Month: May 2006

Odds ‘n Sods:

I recently added a few DVDs and another 19 U.S. Army and USMC manuals from my personal collection to my Mail Order Catalog. Some of the manuals were “restricted distribution” titles and hence quite scarce!    o o o There is now talk of another increase in the U.S. federal government debt ceiling. My precocious #3 Son asked: “Daddy, why do they call it a ceiling if they can keep raising it?” Hmmm…Why, indeed?    o o o The recent Robert Kiyosaki article is evidence that silver gaining popularity with mainstream investors. The first silver exchange-traded fund went live in …



Note from JWR:

Our apologies about the page display problem that we experienced from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon. During this time, the blog page displayed fine with Firefox, Safari, and Netscape browsers, but it had problems with some versions of the Internet Explorer browsers. If you still see any problems, please hit your browser’s “reload” button. Our profuse apologies!


The American Indian Way of Reading Deer Tracks, by "C++

My secret for hunting deer is to hunt them based on trails and tracks. Learn what a buck track looks like. Get yourself a pick and a shovel. Soften every trail, so that you can really read the tracks. These soft-areas need to be about three feet long by one foot wide. You need about a half of inch of soft dirt. read the tracks, after studying the tracks and movement (direction) you’ll begin to see a pattern. Use a broom to wipe out the tracks so that you can see the next set of fresh tracks a day later… …




Note from JWR:

Yowza! We just surpassed the 400,000 unique visits mark. That is a fantastic number. I had only expected 100,000 unique in the first year, and now we’ve logged four times that in just the first 10 months! Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a rapid success. Please keep spreading the word. A brief e-mail to your friends, and/or adding a linked SurvivalBlog banner on your website would be greatly appreciated!


Letter Re: Survivalist Matchmaking?

JR: Can you recommend a place, business, web site, that offers the equivalent of Match.com, eHarmony.com, etc for preparedness minded folks? There used to be a place called patriotmatchmaker, but no more. Any suggestions? If you cannot find such a place, you might want to consider starting one as a income producing web site. Why not? You have the perfect target audience to do so. Thanks, – Boosters JWR Replies: Because our society is so litigious, I’m not inclined toward setting up such as service. I formerly directed folks to the Survivalist Contacts page at www.SurvivalistBooks.com, but that page doesn’t …


Letter Re: Potential Peak for Gold?

Mr. Rawles: The other day you mentioned some pretty outlandish predictions for gold and silver from the “gold bugs.” Just what are they saying, and how credible are their claims? I’d also like to hear your own estimation of gold’s potential. Thank You, – Mrs. F. JWR Replies: Some of the claims are indeed outlandish — like Roland Watson, who predicted $10,000 per ounce gold. (See below.) But it isn’t just die-hard gold bugs that are predicting significantly higher precious metals prices by the end of this decade. There are quite a few Wall Street wonks that are talking about …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I just noticed that Gun Parts Guy is advertising a new batch of U.S.-made metric FAL barrel assemblies. With the BATFE‘s recent suspension on the importation of complete semi-auto rifle parts kits with (barrels being the parts that they want stopped), this could be a genuine “don’t miss” opportunity. If you own a FAL (or clone thereof), buy a spare, and perhaps even a “spare spare.”    o o o The Titan Missile base in eastern Washington that I mentioned a few weeks back has been re-listed on eBay. This time the starting bid is $750,000! Too bad that eBay …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Long term prices of houses simply cannot rise above people’s means to pay for them. That is a simple economic fact. Here is another simple economic fact: Family incomes are falling. The negative savings rate and rising foreclosures are more proof of stress in the system.” – Mike “Mish” Shedlock, Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis, April 2006, as quoted at SafeHaven.com


Letter Re: Of Computers, Generators, Power Anomalies and Lightning

Greetings Jim, I read Redclay’s letter on his questioning using electronics with generators. Ham (Amateur Radio) operators have been using various electronic devices for years powered by generators. The use of power sensitive devices such as a computer on a generator is fine if you take some precautions. First off the generator is what I called a “spiky” power source. So to smooth out the power supplied to the electronics one wants to use a good spike/surge protector between the generator and electronic devices. Do not skimp on cost and quality here. In my opinion it is preferable to use …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Daily Reckoning’s Justice Litle comments on the world after the dollar collapses    o o o It just occurred to me that the recent jump in fuel prices will hurt the mining sector, cutting into their profitability. Just as gold and silver are going into a bull cycle, the cost of production for the miners is going up. Thus, gold and and silver mining stocks will not show quite the magnitude of gains that they otherwise would have. This is just another reason to invest in physical metals rather than in precious metals stocks or mutual funds.    o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“So, we can say that, yes, the Dow has been in a bull market since October 2002 in dollar terms, but it has been in a bear market in gold terms. This is an important point to understand. In case we should experience continuous monetary inflation, which could lift, over time, all asset prices such as stocks, real estate, and commodities, some asset classes will increase more in value than others. This means that some asset classes while rising in value could deflate against other asset classes, such as happened with the Dow against gold since year 2000. – Marc …


Letter Re: Backup Generators, Well Pump Power, Cisterns and Sandpoint Wells

Hi James, In reviewing the post by “Redclay” I think he brings a point that many people struggle with. Especially those of us who are just starting to prepare, but can easily get overwhelmed financially and mentally with all there is to do to be prepared. I have read SurvivalBlog since the beginning and don’t recall any truly affordable options for powering a 220 volt AC well pump. Below are some ideas that I have. See what you think. A brief journey back through time would shed some valuable lessons for all of us. The western settlers on up through …