No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.
--Unknown

When searching for dehydrated or freeze-dried foods for our preps, I kept running into Textured Vegetable Protein, or TVP. It is a dried soy product designed to act as a vegetarian meat substitute. Most of us have eaten TVP and not realized it. Many "bacon bits" are actually flavored TVP.

The stuff I saw was either beef or chicken flavored, or plain. I noticed that my grocery store was selling the plain stuff in the bulk section, so I picked up a couple of pounds to test out.

TVP is very healthy food. If I'm doing my math right, it has about half the protein as an equal portion (by weight after re-hydration) but twice the value, as chicken breast.

[Snap to! Pay attention here!]

1 1/4 cups of dried TVP combined with 1 1/4 cups of boiling water will roughly give you a pound of TVP "meat".

The TVP costs approximately $2.50 a pound, dry. The 1 1/4 cups of dry TVP weighs approximately 4 ounces (or a quarter pound). To get a pound of TVP "meat" costs $0.63 ($2.50/4). You get 60 grams of protein in that pound (12 grams per quarter cup dry, times 5, one-quarter cup portions), at a cost of about a penny per gram.

Raw, boneless chicken breast costs approximately $2 per pound. You get 108 grams of protein in that pound (27 grams per quarter pound portion), at about two pennies per gram.

Soooooo, TVP is about twice as protein-rich on a penny-for-penny basis when compared to chicken breast.

[OK, you can nod off again...]
----------

So, it appears to be a good value, but if it tastes like crap, who cares? It has to be something you'll eat and use to actually have value.

Here's what the stuff looks like before being re-hydrated -


It's kind of a dry, crunchy breakfast cereal texture. You add equal volumes of boiling water, cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes before using. It puffs up in volume by about 75%. A cup and a quarter of the stuff puffed up to about 2 and a quarter cups of "meat".

The smell and taste of the re-hydrated stuff was OK. I can't tell you what it was like, but it wasn't unpleasant. Perhaps along the lines of cooked, unflavored chicken breast - pretty non-descript.

I took the re-hydrated TVP, added one egg, a tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of beef bullion and made up a "burger" patty. I wanted to see what the stuff tasted like with just a bit of seasoning.

It browned up pretty well, though it was a little "crumbly" in texture -


Not bad in taste, but nothing to write home about.

Most of the 100% vegetarian recipes I had viewed were heavy on the spices and herbs. I took the remaining "meat" and added a bunch of Mexican-food spices - cumin, red pepper flakes, a bit of chile powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

I decided to pan fry it to resemble diced meat for tacos or burritos -


It was much tastier than the patty, although the texture would not fool anyone into thinking it was ground beef or chicken. It looked, smelled and tasted very good.
----------

The vast majority of recipes I found for TVP used them as a meat extender. The recipes called for anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 addition of TVP. I decided to make up some Italian sausage using 2 pounds of pork and 1 pound (re-hydrated weight) of TVP.


I added approximately a tablespoon each of fennel seed, dehydrated diced garlic, dehydrated diced onion, and dehydrated parsley, two teaspoons of salt, plus a teaspoon each of red pepper flakes, black pepper and onion powder.

I made up a patty to check for flavor -


It was moist, tender and friggin' delicious! The only "give-away" was that the crust was a bit more crunchy than a normal sausage patty.

Emboldened by my success, I made up a couple dozen meatballs for dinner -


They were absolutely indistinguishable from "regular" meatballs.

Since I added the TVP, I didn't add any bread crumbs to the normal recipe. They were incredibly moist and flavorful.

Most importantly, they got Two-Thumbs-Up from my family.
----------

TVP will absolutely, positively be added to our preps. It's a great high protein, low weight, low cost addition.

I also definitely see it being added to our regular food menus in things like sausage or anything that needs ground meat such as tacos, meat sauces, lasagna and the like. It will simply be used as an extender of real meat, but probably not be used by itself.

TVP - It's not just for bacon bits anymore!

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Self-Reliance

This lady rocks. She is a firearms instructor that specializes in teaching women how to shoot. She has found a market niche, and is filling it. Good on ya.

A couple of months back, I noticed a problem women students were having in the range - particularly indoor ranges. They were much more jumpy and jittery than the men. Much more. I did some internet searches and came across her site.

One of her articles was talking about this. She made the observation that gun shot reports are in the lower "pitch" range. Just like mens voices. She hypothesized that this was triggering some sort of primeval "danger" response in the women, which in turn manifest itself as excess jitteriness on the range.

I needed a way to acclimate the women to the sounds prior to entering the range.

To test this, I brought a digital recorder to the range with me, and recorded about 3 minutes of gun shots. With new, female students, while we are doing some of the hands-on drills BEFORE we enter the range, I have them wear headsets with the recorded gun shots being played.

So far, it seems to be working!

I don't know if it has anything to do with getting them used to the lower pitch, or if it is just giving them a taste of what's to come. I don't care! If students are less jittery while on the firing line, I'm less likely to have someone freak-out and cause a problem.
----------

She had an article that was her own version of The No Buy Zone. Her focus is on anti-Second Amendment companies.

She's singin' to the choir on that one! Give it a look-see. And boycott those businesses.
----------

Many people know that JP Morgan Chase bought WAMU. I am/was a WAMU customer.

They are in the midst of the conversion from WAMU to Chase. Having been in banking for a million years, I understand how conversions go. Stuff NEVER goes perfectly. Never.

How you handle those screw-up tells what kind of company you're dealing with.

I went to my branch on Friday to make a deposit. I always use the ATM machines. These had been swapped out months ago and converted to the Chase machines.

I put in my card, punched in my numbers and got to the main screen. There was no "deposit" option. I figured I had pushed some wrong button, so I re-did everything. Same result.

I got in line and when I got to the teller, I was terse, but polite. I let him know what had happened. His explanation turned me verbose and rude.

He said, "Oh yeah. We JUST found out about that 45 MINUTES ago."

I proceeded to tell him - and everyone else in line - that I had just pissed away 10 minutes on their machine (they're MUCH slower now). If it was not taking deposits, why didn't they put a sign on the machine stating this?

He said, "OK. Oh, the other machine works just fine."

Thankful that I was constrained by California law from carrying a weapon (jk), I said, even louder, "Do I look like the Amazing Kreskin? Am I supposed to get brain-waves from the ATM telling me which one accepts deposits?"

I got lots of chuckles from the people in line behind me. My work here was done.
----------

I stopped watching the Raider game mid-way through the second quarter. At this time, they are behind 28-0, and it's not even half time. A top-notch Youth Football team could kick their asses today.

JaMarcus Russell is still their quarterback because.....?

They must already be eying the 2010 draft choices...

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Fascism, Gun Grabbers, Life and Times, nanny state, Self-Defense, Self-Reliance, welfare state

Paranoia will get you through times of no enemies better than enemies will get you through times of no paranoia.
-- Pete Granger

I had this big post planned to slam Barry and the Peace Prize. Comparing it to T-ball for little kids. You're getting recognized for not doing anything special. Just show up, and you're rewarded.

But what are you gonna do? These idiots can give a Peace Prize to Al Gore for bald-faced lies on Global Warming, and Barry for his "aspirations", if they want to. It's their "prize". It's just too bad that it gets so much press. With some of their latest choices, I'm guessing the "blush is off the rose" - hell, Barry just came out and said he wasn't worthy!

The word, "mockery" comes to mind...
----------

Is it because I'm jittery, or does it seem like there are A LOT more incidents of over-bearing government actions?

The crap I watched happening in Pittsburgh during the G20 crap was truly frightening. I'm not talking about the anarchists that were purposely flaunting certain laws and trashing shit. I'm talking about people getting snatched up off the street and being shoved into cars - without being arrested or given their rights. I'm talking about college students being trapped in stairwells and being gassed. I'm talking about people just standing on the street and cops on bicycles hosing them down with pepper spray.

WTF?

We all saw the videos of old ladies in New Orleans being roughed up and having her guns confiscated - all while the cops were "bugging out". Thousands of other guns were confiscated, and the government lied, denying that any of them existed.

Look at this shit - these people were a part of a food co-op and back in December of 2008 had all of their goods confiscated by Nanny by a SWAT team.




It sounds like the cops justified the confiscations on the grounds of some bullshit Health And Safety crap, plus they wanted them to get a retail food license. Yep, always gotta have the cut for Nanny, don't ya know...

Thompson explained the genesis of the raid was a series of visits to the family by an undercover agent for the state agriculture agency.

"He showed up (at the Stowers' residence) unannounced one day," Thompson explained, and "pretended" to be interested in purchasing food.

The family explained the co-op was private and they couldn't provide service to the stranger.

The agent then returned another day, stayed for two hours, and explained how he thought his sick mother would be helped by eggs from range-fed chickens to which the Stowers had access.

The family responded that they didn't sell food and couldn't help. When he refused to leave, the family gave him a dozen eggs to hasten his departure, Thompson explained.

Despite protests from the family, the agent left some money on a counter and departed.

On the basis of that transaction, the Stowers were accused of engaging in the retail sale of food, Thompson said.

Can you say, "entrapment"?

Why would you need a SWAT team to serve papers on a house that is a member of a food co-op? Was there EVER any indication there might be violence?

It seems like every small town in America now has a SWAT team. They get all suited up like Star Wars Storm Troopers and go kick some ass!

These people look like a couple of "old hippies" who just want to live a simple life. A group of like-minded people and farms got together to make their lives easier. That's a crime now?

They offended some bureaucrat and all hell broke loose.

These people were able to get legal representation and are suing the ass off the government, but at what cost? They had a year's worth of personal food stolen, plus the co-op has been in disarray in the interim. Nanny wins regardless of the outcome. Don't fuck with us.
----------

There are entire websites devoted to this topic, yet nothing seems to be changing. The MSM just rolls over and plays nice. Just off the top of my head, I can rattle off a bunch of Nanny-Run-Amuck crap -

Waco
Katrina
Ruby Ridge
The Mormon's in Texas
The BART cop shooting the kid in the back
Countless "No Knock" warrants gone bad
Asset Seizure Laws
The USA PATRIOT Act

Good Lord, what's going on here?
----------

Cache - food, guns, money, ammo, durable goods. Don't have "all your eggs in one basket". Stay off the ridge-line, but don't cower. Exercise your rights, but be prepared for "blow-back". They WILL hurt you if they desire, at least in the short-term. Have a plan. No, have multiple plans.

Document - your best chance for proving your innocence is by having proof of what is taking place. I was recently telling a friend about a "trick" we used in our bank branches.

We had big, obvious cameras in all of our lobbies so everyone knew we were filming everything that happened. In the back of the office was the recorder - right out in plain sight. It was recording everything that happened. What was not so obvious is that we also had a web feed to our central office.

If the office was robbed, we expected the crooks to take the tapes (or even the whole machine). It gave them a sense of assurance that they were going to get away with their crime, and it lowered the likelihood that one of our customers or employees would get hurt.

The fact that the entire incident was simultaneously recorded offsite never entered their heads...

Document what happens and make sure you have duplicates. Assume your primary source of evidence will be "lost". Paranoia isn't always a bad thing...
----------

[Rhetorical question...] In the past, how have the "repressive regimes" been dealt with?

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Thought Crimes, welfare state

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
--Martha Graham

The hectic pace continues, but I wanted to share some stuff.

I have a puzzle for the gunnies out there. I had an interesting training session this weekend, and want to see if anyone could determine the cause of this guy's problem. It is primarily a two-part problem. I nailed one part of the problem based upon our pre-lesson phone interview.

Based upon the information, plus one observation, I SHOULD have picked up the second issue more quickly (the second item took me a little over an hour to diagnose).

Interview information: He's been shooting this gun for a number of years - 5+. He is very confused and frustrated. The gun is a Beretta Elite II in 9mm.

He owns a number of rifles, and is able to shoot them all very accurately, but sucks with his handgun. He wants to have better accuracy, as he keeps the gun for self-defense in his home. The last time he shot the handgun was about 4 months ago. He buys his ammo in bulk, so training is only limited by motivation.

Observation: Relevant observations were that he tea-cups with his left hand (cups his left hand under the handle and right hand). His stance was a bit too closed and lock-kneed. Pistol presentation was a bit weak, with a lot of elbow bend in both arms. Lots of muzzle arc after presentation - he was having difficulty getting a sight picture (his Beretta had all-black sights). He had a nice, "soft" trigger pull - no slapping or jerking at all.

His shots were consistently 8-12 inches off bullseye at 7 yards. Most shots were in the lower left-hand quadrant - between 6 and 9 o'clock.

With that information, what do you think were his main problems (two of them)? He had a number of tweaks - each which improved performance, but two things produced MAJOR improvements.

Based upon this information, take your best guess as to what the major problems were. The one I figured out based upon our interview brought his shots consistently grouped just off of our 8" target (so, he had gone from 8-12 inches off center, to 4 inches off center). It took what seemed like forever to figure out the second part. In hindsight, it should have been the second or third thing I addressed - it seems so obvious now.

It was funny as hell, as soon as we got him consistently on target, I thought he was going to hug me right on the range! It was almost like he couldn't believe that is was HE that was shooting the gun. He had been shooting for years like this, and had just about given up. It was very satisfying to see.

Best part is, he signed up for two more hours...!

Post your guesses, and I'll reveal what the two major items were either in tomorrow's post or in the comments.

----------

I inadvertently got to build some skills this weekend.

We've been in our home since 2002. When we moved here, we bought a new lawnmower. For the past year or so, the engine has been having some problems, and I got a small leak in the gas tank. Then, two weekends ago, one of my son's called me out front to show me one of the rear wheels had snapped off. WTF?

They used a carriage bolt for the axle. The manufacturer had taken a 1/2 inch carriage bolt and then reduced the size of the threaded portion to 5/16", which screwed into the side of the lawnmower frame. The bolt snapped right where the threads met the smooth portion of the bold.

Well, you can't find bolt at Home Depot that are built that way. They're either 1/2' or 5/16" - not some Franken-bolt bastardization.

I figured I had two options: Bite the bullet and get a new lawnmower (a minimum of $200) or repair the wheel.

I chose the latter. I went out and bought a tap and die set. I drilled out the 5/16" hole, then used the tap to ream out and thread the hole at 1/2".

I'll be damned if it didn't work! The tap cut the threads like butter. I'm primarily a woodworking guy - I don't do a lot with metals. I thought it was going to be some complex, convoluted process. I watched a couple of Youtube video and was off to the races.

I bought an entire kit with multiple sized taps and dies for under $40, so this was a win-win for me. I got a new set of tools AND saved the money I would have to spend on a lawnmower.

I've got to find some steel rod and try making a bolt with the dies. I'm hooked!

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Gun Grabbers, Life and Times, Self-Defense, Self-Reliance

There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.
--Mao Tse-Tung

I've been in a bit of a funk lately with so much of what's going on in the news. The video of the kids singing the praises of Barry. The video being shown to kids all around the nation on the evils of capitalism. Barry being lovingly embraced by all of the world's socialist rulers. It was a bit much.

What disturbed me the most was a side-show to the G20 conference. It turns out, this ended up being the center-stage for the little get-together -

Struggling with a contentious issue, world leaders have reached basic agreement on limiting the bonuses of bankers whose risky behavior contributed to the global financial meltdown, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday at a summit of the world's largest economies.

I read that line in utter disbelief. Can we really be joining forces with other countries in the world to regulate the income of a group of people? Can this really be happening?

Apparently so -

The treasury secretary said the G-20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit bankers' compensation by the end of this year. He said it would involve setting separate standards in each of the countries and would be overseen [by] the Financial Stability Board, an international group of central bankers and regulators.

Hmmm. The Financial Stability Board. That sounds like one of the many global organizations that were established in the (supposedly) fictional Atlas Shrugged.

Are they really going to let some entity other than a bank's Board of Directors set the pay of their employees? It is horrific enough to think of our own government doing this, but being dictated to by some quasi-New World Order organization is too much to comprehend.
----------

I needed some "hopeful" reading material.

Barry keeps popping off that he is a big capitalist - he just loves that shit. But everything he does is the exact opposite. He doesn't encourage individualism and entrepreneurship, he rewards the collective.

If he wants to get all "worldly" on us, maybe he should meet this international group of folks.

They are 10 entrepreneurs that turned hard work into billions. Daddy didn't give them a big pile of money. These folks earned every damned dime they have.

In fact, of the Forbes list of the 900+ billionaires in the world, two-thirds of them made their riches on their own. No silver spoon involved.

Here's another list (albeit with some repeats from the other list).

Black or white or Asian or Hispanic. Men or women. College educated or drop-outs.

If you allow and encourage people to take advantage of the gifts they were born with, the cream will rise to the top. This "coddle the down-trodden" bullshit IS KILLING US!
----------

Remember: That list was for billionaires. Our country has millions of millionaires.

I was watching the new Jay Leno show last night, and Rush was on it. I was surprised, but he and Jay got into it pretty heavily. Jay was basically asking, "How much is enough?" with regards to salaries (I'm guessing he would change his tune if Barry suddenly targeted the entertainment industry).

Rush made the precisely correct statement - It's not a zero-sum game. Just because someone is making tons of money doesn't mean it's coming out of the pocket of someone else. In fact, just the opposite is true.

If I buy something for $X, add value and sell it for $X + $10, my supplier and I BOTH make money - neither at the detriment of anyone else. This false thesis that people get rich off of the backs of others is bullshit.

Yes, there are unscrupulous people. In business, in religion, in academia and in politics. Especially in politics. But you don't shut down an entire economic structure because of a few bad apples. You destroy the rotted fruit.

That is a roll of government, although the market usually does a better job of it all by itself.
----------

So, what is your gift? What skill do you possess that you can leverage to make you buckets-o-money? The people on the Forbes list provided a product or service that lots of people wanted. They packaged it in such a way that they beat their competition - very few of them actually created something new. They produced a better product or service than what was being offered by the competition, and were rewarded for their efforts.

I've always preached that making lots of money is not an ends by itself. It simply gives you the freedom to do what you want. The more money you have, the more choices you have.

You had better get moving, though, on your earth-shattering idea. Barry and Timmy may be targeting your market niche next.
----------

An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia, “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?”

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Fascism, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

There is more similarity in the marketing challenge of selling a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.
-- A. Alfred Taubman

Check this out: I do a weekly newsletter for my biz. It gives tips and insights into personal protection. I touch on awareness, self-defense tools (from pepper spray to handguns) and home defense strategies. It is pretty well received.

I'm putting an issue together on selecting the right self-defense tool based upon your personal lifestyle. Are you young and agile, or older and less mobile? Do you have a lot of kids in and out of your home? What kinds of situations do you often find yourself in that MAY require you to defend yourself (like walking your dog in the park)? Stuff like that.

I was looking through the Internet to gather some crime statistics (fear sells!). I found this on the FBI website -


Astounding. What amazed me is that all of these numbers have improved (gone down) over the stats from 2007!

----------

I need some help. MOSTLY from folks that do not have much (or any) firearms training experience, although input/votes from anyone is appreciated.

I've been offering a couple of classes for firearms, and the response has been "tepid" to say the least. Everything has been through referrals.

The main class is one that is targeted (pun intended) at prospective gun buyers who don't know if they want/need a semi-auto or a revolver. The class is based upon the NRA First Steps class - I just expand it to include both types of firearms.

They get all of the classroom safety and technical training, then go to the range to shoot a number of semi's and revolvers.

The class includes 50 rounds of ammo (25 for each type of gun), eye and ear protection, plus all of the NRA handbooks/brochures/certificates. They pay for the range time and targets.

How much would you pay for this class? This assumes that you have picked me from Internet searches or newspaper ads - NOT from a personal referral. You're a "cold" lead.

We all have a perception of value in our heads. If a price exceeds that, we will often times automatically "shut down" and move on. Where is your, "no friggin' way" line?



----------

Next week, I am meeting with the owner of a new indoor range to try and work out an arrangement for me to do the training at their range. They will sell guns, ammo and other equipment - as well as offer training. So far, these guys are falling all over themselves to hear what I have to offer. We'll see if we can make this work.

Pricing for this will be interesting. I would categorize these leads as "warm" leads. They've taken the time to get off their butts and actually walk into the shop looking for a gun. They've crossed the, "guns scare me" barrier, and moved into the, "crime scares me more" space.

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Life and Times, Self-Reliance

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
--Oscar Wilde

A buddy and I were talking yesterday about what's going on in the economy. We were talking about some different strategies for buffering ourselves for what's coming down the line. The difficulty is in knowing exactly what's coming - and when.

We discussed everything from the purchase of real property to going big into precious metals. The idea being putting our money in places where we would have something tangible to hold on to if/when we get a financial SHTF, but not being totally screwed if by some miracle, the economy makes a real, significant rebound.

From where I sit, I simply cannot see a way around the US being battered mercilessly by both inflation and taxation.

From AIER - The American Institute For Economic Research

Over the next 10 years, federal spending is projected to remain at historically high levels, revenues are projected to rise from their current post-World War II lows to near postwar highs, and ongoing federal deficits are projected to add $10 trillion to the federal debt. This according to the latest analysis from White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

The AIER analysis is based upon projections by the White House, so I personally consider this to be a Best Case Scenario. In delving into the White House numbers, I see that they've only budgeted a bit over $600 billion (over 10 years) for Universal Health Care. Of course it will be considerably more than that. The recent "affordable" Senate version had a price tag of "less than $900 billion" according to Senator Baucus.

Reality will probably be triple that number. At least. And we're going to have to pay for it somehow.

On the spending side, outlays are now at 25 percent of GDP, the highest since World War II. This percentage is projected to fall as the economy rebounds and the financial crisis passes, leveling off at 23 percent of GDP, which again would be unusually high in historical terms.

One source of higher outlays will be rising interest payments on the ballooning federal debt. By 2019, the government is projected to spend more on interest payments than on national defense.

Where will THAT money come from? Does anyone who has lived in America for longer than 60 seconds believe that one, single Federal program will be cut to pay for the increased debt payments? Really?!

And then there are us Boomers -

Moreover, these projections stop in 2019, before the full wave of baby-boom retirements hits Social Security and Medicare. So the longer-term budget outlook is actually even worse. Barring some unexpected improvement or a stretch of exceptionally rapid economic growth, it would appear that some combination of higher taxes, reduced spending, or increased inflating (printing more money) is inevitable.

I guess some, "stretch of exceptionally rapid economic growth" could hit, but I'm not betting on it.

In the 1980's and 1990's there was a "buzz" with computers and the Internet. We could see progress. Chips kept getting smaller, faster and cheaper. Memory got bigger and cheaper. We went from 1200 baud to T-1 speeds seemingly overnight. There was reason for optimism because all of the changes were truly innovative. It wasn't a re-branding of old ideas.

What do we have before us now? Giving more free shit away to more people. Jobs will be all "green" - even though everywhere it's been force-fed in the past, it's failed. We have the government attempting to control the economy, instead of letting the capitalists do their thing.

Why innovate when the fruits of your labors will be taken from you?
----------

Fed Head Bernanke is now laying the groundwork for the excuses. The excuses for why the economy just won't respond to his ministrations -

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to stoke a U.S. economic recovery may be undermined by the central bank’s other goal of restoring the banking system to health.

The Federal Open Market Committee, at the conclusion tomorrow of a two-day meeting, will probably maintain its assessment that “tight” bank credit is impeding growth, said economists including former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley. Lending contracted for five straight weeks through Sept. 9, a drop that in part reflects Fed orders to banks to raise more capital and toughen lending standards, analysts say.

If you dig deeper into the article, the real reason for the tightened lending standards is uncovered - the soon-to-go-tits-up commercial real estate market.

Falling values of commercial real estate are also a problem for banks, with an “uncertain degree of losses” to come, said Ryding, a former Fed researcher. Loans made for commercial property will probably sour and lenders will need to raise more capital to cover credit losses, Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at CLSA Ltd., said today at a conference in Hong Kong.

Banks are preparing for the massive hit that's coming. To put it into perspective, the FDIC has $10 billion or so in cash. Some are predicting it will cost them in the range of $400-$500 billion (to a worst-case estimate of $800 billion) before this financial system hemorrhaging is complete.

How do we NOT raise taxes or feed inflation by printing more money?
----------

As I've written before, I hope TS doesn't HTF before late October/early November. If things can hold together until then, my family should be in a good position to plop ourselves down on a semi-rural piece of property with very little debt.

It will allow us to significantly reduce our monthly outlays. That, in turn, reduces the amount of reportable income that is necessary to justify our lifestyle to Nanny (should they come snooping around).

One of the reasons we're taking this path is that we can't see a down-side to it. If the economy is somehow able to rebound, we're sitting even prettier. If it tanks as I believe, we could slide under most of Barry's (and his successors) tax tiers to help us to NOT fund this bastardization of America.

As God is my witness, I hope Barry, Ben and Tim's plan works. But, I don't see a snowball's chance in hell of it happening, and I'm not willing to bet my family's future on "hope".

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I need some input and some ideas.

I'm working on a project that includes information on emergency communications. I've got the basics covered on how a family can communicate by having a pre-selected location to leave messages during a disaster.

You can generally use a cell phone to call outside of a disaster area - the circuits are jammed coming in, but going out of the area, they are generally available. You select a family member that is sufficiently geographically removed, and they act as a clearing house of sorts to pass along messages.

You can get a ham radio license. You can have CB radios. Standard land-line phones (NOT wireless models) will typically work even when there is a power outage.

For one-way communications, you can have battery-, solar- or dynamo-powered radios so you know what's going on in the outside world.

I've got this covered. But what do you do when communications are purposely disabled?
----------

I was watching the traveling chef, Anthony Bourdain, on the Travel Channel last night. He was in Thailand when a state of emergency was put into effect. It got me thinking about how you would communicate with others if the government effectively shut down all communications.

Let's say that Barry or one of his successors decides that we're under some sort of dangerous situation, and enacted any of the martial law-like powers they've granted themselves, and they restrict communication only to government entities.

They shut down cell towers, land lines and the Internet. They jam all CB and ham radio frequencies. No phone calls, emails, blog postings, Tweets or MySpace posts unless they go through government censors first.

Waddaya do?

What if the restrictions are only focused on you? What if you're a Randy Weaver or Branch Dividian? A situation where the "free media" - newspapers, TV, Internet - is still intact, but you are shut down?

How do you make sure people know what's going on with your situation?
----------

For the first instance - total shut-down of all communications - I guess it would be through word-of-mouth, and some sort of underground newspaper would emerge. Communications would be made via more "primitive" means - analogue versus digital. Fliers, rogue newspapers, graffiti, etc.

I'm at a loss for the second situation - where you or your group are the target. Do you set up some sort of message that is published in the event that X, Y or Z happens? A YouTube video journal or post-dated blog entry?

I'd love to hear some ideas for either of these situations. OK, I'm begging for some ideas!
----------

You know about steganography, right? It's the practice of using one digital object to hide another object inside the first.

A few years ago, I did a demonstration of steganography for our board of directors. I showed them a picture of our bank's logo - a JPG image.

I told them that I could hide any information about the bank that I wished right under their noses. They laughed, literally out loud.

I told them that I could hide our business plans, individual compensation information, confidential federal regulator reports or anything else I wished, and no one would be the wiser.

I ran the image through a program, and magically, out popped a Word document. The document said -

Mike just saved your asses. Give him a raise.

That got a nice chuckle from the board, but showed them how vulnerable we were to information leaks. Leaks that would be virtually impossible to protect against (at least at the time).

Steganography works by using the un-used "space" inside of every type of file. It fills that space with whatever data you wish without affecting the quality of the original file (usually an image file). The only way you can tell the file has been altered is if you know the exact size (in bytes) of the original file, and compare that with the new file.

You, too, can use steganography to hide information that you might want to pass along to someone else, but don't want an electronic trail that leads back to you.

There are a number of free programs out there (i.e. Invisible Secrets) free for the taking. You just take your image and whatever information you want and mash them together, and post the image somewhere on the Internet.

Let's say you have a bunch of photos of your latest outing to the beach that you upload to Picasa or one of the other free photo sites. You add the information to one of the images that is uploaded. The person that needs the information downloads that image to their computer, runs it through the program, and bang-zoom! there is the information.
----------

Wanna pretend you're a spy?

This image file has a super-secret, rarely used document hidden inside of it. Click it to enlarge, then save it to your desktop. I used Invisible Secrets (free) to hide the message. The password to gain access to the secret document is 'nanny' (all lower case - without the apostrophes). The encryption algorithm used was Blowfish (if it's not the default, just select it from the drop-down menu). Select the destination of the super-secret document (like your Desktop) and read away.


FYI - it's a simple TXT document that contains no other junk.
----------

Hey, spymaster! Don't forget to leave some comments on communications during tough times...

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Constitution, Fascism, Propaganda, Thought Crimes

----------

Quiz time, boys and girls!



----------

Here's the Public Option at work. It's probably best not to get old and bust a hip in America...

They’re not criminals. They’ve broken no laws. But they’re being held against their will by the State of Texas. Why? It’s a tragic story about what can happen when you are alone in the world and lose control of your rights, your money, and your ability to complain.

Well, I'm sure this is just a simple misunderstanding -

A judge determined the Kidds were incapacitated and unable to care for themselves. The state took over the Kidds lives, sent them to the Countryside Nursing Home in Pilot Point, and is now burning through their money to pay for their care.

Oh. Seems kinda harsh. Of course, I'm sure the state is taking the proper fiduciary care with regards to the couple's money, right?

The state appointed a financial guardian in Greenville to manage the Kidds money and pay their bills. When they asked for an accounting, the state refused. Representatives for the state stated the Kidds did not have the mental capacity to even ask for their own financial or medical records.

Yet somehow, the Kidds still managed to ask.

Crazy old fools! Don't worry - the state will take goooooood care of you. Yesiree...

Labels: American Ingenuity, communism, Fascism, Propaganda

Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.
--Dave Barry

I've been researching different way of cooking in an emergency situation. I carry a homemade Penny Stove in my GHB. They are excellent for this purpose - small, heat up quickly, are pretty powerful, and don't use a lot of fuel.

They have their downsides, though. You need to carry fuel with you. While I carry mine in the fuel carriers designed for backpackers, it can sometimes be disconcerting knowing this fuel is kept in my car.

Even though they are thrifty with the fuel, when it runs out, the stove is useless. I needed to fix that. I needed a field-expedient stove that used wood as the primary fuel.

Of course, there's the campfire. Very easy to make, but not very efficient for cooking. By their very design, they throw off lots of heat.

I've made Dakota firepits. They work wonderfully, and are very efficient. But, like campfires, they're not portable. You use it where you build it.

It seems like I kept being brought back to coffee can-based stoves. It looked like the most effecient design was the Rocket Stove.

So I built one to test it out.

A Rocket Stove has a number of features. There is the large outer shell, an inner "L" shaped chimney and fuel feed ramp, and a shelf on the feed ramp to provide lots of air in the combustion chamber/chimney to provide a high level of efficiency.

Here are the basics:

The cool thing about rocket stoves is they can be made out of all kinds of materials, from bricks and clay for use inside of a home, to coffee can-sized for use while camping. It's the design that's important.

The first time I heard of a Rocket Stove was a year and a half ago over at the Dragon's place. He made a very nice one that is super efficient.

I wanted to make one that could be thrown together out in the field with discarded cans, items I keep in my GHB and things scrounged in the wild. My backyard would be considered "the wild" for this little test (and NO, I wouldn't allow myself to "find" my power tools in the backyard!).


That's two dog food cans, a larger coffee can and a multi-tool. The two dog food cans would make up the "L" and the coffee can would be the body.

Using the can opener on the multi-tool, I removed the bottom of one of the cans. This would act as the fuel feed hole. I lined it up at a 90 degree angle with the other dog food can to determine where I'd need to cut a hole in its side to complete the "L".


I marked it out (yes, with a Sharpie I keep in my GHB!) and made pie cuts with the point of the knife in the multi-tool (it cut through the can like butter).


Note: When making these cuts, make one center-to-edge of circle cut first. THEN make your other cuts from the outside of the circle towards the center. Your cuts are much more accurate. On the smaller can, while opening up the hole a bit, I was making one of the cuts on the upper part of the circle, and the knife ran on me, cutting the can to the very top of the lip. The reinforced banding on the lip was the only thing that kept me from slicing open the whole can.

After A LOT of tweaking, I got the cans together. I then lined up one of the dog food cans on the coffee can, marked it out and made similar cuts and slapped everything together.

Front view:


Top view:


You'll notice all of the "mess" in the top view from the folded edges of the can holes. I just pushed these flat with the pliers of the multi-tool to clean things up.

I had nothing for the ramp that is used to create the air channel in the feed tube. DING! I keep tins of sardines and kippered snacks in my GHB. The kippered snacks come in a long slender tin. The lid would work PERFECTLY!

I opened the tin, at the kippered snacks (I love these things!) and fashioned the fuel ramp. I basically measured it to length, and folded it so it was the same length as the can. I then folded down the sides of the lid to provide the stand-off to allow airflow. It sat in the can perfectly.


You need to add some sort of insulation between the outer walls of the chimney and the inner walls of the coffee can. It helps to make the stove more efficient. I poured some sand and dirt from my backyard into this void. Some of it started escaping from the bottom of the hole in the coffee can. I grabbed some aluminum foil from the fishing kit in my GHB and stuffed it into the voids. It kept out SOME of the sand/soil, but not all of it. I only filled the void up perhaps half way.

The last thing I did was punch 8, 1/2 inch air holes about a half inch below the rim of the coffee can. Since I intended on using the top of the can as my pot stand, I needed to provide a way to keep the air draft alive.

Now to see if this puppy works!

I scrounged up a piece of a stake made from oak to use as my fuel. I used my Kabar survival knife to split the pieces into usable sizes. I also grabbed an ashtray to start my fire, as it was windy and I didn't want to have my kindling blowing all over my backyard and catching stuff on fire. Here's what I started with:


Starting at top center of the picture moving clockwise: The rocket stove, 1qt camp pot, ash tray with 1 Vaseline-soaked cotton ball and two pieces of kindling with feathered edges, a fire sparker, the multi-tool, a nesting fork-spoon-knife kit, the lid to the pot and three bundles of differently sized oak stake pieces. Please note that this is ALL the fuel I was allowing myself.

You'll also note - right above the pot lid, a bag of light brown stuff. That is one of my Just Add Water (JAW) meals.

My test would be to bring 2 cups of water to a boil and to make myself some soup. Might as well be practical here!

I got the cotton ball flaming with a single strike of the sparker (these cotton balls RULE!) and threw in the two feathered pieces of kindling. They were then put into the feed ramp of the stove.

It was cranking out flame virtually immediately!


I threw the pot on top, and started my clock to see how long it would take to bring the water to a boil and cook my meal.


The flame promptly went out. I removed the pot, and it started right up again. Apparently, the air holes I punched into the coffee can were inadequate for the job. I found that I needed a very aggressive fire to keep it alive with the pot on the stove.

It took approximately 10 minutes to get bubbles to form at the bottom of the pan. I was never able to get a full boil going. I dumped the JAW soup mix in the pan, gave it a stir and covered it up.

I alternated between pushing more sticks into the fire chamber, removing the pot to get the fire going again, and stirring the soup. All told, it took another 10 minutes (for a total of 20 minutes) to cook the soup.

Very impressively, those little bundles of wood shown in the picture above were all I used. In a camp fire or even a Dakota fire pit, that would have been gone in a minute. I had perhaps a 1/4 cup of ash after the fire.


So, what did I learn?

Pro: Very sturdy. Very Cheap. Very fuel efficient. Portable.

Con: Dirty. Even though it was very efficient, there was a ton of soot on the bottom of the pot. No more than you'd have with a campfire, but with its touted high efficiency, I expected less.

Other than that, it was pretty damned impressive. My design didn't allow for enough air to reach the fire chamber with the pot on the top. That's not a problem with the Rocket Stove, it was a problem with how I put it together.

Along a similar line, the coffee can diameter should match the diameter of your pot, if at all possible. This will allow more of the flame coming up from the chimney to "lick" the bottom of the pot and give you quicker desired temperatures.
----------

I'd guess it took me about a half hour to make the stove. I went slowly so I wouldn't cut myself on any of the exposed edges.

It was a good exercise. I will probably put one together that is more like the one Dragon made - more precise, sturdy and larger. It could be brought along when car camping or similar situation or used at home during an emergency when you didn't have access to utility-provided fuels, electricity or other stored fuels.

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Life and Times, Self-Reliance

Well, between Scotch and nothin', I suppose I'd take Scotch. It's the nearest thing to good moonshine I can find.
--William Faulkner

Two weeks ago, I started a 5-gallon batch of high-alcohol fermented beverage - some hooch.

The batch is now fully fermented. It came out at 15.5% alcohol content! To put it into perspective, beer is generally in the 4-7% range, and wine is usually in the 10-12% range.

So far, the results are mixed.

When you make a beer or wine, when the fermentation is complete, the yeast dies off, and flocculates - falls to the bottom of the fermentation bucket. This leaves you with a fairly clear liquid that you drink.

The Turbo Yeast that I used doesn't seem to want to 'play nice.' The resulting liquid is very cloudy.


I decided to run the liquid through a make-shift strainer. I took 3 clean terrycloth towels and placed them in a colander on top of another bucket.



It did absolutely nothing.

I decided to, "kick it up a notch" and run it through a coffee filter. Nuttin'.

I ran it through 5 coffee filters stacked on top of each other. Nada.

Now I was pissed off. I went out and spent $25 to buy a Brita water filter. It uses activated charcoal to 'scrub' the water you pour into it. My concern was that the filter would clog from the yeast and I'd be forced to continually buy more and more filters.

I didn't care - I wanted a clear liquid!

So much for the activated charcoal -


If you compare this picture with the first one, you can see a slight clarification of the liquid, but not much.

I am not pleased.
----------

Before I started with the straining, I dropped the temperature of my fermentation fridge down from 66F to 50F. Typically, this will cause the yeast to fall out of solution to the bottom of the bucket. I gave the yeast 24 hours to flocculate. It obviously didn't work.

Soooooo, I took the bucket, and put it into my freezerator - a freezer that I have retro-fitted to serve my beer. It is temperature controlled to maintain a 42F temperature.

I'm going to let it sit for at least a week to see if I can get nature to clear up the brew. If this doesn't work, I may have to go with a type of plate filter that is used on wine. The rig costs $60 or $70, and the filters run around $4 each (and you need 2 per batch).

I do plan on making up a number of batches of this hooch to experiment with some other techniques and uses, so I might be able to justify the cost, but this is clearly not something I had planned for.
----------

You guys know what this 'hooch' is used for - commercially - right? Take a look at bottled mixed "cocktails" such as the hard ciders, or Zima, Smirnoff Ice and the like. Most will say something to the effect of "fermented malt beverage" or as plainly as "beer."

The reason for this has to do with our liquor laws. A beer and wine liquor license is much easier to obtain than a distilled spirits license. You can sell these stronger alcoholic beverages right next to your beer and wine without having to upgrade your license.
----------

Related filtration topic:

Last week, I helped a couple of friends to set up their homemade Big Berkey water filters. We drilled the holes and got everything set up.

The house we were doing this has a large swimming pool that the owner plans to use as his emergency water supply. To show him the effectiveness of the filters, we filled the bucket up with water, and waited anxiously as it filtered it into pure, potable H2O. These filters don't just filter the water, it purifies it to 99.99999% clarity.

The water trickled down to the bottom bucket, and it was high enough to allow us to use the spigot and pour ourselves a glass.

The owner took a sip, and scrunched his face up in disgust. I figured he was kidding around.

Not so.

I had explained to him that the Black Berkey filters scrub all of the bad crap out of the water. VOC's, pesticides, heavy metals, chlorine, bacteria - everything you might be worried about.

The information on the web site also had this information -

yet they leave in the healthful and beneficial minerals that your body needs and....

This is a good thing - normally.

What I didn't know, is that this guy adds salt to his pool. Apparently, the salt goes through some kind of gizmo that produces all of the bug-killing chemicals needed to keep the pool clean. But the water is salty.

Salt would be one of those "healthful and beneficial minerals" that makes it through the filter!

He's now ordering up some additional 55-gallon water barrels....

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Self-Reliance

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.
--Sun Tzu

OpSec is a term used by the military that is a contraction of Operations Security. The idea is to ensure your enemy doesn't get wind of what you're planning for in your next mission. Think of the saying from WWII, "Loose lips sink ships."

It also has to do with adding inconsistency to what you do - don't be predictable, or your enemy will be able to anticipate what you're going to do next, even without having to gather any information.

In the latest episode of The Colony TV show , they had to deal with a man and woman who laid a claim to the group's building and its contents. The guy literally had a key to the back door, and walked right in.

Some of the group was leery, but a couple of the male members decided to give these two strangers a complete tour of their facilities, security and resources. Simply because the guy had a key to the door.

They spilled their guts, and not surprisingly, the strangers turned on the group. They didn't want to live by the rules of the Colony, and a good deal of resources were lost in a very short period of time.

If these two ever decide to come back with some of their friends, they now know the security arrangements, the head count, the skill-sets, the weaponry, power, food and water capabilities of The Colony. Unless the group makes some changes, they are a plum waiting to be picked.
----------

A reader of this blog sent me a link to this document Secret Freedom Fighter - Fighting Tyranny Without Terrorizing the Innocent. It's an interesting read, to say the least. If you have a Scribd.com account (free to set up), you can download the booklet in PDF format.

The book is largely based on the idea of OpSec - keep your pie-hole closed, and you are much more likely to be successful in what you're trying to achieve.

If I have any criticism of their efforts [people publicly fighting Nanny], it is that they have been too public. Too many of them will be easily identified and targeted by the authorities in control.

Take the case of the Mormons. Everybody in the country knows that every good Mormon is supposed to have a year's supply of food on hand. When the crunch comes, the first thing the military dictator's local representative is going to his list of members. A week later, the Mormons will be standing in the soup lines along with everybody else, only it will be their soup we'll all be eating.

He's right on the first part - if confiscations are to occur, Mormons will be targeted because everyone knows that's where the food is.

What he gets wrong, I think, is thinking that they'll end up in soup lines. I think the way you'll be able to identify Mormon homes is by the head count of Nanny bureaucrats that were sent to "repatriate" the food - that are now stacked like cord wood on the steps of these homes.
----------

So who knows your plans, capabilities and resources? Who knows where you keep your emergency food supplies? Who knows where you've cached food, water, weapons and ammo? Who knows where your precious metals are stored?

Can you trust everyone on that list? Can you trust them not to disclose your information, either through casual disclosure, or under threat from someone more powerful - like the government or some street thug with a knife to their baby daughter's throat? Do you trust them with your life?

Do you have contingency plans for the possibility that your privacy - your OpSec - is breached?

Most folks have some sort of a firewall or virus scan on their computers to keep hackers and malicious programs off of their systems. They perform back-ups of their hard drives so they don't lose everything in the event of a total system breach.

Do you have "flags" in place that might indicate a breach to your preps? Do you have back-up resources pre-positioned for the possibility of having your main plan obliterated? With finances, we are told, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Pretty damned sound advice, I think.

Have you added a level of unpredictability to your plans so that a moderately intelligent person could not deduce what your contingency plans may be?

Do you have some supplies that are "hidden" to be used as "ransom" in the event of a breach?

How long could you survive after the sudden loss of everything you have worked so hard to acquire? Would you be in that Nanny soup line or would you have other supplies and resources at your disposal?

No soup for me, thank you very much...

Labels: American Ingenuity, Corruption, Life and Times, nanny state, Self-Reliance, welfare state

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
-- Alex Levin

I have a sweet tooth. Big-time. I only half jokingly say that I have coffee with my cream and sugar, not the other way around.

I'm seeing some news reports of a potential spike in sugar prices. Take a look at this article. It seems that our protectionist government limits sugar imports. World sugar prices are $0.22 a pound. US prices are $0.35 a pound. Thanks for looking out for us, DC.

So what would a guy like me do for his sugar Jones if sugar supplies suddenly dried up, or became cost prohibitive? Raiding bee hives and getting the hell stung out of me doesn't sound like a good idea.

My wife likes this sweetener called Agave Nectar. It's a natural sweetener made from the agave plant. This is the plant that is used to make tequila. For tequila, they cut up the core of the plant, roast it, then make a mash of sorts to extract the natural sugars. Once you have sugars, you can do with it as you please - syrups, crystallized sugars, fermentation - whatever you wish.

Hmmmm. Let's see. What do I have experience with in extracting sugars from raw materials?

Malted grains, of course! I've been brewing all-grain beers for decades. As long as I have access to malted grains, I can make a sweet liquid. Hell, in a pinch, I could malt my own grains - from my buckets-o-wheat for instance, if malted barley became unavailable (I hope my sweet tooth never becomes THAT desperate!).

Malted corn, rye, barley, wheat - hell, any grain you can get to sprout and then dry out will work.
----------

When you brew, you mash the crushed grains by steeping them in hot water. This process transforms the starches in the grain into sugar. You then wash the sugars off of the grains (in a process called lautering). The resulting liquid is called wort (pronounced 'wert'). Depending upon the quality of your crushed grains, the temperature of the mash and a number of other factors, you will end up with a wort with a sugar content roughly in the 10-12% range.

You boil the wort, adding hops for flavoring and bitterness, and to help evaporate the liquid to increase the sugar content to the 13-18% range.

Cool it off, add the yeast, ferment, consume.

If I want to make a sweetener, I need to leave out the yeast, and increase the amount of water evaporation. I want to concentrate the sugars, not have them consumed!
----------

I found two primary types of syrup made here in America: Maple syrup and cane syrup.

The maple syrup has a starting sugar content of around 2% - I couldn't find anything on the starting sugar content of the cane juice.

What they both had in common was the general techniques for turning the juice/sap into syrup. You boil the hell out of it, and when the temperature reaches 7 degrees above boiling - 219F - you have syrup.

What was a bit disconcerting is the volume of juice/sap you needed. To get 1 gallon of maple syrup, you need 40+ gallons of sap!

I needed to do a test.

I took a quart of water, and added a quarter pound of cane sugar. On my hydrometer, I got a reading of 1.046 specific gravity. That equals 11.5% sugar content (on something called the brix scale). So I'm starting at about the same point as I'd be by making a mash, and am WAY ahead of the game with regards to maple sap.

OK, a little bit of math (don't glaze over on me here!). I boiled everything down until I hit the magical 219F degrees. I ended up with right around 5.5 ounces of syrup. Since I started with 34.5 fluid oz of "cane juice" (32 oz of water "grows" to 34.5 oz of sugar solution once the cane sugar is added), that means I reduced it by a factor of 6.27. If I take the original sugar percentage of 11.5 and multiply it by the 6.27, I come up with a 72.14% sugar solution. Pretty damned close to the published maple syrup numbers of 67%.


----------

It's thinner than a corn syrup like Karo or imitation maple syrup. It's about the consistency of real maple syrup - kind of like the viscosity of vegetable oil. Sweet as hell, though!

I have some extra malted barley laying around, so I think I'll make up a batch of wort and give it a go.

The cost/benefit equation is iffy, at best. You use a LOT of fuel to boil down the syrup. For the sample I made, I used my kitchen stove gas burner for an hour straight, on high. An inexpensive fuel source is the key to making this stuff economically.

I'm going to try and produce a quart of malted barley syrup, so I'll make up 2 gallons of wort to give myself some cushion. From what I've read, this should take in the neighborhood of 2-3 hours. I'll do some hard math calculations at that time, so see what the cost per ounce comes out to be.
----------

Oh, and not to worry about "wasting" grains for my sweet tooth. The spent grains from a brew can be added to dough for a healthier homemade bread, fed to animals as part of their diet (horses supposedly LOVE the stuff), or added to compost piles.

There is also a technique in brewing called 'parti-gyle'. I've used this in the past to make two different styles of beer from the same mash. You take the first runnings from the grain, and make a high-alcohol beer. You re-mash the remaining grains, and get a weaker run-off that can be used to make a weaker style of beer.

This weaker run-off - as low as in the 5-6% sugar content range - could be used for syrup making. Beer AND syrup from the same batch of grains.

Waste not, want not...

Labels: American Ingenuity, Life and Times, Self-Reliance

A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.
--Wilfred Peterson

I'm off either tonight or tomorrow morning at 0-dark-hundred for a camping trip of sorts. A group of us is heading off to a 6,000 acre parcel up in far-Northern California for a few days of shooting, drinking, varmint hunting, shooting, drinking, prep skills touch-up, shooting and finally, drinking.

Hey - I didn't make up the schedule - I'm just an obedient servant on this trip ;-)

Squirrel and ground hog are on the menu. At least for me. I've never eaten either of them before, and the place is supposed to be lousy with them. I'm going to set a few rabbit snares as well - something I've never done before.

I have no idea if this place has cell service. If so, I'll try and post a "howdy" from time to time. Otherwise, I'll be back to posting as normal on Thursday.
----------

Had to get the honey-do's finished before I took off. Front yard is spic-and-span, back yard is presentable, and all of the clippings and accumulated crap on the side yard are off to the dumps.

Yesterday, I was just finishing up the front yard. I had hosed everything down and the front of the house had that nice, crisp and clean look. I was rolling up the hose on the caddy, or whatever you call it. I had it all rolled up nice and neat.

Our caddy has a short little 3 foot hose that goes from the hose bib to the caddy. You screw your watering hose into a fitting in the caddy. I was pushing the caddy up next to the house. I hit the end of the short little hose that is connected to the caddy, and snapped that SOB clean off.

Did I mention that my neighborhood has VERY high water pressure - as in 95psi?

Of course, I got... hosed. The free end didn't fly around like an epileptic snake or anything. It shot right at me, and only me. It took me a second or two to figure out what had happened. Those two seconds left me fully drenched. I mean jump-in-the-pool-fully-clothed drenched.

Honestly, it felt great! I was all sticky and sweaty, and got a nice cool shower. Hey, I saved some hot water for the shower in the house. See - I AM green!
----------

Getting the sideyard cleared out is an important project. I'm going to be going into Brew-mode for the next month or so, and I do virtually all of my brewing on the concrete pad on the side yard.

My personal stash is dry.

Over the next 4 to 6 weekends, I will be brewing up about 80 GALLONS of beer. We have our annual Oktoberfest party coming up in a couple of months, plus, I'm a Raider's season ticket holder, and my contribution to the tailgaters is the brew.

Throughout the process, I'll take some pix and do posts about the process. It's really pretty amazing what you can do with grain, water, hops and yeast.

For you fellow brewers out there, yes, I'm an adherent to the Reinheitsgebot. NO FRUIT GOES IN MY BEER!
----------

For the last 12 years, I've used a program called ProMash to develop my beer recipes, keep track of my brewing, and outline my brew-day process. If you have any inkling of getting into all-grain brewing, I can highly recommend the program.

Well, the program was housed on a desktop PC of mine that finally gave up the ghost.

Guess what one PC in our house had never had a back-up? Yeah.

I decided to yank the internal hard drive and put it in an external hard drive enclosure. You basically yank the drive and hook it up to your working PC via a USB cable.

Easy as pie, right? Well, it should have been. I couldn't get the drive out of the PC case. I had the thing all torn up and had removed all of the screws I could reach, but it still wouldn't budge.

I had decided to cut the screws with a hack saw. A buddy of mine suggested using a Dremel. I've got a Roto-zip with a metal cutting blade, so I figured that would work.

It was a little bit too close for comfort in the case. There had to be another way. I could not believe that HP would make a PC that required the destruction of the case to swap out the hard drive.

It wouldn't seem to let me remove the face of the PC. I figured, "what the hell," and jammed a flat-head screwdriver up under the face, and it popped right off - fully intact!

Two more screws and the drive slid out, slicker than snot on a doorknob.

So now was the moment of truth. I thought that boot sector of the drive was what went bad, but I couldn't know for sure. I popped the old drive into the external enclosure, started it up and SCOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRE!

I was able to grab all of the programs and data I needed and copy them to another external hard drive for back up.

Back in biz, baby!
----------

Yeah, the PC was a bit old. I remember when I got it, it was a state of the art PC. The hard drive was a 45 Gig drive, running........ Windows NT! Geez.

I was talking with a buddy about each of us doing back ups of our PCs to external hard drives, then each of us holding the other guy's drive in a safe as an off-site back up.

We were talking about how cheap computer storage is nowadays. I told him how I had just bought an external hard drive with a terabyte of storage (a thousand gigabytes) for $130.

I told him that back in 1985 or 1986, I worked for Wells Fargo. I was in charge of the central research department for the bank. We had all the records of every single internal and customer transaction.

We were doing a study to upgrade our storage systems. At the time, the records were either in paper form, micro fiche or film, or stored on computers that used DASD drives for storage. Big 12- or 20-inch platters, I seem to remember.

Anyways, there was a company named Teradata (wow, they're still around) that had come out with a whiz-bang system that actually stored a terabyte of data. This was mind-boggling at the time. If you were lucky enough to have a PC (at five grand plus a pop), they had either a 10-or 20 MEGAbyte hard drive. Not GIGAbyte, megabyte.

We passed on getting the new system. Price: $20 million!

In less than 25 years, you go from a room-filling mainframe costing a king's ransom, to a commodity you pick up at the corner office supply store for the price of a meal at an expensive restaurant.

Amazing.

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Life and Times

There are only two real ways to get ahead today -- sell liquor or drink it.
--W. C. Fields

We've already seen Barry and the states impose their so-called, "sin taxes" on cigarettes and alcohol. I've read that both of them are being targeted for additional taxation to help pay for BarryCare.

You're nuts if you don't think it IS going to happen.

I've mentioned here before that I am a homebrewer. I've been making my own beer, wine, cider and mead since 1980.

In the only redeeming act of his administration, Jimmy Carter signed the legislation that allowed individuals the ability to legally brew their own fermented alcoholic beverages - 100 gallons per year, per adult 21 years of age or older, up to a maximum of 200 gallons per household (all except Alabama - start knocking some legislative heads).

Distilling is still illegal.

While I love my own fermented beverages, I still like some hard alcohol now and again. And again! Your only legal option is to buy your liquor at the store.

Some hearty souls break the law and make "moonshine". They may make hundreds of gallons out in the remote woods, or they may make a few bottles in their kitchen using distillation equipment marketed to distill water.

At least right now, I'm not willing to go down that road. Still, I want a beverage of increased alcohol levels.
----------

When making any type of alcoholic beverage, you always start out with a mash (or a 'must' for wine makers). This is where the sugars that are present in your grain or grapes is extracted from the base product. You strain off the sweet liquid, and these sugars are then mixed with yeast. The yeast eat the sugars and produce alcohol and CO2 (uh oh... another target for the green freaks?).

A key component in the final product is the yeast you use. While primarily used to produce the alcohol and CO2, they also impart a flavor component to the beverage. There are two general categories of beer yeast - ales and lagers. Both produce a beer with an alcohol content of 3.4% to 7.5%.

Wine yeasts have similar uses, but generally produce alcohol in the range of 11% to 14%.

So, with wine, you're getting more buzz per ounce of liquid, but still nowhere near distilled spirits. Generally speaking, the reason the alcohol levels stop increasing is because the yeast are killed by the alcohol they've produced - they can't live in their own piss, so to speak!

Enter "turbo yeast".

This yeast was originally developed by distillers to get a higher utilization of the sugars in the mash. The higher the original alcohol content of the brew, the easier it is to get to your target distilled alcohol content.

Most of these yeast strains will get you an alcohol content of 20% or higher. While still only half the content of a typical distilled spirit, it's a lot better than starting out with a 5% beer.

One of the great things about this, is that you can make the entire batch with ordinary table sugar. Go to a home brew store, get a food grade bucket, a drilled lid, and an airlock , then proceed:

Prestige 8kg Turbo Alcohol Yeast produces less volatiles and ferments up to 18% - sometimes 20% or greater. The 8kg Turbo Yeast is not considered extremely temperature tolerant, therefore it is best to keep the ambient temperature below 80 degrees.

Instructions:

Pour 8kg (17.75lbs) sugar or 8.8kg (19.5lbs.) dextrose into 8 liters (2 Imperial gallons, 9 US quarts) of very hot water. Keep stirring until you are sure all the sugar has completely dissolved. Top up to 25 liters (5.5 Imperial gallons, 26.5 US quarts) with cold water then stir for 30 seconds. Make sure the temperature is below 30°C (86°F) before adding the contents of yeast sachet. Stir for 1 minute. To speed cooling, ice can be added in place of a portion of the cold water, or you may add sealed containers of ice prior to adding the yeast.

For maximum alcohol and best quality- Ferment for 10-14 days at between 19-23°C (66-73°F) air temperature.

For maximum speed - Ferment for 5 days at between 24-27°C (75-80°F). Yeast will die above 27°C (80°F) air temperature.

One you've made your alcohol - a vodka-like product - it is suggested that you run it through a charcoal filter to remove some of the fusel oils and other by-products that can give you a screaming head ache.

You can significantly reduce these by-products from being produced if you do a slower fermentation. Use the recommended lower-end temperature settings on the yeast packet, and add an extra week to your fermentation time. It's worth the wait. Trust me.

Bottle and serve. Many websites also sell extracts that you can add to your hooch to make it taste like whiskey, bourbon, gin - whatever "poison" you prefer.
----------

Well, lookee here. Sounds very illegal to me (FYI, any type of distillation is illegal in the US of A without the proper Nanny permission).
----------

Let's do some math:

Capital investment: Bucket ($8), lid with hole ($2), airlock ($1), bottle capper ($15) = $26

Charcoal filter: Optional, but in the $20 range.

Bottles: Free (old beer bottles, champagne bottles are best)

Stock pot: Free (hopefully, you already have a pot that holds 3 gallons or so - if not, get one at Goodwill, Salvation Army or a garage sale for a couple of bucks)

Consumables: Bottle caps 50 count ($2), propane/natural gas/other fuel (?)

Ingredients: Turbo yeast ($5), 18 lb Sugar ($6) = $11

Soooooo, it will cost you under $15 per 5-gallon batch of 20% alcohol hooch. Tax free.
----------

There are some great books out there on how to home brew beer and wine. They give techniques on sanitation (VERY important) and ways to keep the temperature of your brew in check while it's fermenting. If you're going to do this, at the very least, search a couple of websites about the entire brewing process.

Did I mention to pay particular attention to sanitation and temperature?

Cheers!

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Constitution, Life and Times, Self-Reliance, Taxes