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Episode-1173- Survival Podcast Listener Calls for 7-26-13 — 29 Comments

  1. I love John in West Virginia! John are you on the forum?good questions and such today

  2. For new shooters, the Nat’l Sports Shooting foundation is offering free classes in certain areas. Drop in zip code and see if you’re lucky..
    Regards,

  3. Just started listening to this episode and the first question from Oil Lady hit a nerve. My wife is an ER nurse and we were just talking about this at lunch… the coddling she sees is ridiculous. You mentioned the need to feel some pain to build resiliency now and later in life, and Oil Lady talked about the need to feel pain as a way to also develop compassion for others…

    I wanted to add a third reason why it’s important to actually let your kids get banged up now and then. Pain also teaches respect and develops a healthy sense of fear. For example, our boys got bikes for their birthday this year. And of course we got them helmets (it’s the law, and I do think helmets are wise). But, we DID NOT get knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards or anything like that. After thinking about it, we decided we wanted our kids to know what it felt like (at 4yrs old) to fall off and skin a knee, bang an elbow, scrape a hand.

    Because if they learn it hurts now, then maybe at 10 or 12, they wont be quite as likely to do something stupid like fly down ‘suicide hill’ (doesn’t every town have a suicide hill or dead mans hill?) when a friend dares them to. They just might remember, ‘Hey- falling hurts! This is kinda dumb. You can do it buddy, but I like my spleen the way-and where- it is’.

    Maybe, maybe not. But I think it’s a bit more likely if they didn’t spend their first decade of life in bubble wrap.

    One more ‘tea cup’ story I ran across today. This woman was so digusted by discovering chickens actually had feet AND breasts, that she was going to vomit. Apparently she also needs free ice cream for life to make it all better…

    http://gawker.com/safeway-shopper-horrified-to-find-piece-of-chicken-in-h-908219394

    • That is pretty freaking funny! Silly me for thinking i should all of the parts of my chicken harvest…”apparently unaware that chicken breast is “not just a lump of meat running around the barn,”” but it would be safe to say its more like a lump of meat soaking in its own factory farmed feces.

    • I might actually comment and say that I slightly “disagree” with the statement
      “Because if they learn it hurts now, then maybe at 10 or 12, they wont be quite as likely to do something stupid like fly down ‘suicide hill’ ”

      At least in my experience in life, you’re A. Yes you are less likely to do it, B. You might actually comprehend what your limits ARE, and even C. More likely to be OK if you end up do it. If you never fall, you don’t ever learn how to fall (if you fall) and are much more likely to get seriously hurt.

      Example. I skateboarded for 10-12 solid years and one thing it taught me is having a very concrete (HA, no pun intended) understanding of your limits, what pain feels like, and knowing how to be ok if you do fall, or at a minimum to consider very carefully what you do, how you do it, and understanding the consequences. Not only did I skate for 10 years, I would do the biggest and baddest things around (and almost always fall and bust my ass). Never broke a single bone either doing it. (I did knock out a tooth but thats an entirely different story). People who do not do such kind of activities, or are just starting out really do not understand their limits and are more or less fish out of water. Lessons I’d say, are generally only learnable through pain.

      As a now almost 30 year old male, I can tell you they’re going to go down Suicide Hill one day or another (if its their personality I guess). I laughed out loud the moment I read that because I know exactly what hill you’re talking about (of course we had one, or two or three). And at first hesitated going down, but eventually started “flying down” them. However, that took an immense amount of time, going very slow, falling, and understanding of my own limitations. I wouldn’t go down full tilt with my rollerblades at first, but perhaps would go side to side until I got more comfortable. People get hurt the most by being completely ignorant of a situation, and then by the purely unexpected (what if there is sand on the hill now?). If everything regarding pain, or doing “dangerous activities” is unexpected… well..

      The Marine Corps has a saying, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” In general I agree.

  4. Wow, Jack! I never knew you cared! (LOL!)

    Thanks for the props. I hope I can live up to your praise.

    And as I listened to my recorded voice in the second phone call, I regret I was so soft spoken that the word “bullies” didn’t quite come through. My final comment was “Somebody take that to the current discussion table about bullies, please.” And yet sadly the word “bullies” just didn’t come through very clearly. (Oh well.)

    And I simply have to build one of those apple throwers.

    • I didn’t here bullies come through when I listened. But now I have more questions, if you don’t mind-

      Do you mean that bullies need to get a taste of their own medicine in order to develop some compassion and empathy and stop being bullies? Or that kids being bullied need to take some lumps in order to learn that they can stand up to bullies, and even though getting slugged might hurt, it’s also a way to ensure you don’t get bullied again?

      Or do you mean something else entirely?

      I think there is some truth to both, and would be interested in hearing more of your thoughts.

      • I think she means she didn’t mention it and it wasn’t what she was directly talking about. At least that is what I get out of it.

        Anyway a bully skinning a knee won’t make him not be a bully. We had plenty of bullies in my day that had the same battle scars.

        Parents, teachers and everyone in the world needs to understand the following about bullies in schools today.

        Parents YOU CAN’T fix it
        Teachers YOU CAN’T fix it
        Celebrities who are just capitalizing on the latest trend, YOU CAN’T fix it

        There is only one thing that will fix bullies, you have to have the dynamic we had at my school. The majority of the bigger, tougher kids and the leaders in our school had an unspoken agreement. If someone was being razzed or what have you we did nothing. Let it play out, it is how shit happens (again no tea cups!)

        But if someone was being hassled relentlessly or shoved, pushed, threatened, etc. Well, that shit just had to stop and the person doing it would get a very quick understanding that we didn’t tolerate such things.

        See most bullies despite what the TV tells you are not Football players and Cheerleaders. They are mid level in the social hierarchy and just strong enough to single out the weak and try to make themselves feel better at their expense.

        The student leaders of the schools are not the problem, they are the untapped solution.

        And it all goes back to teacup! Since everyone is to be nice all the time, what happens when you are not there to enforce unreality any longer?

        Parents today are building young adults that behave far more recklessly then anytime in history. Much of it isn’t due to lack of authority but excessive authority. I see it all the time, hell I see it in nieces and nephews that have learned to be fricken choir boys in front of mom and dad but then are totally different children as soon as they get a chance.

        Reality is simple, groups develop a pecking order, it happen, everyone is not equal at everything. When you are a kid, people rise to the top of a group for shit that doesn’t really matter. It is sad but it is fact, we can’t change that.

        You want bullying to stop, stop coating kids in foam before they walk across a sidewalk and instill a sense of honor in them. That the weaker among them should always be protected by the strongest, that it is the duty of the strong to defend the weak.

        This is how we were raised, no one even said it. Just everyone’s dad, uncle, grandad, etc were vets of WWII, Korea or Vietnam. Said men modeled this behavior. If someone was a rude ass to a lady in front of a young man, the MEN notice I didn’t day MAN but MEN who stepped in didn’t take the guy aside and shelter the kids from what happened next.

        Said rude ass was told to shut the F up right in front of Johnny and Tommy and quickly understood that further transgression would result in a serious ass beating.

        Johnny and Tommy loved their dads and uncles and old grisly grand father. So 5 years later when Johnny was a Running Back and Tommy a Tight End they didn’t pick on anyone, but if something got out of hand, what did they do? Modeled the behavior they were taught.

        So why won’t they model the “everyone is nice, everyone is equal” model, because IT ISN’T TRUE.

        The strong are to look after the weak model IS TRUE.

        The solution to controlling not stopping bullying is the kids themselves, what we need is to model the right behavior.

        So men take the F’ing product out of your hair, stop watching reruns of Sex in the City with your wife and pretending to like it, stop saying stupid crap like “we’re pregnant” and going to “couples showers” and be a damn man.

        Next time your young man doesn’t hold a door for the person behind him at the mall give him a gentle but firm cuff behind the ear and correct his manners. If someone is rude or lude to a young woman don’t hide your correction of said behavior, be a warrior in plane view of your kids.

        Women do the same with your daughters but I won’t suppose to understand women enough to tell you how.

        I am telling you yes kids were picked on where I went to school but no one was afraid to show up, no one killed themselves over it and no one ever really felt alone. They always knew that some of us looked after anyone that needed it.

        That dynamic can be restored but the bullshit must stop first.

  5. About the field phones, 2000 meters is a long way for field phones. I may have misheard this in the podcast, but these phones normally have issues beyond 500 meters or so. Unless you are using battery powered phones, but they consume batteries at a rapid rate.

    Depending on which one you are using, the caller said they were German, that distance may be too much for the phone to push comm.

    I completely agree with running conduit, especially since it does give you the option of pulling additional services at a later date. However, there are two points WRT this.

    1. When you use WD1 wire around other wires (power lines, etc) there can be interference. I see this a lot when I go to the field (I am in Marine Corps Artillery). When ever our road guards use these phones and the WD1 (or slash wire, as we call it) runs over a generator cable, there can be some buzzing on the line while you are trying to talk, which is made worse at greater distances.

    2. While putting the wire through conduit will extend the life of the wire, its pretty tough stuff. I have used wire that I found in the field several times, in both the desert (and this environment is pretty sterile) and in the NC woods. The wire is tough stuff, the plastic sheath is what gets brittle and starts to peel away. So, if you want, burying it alone will not last as long, but it wont fail in the near term.

    Just my two cents, and I would love to know what model field phones you are using.

    Garrett

    • Yep you misheard, KC wants to run his phone 2000 feet, I suggested WD1 wire that comes on 500M spools, so he would need 2 if the distance is really that far. 2000 feet is 600ish meters.

      On interference what you are hearing is called “cross talk” frequency of one wire bleeding onto the other. Your guys in the field are using 3 phase generator sets and likely the minimum gen sets are pushing 15K of power. Running a standard two phase line at 120VDC may create some cross talk at 600 meters but not enough to bury the conversation. This could also be planned for by turning off the power if comms became critical at any time.

      Likely if you were in a true long term grid down scenario and were using this as a security means running power 24/7 isn’t going to happen anyway. Yet power could be run for a few hours at mid day each day to top off a battery bank providing power to your LP/OP at all times. This could be highly valuable for keeping other means of com like radios charged.

      Anyway I feel this level of thinking is likely beyond anything we will ever need but it is still a great thought experiment. If things ever really break down this bad, GTFOD fast.

    • The TA-312 US phone or the German units both have a range of about 22 miles, using WD-1 wire. The Sound powered TA-1 phones will go about 3.5 miles max.

      I have run the German phones out to about 2.5 miles, even that it a lot of wire to run, but they work like a champ and have very little battery drain compared to any kind of radio.

  6. For the guy looking to reduce weeds along his fence/property line. Another possible idea in addition to Jack’s. We heat primarily with wood and I spread the wood ash along my fence lines. It makes the soil more alkaline. That, with the addition of flaming has reduced my weed problems dramatically.
    Hope it helps!

  7. Thanks for the book Info Jack.
    And I will get it out soon. Thanks for the challenge.
    Dollar Store Survivalist

    My prepper group makes slap hats that we sale. Has Sand and Not shot…has been Tested at airport (myself walk through the airport security with it on will not mention the airport though)……has our logo on it. If any One is looking for some.

    • For Michael Jordan – if you look to self publish, you may want to consider KickStarter or IndieGoGo web sites. While they won’t help with the publishing side, and they won’t do much (if any) marketing for you, it does allow you a great platform to self promote and to pre-sell copies of your book.

  8. Hi Jack,

    Been listening since you were weaving through traffic. Don’t know how you did it.

    Please go to Amazon and type in ‘Shane M Brown’. If you have moment, scan the reviews of my novels.

    Just listened to your answer in regards to the gentlemen looking to have his book published. We are entering a new era in publishing. I have just published my forth book and am making a healthy income from the royalties. I wrote them, formatted them, designed the cover, and marketed the books myself. I researched all the different options and agreed to sell my books exclusively through Amazon and CreateSpace (owned by Amazon). I have recently signed a contract for one of my stories to be made into a feature film. I’d be happy to talk on you show, as I am very enthusiastic about writing and prepping, and it’s quite amazing how many people have information to share and are just looking for a way to get it out there. The truth is in the tasting. I make all my sales through ebooks, so I can send you a copy. I think you’d like PLAZA or FAST.

    Have great day,

    Shane

  9. Not just the souvenir gift shops here, but other countries too. My daughter wanted something small brought back from Paris when her brother was visiting France. They brought her back a replica of the Eiffel tower. Inside was a made in China sticker.

    My mother-in-law (lives in NM) just passed down to me a beautiful silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace made by a Navajo silversmith. She bought it about 40 years ago, I looked up the guy’s name and he is still creating hand crafted jewelry, doing shows. Each of my kids have beautiful kachina dolls made by artists local to her. You can find the real stuff, but yes, you may have to go off the main tourist path. Even in other countries.

  10. Welcome new Free Staters! I left the People’s Republik of Maryland for the Free State Project in 2007. I transported my guns (including two machineguns) in 3 trips. To transport the machineguns across state lines, I had to file a form with the ATF that documented that I was moving, when, where and what. I kept the guns locked in the back of my vehicle, buried under stuff, unloaded (magazines unloaded, too and separate, boxed up and taped up, from the guns and ammo). I did not stop for gas in NJ, NY or Mass and made sure I had a full tank before entering those states. (At the time in Maryland where I lived, one could only transport their guns directly to a range or hunting and straight home-no stopping.) NY and NJ became much worse since then, so I would definitely check how they apply their laws now. I would also be very careful to follow all traffic laws and make sure nothing has lapsed with your car registration, etc. to give them no reason to stop you. I have heard that the misnamed Gun Owners Protection Act of 1986 gives some protection for gun owners traveling through states, but I am not sure and you could encounter a jerk with a badge. Sorry I am not more precise, as I have to hit the sack soon. If you want to be 100%, I would contact firearms attorney Evan Nappen, who supports the FSP and practices in both NH and NJ http://www.efnappen.com/ Also, I am very careful about not venturing into Mass when driving around, even briefly, with guns on my person or in my car as that may not be construed as traveling through, I am not sure how the police would interpret it.
    Welcome to New Hampshire! Moving here was one of the best decisions I ever made! And, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t get that cold in the southern part of the state!

  11. Our summer in Prince Edward Island has been hit and miss. Spring was a temperature disaster, cold and wet, but yet I harvested 20 Arcadia Broccoli. My first “Black Jalapenos” are now coming in, but two weeks late. Squash are slow, but up here I’ve only got the waning days of July, all of August and two weeks of September. The season is short up here, but some years other items do well. So 2013 was the year of the Romaine lettuce and Broccoli.

  12. My carrots are a flop and my Collards may not see the end of summer unless I get the BT out.

  13. Hey guys, how do I get those older episodes onto my iPhone? I tried through the phone and itunes, no luck. And when I go to thesurvivalpodcast.com/tag/ballistics it doesn’t download it just plays through the browser??

  14. Regarding the trinkets thing.

    This is a “problem” literally the world over. Its how tourism is, and will be until people I guess stop trying to be “tourists”. Exactly like you said Jack, if you want the “real deal” you have to get off the beaten path and push yourself out of the tour crowds, the problem with alot of that stuff for most people, is generally its not quite as glamorous or touristy as they might imagine. When people go do tourist things they’re in their mind expecting a tourist like environment. They want to be able to buy something that says “I was at the grand canyon look at me” rather than some random wicker basket (for example).

    Even in Africa its the exact thing. In fact they have entire fake tribal towns there that people pretend to be “tribal” for tourists. Its a safe and fake tourist environment, where when the day is over these actors, change clothes get their money and go home and live like everywhere else.

    Geoff Lawton I think accurately put this in the newest PDC video part (nationa). The world has become extremely homogenized. Everywhere down to the “village” in Africa, people want to live like American teenagers. Blue jeans, Tshirts and so on. “Modern conveniences” (hence why a composting toilet might seem more like an insult than a step in the right direction).

  15. A great resource for articles on calibers, and on guns as a whole is http://www.Chuckhawks.com. His Shooting and Hunting page is pretty extensive and he does a good job of giving the background information for shotguns, rifles, and handguns as well as descriptions on and uses for the various calibers.

  16. On the tea cup kids.
    Have you seen the baby wipes warmer? It keeps the wipes toasty so your child won’t go through the horror of a cold wipe on his butt, lol. I saw them at babies r us.