Maine Man Survives In Woods For 27 Years

Hermit’ burglar compound littered with batteries, ‘tons and tons’ of propane tanks

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Tweet

Maine State Police

The camp where Maine State Police say Christopher Knight, 47, spent the past 27 years.

By John Holyoke and Aislinn Sarnacki, BDN Staff

Posted April 10, 2013, at 11:30 a.m.
Last modified April 10, 2013, at 8:58 p.m.

(The question is, what to do with him.  On one hand you have to admire his stamina and determination to be a  survivor but on the other hand he did steal to survive, so do we admire him or admonish him for being a part of the entitlement crowd who believes in the “fair share” rule?

If you really think about it, this is the difference between the social outcasts of yesteryear and the social outcasts of today, he choose to exclude himself from the outside world, today’s social outcasts take an AR 15 and shoot everybody in sight, so in that way, we should be thankful he just stole to survive.

– Phoebe)

Maine State Police

Christopher Knight

When it was reported Tuesday that Maine State Police arrested a man last week who is suspected of committing more than 1,000 burglaries, slipping into camps at night to steal supplies to support his existence as a hermit, many people had the same question:

Is it really possible that the “Hermit” burglar, 47-year-old Christopher Knight, survived in the Maine wilderness for more than a quarter of a century? Without a campfire? Without any human contact?

Jodie Mosher-Towle, newsletter writer and board member of the North Pond Association

Jodie Mosher-Towle grew up in Smithfield and has been talking with neighbors about the “North Pond Hermit” for the past 20 years. The legend grew as owners of camps and homes on the southern end of North Pond reported being burglarized repeatedly.

“It’s just weird how it’s always been that way — we’ve just always known about the hermit,” Mosher-Towle said.

She now lives year-round with her husband and children on the northern shore of North Pond and writes a newsletter for the North Pond Association, a group with the purpose “to support and conduct social, educational and stewardship efforts to benefit the natural environment of North Pond and Little Pond and for all users thereof.”

North Pond is surrounded by the towns of Rome, Mercer and Smithfield. And it is at Pine Tree Camps, located on the edge of the pond in Rome, that Knight was arrested last week while allegedly burglarizing the building.

“We have our annual meeting and dinner at the Pine Tree Camps every summer,” said Mosher-Towle, referring to the North Pond Association, which is made up largely of landowners around the pond. “And every single summer, someone raises their hand and asks what we know about ‘the hermit.’ And every year, the state troopers have a lead or they think they’ve spotted someone. Then we have a 20-30 minute conversation about someone we don’t even know exists.”

Mosher-Towle said that her home has never been broken into because she lives on the north end of the pond, but she has plenty of friends living on the south end of the pond who have reported multiple burglaries over the years.

“The M.O. — it was always batteries, the frozen meats, liquor, beer,” she said. “And he would never break anything. He was always careful to lock it if he could on the way out. It’s always under the cloak of darkness, too.”

People living in that area often speculated about who it could be, she said. And landowners nearly caught “the hermit,” but he always managed to escape. She even heard stories about him using a canoe to travel from camp to camp.

“He never broke a window,” she said. “He would [mess] with the window locks, and just slide the window open.”

Over the years, some landowners have replaced their windows with models that have sturdier locks, she said, and several purchased surveillance equipment in an effort to identify the mysterious burglar.

In 2012, several photos of Knight were captured on a surveillance camera in a private dwelling on the pond.

“It was scary for them, and you know, it was such an inconvenience,” she said. “Even when we would post those pictures everywhere, he was never out and about. He was elusive and really smart about staying incognito.”

In late 2009, someone made a Facebook page dedicated to the legend, www.facebook.com/northpond.hermit, which had 144 friends at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Mosher-Towle has posted comments on the page several times over the years.

When news broke of Knight’s arrest on Tuesday, Mosher-Towle was enjoying a stay at Maine Huts & Trails lodging. It wasn’t until she got home on Wednesday that she caught up on the news and realized that the decades-long mystery may very well be solved.

Harvey Chesley, facilities manager at Pine Tree Camp

Harvey Chesley, the facilities manager at Pine Tree Camp, had no doubt that a single thief had been victimizing the camp and countless others on North Pond for years.

When Knight was arrested, he was wearing a pair of shoes that had been taken from Chesley’s cabin at Pine Tree Camp. The shoes belonged to one of Chesley’s family members, he said.

Chesley said he and others had long thought that the person responsible for the frequent thefts lived in the woods.

“Where I was wrong was I thought he left in the winter,” Chesley said on Thursday. “I thought he went to a homeless shelter or somewhere else. I was wrong. He lived in the woods.”

Chesley said that last summer he had Knight’s photo on a game camera. So, too, did neighboring landowners to the east and west of the Pine Tree Camp property.

“[The photos] were kind of generic. They showed a big guy, middle-aged, with glasses,” Chesley said. “The wardens took the photos to the towns of Mercer, Smithfield, and Rome. They took [photos] to the stores, the post offices, the town offices. Nobody could identify him.”

Another odd twist: When the man was arrested, not only was he wearing familiar shoes, Chesley found out that Knight had attended Lawrence High School in Fairfield at the same time as he had.

“I was two years ahead of him in high school. My wife was two years behind him,” Chesley said. “I didn’t know him. I recognize the family name, but I didn’t know him.”

Chesley said Knight’s regular raids on Pine Tree Camp indicated that a single survivalist was at work.

“It was because of the M.O.,” he said. “He would take essentials. He would take batteries, books, reading materials, alcohol, foods, paper products. You could leave phones, money, your wallet and that wouldn’t go missing.”

Knight was finally apprehended after the Maine Warden Service and the U.S. Border Patrol utilized a remote camera and alarm system that was used to offer more protection at the camp’s new dining hall.

Chesley was on the scene soon after Knight was caught, and has been to the camp where Knight lived for 27 years.

“He was shy and answered questions in sort of a monotone,” Chesley said. “I asked him, ‘Why did you take things a little bit at a time?’ He answered, ‘All I could carry.’ Just monotone.”

When Chesley saw Knight after the arrest, he initially thought that he had guessed correctly.

“I said, ‘Gee, he’s wearing decent clothes, I was right: He’s just coming back for the summer,” Chesley said. “But no, he was just like a bear, coming out of his den at the end of the winter.”

Chesley went with law enforcement officers when they traveled to Knight’s campsite. Chesley has been advised not to disclose the location, but said it was about a 30-minute hike — perhaps two miles — to the west of Pine Tree Camp.

“He had tons and tons of propane cylinders, probably 40 or 50 of them,” Chesley said. “I don’t know if he rigged them up for heat, but he said he didn’t burn wood because a fire would attract people.”

Chesley said that last fall he received word from a local contractor who hunts in the Rome area. The contractor had some thrilling news.

“He said, ‘I think I found where the hermit lives,’” Chesley said.

Chesley accompanied the contractor to the site, but determined that an old structure on the site wasn’t the one he’d been hoping to find.

After walking to the actual site earlier this week, Chesley learned how close he’d been.

“We were literally within a football field diameter of the [actual] site,” Chesley said. “But it was hidden.”

Chesley said the site was also littered with discarded marine batteries and all-terrain batteries.

“He used them to power things,” Chesley said.

Chesley said that after the arrest, the warden advised Knight that he had victimized Chesley for years and that an apology might be in order.

“[Knight] said, ‘If you thought I was sincere, I’d apologize,’” Chesley said. “I told him, ‘I think you’re sincere.’ And then he says, ‘I’m truly sorry for all the harm I’ve caused.’ It was monotone, but it was sincere.”

Doug Rafferty, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife information and education director

Doug Rafferty, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s information and education director, said on Wednesday that game wardens have been dealing with reports of break-ins — perhaps as many as 1,000 — in the North Pond area in Rome, Maine for years.

Rafferty said that at first blush, the story of a hermit who had roamed the Maine woods for 27 years sounds far-fetched, but the DIF&W is confident that the tale is true.

Knight was caught last week when he set off surveillance equipment at the Pine Tree Camp, which he admitted breaking into more than 50 times in the past three decades.

“Rome isn’t exactly remote,” Rafferty said, describing the central Maine town in the middle of the Belgrade Lakes region. “It’s not like the North Maine Woods.”

And Rafferty admitted that it was hard to believe that a man living alone in the woods within 10 miles of Waterville could do so unnoticed for 27 years.

“Someone might have stumbled onto Knight’s compound at some point and thought, ‘Well, some guy’s got a camp up here for the summer,’” Rafferty said.

Among the factors that have led investigators to believe the story: When Knight was apprehended, he was wearing an important piece of evidence.

“When he was caught, he was wearing a pair of boots that had been stolen five years ago,” Rafferty said. “We knew the boots, and who they had been stolen from.”

Some high-tech cooperation between the U.S. Border Patrol and DIF&W wardens played a key role in the apprehension, Rafferty said.

Rafferty said the Border Patrol loaned Warden Sgt. Terry Hughes a camera that would alert him when it was triggered. Hughes set the camera up at Pine Tree Camp in Rome, which had reportedly been targeted several times by Knight.

“When the alarm went off, Terry Hughes lives just down the road, and he was there in like six minutes,” Rafferty said.

Michael Douglas, Adult Programs Director at Maine Primitive Skills School, Augusta

Knight likely began avoiding people soon after leaving civilization back in 1986, said Michael Douglas, adult programs director at Maine Primitive Skills School based in Augusta.

“I would say the first thing that happens, and we see this with people that get lost in the woods, is you start to hide from people that you see in the woods,” Douglas said. “That would be a pretty defining moment for him, when he started to flee and hide from people.”

Douglas says that this basic human instinct to flee from strangers typically begins after just a few days of solitude in the woods.

“The thoughts that run in people’s heads about being late for work and what to have for dinner and what’s on TV that night, those go away in about four days to two weeks of being in the wilderness,” Douglas said. “Then you develop a more intuitive and emotional communication in your head. You eat when you’re hungry, sleep when you’re tired, and you’re mindful of weather changes.”

It was reported that Knight never lit a fire for fear of being caught. In response to that, Douglas says that survival would have been possible without a fire, but only if Knight had a “really warm sleeping bag.”

“But he’d be living like an animal in a cocoon for most of his waking days [in the winter] or moving around constantly just to stay warm.”

Like many mammals in the Maine wilderness, it was reported that Knight usually made an effort to put on weight in the fall so he would have to eat less in the winter.

“To have the foresight to do that is pretty unique, but not unheard of,” Douglas said. “When you live in the out of doors for a while, you slow down and your awareness goes beyond what you need in the moment and it becomes seasonal — so that makes sense.”

Another aspect of Knight that might cause people to question whether he truly lived for nearly three decades in the wilderness is his appearance. He doesn’t fit the typical depiction of a hermit — shabby, dirty, with long hair and a beard. Upon being caught, Knight was clean shaven, with short hair, glasses and clean clothing.

Douglas speculates that perhaps Knight had problems early on with mites, fleas and ticks, and therefore decided to shave. He also imagines Knight may have put efforts into his personal hygiene as a sort of “dual camouflage,” so he could blend into a town environment while breaking into buildings and camps for supplies.

“If he had gone just totally native, where he would make his own debris hut and get fire off the landscape, it would have taken him a little longer and he would have been more uncomfortable at first, but he could still be out there if he had just stayed away from people’s camps,” Douglas said. “His taking the convenient way out is what did him in.”

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/10/outdoors/could-hermit-burglar-really-have-survived-undetected-in-maine-woods-for-27-years/?ref=relatedBox

Walls of “BUNKER” Collapses, Kills 2 Children

Father sobs on 911 after kids buried in collapse

By MITCH WEISS and MICHAEL BIESECKER

STANLEY, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man tearfully begged authorities to hurry to his house to rescue his daughter and her cousin, who were buried when the walls of a 24-foot deep pit he dug on his property collapsed.

Jordan Arwood, 31, was operating a backhoe Sunday night in the pit when the walls collapsed and he called 911.

Arwood’s desperate voice is heard on a recording released by the Lincoln County communications center on Monday, when the children’s bodies were recovered.

“Please hurry … My children are buried under tons of dirt … They’re buried under tons of clay … It fell on top of them,” he said sobbing.

When the dispatcher asked him if he could see the children, Arwood said he couldn’t.

“The entire wall collapsed on them. Get a crane. Get a bulldozer. Get anything you can, please,” he said. “There’s no way they can breathe.”

As the dispatcher began encouraging him — and with people wailing in the background — Arwood began praying.

“Lord lift this dirt up off these children … so the children will be alive and well … I have to get my kids. Lord, please,” he said.

The bodies of the two young cousins, 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell, were dug out Monday.

Later on Monday, sheriff’s deputies removed firearms and a marijuana plant from Arwood’s mobile home. Arwood is a felon who is not allowed to have guns. He was convicted in 2003 for possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.

The father had been digging with a backhoe on the site Sunday, Sheriff David Carpenter said. Investigators described the pit as 20 feet by 20 feet with a sloped entrance leading down to the 24-foot bottom. The children were at the bottom of the pit retrieving a child-sized pickaxe when the walls fell in on them, Carpenter said.

The sheriff would not say what Arwood was building or whether he had any professional help. He did say that investigators would be looking into reports from neighbors that Arwood had been building some sort of protective bunker.

“It’s a very large hole. It would look to be something like that, but I don’t know. … We’re going to find out exactly what his intentions were,” Carpenter said.

He said deputies would be speaking with county planning and zoning officials about any potential building code violations at the site.

Andrew Bryant, a planner with the Lincoln County Planning & Inspections Department, said no permits had been issued.

On the tape, Arwood said he didn’t know what happened.

“They were inside the hole helping to get something and the wall collapsed,” he said.

At one point, the dispatcher warned him not to put pressure on the dirt. But Arwood said he had to reach the children.

“If this was you and your children in the dirt, you’d be moving the dirt, too,” he said.

Arwood’s house was at the end of a gravel-covered road dotted with modular and mobile homes. It’s a tight-knit rural community where neighbors sit outside on front porches and look out for each other.

When word spread about the disaster, they ran to Arwood’s house and began helping. On Monday, they were somber, saying they were heartbroken for the family. They said Arwood told them it happened without warning and that he tried to grab the children, but they were just beyond his reach.

It was no secret that Arwood was digging a two-story deep hole. Neighbors said it wasn’t unusual to see children in the pit when the girl’s father was working there.

Neighbor Bradley Jones, who works in construction, said there was no structure to support the pit’s tall dirt walls and that there was some concrete on a ledge on top of the hole.

In recent days, the hole was muddy from the rain. He said he warned his daughter, Chelsea, who babysits for the children, not to go in.

“It was dangerous. There was nothing to reinforce those walls,” he said.

Chelsea said Arwood told her that he was building the structure to “protect his family” – it was going to be a bunker.

“It’s so sad,” she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/father-sobs-911-kids-buried-collapse-223923408.html

DIY Flashlight Power Generator

How neat and easy is this.

 

TRAYVON’S GIRLFRIEND LIED

 

SANFORD – Trayvon Martin‘s girlfriend, the state’s most important witness in the George Zimmerman murder case, was caught in a lie Tuesday.

It was not the first piece of misinformation tied to her but it was the most damaging to date and left prosecutors in a very awkward position.

They had to publicly acknowledge that their star witness had lied under oath and had to answer questions about what they intend to do about it.

Will you charge the 19-year-old Miami woman with perjury, reporters asked.

The state’s lead prosecutor, Bernie de la Rionda, gave an ambiguous answer: “You can all read the law and make your own decision.”

The woman had told prosecutors she was in the hospital on the day of Trayvon’s funeral.

“In fact, she lied,” said defense attorney Don West.

The disclosure was one of two major developments Tuesday at what had been expected to be a dull hearing about the exchange of case evidence.

The other: Zimmerman’s lawyers will not hold a “stand your ground” hearing in April, one that could clear him of criminal wrongdoing before his trial.

Defense attorney Mark O’Mara made that announcement in court, later saying he had not yet decided whether to scrap it entirely or roll it into Zimmerman second-degree murder trial, which is set for June 10.

“Our real focus is getting ready for the trial,” O’Mara said.

What Zimmerman most wants is to be tried by a jury of his peers, O’Mara said, and with less than 100 days until trial, “There’s only time for one hearing, and that’s a jury trial … We have precious little time.”

Zimmerman was not at Tuesday’s hearing. Neither was his wife, Shellie, who’s awaiting trial on a perjury charge, accused of lying at her husband’s April 20 bond hearing. That’s what prompted the perjury question to de la Rionda.

If defense lawyers decide to forego George Zimmerman’s immunity hearing, they would be cutting in half their number of opportunities to spare him from a life in prison.

Florida’s “stand your ground” statute has generated a great deal of public debate since Trayvon’s death one year ago in Sanford. It provides immunity to anyone who uses deadly force, provided he has a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury.

Zimmerman says he shot Trayvon in self-defense.

Because of Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson’s very tight schedule, when O’Mara told her he would not put on a two-week “stand your ground” hearing starting April 22, he essentially told her he would not hold that hearing before Zimmerman’s trial.

She did not press him to spell out his plans.

De la Rionda said he was “bewildered” by O’Mara’s decision but did not elaborate.

Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former Neighborhood Watch volunteer, called Sanford police Feb. 26, 2012, describing Trayvon as suspicious. Zimmerman shot the unarmed high school junior a few minutes later, saying he fired in self-defense after the Miami Gardens 17-year-old punched him, broke his nose then began pounding his head onto a sidewalk.

Sanford police found no witnesses to the initial confrontation, but Trayvon’s family attorney, Benjamin Crump, found something close: Trayvon’s girlfriend, who’s identified in court records as “witness 8.” She told Crump she had been on the phone with Trayvon just before the shooting.

According to an interview Crump recorded after the shooting, the young woman said Trayvon told her a stranger was following him, and he was scared. Trayvon got away from him once, but the man re-appeared, she said, and she heard Trayvon ask, “‘What are you following me for?’”

The man answered, “‘What are you doing here?’” she said, then she said the man must have pushed Trayvon because the phone went dead.

The woman gave de la Rionda a very similar account during a sworn statement April 2, and when his office wrote up its probable cause affidavit, charging Zimmerman with second-degree murder, it rehashed her account but did not include her allegation that she heard Zimmerman push Trayvon.

Despite’s Tuesday’s revelation, there is no indication the woman lied about what she heard on the phone the evening Trayvon was shot. But she appears to have given Crump another piece of bad information: Her age.

He told reporters in March, when he played excerpts from the recorded interview, that she was 16 years old. In fact, she was 18 at the time. Crump has said he did not knowingly misrepresent her age.

O’Mara would not say whether the woman should be prosecuted for perjury for lying under oath about being in the hospital.

But months ago, he and co-counsel Don West began trying to investigate her. They earlier convinced the judge to allow them to subpoena her Twitter and Facebook accounts so they can read her posts.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-zimmerman-witness-8-medical-records-20130305,0,129597.story

Alternative Power for CPAP Machine

Borrowed this from ….. http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-WARNING-to-CPAP-Users-PREPARE-for-the-Unexpected-When-the-power-goes-out?highlight=camping

Here’s the scenario:

It’s now December 19th at about 11:00 p.m…. a typical winter evening. It’s supposed to get down to around 25 degrees tonight, but no snow at least… which means no shoveling in the morning. That’s a good thing.

You are proud of yourself – you’ve been using CPAP as a member of the secret society of “hoseheads”… you’ve tinkered with your own machine…. you may have even fiddled with changing your pressure… and you may have gone so far as to use CPAP data-analyzing software to help you tweak your settings.

Ah, very nice. Now that you’ve joined this exclusive group of educated, intelligent and daring souls, you feel as though you have mastered this CPAP monstrosity – and you’re reduced your apnea events to a great degree by your own efforts. Excellent… you congratulate yourself on being so “self-sufficient” – able to handle just about any problem that comes your way… and you settle in for a nice, relaxing and restful night’s sleep with your CPAP on in your warm bed with your electric blanket

You gently fall asleep and enter bliss…

…and then…

…out of the blue…

…at 3:05 a.m. in the morning…

THE ELECTRICAL POWER GOES OUT.

Hmm… okay, now what?

Okay, I guess since it happened at 3:05 a.m., you can do without your CPAP machine until it’s time to wake up around 6:00… so, you sheepishly take the now-quiet octopus-style mask off your head and try, quite unsuccessfully, to get some degree of sleep without your CPAP giving you that life-sustaining air pressure. You keep waking up every 5 minutes after a bunch of “snortles”, snores & gasps… and you realize that it’s a lost cause – you can’t get any real sleep until the power comes back on and your air-pushing friend whizzes back to life.

Your alarm clock goes off at 6:00 (it had a battery backup) and you realize that you didn’t get any sleep since 3:05, and the power is still out. The temperature in the house has slid from 70 degrees down to about 62 and you feel a cold chill as you remove the covers.

You get up, go outside, look around, the sun is not yet out, and you realize that all the city lights are OFF. The sky is clear, and you can see a lot more stars than normal. Ah, so this is what living in the country is like! Very pretty. Maybe this won’t be so bad.

You begin your morning routine in the dark, using a D-cell flashlight as you shower, shave and comb your hair, hoping that the folks in the office don’t notice the 3 nicks you now have on your face because you had to use a razor blade instead of your usual electric shaver. At least you had hot water for your shower – that felt good. As you leave, you pass by the thermostat and notice that the house temperature had now dropped to 60. “At least I can get warm in the office” you think to yourself.

You get into the car and begin driving to work, 5 miles away. Upon arrival, there’s no power at your office either, and your fellow employees are standing around in the office, huddled around a single penlight that the receptionist pulled out of her purse to provide some degree of illumination in the interior office. The boss comes in and you all wait around hoping that the power will return any minute now. 9:30 a.m., no power yet and the temperature in the office is at 60 degrees. Everyone wishes they had a hot cup of coffee. 10:30, no power yet, and everyone zips up their winter coats tightly.

Your co-worker goes out to his car and listens to his car radio – the local radio stations are off the air, but he gets a faint signal from a city two states away. Two people are discussing the “cascading grid failure” that took down all electrical power east of the Mississippi river and some areas in the west. Explosions were reported, but no one knew for certain whether it was a terrorist attack or simply some transformers or substations exploding as a result of the cascading grid failure. The coworker comes back into the office and reports what he heard. The boss makes a command decision and tells everyone to go home but stay near the phone so he can call everyone – just in case the power comes back on in the office today. He thought surely this would get sorted out in a few hours – everyone should just meet back at the office at 8:00 tomorrow, because the power would surely be back on by then.

You drive back home… and make a soothing cup of coffee using the tea kettle and gas stove, slowing pouring the boiling water over the coffee grounds basket that you removed from your good old Black & Decker coffee maker. Hey, at least you can have a hot cup of coffee, this won’t be so bad, right? The temp has dropped to 58 degrees in the living room.

The day wears on with no power. No power by 9:00 pm either, and your house temp is now 55. You start to think about your CPAP. “Oh, no… I need that machine to get a good night’s sleep” you think to yourself, “Why oh why didn’t I get that 12-volt connector and a deep cycle battery!”

You go to bed around midnight… wrapping yourself in two blankets, and cover those with the sleeping bag you used for your camping trip this summer…. the night wears on… no power… you look at your bedroom clock and it’s starting to go dim, since it’s been on battery backup since 3:05 am yesterday, and it’s now reading 4:34 a.m. and you’ve not gotten a wink of sleep because you keep chortling as your Sleep Apnea dutifully wakes you up every 5-10 minutes.

Argh!

In the morning, the temperature in the living room has gone down to 51 degrees – your outside thermometer reads 22. You pull out your handheld radio to figure out what’s going on, but you realize that it takes 4 AA batteries and all you have is 3 AAA batteries. You kick yourself again for your poor planning.

A neighbor knocks on your door. You answer it and realize that he looks pretty disheveled, but bundled in a heavy duty parka – He asks if everyone is okay in the house, and asks if you need to come over to his house – he has a wood fireplace and a supply of firewood, and it’s keeping his living room at a nice comfy 72 degrees.

You decide that it’s a good idea and thank him for his offer. He reports to you that he’s been listening to his radio and officials are saying that it may be days or weeks before they can bring the entire electrical grid back up again. “This is not good at all”, your neighbor comments, “I don’t know what we’re going to do, we only have enough firewood for two or maybe three nights…”

You ask him if he has any source of electrical power like a generator. He says he doesn’t. You are dead tired and kick yourself yet once again for not providing some alternative power for your life-giving CPAP machine. How are you going to get a good night’s sleep if the power stays off for a week?

This is going to get real old, real fast.

- end of scenario -

The Question for YOU is: Do you have an alternative to power your CPAP machine should the electricity go off for a day? How about if it goes down for a week? Or Two weeks? What if there’s a series of terrorist attacks upon our electrical grid and officials say it will take months to repair all the damage? WHAT THEN?

I open this up for discussion… what are your thoughts? Have you provided for some degree of alternative electrical energy for your CPAP machine? If so, what have you done specifically? If you can power your machine for a day or so without grid power, what could you do to make yourself less at-risk for a more sustained power outage for say – a week or two, or even a month or two, something that would make the Northeast Blackout of 2003 look like a Sunday picnic?

What are your thoughts?

Survivalist Reality Show Winner to Get Own Bunker

“These are not people that you may think are living in a shelter in the middle of the woods,” Spike exec says. “These could be your friends”

By DAVID BAUDER  Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012

The Spike television network is airing a competition this fall to award a fortified bunker to a family that believes the end of the world is near.

Seriously.

The network said Tuesday that its six-episode series called “Last Family on Earth” will feature survivalists competing to show how tough and resourceful they are. The winner gets an underground bunker in an undisclosed location.

Sharon Levy, executive vice president of original programming at Spike, said the series doesn’t necessarily coincide with the theory that the ancient Mayan civilization predicted the end of the world will arrive in December 2012.

Levy said polls show that many people believe that there will be some catastrophic event like an earthquake or epidemic that threatens civilization, and these are the people who will participate in the show.

“We don’t think there’s anything funny about that,” Levy said. “We think it’s a very interesting segment of the population that is very prepared, is highly intelligent. These are regular people. These are not people that you may think are living in a shelter in the middle of the woods. These could be your friends.

“We’re taking it very seriously,” she said. “We know they’re taking it very seriously, and we think it’s going to be incredibly riveting.”

Viewers will also learn useful information about survival skills, she said.

Winners will be selected by a panel of survival experts, with viewers given a say through social media. The families involved and the judges haven’t been selected for the series, produced by reality TV maven Craig Piligian and Pilgrim Studios.

Levy wouldn’t say how much the bunker will cost.

Although only six episodes have been ordered, Levy said there’s no reason that “Last Family on Earth” couldn’t last several seasons if it’s successful.

That will presume, of course, that the world doesn’t end in December.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/entertainment/television/Survivalist-Reality-Show-Winner-to-Get-Own-Bunker-Last-Family-On-Earth-157451665.html

Methods That Carjackers Use

Excellent article on  how to avoid being carjacked, particularly given the recent late night shootings on a highway in Mississippi.  Read the complete article at the link provided and be sure to check out the rest of his posts for many great tips and scenarios on surviving a disaster. – Phoebe

In order to avoid being carjacked, it is worthwhile to understand the methods that carjackers use.

• Carjackers will bump your vehicle from behind and when you get out to exchange insurance information or inspect the damage they will steal your vehicle.
• Carjackers will stage an accident with fake injuries and when you stop and get out to assist, your vehicle will be stolen.
• Carjackers will follow you to your home or office and when you park they will pull up behind you so you can’t escape then steal your car and leave with both vehicles.
• Carjackers will flash lights to get your attention then when you pull over your vehicle will be taken.
• Carjackers will pose as police officers and when you pull over they will take your vehicle.

So how can you prepare yourself?   Continue reading Methods That Carjackers Use.

Build an emergency heater VIDEO

Handy Old Timey Farm Devices and How to Make Them

Handy Farm Devices
and How to Make Them

by Rolfe Cobleigh

Be sure to check out the index at the end of this post for other categories of old timey farm life. – Phoebe

In and Around the House (part II)

How to Cut Bread Even

Bread Cutting Board

Here is one of the most useful devices to which the handy man can give his attention. It is very rarely that a housekeeper can cut even and handsome slices of bread, however much she may desire to have the bread plate look attractive. One slice will be thin, another thick, while another will be thick on one edge and thin on the other. The drawing shows a simple arrangement by which all the slices of bread can be cut of an even thickness without any slant.

Cut a piece of pine board to about 9 x 13 inches. Near one end, on either side, insert firmly two pieces of very stout wire, bent double, as suggested in the cut. These wire supports should be at least 7 inches high, and should have another inch of length firmly inserted in the wood. The wire should be as stout as No. 12, or larger still, and should stand exactly at right angles to the board. Put them far enough apart so the largest loaf will readily go between them, and have the opening in each wire standard just wide enough so the knife will slide up and down without “wobbling.” The dotted lines show the position of the knife when in place. Screw a little strip of wood in front of the wire, just far enough ahead to make the slice of bread the right thickness. Press the loaf up against this guide and cut off a slice, then press the shortened loaf up again, and repeat the process.

Homemade Water Cooler

It’s a mighty nice thing to have a good supply of cold water at the barn when threshers, corn huskers, or hay harvesters are at work. A simple and effective arrangement can be made by using a flour barrel and a 10-gallon stone jar. Place the jar inside the barrel and surround it with charcoal, sawdust, or chaff, if nothing else is available. With a tight lid and a wet cloth spread over the top, water will keep ice cold in this arrangement. The uses of such a cooler may be multiplied to include keeping many things cool in the house.

Keep Food Cool in Summer

A very convenient and serviceable place to keep dairy products may be formed by sinking a large barrel in the ground. A shady spot should be chosen, or the heat of the sun will affect the temperature. Fill in around the barrel with small stones, gravel and sand, dampened in order to maintain coolness.

Construct a box around and above the top of the barrel, and bank up with solid earth, preferably clay. This drains off the water when it rains. It also makes the bottom of the barrel farther down from the top of the opening, which further promotes coolness. Next shape a light, inner lid to place on top of the barrel, and then make a strong, hinged lid for the box, and arrange it so it may be fastened down tightly.

Sprinkle a little dampened sand on the bottom of the barrel, and your little barrel cellar is ready for use. By being careful several vessels may be arranged one above the other in this handy little receptacle. Air out occasionally to prevent mold and odors from collecting.

A Cooler Dummy

Where a deep, cool well is located near the house an arrangement may be devised that will serve the purpose of a refrigerator. Construct a frame of strong boards with a groove in which a board on the side of the box of shelves can run. Attach a rope to the top of the box of shelves, pass it over a wheel on the crank shaft and balance with a counter weight.

If the frame is 16 feet long and extended down near to the surface of the water the lowest temperature may be secured. A nice looking top may be constructed for the arrangement, with a door opening into the shelves when they are drawn to the top. Most wells are almost as cool as a refrigerator, and this sort of an arrangement serves the purpose with a great deal less expense.

A wire clothesline will serve as a cable. Any old pieces of iron will do for the counter weight, and it is well to have a ratchet wheel, such as are found on old chain pumps, to prevent the elevator dropping when it is well filled. Make as many parts as possible of wood to prevent rusting. One such elevator is 42 inches high and 18 inches square.

Turning the grindstone is hard work; but if you use it as a muscle developer it will help out.

An Outdoor Closet

When the housewife has baked a pie or a pudding for dinner and wishes to cool it quickly in winter it has to be set out of doors; but there the trouble begins. It cannot be set upon the snow, since that would melt and engulf the hot dish. Moreover, the cat or dog, or some neighbor’s cat or dog, is likely to be lurking about the door, ready for pie. Let the handy man make a little out-of-door cupboard for the use of the housekeeper, locating it beside the kitchen door. Get an empty grocery box of the right size and hinge the cover to the top, placing a knob on the other edge. Make a support for this closet by driving two strips of wood into the ground and screwing two crosswise strips of board to the tops. Lay the grocery box on its side on these supports and nail it to them from the inside.

Here anything hot can be placed to cool quickly, and with the cover down there will be no danger from cats or dogs or hens. If desired to give a freer access to the cold air, several holes can be bored in each end and in the bottom before putting the box in position on the supports. If the ground is frozen too hard to insert the strips of board, the closet can be placed against the side of the house, close to the kitchen door, and supported in place by two wooden brackets. Another plan to secure the same result would be to make the closet and screw a wooden handle to the middle of the top, with holes bored in ends and back. When it is to be used put the dish, or dishes, inside and set the closet out onto the snow beside the door.

Taste the joy
That springs from labor.
– Longfellow.

Homemade Refrigerator

Take two large boxes, one 2 inches smaller than the other every way, and bore two 1-inch holes in the bottom of each box for drainage. Fill up 2 inches in the large box with powdered charcoal or coal ashes. Put the smaller box inside and fill the space all around with the charcoal or ashes. Fix the lids to both boxes to fit tightly. Put shelves on both sides of inner box. Leave a place in the center of the box for ice. A rack, made of lath, can be laid at the bottom for ice to rest on.

Iceless Butter and Milk Cooler

The accompanying picture shows how a well may be utilized during the warm months for cooling butter, milk and other perishable articles. It will be found very handy as a substitute for a refrigerator when the farmer has no ice supply. Anyone can make a triangular-shaped frame for the windlass, which is placed above the well; and anyone can also put the trap doors in the platform of the well. These doors should be provided with a lock, so children cannot fall in. A pin may be placed on the handle side of the windlass to prevent the crank from turning around when the box is lowered to the desired depth.

The picture is only suggestive. The shape and size of the various parts will depend upon the style of the well. Preferably, the box should be made of galvanized iron and have perforations in the bottom, so it may be lowered right into the water. Of course, this would not be feasible if the materials to be kept cold were not first placed in sealed receptacles. Where a well with a bucket pump or the ordinary wooden pump is the only available place to put such a cooler, the cooler may be at one side of the well. If necessary, the position of the pump may be shifted.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
– Samuel Johnson.

Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power.
– Horace Mann.

But now my task is smoothly done, I can fly, or I can run.
– Milton.

A Ventilated Pump Platform

Here is a way to keep the well clean and pure at all times. Make the frame of the platform of 2 x 4′s, allowing a space 2 to 6 inches between the top and bottom parts of the sides. This space is covered on the inside with a fly screen to keep out dirt and insects, and outside of this with a larger meshed screen to keep out large vermin. This gives good ventilation to the well, which never becomes foul. In the winter cover the platform with straw and snow.

Cleaning a Well

To remove floating litter from a well, take an ordinary sand sieve, and, after marking off the rim into three parts, attach a wire to any of the two points and to this improvised handle attach a rope. Fasten the end of the rope to the third point in the rim and a weight to the sieve, so that it can be lowered into the well and will sink. When used, sink the sieve edgewise into the water and pull the rope with a single attachment and it may be lifted out with all the floating sticks and timber on the surface of the water.

Dog Power for Pump

This sketch shows an arrangement for making use of the dog for carrying water. It simply consists of a wheel 8 feet in diameter and 18 inches wide, with room enough inside for the dog to walk around, where he acts as a tread power, which causes the pump to revolve. In southern California there are a number of these dog-power pumps, which cost less than $15. A good-sized dog can easily earn his living in an arrangement of this kind.

Filter for Cistern Water

The problem of keeping water in a cistern clean is most easily solved by not allowing it to get dirty, as can be done by the device shown in the drawing. Two barrels, each with a perforated false bottom, are set side by side beneath the water spout from the roof and connected with a pipe leading to the cistern. Above the false bottoms fine gravel and then sand are packed to the depth of 8 or more inches. On top of the sand rest stout floats as large as can be let down into the barrels. From near the margin of the floats two heavy wires extend vertically upward about 2 feet to engage loosely near their centers with a tilting spout by means of knobs on both the ends of the spout and the wires.

When the barrels are empty the floats rest on the sand. As the water begins to pour in one barrel it strikes the float, but is prevented from gouging a very deep hole at the outside of the barrel by striking a strip of wood about 1 inch high, 2 inches wide and 1 foot long. This spreads the flow. A layer of gravel at this place would also help prevent gouging. If the flow is too great to filter away readily, the float will rise and the knob on the wire will engage with the spout, which will be tilted until the flow will suddenly start into the other barrel. If the delivery pipe to the cistern be large enough there should be no danger of either barrel overflowing. When the sand becomes dirty a few minutes will serve to remove it and put in fresh. This will insure clean water in the cistern, and greatly reduce the number of times the disagreeable job of cleaning out the cistern must be done.

A Handy Water Filter

Nearly every farm can boast of good water, but no water, either from well, spring or stream, is pure, as it all contains more or less animal or vegetable matter. The only way to make it pure is to filter it, just as is done in city supply reservoirs, or private filtering tanks.

A simple water filter is very easily made that answers all purposes for domestic use. The plan of its operations is identical with that employed in large reservoirs where water is filtered on a large scale for general distribution. This filter consists, primarily, of two flower pots, set one above the other. In the bottom of the upper pot is stuffed a large sponge. A sponge is also stuffed in the bottom of the lower pot, but it is more adequately supplied with filtering material by placing above the sponge a layer of smooth pebbles, then a layer of coarse sand, and still above this a layer of pounded charcoal 3 or 4 inches in depth. It is also best to place another layer of smooth pebbles above the charcoal, to prevent it from being stirred up during the circulation of the water.

The upper pot should be the largest, and if the lower one is strong, the upper one may stand in it, or two strips of wood will serve as a base support. The two pots thus arranged are placed on a three-legged stool with a hole in it, through which the water drips through the bottom of the lower pot into the mouth of a jug set underneath. The upper pot serves as a reservoir, and its sponge stops the coarser impurities, and thus the filtering layers of the lower one may be used for a year without being renewed, though it is necessary frequently to clean the sponge of the upper pot.

The layers of sand and charcoal of the lower pot are positively effective in stopping all animal and vegetable matter, as well as many smaller impurities in the water. The only trouble one may experience with it is in neglecting the upper sponge for too long a time, or in stuffing it in too loosely, thus allowing the water to pass from the upper pot faster than it can filter through the lower one. Only a little attention, once or twice a month, is sufficient to keep this simple filter in perfect running order.

Delivering Mail by Trolley

Where the house stands some distance back from the highway a trolley can be rigged up to save steps in getting the mail. The box is hung on two pulley door hangers, as shown in cut. A strong post, with a bent arm, is set next the highway, a, suspended between it and the house, on which the box runs. A pulley is fastened in or to, the post, and over it runs a cord, b, c, to pull the box back and forth between the house and the road. The box is sent down to meet the carrier, who places the mail in it, and then it is quickly pulled back to the house.

Beauty in a Barrel

A very nice ornamentation for the lawn is shown in the picture. It is made by sawing an oil barrel in two as shown, and mounting it on legs. Paint it and set one-half of the barrel on each side of the walk and use them for growing flowers in during the summer. Care should be taken to have the hoops thoroughly nailed to the staves and to have the heads solid. Dark green or dark red are good colors for the painting. If preferred, the barrel may rest upon the ground, but should be securely braced or blocked to prevent rolling.

Storage Bin for Vegetables

Instead of keeping the vegetables in barrels or boxes scattered all over the cellar, have a set of storage bins. Take six drygoods boxes and bolt them together as shown in the drawing. Put legs on them to hold them off the floor and a cover on the top. Then paint on the boxes the names of the vegetables. It is most convenient to have the vegetables most frequently used in the upper boxes, which would not be true of the bin shown in the picture. If the upper row of boxes is attached to each other, but not to the lower ones, the top section can easily be moved enough to make filling the lower boxes a simple matter. Otherwise, the vegetables would have to be put in through the openings at the top of each box a few at a time by hand, instead of pouring them in.

Many people would not care to keep their potatoes in such a sectional bin, preferring a large separate bin. It certainly is all right for other root vegetables, and many other products of the farm that are stored might well be kept handy for use in such a labeled sectional bin.

An Inexpensive Cellar

A temporary cellar is sometimes necessary in cold countries where that under the house is not sufficient for storing vegetables. A very effective and useful temporary cellar may be constructed after the following method, as shown by the drawings: Dig a pit 15 feet long, 10 feet wide, 4 feet deep in a solid, dry place where the drainage is good. Put a gable roof of 1-inch board over the hole, supported by 2 x 4-inch strips at the eaves, gable and half-way up the sides. Strengthen by crossbeams and a central support if the lumber is not first class. Over this place 8 to 10 inches of dry straw well packed and over the entire structure, excepting one end, pack earth 12 to 14 inches deep. The surface should be smooth to shed water. It is better if plastered with mud covered with sods.

The door end must be double-walled and the space filled with straw. The door must also be double and its margin packed with cloth strips, so as to be practically airtight. If possible, the pit should be drained by a tile, the end of which is covered with a piece of wire netting to prevent the entrance of rodents. Such a cellar will prevent freezing during usual winter weather. The door should be opened on mild days and the interior aired thoroughly. The size and depth of the pit may be varied according to needs.

Clothesline Up and Down

Heavy posts should be set for the ends, 3 feet in and 3 feet out of the ground. It is not necessary for the center post to be as heavy as the end ones. Have the posts clean and smooth, so they will not soil the clothes when blown against them. Take a piece of 2 x 4-inch hard wood 5 feet long for the lever. Fasten to the post near the top with a 3/4-inch bolt, 2 feet next to the line and 3 feet for the lever. A block holds the lever in position while the clothes are being put on. A button holds the lever upright when the line is hoisted.

A Clothes Horse

There is no little thing that will save the household so much as a revolving clothes horse, so near the back stoop that the clothes may be hung on it without stepping out in the snow. A solid post should have a hole bored in the top and the arms may be beveled and spiked to a piece of plank through which a bolt passes into the post, or each arm may be bored to let the bolt pass through it. Three, four or five arms may be used as desired, and of any length, provided all are of one length. No skill is required in making it, as the rope holds the arms up simply by being tight enough. It is well to set the post before measuring for the arms, so that they may be sure to reach the veranda. Some laths may be nailed together at first to make a model, if you are not sure of your ability as a carpenter.

A Toilet Closet

A small closet in a home, for keeping medicines and toilet articles, is a great convenience. One consists of 1/2-inch pine, 4 inches wide, planed and put together so as to be 2 x 3 feet. It has four shelves. The door is of thin pine, free from knots, planed, hinged and with a back catch. The outside of frame and door is varnished. Being in the toilet room, it is indeed a very useful as well as ornamental piece of furniture. It has no back casing or boards; simply rests against the wall. It is held in place by four short pieces of band iron, one end of each band being fastened to back of frame, the other end fastened to the wall by a screw. All kinds of medicines, shaving materials, soaps, wash rags, can there be kept. If there is no other looking-glass in the room, one may be fastened on the outside of door.

Revolving Cellar Shelf

A handy cellar shelf that will save the housekeeper many steps may be arranged at the side of the cellar stairs, within easy reach upon descending a few steps. The shelf is contrived from an old axle and wheel. The axle is fastened to hang from the nearest beam to the stairway. The wheel is covered with thin, smoothly planed boards and the axle is kept well oiled, so the wheel will revolve readily, bringing all parts of the shelf within reach at need.

Water Supply for Farmhouse

Farmers can have running water, hot or cold, in their dwelling houses at a cost of fifty dollars and up, depending upon the size of the house and the kind of equipment needed. This makes possible the bath and toilet room, protection from fire, the easy washing of windows and walks, the sprinkling of lawns, the irrigating of gardens, and all the other conveniences which a few years ago were thought possible only in cities, where big water systems were available. This is one of the things that makes farm life attractive. It lessens the work in the house, insures a fine lawn and garden, reduces danger from fire, adds greatly to comfort and convenience in every direction.

The way to secure this is to install a water supply system, with a pressure tank in the basement.

This pressure tank is so arranged that by pumping it full under strong air pressure the water is forced all over the house, and is available for the bathroom, toilet room and the garden or fire hose. The water is distributed about the house exactly as it is in city homes, by means of galvanized iron pipes. Where a small building is to be supplied and the amount of water to be used is not large, the system can be installed for $50. For the average house $90 is a better figure. Where the house is large, and where considerable amounts of water are needed for the lawn and garden, and possibly also for washing carriages, automobiles and horses, a larger system should be installed, costing up to $150.

Installation and Operation

Its installation is easy, and its operation is exceedingly simple. Any pipe fitter or plumber can put in the plant so that it will work perfectly. All that is needed for operating is to keep the tank pressure up to the desired point. This may be 20, 40, 60 or 100 pounds. A few strokes of the pump, if the work is done by hand, is sufficient. If a lot of water is used, of course the amount of pumping will increase. By being economical in the use of water, that is to say, wasting none, this matter of pumping is not at all a serious problem.

The most satisfactory method of pumping, however, is to use a windmill, or what is much better, a gasoline engine. Every up-to-date farm ought to have a small gasoline engine, which can be utilized not only for operating this water supply system, but for churning, sawing wood, cutting feed and doing a dozen and one other jobs about the farm. It would take only a few minutes of pumping to raise the pressure in the tank the desired height. With the engine it will not be necessary to be economical in using water, provided the well is a good one, and the supply of water large.

Experience with Water Supply System

C. A. Shamel of Illinois, editor of the Orange Judd Farmer, has a system of this kind in his country home. It cost $75. He put in a bathroom, a toilet, has a hot water tank in connection with the kitchen range, and no money ever expended on that farm has given anything like the amount of satisfaction and comfort as that paid for this water supply system. Arrangement is made to take care of the waste water and sewage by running a large tile from the bathroom, one-quarter of a mile distant, to a large cistern, located in the center of a big field. This is disinfected about twice a year, and is easily handled. There is never any trouble with the water pipes, even during the coldest weather. Neither has there been any difficulty with the waste system. In fact, the water supply is practically perfect, and the people on that farm don’t see how any farmer who can get together $75 or $100 can afford to be without it.

Up to date all the pumping has been done by hand. With the pump in perfect condition, this is not a laborious problem. On two occasions the pump valve became slightly defective through wear, and it was not convenient to fix it for a few weeks, being somewhat distant from the factory. With this condition it required a great deal more labor to do the pumping, but even with this disadvantage, it was not a serious proposition.

The illustration indicates the arrangement of a water supply system, and, as can be readily seen, it is very simple. Notice the hand force pump tank in the basement to hold the water under pressure, and the arrangement of lavatories, bath and kitchen hot water service. The system can also be used for supplying water to stock tanks, and these may be located anywhere on the farm. The pressure developed in the tank is sufficient to force the water anywhere wanted. This use will, of course, depend entirely upon the wishes of the owner and is simply a matter of cost of pipes. It can very readily be used for delivering water to dairy or other stock barns, where it can be run into water troughs in the stalls, or elsewhere, as desired.

Warning Against Fire

A handy device that will give an alarm in case the roof catches fire close to the chimney is shown. Drive a nail in two rafters on a line with the face of the chimney, to which stretch a cord close to the chimney, so that, in case of fire, the cord will burn off and release the weight hanging to it, which in turn will drop on an electric button and ring a bell. A dry battery will cost 20 cents and a bell 50 cents. Place these on a shelf above the fireplace. Place a piece of heavy wire, b, 10 inches long, as shown, and fasten to the wall or chimney for the weight, a, to slide on. The weight need be suspended only an inch or two above the bell.

Where to Hang a Fire Ladder

A necessity on all farms and near all farm buildings are ladders and other means of getting on the roofs, and in and out of upper story windows in time of emergency. A scuttle should be left or made in the highest part of the house roof and a ladder should be at hand that will reach the eaves of the highest roof. A good place to store a ladder of this kind is under the eaves of the L or along the rear wall of the house. Have two hooks to hang it on. Make a good ladder and keep it painted.
__________

If your cellar is dark, there is danger of accidents when going down the stairs. Have the last step whitened so that you may easily know when you are at the bottom. You can see this step plainly even in a dim light.

1. Workshop and Tools
2. The Steel Square
3. In and Around the House
3. In and Around the House Part II
4. Barns and Stock
5. Poultry and Bees
6. Garden and Orchard
7. Field and Wood
8. Gates and Doors
9. When We Build
9. When We Build Part II
10. Worth Knowing
10. Worth Knowing Part II

Next: 4. Barns and Stock

Back to theTable of Contents

Back to the Small Farms Library Index

More Americans Stashing Cash in Home Safes

You have to be creative when hiding money at home.  Don’t keep it in the freezer, that’s the first place they will look.  Don’t keep it under your mattress, that’s the 2nd place they will look.  If you use a safe make sure it’s bolted to the floor and the wall.  Don’t keep it all in one place, if the burglar finds some money hidden he will think that’s all there is and won’t look for the rest. It wouldn’t hurt to have a dummy safe in semi plain view.  – Phoebe

Have Americans lost trust in banks? More folks are keeping valuables at home, whether in room-size vaults or under-bed safes.

• SMARTMONEY MAGAZINE  MAY 3, 2012

When Carlos Felipe decided to shop for the ultimate night’s sleep, he headed to the New Jersey showroom of Hollandia, an Israeli manufacturer that creates custom beds running as much as $35,000. And sure enough, Felipe, a sales representative, found plenty of appealing features and options, from the adjustable bed frame powered by German-made motors to the hypoallergenic, antimicrobial latex mattress (the cover is “treated with aloe vera for a soft feel,” Hollandia boasts). But the accessory that most caught Felipe’s eye was designed to help him rest easy in a different way. It was a small safe, good for holding a few valuables or gold coins, ingeniously built into the base of a bed — a modern-day answer to the idea of stashing your savings under a mattress. A duly impressed Felipe plans on using it to store his wife’s jewelry and some extra cash: After all, he asks, what thief would look for such valuables in the frame of the bed itself?

In an era marked by financial turbulence, it’s probably not surprising that safes have become a popular commodity, with some manufacturers, retailers and installers reporting sales increases of as much as 40 percent from a few years ago. But the bigger eyebrow-raiser is what has happened to those iconic gray-steel boxes of yore: They’ve undergone an extreme makeover — or several of them. Taking the place of those old square combination jobs are a range of custom safes, from boutique showpieces to decoy models for the family den — not to mention the truly offbeat (a hideaway lockbox resembling, ahem, a pair of men’s underwear) and the seriously safe (an in-home vault with a price tag of more than $100,000). And that’s not even getting into the ever-broadening array of color choices (champagne marble, anyone?) “None of our safes should be hidden in a closet,” says Markus Dottling, principal at Dottling, a German specialty-safe manufacturer whose museum-worthy designs can cost more than the average American house.

One thing that isn’t driving the safe boom, apparently, is crime. Indeed, U.S. burglary rates have been plunging for years. Still, experts say that many savers and investors feel a lingering sense of insecurity in their finances — a hard-to-shake fear borne out of the jolting recession and, at times, wobbly recovery — which is helping to spur the new safeguarding mentality. Tyler D. Nunnally, founder and CEO of Upside Risk, an Atlanta firm that researches investor psychology, says sticking tangible assets in a safe can be a natural reaction to volatility in the markets. “People dislike loss twice as much as they like gains,” he says. “They want to protect what they have.” Growing numbers of these fearful types simply don’t trust their banks to protect them: In a Gallup poll last year, a record-high 36 percent of Americans said they had “very little” or “no” confidence in U.S. banks. (In 2008 and 2009, when the financial crisis was peaking, that figure stood at 22 and 29 percent, respectively.) And growing concern about identity theft has made some people more eager to keep their assets in a form they can see and count, says R. Brent Lang, an investment manager in Surrey, British Columbia: “By acquiring one password, someone can wipe out all your digital wealth,” he says.

Still, it says something about the resilience of the American consumer’s mentality that even when purchasing an item associated with all sorts of negatives (theft, fire, global economic collapse), more buyers are demanding products with a little flair. “When somebody is building a $100,000 custom closet, they don’t want a safe that looks like it belongs in the back of a delicatessen,” says Robert Tompkin, president of Prestige Safe, a high-end New York manufacturer. That sentiment has fed the growth of an incongruous industry, where financial paranoia meets a willingness to pursue a little luxury. When firearms collector Gary Hansen looked for a safe to store his $100,000 trove of rifles and pistols, he found out he could customize the interior so that his wife could also use it to store her jewelry — in velour-covered drawers, no less. The cost? Around $7,500, but Hansen says the his-and-hers combo saved him from a lot of squabbling. “I knew it couldn’t just be a safe for ‘Gary’s guns,’” he says.

continue reading  http://www.smartmoney.com/plan/banking/more-americans-keeping-valuables-in-safes-at-home-1334333683624/