(Omal in a question about dropping defcon levels we go over ways to prepare for if things were not to stay at the calm state they were. What we also get is a lesson from a guest on what are K-rations and C-rations which included a way the military were able to store cigarettes indefinitely.) 

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Omal: okay questions, let us open up the floor to answer.

Russ: all righty. I was speaking with Karra about the problems in Central America and the hurricane that came through there, one of the questions I have is concerning its ramifications toward the changes that are coming up on our earth and if there is any link to that being say for example a key to a new defcon level or something that could be looked at in that way.

Omal: well the most recent storm to hit the Midwest and the Great Plains is being watched very carefully. It has the potential to be a very devastating storm however, within your Continental USA there has to be two more very similar within the week, natural problems of a large scale plus the stock market problems and the civil disobedience. I do not see this happening just yet.

Russ: hmm........okay, good.

Skip: does that mean that we’re stepping down from……

Omal: no.

Skip: okay, all right.

Omal: mostly or partly due to the fact that if we do step down, then people will become lax and when certain events that are projected to happen........which I’m still waiting to hear back from, from the Council.........happen, it could catch us and you in an awkward situation. The words would be flat-footed?

Russ: uh-huh.

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: and we really don’t want that. It is better to be in a state of semi-heightened readiness so that you can jump one way or the other. If we were to increase the level prematurely, then you would be in a position where you would be coiled and ready for action for when it happened, then when it did not happen, it would be wasted…..

Skip: and a big letdown.

Omal: and a big letdown and make us appear unreliable in our information releases.

Skip: then we continue to stockpile our food?

Omal: yes I would suggest that you do but not as frantically. If it is done gradually, it is not such a fiscal drain as if done frantically and hastily which if it is done hastily and frantically then sometimes you get things that you really don’t need and miss things that you do.

Skip: well doing it frantically like that, wouldn't that start setting off a….

Omal: yes.

Skip: panic?

Omal: yes.

Skip: because people see you doing it, they would start doing it and it would just generate a complete total panic.

Omal: in certain situations definitely yes.

Skip: okay.

Omal: but if you do it frantically and panicky, then you tend to get things that aren’t really necessary or useful.

Skip: or overdo it.

Omal: yes so it is better to do it in a leisurely way but with purpose.

Skip: Mark, the young man, taught me how to do dehydration of foods so that they could be stored more in less space.

Omal: that is a very useful function, dehydrating food is……..certainly it does give you the protein necessary at the appropriate times, I do not know what the shelf life is on certain commodities though.

Skip: as long as, this is my opinion okay? As long as it’s kept in a sealed container I believe it’s indefinite.

Omal: I would not know however I have reason to believe that certain stuffings that were used about three to 4,000 years ago did turn out to be still edible although I would not recommend devouring them.

Russ: hmmm.

Skip: but our shelf life wouldn’t go any longer than our lives period.

Omal: no true. I was just dwelling upon a joke I overheard that your military is still issuing food labeled 1918, is that correct?

Skip: I don’t think it’s quite that far back.

Omal: I believe it was said in humor.

Skip: okay but I can give you a for example.

Omal: okay.

Skip: I was in the service from ‘49 to ‘52, I was stationed in Fairbanks Alaska. For Christmas we got turkeys that were froze, which is a bird, domestic bird that we eat……

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: the boxes were labeled 1945.

Russ: so four years old?

Skip: five.

Russ: five.

Skip: five or six, frozen meat.

Omal: hmm, that is something I would not recommend.

Skip: the military does a lot of things that people don’t recommend.

Omal: yes.

(they both get a chuckle out of that)

Skip: K-rations are……okay let me see if I can give you kind of a thumbnail view here. K-rations in the service were dry rations, they were dehydrated…..

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: biscuits. I don’t know what all was in them but the biscuits been called hard tack ever since the Civil War. You eat one hard tack biscuit and drink a pint of water and you’re full.

Omal: ahh.

Skip: okay? They’re a dehydrated biscuit. On the other hand C-rations were canned food that were a meal in a box.

Omal: uh-huh okay.

Skip: now them canned foods or C-rations as they were called were originally packed in 1941. They’d been continuously packed up until I believe '65 so you don’t know whether you’re getting 1941 C-rations or 1965 C-rations.

Omal: so the joke was an exaggeration I take it.

Skip: no it was not an exaggeration, maybe a little. But military rations are stored in warehouses for the day and time when they're needed……

Omal: yes.

Skip: the same as ammunition and guns and so on and so forth because they’re not perishable, that's was what I was trying to get at.

Omal: yes non-perishable.

Skip: non-perishable items.

Omal: okay.

Russ: now our storage abilities from various places has increased with our technology.

Omal: yes.

Skip: true.

Russ: and we’re seeing stuff that’s considered gourmet food that’s dehydrated and can last for many, many years.

Skip: that’s correct. Now if you dehydrate food and vacuum pack it, it extends the life almost double.

Russ: hmm.

Omal: so if you were to say that your dried food, dehydrated food would have a life expectancy of 10 years, if you were to dehydrate it that makes it 20 years.

Skip: if you vacuum seal it after it’s dehydrated......

Omal: uh-hum.

Skip: then it increases the life double, shelf life.

Omal: so you would have to decide how long it would be advisable to keep dried food, dehydrated food and then vacuum seal it so that it increases the life expectancy exponentially to……

Skip: almost indefinitely according to our time in life.

Omal: yes.

Skip: okay?

Russ: now as I understand it, food can be kept indefinitely but its food value is substantially less than that……

Omal: yes.

Russ: its ability to nourish you.

Skip: you lose the vitamins, nutritions and proteins from it, that’s why it’s vacuum sealed. If it’s sealed in just a regular container, the air will draw that off.

Omal: that is correct.

Skip: but by vacuum sealing it, you don’t allow the air to get to it. That’s where they’re coming up with this double life on vacuum sealing dehydrated food.

Russ: so that’s nitrogen packed in other words?

Skip: no it’s just removing the air from it.

Russ: hmm.

Skip: it’s completely, well you’ve seen the….

Russ: how could you remove the air from it, wouldn’t you still have the air molecules wouldn’t you?

Skip: yeah but you wouldn’t have the outside air drawing from them molecules, see what I mean? Does that makes sense?

Russ: sort of.

Skip: because you can get vacuum sealers now for home.

Omal: it might be a good investment.

Skip: they’re not that expensive.

Russ: hmm.

Omal: okay let us continue, we are……

Skip: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.

Omal: that is quite all right. How much do we have on your recording?

Russ: half of the backside, well a little under half.

Omal: okay, we have plenty of time.

Skip: Omal, the only thing that I’m going to be in a tizzy about….

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: is if this all happens, is where am I going to get cigarettes?

(Skip starts laughing over the potential hardship)

Omal: actually that is not so much of a joke.

Skip: tobacco products is very habit-forming?

Omal: yes and very tradable.

Skip: yes they are, yes they are.

Omal: another trade good.

Russ: hmm, but don’t they have a shelf life too?

Omal: I would not know.

Skip: okay let me put it this way, the Navy developed a shelf life for tobacco, it’s wrapped in waxed paper and sealed. Civilian cigarettes aren’t, none of the civilian tobacco products are wrapped in waxed paper and sealed.

Russ: hmm, so what’s the shelf life on tobacco that’s been waxed papered and sealed? For trade good wise.

Skip: well a pack of cigarettes……..okay let me take for instance a pack of cigarettes, they’re sealed in plastic but they're not sealed. How can I say this? Plastic is wrapped around them and they're heated and basically they're protected from moisture.

Omal: it is not a perfect seal.

Skip: that’s right, they still breathe air.

Russ: okay.

Skip: so consequently your tobacco can dry out.

Russ: so you don’t get the same effects if it’s dried out?

Skip: no, no, in fact it’ll fall apart on you. It’ll fall apart and taste terrible. A dried cigarette and a fresh cigarette is the difference between day and night for a smoker.

Russ: so a fresh cigarette would be worth its weight in gold after…..

Skip: yes it is, yes it is.

Russ: if there was a mass shortage of cigarettes I assume.

Skip: that’s correct. So if you would take.....say you bought a case of cigarettes which is a 100 cartons and you took them out and you wrapped them and vacuum sealed them so they couldn’t dry out, you could store them from now on and they wouldn’t dry out.

Russ: hmmm.

Skip: you would have a trading product like Omal said, a commodity that you could trade down the road for anything because somebody would give the right arm for a pack of cigarettes. And this is the truth, tobacco is one of the highest trading things out there, that and alcohol.

Omal: that is correct. In the Russian republics they are traded.

Russ: oh really?

Skip: tobacco and alcohol.

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: now if it comes to a civil war, the next highest thing to be traded is ammunition.

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: not necessarily guns but ammunition because not everybody reloads their own ammunition.

Russ: true. So not food, not water but cigarettes and….

Skip: no you can find food and water, believe it or not you can find food and water.

Russ: okay.

Skip: but you cannot manufacture ammunition unless you have the parts to do it with.

Russ: uh-huh.

Skip: and you can’t grow tobacco in a wasteland.

Russ: hmmm.

Skip: and if you don’t know how to make alcohol you're going to pay for it.

Russ: interesting, now that’s a new route I hadn’t even thought of.

Skip: these are commodities that are very, very, very valuable.

Omal: that is correct and the people that know how to manufacture alcohol, ammunition and tobacco are highly sought-after.

Skip: I could do two of them, I’m in the wrong area to grow tobacco.

Omal: so what would be the option, trade the alcohol?

Skip: for the tobacco?

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: yep.

Omal: and trade the tobacco for……

Skip: ammunition. But see I make the ammunition, as long as I can get my hands on the brass cases and the primers I can make ammunition because I can make the powder.

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: it might not be as excellent quality as manufactured powder but it does work.

Omal: you may have to clean more often.

Skip: yes, black powder is very, very corrosive.

Omal: okay, I am also being told to wrap up.

Skip: I’m sorry.

Omal: that is all right.

Russ: thank you Omal, you touched on some good stuff we can look at and plan for.

Skip: yeah, yeah.

Omal: live long, prosper and, I’ll be back.

Skip: thank you, have a good evening.

Omal: I will.