Book Review - Survivors

Since it was a pretty busy day around the Small-Hold and it is looking like tomorrow will be my first morning out doing a bit of wood cutting for the season I decided to do a quick review of "Survivors" for tonight's posting.

To begin let me say that I should have used the almost 25 bucks this thing cost me (In hardback) to pick up an extra 50 rounds of .45 ammo or something. This book was a huge let down after the exciting read "Patriots" turned out to be.

The very first thing I found annoying about this book was what I have come to discover in reading just about anything written by Mr. Rawles in the last two years or so. Which is some sort of general overview of a topic with a tangent into a random minute detail that he believes will cement a view of himself as a complete expert on the subject. Or more to the point that he got some insider information from a real expert.

This "tangent" as I call it first jumped out at me during the movements of Andy Laine around Germany. For all I know Ramstien AFB maybe the nearest base to the Grafenwhore/Vilsec area these days. Yet in the Germany I remember (Of course it was West and East back then) Ramstien is way out West by K-Town and I believe Bamburg AFB is the nearest one to Vilsec. Also there are several large PX's namely Hiedelburg and Stuttgart and even Nuremburg one would go to long before heading all the way out to Ramstien as it was claimed some did in the novel. As I mentioned perhaps my memory is foggy or things have changed that much (Which is very likely) but these details annoyed me greatly since they stood out and emphasized this need for useless detail I have noticed before. I almost went to the trouble of researching to find out if it was my memory playing tricks on me or what but then decided it really didn't matter as there was no real need to go into that much detail anyway.

As a matter of fact from that point on the stage was set and I really had a hard time finding much of interest in the rest of the book until it got to the point of the skirmish with the Mexican armored car gang. Even Andy's horseback trip through Mexico, which had potential for good reading, was mostly just boring minute detail. I kept looking at how the rest of the book was shrinking rapidly and wondering when it was going to get interesting.

The flame-less Molotov cocktail was an interesting idea. That actually made me sit up and wonder if it was possible.

What was the point of the seed lady? I never really saw any need for her section of the book. Those sections dealing with her and her family seemed rushed and out of place since there was little actual detail written about her initial seed purchases or the relative shelf life of the assorted varieties.

Since I did stay up way too late a few nights reading I guess I cannot in all fairness bash the book too much. Just writing one is a monumental task in my opinion even if as in "Patriots" Mr. Rawles had to have the noble minority twist to make it multi-cult acceptable. I will say that he handles it better than most writers today so I found it more harmonious with the overall story without so much of a forced fed feeling.

He needs to find a much better proof reader however.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Politics of the Tribe - Just Passing Through

Twice this week I encountered very overloaded vehicles on my way to work. In some seven-odd years of driving the 20 miles into town at 5AM I can not remember even once before ever sharing the road with anyone (family, single etc) moving their stuff at that hour so openly. Especially on a weekday morning. One of the small towns I drive through even had a pretty severe case of vandalism directed towards an obviously repoed home as well this week.

While I am sure I have shared the road with the occasional uhaul or whatnot I am referring to an outright and obvious hasty move complete with bikes and mattresses lashed down tot he roof... at 5am no less.

Coming across a sight like this once is just a bit odd and not worth mentioning but twice in the same week? That is just a bit too noticeable and out of the ordinary and I imagine just another aspect of this long slow painful decline we are dealing with. Sights like these will become more frequent as things continue downward.

Speaking of which I came across another article on the growing tent cities across America.

Tent Cities Grow as Homelessness Rises in the U.S.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, about 650,000 people experience homelessness on any given night, 250,000 families have lost their homes, 50,000 youths sleep in the streets.

Another interesting side note here. A few weeks ago while checking my bees I fired up my smoker in view of the gravel road the outter apiary borders. Now the hives cannot be seen from the road but as I was letting the smoker heat up and putting on my jacket I was in plain sight. A local drove by and saw me but didn't realize who I was and later that day I bumped into him at the small town gas station nearest the Small-Hold. He mentioned to me that he had seen another one of those homeless campers out by my place. I was a bit alarmed by this and in questioning him he said that he often comes across people obviously camping in their cars out in the woods around us lately. Of course we later figured out that he had just seen me and thought my bee smoker was one of the vagabonds firing up a barbecue but it was interesting to find out that coming across transient campers around here is more common than I knew.

My being at work all day certainly puts me at a disadvantage for area intelligence and scouting that's for sure.

Signs like these are the true test of just how bad things are getting. Keep your eyes open and your local Tribal intelligence net as up to date as possible.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Carolina Gold

I don't typically post about individual tomato varieties. Mostly this is due to the fact that although I have grown them at the Small Hold for years now not one particular variety has stood out in any real way other than taste. This Season however one variety did in fact make an impression. Late in the season I purchased a tray of this Carolina Gold tomato thinking it was a full sized, pear shaped, yellow variety. What I found out was that at least around here it produced large grape sized yellow fruit. Taste-wise it was not very impressive but damn did it produce, and all of them are still producing.

During the stifling heat and drought, the cold nights and unseasonal almost frosts and now into October this variety is still kicking off enough grape sized tomatoes to furnish us with all of them we could wish to eat.

I plan on attempting to harvest some seeds from these plants this weekend and hope to add them to my seasonal planting. Ya never know when another Summer like the one we just got through could hit us again. In fact we don't know if next Summer will be any different than this one. Best to be prepared with hardy plants we know will produce.

I just hope the Japanese Black Truffle seeds I have stored stay viable. That is the Official Small Hold Favorite variety and although we have a few looking as if they will ripen still we have not yet gotten one that was edible.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!

Let the (White) Dudes pay my Bills

Just as I have preached here for years any liberal/progressive movement is always fueled by anti White Male bias. Feminism and the liberal-progressive left are attached at the hip and are just different heads of the same beast. It is as simple as that.

After my post about the complete disconnect and disorder apparent in the individuals making up the protest groups across the country I found an article over at the Spearhead that laid out the inherent anti (White) male attitude which permeates the OWS core.

I was in turn lead to this posting over at Feministing (UBER ALLES)...

My Hope for Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly operates under a revolutionary “progressive stack.” A normal “stack” means those who wish to speak get in line. A progressive stack encourages women and traditionally marginalized groups speak before men, especially white men. This is something that has been in place since the beginning, it is necessary, and it is important.

Especially White MEN

Getting the picture here yet?

It is the same old card being played yet again. Blame the White men, take more wealth from them. Use them as the scape goat because every other group can unite against them.

The looters are now screaming for more thefts.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!

Occupy...ahmm..What?

So this "Occupy Wall Street" and it's sister occupation mobs in what is now 25 cities and counting is finally beginning to get interesting. Instead of food riots and violent mobs we are seeing the unemployed, homeless and hungry coming together to do what? I certainly haven't a clue what they are actually upto and according to the "Daily Mail" neither do the protesters.

Occupy Wall Street Protesters make love as well as class war....

Add the tales of sex in the streets, defecating on police cars, naked body painting and hiding from warrants to cult like chanting and incoherent demands and we have the makings of an explosive mob just waiting for something to set them off.

I haven't written about these protests since the original announcement that they were scheduled but I have indeed followed them closely waiting for some coordination or leadership to emerge. Of course it hasn't. Why? Because this is not a united group it is nothing more than the beginnings of the riots yet to come. I don't believe these people are going anywhere or will disperse on their own because frankly they haven't anywhere else to go. Those on government assistance will stay because they can and those who aren't are getting loads of free hand outs and food.

Bread and circuses has come to America my friends. The class based warfare has reached it's final peaceful climax and if the arena closes there will be hell to pay.

I have listened and read interview after interview with random protesters from all over the nation and not a single one has a clue to what they are really protesting. Dozens of personal opinions and misguided rhetoric but with one common thread. Each protester has nothing to go home to nor anything to do if they do go home.

At this time it is important to watch these groups closely. Something may well set them off and when/if that happens it could get ugly fast. If you live near one of these populated areas I suggest you take a trip to calmer locales.

The idle numbers of the population have finally reached critical mass for social clashes to form. I'm afraid it may all be downhill from here.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!

Sunday Reading - Reloading 7.62 and Pollen

Not much going on information-wise for me today. Not really a whole lot prepper-wise either if you get down to it. I spent the entire day taking care of the end of season maintenance and getting the workshop back into shape and more situated towards reloading once again. I can reload anytime but as I switch focus to bee keeping and woodenware construction, as I have mentioned before, I tend to explode and take up every bit of open workspace I can find. Needless to say there was saw dust, wood scraps and lumber encroaching into the reloading half of the shop and tools too numerous to count scattered everywhere but where they belong.

I also took advantage of the time in the shop to begin looking into reloading the 7.62x39 brass I fired the other day. This is not a caliber I am familiar with reloading although I have owned a die for it for some time. Two things I noticed right off. One an SKS tears the hell out of the brass with deep scratches on the side and that 20' high straight up ejection does a job on the neck if it hits wrong. Two I thought 7.62x39 brass took a small rifle primer but apparently the Remington UMC cases take large rifle. At least I got them resized and only destroyed two cases while trying to get the die set right. I think reloading these cases is going to be a matter of trial and error until I figure them all out.

I did browse this article today because the title really made me sit up and take note:

Saudi's See No Reason to Raise Oil Output Capacity

Make excuses all you want. My theory is the Saudi's can't increase production it just isn't there. The same with Iran. The political moves and other posturing tells me they know their days are numbered. But we will see.



One bit of good news is that Hive 4 not only sucked down a gallon of feed in less than a week but I noticed several of the foragers bringing in pollen for the first time today. Several of the working girls had bright yellow and fiery orange leggings on as they returned home and that means they are raising brood. I am not going to take the frames out to check for sure as we are too close to Winter to risk that kind of disruption. At this point they either are going to make it or not. All I can do is feed em syrup until it gets too cold and then give them some surplus honey and hope for the best. If they have another emergency or get robbed again it is too late to do anything about it anyway. Of course I will be a nervous wreck over this hive until Spring if they do make it.

That's about it for today just some light fluff posting I know but I got a date to watch some show with the Mrs. and then want to get started on Rawles new book a little before bed time.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Simple Rules for Living with Zombies

Since I hear the second season of "The Walking Dead" is about to start showing again I decided to go back and watch the first season (really only 6 episodes) and catch back up. I may or may not go through the trouble of having the Mrs. record it. Honestly I haven't decided if it is really worth going to the trouble yet.

Not to pick the series apart too much but let's just say that the writers certainly don't let the Hollywood political correctness guild down any. As usual all the bad guys with self serving attitudes, mental illness, drug use, domestic violence tendencies etc. are the White boys while the peaceful shepherds, brainy leaders or just all around totally committed team players are "Insert Minority pick here" characters. Of course the main hero is a totally multi-cult supporting white knight in a cowboy hat sortof brooding good-guy while one of the "Good Old Boys" is just a racist druggie (See picture above). Oh ya and the only ones who seem to be able to provide wild game appear to be the totally liberated sisters while the White boys spend their time playing in the water looking for frogs. Another typical leftist utopian doomer porn series. Oh joy.

I did manage to pick up a few good rules regarding surviving zombie infestations however. So it wasn't a total loss. OK to channel Captain Barbossa (Sp?) here "They are really more like guidelines".

1. When waking up disoriented in a hospital gown and seeing a door chained and barred with spookie hands, moaning and a sign written in blood stating the dead are on the otherside. Not to mention the half eaten corpse in the hallway. Perhaps it would be advisable to use a bit of caution when walking about in nothing but your underwear. Just saying....

2. Should you think that example 1 is just some minor Halloween practical joke. Because ya know my friends used to destroy entire hospitals and make hundreds of fake corpses oh and not to mention steal Hummvees to pull a joke on me in college several times.... I think College practical jokes was why I gave up drinking but I digress. Where was I? OH ya... If the first guideline isn't enough then it is advised that if you see half a corpse crawling towards you in a perfectly manicured park that hasn't been mown in like a month... RUN!!!! and as a side note don't trust anyone else for a while. Especially ones shambling down the street while you sit on the front steps in said underwear and hospital gown.

3. Loved ones who are trying to eat your brain... Aren't. It's like "Friendly Fire" ...It isn't.

4. Zombies are just people ya know. Even the little ones want their stuffed bears c'mon.

5. Tanks have emergency hatches under them. I already knew this but that one bit of knowledge was I think the most useful thing shown in the entire series. Another side note what TC only carries one magazine for his sidearm?

6. Tungsten steel handcuffs, half inch mild steel bolts halfway rusted through or your own wrist. A hack saw, no matter how dull, will eventually get through all three. Be smart enough to know which one your gonna hack through. Hint it isn't your wrist idiot!!!

7. When choosing a camp site during a zombie infestation it is usually best to find one with, I don't know a wall or a fence and/or perhaps some open ground around it and a look out or two. Hiding in scrub brush from mindless zombies who find you mostly by scent and noise and will then have cover to shamble up on you at 2.5 miles an hour is maybe a bit risky... maybe...

8. See Rule number 3.

9. Law enforcement officers out of their jurisdiction during a zombie infestation have no authority nor powers of detainment. Keep that in mind.

10. Sometimes it is better to use obsolete technology. Have you ever seen a zombie with Omnivore teeth bite through chainmail? Me neither... nuff said.


Once I ignored the stupid moves and forced PCness the series was a bit entertaining so maybe I will watch season two.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!