The Hippie Survivalist - A Cold Wind

*Greetings, Hippie Survivalists.  It's been a long time.  Things have changed in the way that things do.  I've been meditating every day for well over a month now. Maybe 6 weeks, maybe longer.  I've been practicing concentration, or absorption, meditation, which is my birthright.  Regardless of what the Buddhists have to say about this kind of meditation, I do it because I am good at it, because it comes naturally to me, and because I feel that I am meant to do it.  It is yogic meditation, and leads to altered states of consciousness (samadhi, or absorption in God) and siddhis (metaphysical powers).  I do not care that it does not lead to enlightenment, because I am not here to be enlightened.  I am here to expand my toolkit and my awareness, and to be the most and best that I can be, and this is how I do it.  It leads me to good things.

*The Chill Wind is blowing tonight, strongly.  I first began feeling the Chill Wind in my teens, on certain hikes that I took in the hills above Palo Alto.  At that time, it was the Wind of Freedom.  Later it became the Wind of Discovery.  It is a cold wind, and it has a certain smell, and it is invigorating.    It hearkens mystery.  I have felt it in the desert, at sunset, and while hiking.  Tonight it is so strong that it actually gives me goose bumps.  The older I get, the less I encounter it, but it always bodes well and I cherish it when it arrives.

*After all the recent firearm-related mass murders, I am not too interested in firearms.  Or perhaps I am simply going thru a phase where I am focused on other things.  But something has changed inside me, and it is this: The last year of living on this island paradise has been deeply relaxing, and meditating has relaxed me even more, and now I have become so relaxed that I have arrived at a conclusion. The conclusion is that Survivalism is alarmist and based on a trauma response.  I have lived in that place for years, and know it well.  But it dawns on me that I don't HAVE to live there.  What if the world never ends?  Or ends in 23 years?  Why not spend the time until then living in a relaxed and healthy state and actually enjoying life?  I'm still gardening, which I consider the most fundamental survival skill, and I'm always growing, which is the purpose of my life, and I am slowly learning to cultivate better relationships with others (another vital survival skill). And I have supplies socked away.  So there is no reason not to live as a civilian until the apocalypse strikes...and even then, I don't have to choose to go into trauma mode.  Yeah, things change.

*

The Hippie Survivalist - A Wannabe Green Man

*Below right, my new keyhole garden.  Needs more soil on top, sloped up and inward towards the central compost tube, but then it is good to go.  What to plant in it?  Greens.  Peppers.  Not sure what else.  Actually, I'd really like to grow the Three Sisters - corn, beans and squash - but the corn would grow so high as to block sunlight to the rest of the garden, and its roots would probably stretch way down into the water table...which is toxic.  There's a thousand-acre SuperFund site a few hundred yards away.  So...yeah.  Gotta keep them roots from growing down into the soil.

Bought 3 more tree collards yesterday!  Now there are 4 of them planted in the same 1/2 wine barrel.  Am hoping that 4 of these puppies is enough to keep me from ever having to buy kale again.  No more spending money on lemons and kale.

Am told that cherry tomatoes grow well in the local climate, so this year I will devote all 3 earth boxes (6 plants total) to cherry tomatoes.  Yum yum.

* Gallon Smashing - the new rage.  I like the slipping-and-sliding part most of all!

The Hippie Survivalist - The Future Is Now

* In NorCal a baddie gets busted for having 111 illicit weapons - some full-auto, many or all stolen - stashed in a camouflaged cave.  PRESS HERE

* God do I love meat pies.  Even the bad ones are good.

* A private Navy goes to work protecting flotillas of freighters off the Barbary Coast of Somalia.  PRESS HERE

* In economically-strapped Spain, the unemployed learn to create - and thrive in - a cashless, bottom-up economy.  PRESS HERE

* Cool documentary about Ram Bahadur Bomjan ("Buddha Boy"), who went for several years without eating, drinking water or seeking shelter from the elements in Nepal last decade.  PRESS HERE 

IMHO: I thought this story was popular fantasy until I saw this documentary.  Am told that the types of yogic powers displayed by Ram - surviving without eating or drinking water, generating internal heat to counteract cold weather, etc. - are the result of concentration meditation.  This type of meditation leads to yogic powers, but not to enlightenment.  Awareness meditation is what leads to enlightenment.  Too bad, because I think yogic powers are super cool.  Seriously - Jesus had them and he was as cool as cool can be!

* FINALLY bought a freaking couch, after 11 months in my new/first home (an 840 sf cottage).  Got rid of the unusable freebie love seat that sat in my living room for half a year.  The cat has not yet claimed the new couch...which perplexes me.

* Almost done building a keyhole garden, which I will use to grow food in during the Spring/Summer months when the high sun should give it full light all day every day.  Don't know how effective it will be in my windy and cool backyard - these gardens are designed for a hot, dry African climate.  Will post a photo shortly.

FYI: PLAN MAJOR PROJECTS BEFORE EMBARKING ON THEM.  FFS I didn't.  First I bought 2 truckloads of scrap bricks and cinder blocks and ceramic pipes, then I patched all that heavy, ugly crap together to form a 3-foot-high wall around a 6-foot diameter circle.  Then I realized it looked godawful, tore it apart, bought new cinder blocks for less than I paid for the used ones, re-built the garden and have now half-filled it with dirt.  Should be done tomorrow.  The end result of not planning this escapade is that I spent an entire week (my week off!) building it, wasted $100 on it, am left with several piles of used bricks and large ceramic pipes that I don't want and probably can't sell, and I got the best full-body workout I've had in years.

The Hippie Survivalist - Artifacts from the Zombie Wars

*Below: REVISED - An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This shield, made from a bread board and scrap metal, was used at the Battle for Webster Tube in 20__.  From the private collection of Linus Kwong (Fortress Mendocino).

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This shield, made from a wine crate lid, license plates, and scrap metal, was used by a 9-year-old member of the famed and dreaded Commando Base (CB) Squad on Alameda Island during 20__, the Year of Darkness.  From the Smithsonian Collection (Capitol City, Nevada).

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This shield, built from a cabinet door and a street sign, was wielded by 23-year-old Sergeant Git Cruz on Alcatraz Island during the Flotilla Action of 20__.  From the Burf Collection (Alameda Island).

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This weapon, fashioned from a claw hammer handle, a roofing hammer head and strips of inner tube, was wielded by 11-year-old Cecilia Decker at the Battle for Webster Tube in 20__.  It is credited with 53 confirmed zombie kills.  From the private collection of Linus Kwong (Fortress Mendocino).

The Hippie Survivalist - It's the Little Things

*Happy mid-February, Saints and Sinners!  Well, unless you've been hiding under a board in the barn for the last ten days, you've probably heard all about Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker, who saved a few lives in Fresno a week or so ago.  Here is the original interview.  Here is a follow-up interview.  And here is Kai on Jimmy Kimmel.  These interviews are all worth watching, and present a portrait of a young man who has become a modern hero overnight.  Sorry for any advertisements - but nothing is truly free on the interweb.

Except for Kai.

I hesitate to talk too much about Kai, yet I feel compelled to.  Modern America is in so many ways a culturally degraded society, with little to offer that is of real value.  I cannot remember the last time it produced someone that struck me as being a hero.  And then along comes Kai.  A hippie, a hitchhiker, a homeless person, a foreigner, a surfer, a skater, a musician, a Buddhist, a man who speaks his mind and heart and does what is necessary without thought to his own well-being, a victim of severe neglect and abuse, a man who gives away what he has to make others happy, a man who somehow got his shit together at a very young age and knows who he is and what is REALLY right and what is REALLY wrong, a man who smokes and drinks, who steals beer and gives it away to others.  A MAN WHO IS HAPPY WITH NOTHING.  Here we were all looking for a Christ-like figure who would descend from above and tell us what to do, and Kai arose unexpectedly from the heart of the shit-pile under our feet and just did what had to be done.  Wow.  Truly, I never thought I'd say it - but he passes the authenticity test and I consider him a Boddhisatva who is doing God's work on Earth.  It makes me happy to know he is out there, caring for others in a way that is almost universally endearing.

Thank you, Kai!  Don't let the World destroy you, Brother!  Keep it real.

*And Kai is not the only person on Earth doing God's work - there is at least one more!  Narayanan Krishnan spends his days feeding and bathing the poor in India, just as Meher Baba did.  Watch this video if you would like a little inspiration to be a better person.

Thank you for making the World a better place, Narayan!  We need more people - MANY more people - like you to make this planet worth living on.

*I can't finish this blog entry without mentioning the awesome meteor which blew like a nuke over a Russian city in the Urals last Friday.  Check out videos HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.  Holy FUCK!  What awesome shit!  OMFG.  Those lucky Russians.  Dang, that is the SHIT, right there.  Can you imagine?  You'd think, OMG it's a nuke, but then you'd still be able to see after the flash, and you'd see the continuing steam trail and think, WTF, are those unexploded warheads or what???  Then the fucking concussion would hit and you'd damn near shit yourself again.  Then you'd find out it was a meteor and you'd know you were OK and had witnessed one of the most amazing celestial events in modern history, and you'd be flying high for days afterward.  I don't mean any disrespect for anyone who was injured in the incident, I'm simply blown away by the awesomeness of the event and the luck that prevented it from being a Hiroshima x 30 nuclear blast on the ground.

DAMN.

The Hippie Survivalist - Who's Your Daddy?

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. Commander Arthur Remington's legendary crossbow FURY, which fired explosive darts. Arthur Remington guided the first of the Victory Convoys to freedom in 20__, losing two fingers and an ear to zombies in the process. He is now 122 years old and lies suspended in a medical vat in Quantico, VA. From the private collection of Linus Kwong (Fortress Mendocino).

*

The Hippie Survivalist - Nothing Doing

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This shield, made from a piece of ironing board and scrap metal, was wielded by 9-year-old Blizz Cantrell during the Long Winter of 20__.  Blizz is credited with 48 confirmed zombie kills, but died from starvation during the Long Winter.  From the private collection of Linus Kwong (Fortress Mendocino).

*

The Hippie Survivalist - Hippie On the Outside, Survivalist On the Inside

*Below: An artifact from the Zombie Wars. This shield, made from a bread board and scrap metal, was used at the Battle of Webster Tube in 20__.  From the private collection of Linus Kwong (Fortress Mendocino).

*Canned, long-lasting fuel-oil mix for 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines: TruFuel.

*Today New York passed the strictest gun laws in the Union, including provisions that people purchasing ammo undergo background checks, people purchasing large amounts of ammo be officially noted, magazines be limited to 7-round capacity (WTF?), and all grandfathered assault rifles be registered within 1 year.  Yikes.  California's Assault Rifle Ban laws seemed reasonable to me,  but these New York laws seem draconian and little short of a power grab by politicians.  What will the future bring?

My issue with national gun laws is that the trends portending our global future include trends of increased lawlessness, increased fracturing of societies, and increased ineptness of government.  By limiting firearm ownership, firearms will land in the hands of the lawless, when what is needed is for the good citizens of the nation/world to be able to defend themselves.  Every time I hear an anti-gun person say, "Let the police protect us!" I answer, "You trust the *#)(&*$ police?"... and get silence in response.

But, lest I sound like a right-wing, guns-are-gonna-save-us wingnut, let me remind you that I actually believe that love is the only thing that will save humanity from itself.  If we all focused our energy on loving each other, most of our troubles would evaporate.  We would move mountains.  And so I exhort anyone reading this to spend time reflecting on what is of true importance in this world, and to contemplate what each of us could do to make a positive impact on society, and to consider the ways in which we could all help our fellow humans.

*Judging from the photo below (of the Mad Max 4 Fury Road 1959 Cadillac Gigahorse 1), Fury Road will have at least some redeeming features.  That is a hell of a car.  And Tom Hardy is a hell of an actor.  I hope Miller pulls it off.

*18 Heads Found At Airport.  Well, thank God they were able to account for them!

*I leave you with this quote, which, while possibly controversial(!), is nevertheless true:

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."

- William S. Burroughs

*

The Hippie Survivalist - Bingo!

*There used to be an underground comic in the local free weekly.  It was called Red Meat.  For all I know Red Meat is still around, but I haven't seen it in years.  It was gruesomely irreverent and I adored it.  And one of the best things about it was the way in which each week's comic had a title.  The titles meant nothing in and of themselves, but they were grotesquely poetic.  Which has nothing to do with anything, really, except that it's my way of saying that the "Bingo!" at the top of this page is merely poetic and has no special meaning.  Same most weeks.

*Yep.

*Finally bought some chainmail-making supplies, and yes, making chainmail is my kind of thing.  It's a bit OCD, it is best done in short-ish increments of an hour or less, the results are tangible, and the finished product is really cool.  Below is the first swatch of fabric I made, using the European 4-in-1 weave (instructions HERE), which is simple and can be done in batches.  This took me about an hour.

Below is the result of today's work - another hour, maybe less.  I doubled the size of the original piece of fabric.  What am I making?  You'll have to hold your horses - Daddy ain't ready to give away all his secrets just yet.  Stay tuned.

Just had a thought.  Someone needs to re-design chainmail for the modern era.  What if instead of just using rings, you could use pieces that had more mass, like modified washers.  Like, someone could design a system that used engineering and modern parts production to produce scalemail that was way, way stronger than chainmail, but easier to build.  It could even be bullet-resistant.  Whatevs.

*Oh Lord, work can be a bitch sometimes.  Stress is the killer.  Took the day off and ran errands around town and then did chores around the house.  Eating an early dinner of organic hamburgers and fries and salad, and I ain't complaining.

*Someone should design a new weapon for robotic platforms.  This gatling-style firearm would have a robotic means of reloading standard 30-round M16 magazines.  The magazines would encircle the 6-foot barrel cluster in a round or helix storage rack.  When a magazine was emptied, the empty magazine would pop back up into its slot in the rack, the rack would rotate slightly, and the next (full) magazine would pop down into the weapon.  And so on.

You ask - why use magazines when such a weapon could use belts or some such other shim sham?  Hey buddy, there's always a different use for every different design.  Maybe this design would be more economical overall, and more efficient in some scenarios, because it would use standard .223 rounds and M16 magazines.  Maybe it would allow the weapon to fire 30-round bursts incrementally, conserving ammo yet delivering a punch.  Like, it could be a pulse weapon.  And, maybe the 6-foot barrels would dramatically increase the velocity of the .223 round.  And, maybe it's a bad idea, who am I to say.  But I thought of it because I see standard magazine-fed weapons mounted on robots on YOUTUBE and ONE magazine seems kind of limited to me.

*Cool new Bell helmet.  REALLY cool new Bell helmet.  Costs $250.  Fuck.  I'm trying to save money by spending less, so I guess I can't buy it.

*There are a bunch of pistol carbine kits on the market.  Like, they consist of a stock that you insert your pistol into.  The stock includes things like a red dot sight and/or a folding stock and a charging handle and a forward pistol grip.  These bad boys basically turn your stock pistol into a Personal Defense Weapon (PDW).  These buggers are not legal to buy or own in California...of course.  And it appears that in at least some cases they legally turn your pistol into a carbine/rifle even in pro-gun states, which is a no-no, because a pistol is legally a pistol and a rifle is legally a rifle.  BUT, a man can wish.  Damn, can he wish.  He can wish til his wisher is sore.

Most of these puppies are made for Glocks and Sigs.  Some of them are stupid-ugly.  RONI makes a nice-looking one and they sell versions that work with many different pistol makes and models.

Below we have a nice one - I can't believe it but I no longer know what brand it is! I lost track of where I found it online.  But it shows you what the basic stock looks like with and without the addition of the pistol.  Obviously the rails allow for all sorts of awesome gimmickry.  This one looks to be machined from aluminum, but some of them are made of polymer or a combo of both.

 

If I ran the circus, I'd legally own one of these puppies with a red-dot sight, sliding wire stock, full-auto capacity, extended mags, an 8-inch barrel and a forward grip.  In 9mm, I suppose.  Sigh.  Let's face it, this kind of weapon would be an awesome addition to any vehicle cab in a high-crime or post-SHTF environment.  Need to go get smokes at 7-11 at 2:00 AM?  Don't EVEN worry about it.

The little bugger below wins Style Points, IMHO.  Is it also made by RONI?  Not sure.  The website says it is called an IWI MegaGun Jericho (made by Israel Weapon Industries for the Jericho pistol), but the jpeg is called RONI.  I guess it doesn't matter to me, because I'll never own one.  But, I LIKE-like.  Damn.  DAMN.

*If you know me well, you know I LOVE low-tech.  Why?  Cuz it usually doesn't require an outside energy source, and because SIMPLE DON'T BREAK.  Check out Low-Tech Magazine HERE and No Tech Magazine HERE. These "magazines" don't publish much, but what they do publish is solid.

*That's it.  Stay alive.

*No, wait.  I lied.  One more thing: Wild dogs have been killing people in Mexico City.

The Hippie Survivalist - Sunday Was Funday

*Hey, Chaps and Chapettes!  Today we have some cool links, courtesy of the SurvivalCache Newsletter.  Other than that, it's cold and almost-rainy out, my cat has never looked cuter, and I went to the local Oakland flea market today and was a bit disgusted by the low-end dirt and grime that surrounded me on all sides.  It was like...the world had ended, and refugees were selling anything they could find that might be of some possible use to other destitute scavengers.  Hmm.  Never thought of it that way before, but it rings true.  Which means that the poor buggers there are on the lower end of the economic totem pole, and TS has already HTF for them.  And that's sad.

*OK, I just got turned onto Tactical Intelligence.net and its twin blog site, and I'm impressed from the get-go.  This site offers a lot of informative info in a simple, easily accessible format, like ht wash your briefs after TSHTF, a free download of the LDS Preparedness Manual (Version 8), ht build a debris hut (w/photos), etc.  LIKE.  Check it out.

*XS is offering the nicest hi-capacity mags I have ever seen.  Machined out of aluminum billet with no plastic parts, they are very compact for 50-rounders and look like they blow their competitors out of the water.  That said, they are illegal in California and some other states/cities/counties and may well soon be illegal everywhere.  On top of that, they appear to be sold out - no surprise at this point in time!  One can imagine, though, that owning a few of these puppies would provide a certain feeling of security after TSHTF.  Geez. 

*Read a review of the new book Relocate! 25 Great Bug Out Communities by Dave Stebbins HERE.

*Valcambi Suisse is now offering the coolest gold bullion product I've ever seen - a credit card-sized 50-gram flat called the “Combibar” Gold Card.  It is so thin that each of the 1-gram squares can be broken off individually for use as payment.  Each of the gram squares currently has approximately the same value as an ounce of silver ($34).  Awesome!  Absolutely brilliant.  A modern day piece-o'-eight.  BUT I have a feeling that these might never reach my neck of the woods - Europe might eat them all up before they can reach the States.  And if they do cross the pond, they might have such a massive premium that they are simply not worth the price.  Or, the Feds might outlaw them.  We'll see.

*Another cool website: The Post Apoc.com.  Of particular interest is their ingenious attempt at making a home-made ballistic face mask.  I bow to these guys.  They did it.  Their shit-scary mask looks like it would be of particular use in CQB post-SHTF fighting, where it could deflect .22 LR rounds, bomb fragments, clubs and knives.  One thing I feel obliged to point out is that you must remember that although this mask did stop a .45 round...the kinetic energy of the impact still turned the watermelon to jelly.  Translation: If you were wearing this mask, and it stopped a .45 round...your skull and brain WOULD turn to jelly.  It doesn't mean the mask doesn't rock and have its time and place, but it's something to think about.

*I'm out of here for now.  Have a good afternoon!

-

"I believe we have long passed the point where the good people of the world are in the majority.  Good, reliable, honest people are a minority.  If we had a severe world-wide crisis now, where governments would be powerless to help, I think we would have massive social unrest and anarchy on our hands.  Some would prey on the innocent, while few would rise in their defense.  Presently, any crisis or war short of collapse will only engender a call from the world-wide majorities for more government power - not less - especially now that a so called "conservative" American President has stated that a government 'Safety net' is a legitimate right for all people to expect."

- Joel M. Skousen, in The Secure Home, (3rd Edition, 2006.)

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The Hippie Survivalist - 2013 Was A Good Year

*Happy New Year!  And with the New Year comes a tsunami-sized run on guns and ammunition, and the ever-increasing probability of systemic failure of the bloated institutions that inadequately run this great nation and world.  So, we survived the Mayan Apocalypse (that never was) but we find that we are indeed now facing that place in the cosmos that the Mayan calendar foresaw - a dark spot in the Milky Way called The Dark Rift.  I don't know about you, but that name scares the crap out of me.  And seeing as we appear to be in for a long slow slide instead of a fast crash, the Mayan Calendar finale means to me that we are now truly entering a time of great change because we have entered a new cosmic cycle.  Hippie Survivalists everywhere - this is it.  From now on we are in the roller coaster, on the tracks.  Get it together as best you can and turn your hearts to God and keep your weapons oiled and give this ride 125%.

*Below: The Little Beast with his new tires and rims, just in time for the New Age!

*Holy Cripes - Ohio Ordnance Works is marketing some incredible hardware!

Above, their M240-SLR - an improved, semi-auto version of the venerable M240.  WOW.

Below, their 1918A3-SLR, which is the only BAR produced in the world (yes, it is semi-auto):

The BAR comes with your choice of a walnut or bakelite stock, as shown.  My Poppa trained with one in the Marines before he went to Korea in the '50s and he always told me, "The BAR has a slow rate of fire but it packs a punch."  It's as much a legend as the Model 1911 .45 or the Tommy gun, and it made the .30-.06 round famous in America.

I turned my friend onto these weapons and he looked at me and said, "What's the point, Dude - they're semi-auto!"  I looked at him and said, "Who cares?!  It's a BAR and an M240 and this is 2013!  Damn, Dawg - get with the program!"  And here I thought we were friends.

To think that these weapons are legal in some states.  My oh my.

*All this talk of Browning Automatic Rifles has reminded me of an almost mythical version of the BAR, a little-known limited-production rifle called the Colt Monitor.  Per Wikipedia:

In 1931, the Colt Arms Co. introduced the Colt Monitor Automatic Machine Rifle (R 80), intended primarily for use by prison guards and law enforcement agencies. Intended for use as a shoulder-fired automatic rifle, the Colt Monitor omitted the standard bipod, instead featuring a separate pistol grip and buttstock attached to a lightweight receiver, along with a shortened 458 mm (18.0 in) barrel fitted with a 4-inch (100 mm) Cutts compensator. Weighing 16 lb. 3 oz. empty, the Colt Monitor had a rate of fire of approximately 500 rpm. Around 125 Colt Monitor automatic machine rifles were produced; of these ninety were purchased by the FBI. Eleven rifles went to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1934, while the rest went to various state prisons, banks, security companies, and accredited police departments. Although the Colt Monitor was available for export sale, no examples appear to have been exported to other countries.

 

And wouldn't you know it, Frank Hamer gunned down Bonnie and Clyde with a Colt Monitor.  Clyde himself was partial to the BAR and modified several into "whipits", as per the shortened top weapon in the photo below:

 *Ciao - happy weekend.  I'm out of here!