Preparedness Notes for Friday — April 10, 2026

On April 10, 1633, the first imported bananas went on sale in London in the shop window of Thomas Johnson’s apothecary.  Pictured are some banana vendors and their wares in Chennai, India.

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And April 10, 1827 was the birthday of General Lew Wallace. He wrote books (author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ), sculpted, practiced law, painted, played the violin and made them as well.  He was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. And he served as the Territorial Governor of New Mexico.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value).
  2. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Heaven’s Harvest is providing one of their Original Heirloom Seed Kits (a $139 value.)
  5. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

 

 

Livestock or “Deadstock”?, by SaraSue

I’m still reeling over what happened on the recent Easter Sunday.  It was early in the day when I trekked down to the barn to check on one of my heifers that was due to calve.  I had been watching her carefully as we got closer to her due date.  She wasn’t over-due.  In fact, she was right on time.  I had purposefully not made any Easter plans so I could be home if there was trouble.  And indeed, there was trouble.

Her water broke at about 7:30 a.m. and I waited and waited for those two little hooves to start protruding, followed by a nose.  She was very restless and kept walking around the farm.  On and off, I followed her, not wanting to disturb her progress, but also to keep an eye on her.  After an hour or two, no hooves and I started getting worried.  She was a beautiful, healthy, heifer, not overweight, no health problems, and I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that nothing was normal about her inability to progress.  I kept telling myself, “give her time, leave her alone, heifers can be slow to calve”.   I had taken a picture of the contents of her water breaking, and sure enough it was what I thought it was.Continue reading“Livestock or “Deadstock”?, by SaraSue”

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.

The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

Austrian Philharmonic Gold Coins

 

 

 

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 9, 2026

On April 9, 1388, the Battle of Näfels was a major victory for the Swiss Confederation in the first century of its struggle for self-determination against the Habsburg overlordship of the Duchy of Austria. (The public domain photo of Näfels, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, was taken by Marco Zanoli.) Note that in January 2011, Näfels became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord.

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April 9, 1869: Hudson’s Bay Company ceded its territory to Canada.

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And on April 9, 1959 NASA named the first seven astronauts for Project Mercury.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value).
  2. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Heaven’s Harvest is providing one of their Original Heirloom Seed Kits (a $139 value.)
  5. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Subterfuge: Why I Smile When I’m Told Some Lies, by R.E.D.

In this article, I’ll explain why some subterfuge can be a good thing and some implications for present-day news reporting.

Many of my friends and acquaintances are terrible liars. I don’t mean to imply that my friends tell a lot of lies. However, they often tell the same lie consistently, and quite frankly it is not a very good lie. So, they are just not very good at telling that one lie.

A couple of reasons why I am lied to so often is because I live in a community with many military retirees and I worked for nearly 30 years in the defense industry. Many of the employees in the defense industry came out of the military – and they often told lies as well.Continue reading“Subterfuge: Why I Smile When I’m Told Some Lies, by R.E.D.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, another new AI threat.

The Escape of Claude Mythos Hacking Tool

I found this linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Do you understand what Anthropic just admitted?  Claude Mythos, the AI they built to hack every operating system on earth, escaped its own secure testing environment and then went online and bragged about it.

Some more details can be found here: Everything You Need to Know About Claude Mythos.

The FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center

Exclusive: FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center.  JWR’s Comments:  Beware that with a change in administrations, this new government apparatus could be quickly shifted to targeting conservatives. (For some larger context, see my recent essay on the political pendulum.)

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“The prosperity of a country depends, not on the abundance of its revenues, nor on the strength of its fortifications, nor on the beauty of its public buildings; but it consists in the number of its cultivated citizens, in its men of education, enlightenment and character.” – Martin Luther

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 8, 2026

On April 8, 1796, the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss proved the quadratic reciprocity law (the ability to determine the solvability of any quadratic equation in modular arithmetic.)

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Today’s feature piece is a guest post that was too short to qualify as an entry for the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running the contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

The First Nine Survival Items You Should Buy, by Big John

I’ll make my list of the first nine survival items that you should buy really simple for you.

The first two big-dollar items that you should buy are the Self Reliance Outfitters Canteen set and heavy duty space blanker/tarp. These two items are really must-have items. Dave Canterbury of Self Reliance Outfitters had these items custom-made. They are industrial strength and designed just like I would have done so myself.

The canteen. It is similar to the old metal army canteen setup. But it is bigger and has a bigger mouth. It is nested in a canteen cup with a handle for drinking from and to use for cooking food and boiling water. You get a cooking cover too, to go over the canteen cup. Then you get another stacking cup with holes in it that serves as your cooking stove. So you can cook with twigs. The idea is that the canteen cup sits on top of the Stove. A ferro rod is included with the canteen along with some sort of cordage.

The canvas canteen cover has a pocket so that you can put in a little bottle of water purification pills and some lifeboat matches and packets of tea or coffee. All things considered, this is a lot of problem solving for the buck, $89.99. There is a dumbed-down version but you want the fully stocked one. But you gotta make sure that you add a sealed plastic bag of some dryer lint, fire-starting pellets or fire-starting pads for use in the rain.Continue reading“The First Nine Survival Items You Should Buy, by Big John”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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Some wisdom from Temple Grandin: Recommended Basic Livestock Handling.

o  o  o

A video from SecDef Pete Hegseth: Our Military bases became gun-free zones—leaving troops EXPOSED. That ends today.

o  o  o

GOP Senator Opposes More Than 60 Days Of War On Iran Without War Declaration. An excerpt:

“Curtis didn’t say whether he would vote to declare war on Iran, focusing instead on his opposition to “funding for continued military operations without Congress having the opportunity to weigh in.” There have already been several attempts to block further military action without congressional approval — all of them have been thwarted. To this point, only a few Republicans have backed these war-power resolutions: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul joined Democrats in supporting a Senate measure, while Kentucky Rep Thomas Massie introduced one in the House, and was joined by Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson, who is a former Army Ranger. “

o  o  o

Reader Tim J. suggested this Brushbeater video: Best New Guerrilla Radio? Baofeng AR-152 PRO.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — April 7, 2026

On April 7, 1902 the Texas Oil Company (Texaco) was formed.

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On April 7, 1994, Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a moderate Hutu, was assassinated by Hutu soldiers—a day after the deaths of Juvénal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of Burundi—as Rwanda entered a period of anarchy and genocidal killings.

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April 7th is the birthday of Colonel Bob Denard (born 1929, died October 13, 2007). He had an amazing life as a mercenary, including four attempted coups in the Comoros.  The 2011 film Mister Bob is a slightly fictionalized account of his earliest mercenary adventures in the Congo.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value).
  2. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Heaven’s Harvest is providing one of their Original Heirloom Seed Kits (a $139 value.)
  5. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Making Repairs, by Big John

So you are living in a societal collapse and something breaks. Let’s say that your generator dies. You’ve gotta fix it. The following describes what have I learned about fixing things:

I used to go through the repair process in my mind a few hundred times. I would pull the cover by loosening two screws, then unbolt the coil with a socket wrench. Then pull the coil and inspect for a broken winding. But first of all, I must borrow my friend’s socket set.

I have learned over the years that the most efficient route is often to just tear into the project cold. So I don’t have the sockets, I just start the project. So I get the cover off and guess what, it is not bolted, it is attached with big screws requiring a big Phillips screwdriver. I just saved a trip to my friend’s house, to find him not home and a second trip to borrow the sockets which were never needed.

Often, tearing into the project gives the most bang for the buck. It is like an army patrol going out and getting intelligence. It is very easy to go on a wild goose chase in your mind of how the job will go. It can be the paralysis of analysis.Continue reading“Making Repairs, by Big John”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. The public domain photo above was taken Bonnie Moreland, in Eastern Oregon.

Send Your Media Links

Please send your links to media from the American Redoubt region to JWR. Any photos that are posted or re-posted must be uncopyrighted. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.