Month: August 2006

Note from JWR:

We are pleased to welcome our latest advertiser, PrepareNow.com. They sell long term storage food. Their specialty is the excellent Gourmet Reserves brand. Because they have established distributor level high volume status with the canner, they offer the best pricing in the country on this brand. Be sure to visit their web site and check out their products. BTW, if you mention SurvivalBlog when you contact them, they have promised to provide their very best discounted price as well as a special deal on shipping.


Two Letters Re: Canned Coffee Beans

Jim: [Regarding A.P.’s letter posted on August 26th] I’m one of those guys who drinks coffee from dawn to dusk, so I was most interested in the thread on coffee storage. I keep 36 large cans of Maxwell House in my cool-storage pantry (60 degrees in the summer, 40 degrees in the winter). I cycle through the supply on a regular basis, taking about a year to go thru entire stock. In a worst-case scenario, I’d cut back to a can a month and would thus have a 3-year stash. Yeah, I know… the Starbucks sippers turn their nose up …


Letter Re: Jericho TV Series

Jim: I don’t know if you watch much TV, but this new show Jericho is going to spur survivalism interest, I can see right now. I just watched the pilot (downloaded off the Internet – it won’t be airing for a few more weeks, and will be on CBS) but it was really well done. Small town deals with the aftermath of a multiple nuclear strike on the US. It covers radios and TV being down (a hammer is mentioned briefly as the only one able to get out for info), gas runs, panic at grocery stores, and prisoners being …


Letter Re: Pat Buchanan’s Book State of Emergency

Jim, I am about halfway thru the new book by Pat Buchanan –‘State of Emergency’– and its scaring the hell out of me. I’ve followed the Illegal Alien story for yrs, ever since I landed back in California in 1989 after my hitch in the U.S. Air Force and I thought I had a handle on it. The statistics and figures that Pat puts forth are daunting–and quite depressing. This nation is facing the largest problem in its history with this invasion–I’m not downplaying any of the threats we face with the radical Islamists–that is yet one more frightening scenario–but …


Letter Re: SurvivalBlog RSS Feed

Hello James, Last week you mentioned publishing content in the MobiReader format so that it is accessible to readers using PDAs or cellular phones with text windows. I have not used that software specifically, but would like to bring pRSS Reader to your attention. pRSS Reader is a free RSS reader that runs on Windows Mobile devices, and is the software I use to read SurvivalBlog daily. You may want to suggest this option to your readers who prefer to read the blog on a mobile device. The software will automatically check for updates to the blog at a configurable …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I heard that James at Gun Parts Guy (one of our advertisers) is running a big Labor Day sale on FAL and L1A1 parts and manuals. There are some great items such as complete metric replacement spring sets, bolts and bolt carriers, scope mounts, and stock furniture. The sale ends on September 6th. If you own a FAL or L1A1, or clones thereof, then stock up! OBTW, for owners of other .308 Winchester / 7.62mm NATO rifles: one of the items that James has on sale is .308 ruptured case extractors. You should have one of these for each rifle …



Note from JWR:

If the collective knowledge/wit/wisdom you encounter reading SurvivalBlog is worth ten cents a day or more to you, then please consider becoming a Ten Cent Challenge subscriber. Subscriptions are entirely voluntary, and gratefully accepted.


Letter Re: Source for Low Cost First Aid/Medical Supplies?

Sir: I was wondering if you had any direction to a source for “bulk” medical supplies. Thinking about tape, gauze, non-stick pads, burn dressings, etc – all the items that if you are faced with “any” type of serious wound you will go thru in large quantities For example 4″x4″ gauze pads – buying those from your local pharmacy in the 10 to box quantities would bankrupt you – they are available in 100 count sleeves for almost the same cost as a single box of 10. Thanks – MSJ JWR Replies: Wound dressing items that have essentially unlimited shelf …


Letter Re: Long Slide Glocks, and Pistol Caliber Selection

Dear Jim: I am thinking of getting two Glock 17Ls. One for me and one for the wife. I like my G19 but want the longer barrel. My gunsmith suggests a Springfield M1911 with a long barrel. I don’t mind paying more for it and like the idea of faster follow up shots. Your thoughts on reliability versus firing speed? – S.F. in Hawaii JWR Replies: Since you already have training time and muscle memory invested in Glocks, you probably shouldn’t switch to 1911s now. (And this comes from a dyed-in-the-wool 1911 fan.) The 17L and the Glock 24 (the …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Richard from KT Ordnance pointed us to this WorldNetDaily article: America’s Infrastructure Fire Sale.    o o o And reader Ben L. mentioned this one from CNN.com: Getting Real About Real Estate. All that I can say is “I told you so.”    o o o Frequent SurvivalBlog content contributor Jim K. told us about a belt drive bicycle motor that uses regular gas and gets 225 m.p.g “Not a bad idea for long bicycle commutes in a Peak Oil scenario.”


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow… For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding." – Jeff Snyder


Letter Re: Do It Yourself Meat Preservation Methods

Jim: For years, "Abigail" and I have been canning vegetables from the garden along with beef, fish, venison and bear. Friends or ours were wanting to learn how to can themselves. Last week Kathy and Jeff came over and we processed a bushel of Roma tomatoes into spaghetti sauce. The next evening we canned up the sauce. Since then Kathy on her own has canned up 10 lbs (dry weight) of navy beans and is getting ready to do some hamburger noodle soup. She told me that she had no idea how easy it is to use a pressure cooker …


Letter Re: The Economic/Infrastructure Damage of Just One Nuke

Hi Jim, I don’t know if you have seen this or not, but the Rand Corporation has done a study of a hypothetical nuclear attack on the port of Long Beach, California through which about 30% of US shipping passes. The report shows how devastating this would be to the US and the world economy with damage to the shipping infrastructure, refineries, insurance industry, etc. not to mention the human cost, of course. The outcome of such an attack could very easily be a world wide depression as port activity would come to a halt to prevent any further such …


Two Letters Re: The Coming Energy Crisis: Hubbert’s Peak Or Not–Be Prepared!

Dear Jim: Let’s face it, most of our energy shortfalls are completely self-imposed. Gone are the days of the 1950s when generations looked to and planned for the future, built infrastructure and power plants for the grand cities that would one day be. Now we in the US haven’t built a new nuclear power plant since the Three Mile Island incident. We’ve turned against coal even though we have hundreds and hundreds of years worth of the stuff or more. Ted Kennedy won’t let windmills go up any more since they wouldn’t look nice to Ocean front property owners in …