battery power. Turn the radio off when you are not using it. Do not transmit or receive constantly. In hostile territory, keep transmissions short to avoid enemy radio direction finding.

* In cold weather, keep the battery inside your clothing when not using the radio. Cold quickly drains the battery's power. Do not expose the battery to extreme heat such as desert sun. High heat may cause the battery to explode. Try to keep the radio and battery as dry as possible, as water may destroy the circuitry.

Whistles

Whistles provide an excellent way for close up signaling. In some documented cases, they have been heard up to 1.6 kilometers away. Manufactured whistles have more range than a human whistle.

Gunshots

In some situations you can use firearms for signaling. Three shots fired at distinct intervals usually indicate a distress signal. Do not use this technique in enemy territory. The enemy will surely come to investigate shots.

CODES AND SIGNALS

Now that you know how to let people know where you are, you need to know how to give them more information. It is easier to form one symbol than to spell out an entire message. Therefore, learn the codes and symbols that all aircraft pilots understand.

SOS

You can use lights or flags to send an SOS--three dots, three dashes, three dots. The SOS is the internationally recognized distress signal in radio Morse code. A dot is a short, sharp pulse; a dash is a longer pulse. Keep repeating the signal. When using flags, hold flags on the left side for dashes and on the right side for dots.

Ground-to-Air Emergency Code

This code (Figure 19-6) is actually five definite, meaningful symbols. Make these symbols a minimum of 1 meter wide and 6 meters long. If you make them larger, keep the same 1: 6 ratio. Ensure the signal contrasts greatly with the ground it is on. Place it in an open area easily spotted from the air.



Body Signals

When an aircraft is close enough for the pilot to see you clearly, use body movements or positions (Figure 19-7) to convey a message.



Panel Signals

If you have a life raft cover or sail, or a suitable substitute, use the symbols shown in Figure 19-8 to convey a message.



Aircraft Acknowledgments

Once the pilot of a fixed-wing aircraft has sighted you, he will normally indicate he has seen you by flying low, moving the plane, and flashing lights as shown in Figure 19-9. Be ready to relay other messages to the pilot once he acknowledges that he received and understood your first message. Use a radio, if possible, to relay further messages. If no radio is available, use the codes covered in the previous paragraphs.



AIRCRAFT VECTORING PROCEDURES

If you can contact a friendly aircraft with a radio, guide the pilot to your location. Use the following general format to guide the pilot:

* Mayday, Mayday.

* Call sign (if any).

* Name.

* Location.

* Number of survivors.

* Available landing sites.

* Any remarks such as medical aid or other specific types of help needed immediately.

Simply because you have made contact with rescuers does not mean you are safe. Follow instructions and continue to use sound survival and evasion techniques until you are actually rescued.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/chp19.php

[PDF] Signal Mirrors http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... 9w&cad=rja