Just a quick commentary on the news that India has agreed to continue to buy Iranian oil but pay with gold.  This basically returns gold to its role of a currency and hugely undermines the U.S. dollar.  China supposedly has also agreed to payments in gold.

Odd there are so few op ed pieces out on what I find extraordinary and calamitous news!  India apparently gets a lot of oil from Iran but the stupid EU decided to set up an embargo prohibiting the purchase of Iranian oil as punishment for their nuclear weapon ambitions.  This has forced India to get around the embargo by buying it with alternative means.  Yet I thought they were an ally of ours?  Rather a slap in our face.

But beyond its effect on our national ego, it feels like the significance of this move, if it would actually occur, could be devastating to the dollar. It could be especially so, say if Venzuela started taking gold as payment also.  Since our dollar is so undervalued due to our gargantuan debt (2 decade long wars will do that), this might just be the straw that collapses the dollar, causes a run on banks, and ruins the EU and US together.  It feels like a lynchpin act that the history books later record as the defined turning point to a domino effect bringing down doom.

What did I do to prep this week?  Not a whole hell of a lot unfortunately!

Shared my prepping fervor with a fellow prepper at work. He brought in his Bug Out Bag to show me.  Very cool khaki green with lots of pockets; can go from duffle to back pack. He also had a fully equipped first aid kit which he had assembled himself.  Many rolls of bandages and a set of hemostat (sp?) tools.  Very cool. No limp, poor quality, 3rd rate supplies there. So I was inspired to pick up a few items at the drug store. Had some gauze rolls from son's MRSA infection episode, but got some medical tape, some benocaine cream (for chiggers and mosquito bites), small bottle of peroxide, and 2x2 bandages. Oh yeah, box of butterfly sutures.  Need to get some thread & needles. Already have iodine tincture and ace bandage.

Guess I wasn't that ambivalent as I also got in my quick-dry, medium-weight long underwear garments. :)  Would like to print off some more surival how-to articles and get a dehydrator. Wish i could find one that was battery powered....

Tallied a list of volcanoes that reported activity in January. There were a total of 30 and am doubtful the list is accurate; could well be several more than this! 

I’ve decided to devote at least one blog per week to what I’ve prepared in advance of 12.21.12.  Do I really believe TS will HTF?  Well, am not convinced it will occur because of a single Earth related event such as a pole shift or Niribiru side swiping our planet, but I think between the climate alterations, earthquakes, and the economy, plus possibly a pandemic, things could become very extreme and severe for the human population this year. 

So there’s a good blog (www.survivalblog.com) where the author asks weekly, “what did you do to prepare?”   I think it’s important to keep at it.  What I need this year though is a little strategy and a few goals so my weekly preparations aren’t scattered efforts.  My ultimate goals are:

n       to be prepared to hunker down and subsist out of the house;

n       to  be prepared to bug out quickly & efficiently;

n       to be prepared to make the trip to the cabin and reach it successfully; and

n       to be prepared at the cabin to hunker down and subsist independently.

Last weekend I took inventory of my 4 bug out kits (BOK’s).  Photo below. 

Here is a list of items each of them contains: an 8x10 tarp, 4 bungee tie-downs, heavy duty trash bag, a knife, a compass, map, several protein bars, beef jerky, water bottle, lightweight gloves, bic liters, lint fire starters, toe warmers, bar of soap in zip lock, bottle of chewable C, aluminum foil, nylon rope load rated for a min of 240 lbs.

Here are items that one or more BOK contains that would be shared: foldable trowel, Steripen, 10x25 binoculars (2), waterproof matches, batteries, razors & ibuprofen to barter, tincture of iodine, mosquito netting, notebook, moleskin, scissors, first aid wrap, duct tape.

I think I need to get the following for each: flashlight (my original thought was to grab the ones in the house, but am not going to depend on finding those), quick drying polypropylene tops & bottoms for warmth, more first aid supplies, small mirror, sewing kit.

Besides the inventory, last week I also picked up a bag of charcoal and bottle of lighter fluid for the house supplies.  Got a 24 pack of bottled water too (which I hate to purchase because of the plastic but it would useful if bugging out by car).  Also examined dates of food supplies in basement and replaced older with newer. 

This week I hope to pick up my distillation unit or at least see what its status is; read about self-defense methods, and purchase one set of propylene undergarments (REI outlet clearance!).  Until my report next week, over and out!