Month: November 2006

Two Letters Re: Another Perspective on Selecting Barter Goods, by OSOM

JWR, As for the persistent stream of articles related to barter goods: After reading the various articles on barter goods, I am still confused as to why one would keep goods for barter. Supposedly you are at a rural retreat, stocked with everything you could need during your lifetime (guns, ammo, band aids, reading material, and toilet paper) and are surrounded by a horde of people who are ill-equipped to cope. But now we have interjected the need to trade, and buy things, I suppose it would be great to have a store in this situation, but what’s the point …


Letter Re: Enlightened Survivalism Article in The Energy Bulletin

Jim, The comments in today’s SurvivalBlog concerning my ‘Enlightened Survivalism’ article that was posted on the Energy Bulletin that ‘this more likely qualifies as preaching to the choir’ is exactly why the article was not sent to yourself for posting on SurvivalBlog. I tried ‘preaching to the choir’ as you put it with my post to you ‘Considerations for Longer Term Survival’ that you posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2005. It would seem that many have still not really got to grips with its contents particularly: ‘What about food when the “Year’s Food Supply” is gone? What about your water …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Tom at www.CometGold.com mentioned that www.birdflubook.com has the entire text of the book on H5N1 by Dr. Greger, available for free download.    o o o White House Statement: Iran, Hezbollah Form ‘Terror Nexus’    o o o Jason in North Idaho sent us this link: An M1A rifle goes ka-boom! Jason notes: “Since many of us shoot .308, I thought I’d forward this interesting story. Quite alarming!–the follow up analysis is very informative as well. A lesson to us all to maintain our weapons.” JWR Adds: From the photos, it looks more like an obstructed bore to me. Perhaps …



Note from JWR:

When you write your obligatory Christmas card insert “brag letter” this year, please mention that you’ve been reading SurvivalBlog. And if you send an electronic version, it would be greatly appreciated if you’d include a SurvivalBlog link logo or link text. Every bit of publicity helps. (Our goal is to double the SurvivalBlog readership in the coming year.) Thanks!


Product Review of the MURS Alert Motion Detector/Alarm from Dakota Alert

Mr. Rawles, I saw a mention on your site of the Dakota Alert system, and since I’ve been using one for about a year, I thought I’d sent you a few comments. First, I had tried a previous Dakota Alert system, several years ago, and found it unreliable, then tried several others and also found them either too short ranged or unreliable. I have a 1500′ driveway, about one half of which is blocked by a hill and trees. I ran across the MURS system sold by a company in Canada, and didn’t even know until I got it that …


Letter Re: Tire Spikes for Home Retreat Defense

James: Yesterday my wife went over to our new house that we’re moving into. It has a gate and about 100 yards of driveway. She told me that while she was there a van full of strangers drove up through the gate and right up to the house. Several people then came out uninvited. It turns out that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now, I’ve got nothing against them but you don’t drive up into another persons property unannounced, especially in numbers. I thought, if they we Mutant Zombie Bikers that’s not a lot of time to get inside. I looked …


Odds ‘n Sods:

As noted in the Gulching/Self-Sufficiency Forum at The Claire Files: All 180 VITA publications available free download! Be sure to bookmark this one!   o o o The final RWVA shoot scheduled for 2006 will be held in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, on Dec. 9-10.    o o o Doug S. mentioned this article on Asian Avian Flu: Federal workers abroad urged to store 12 weeks of food and water  



Notes From JWR:

Today (11/11) America remembers our veterans. Wow! Our unique visits counter is about to surpass the 800,000 mark. (And a whopping 38.3 million page hits, but that is a far less important statistic.) Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a great success! Please keep spreading the word. We recently changed ISPs, so we will no longer be checking our old Earthlink.net e-mail. But our more recently (and commonly) used “rawles@usa.net” e-mail address will still be checked at least twice a day. Please update your e-mail address book, accordingly. Thanks! Speaking of communications, we just switched to Vonage.com “voice over IP” long …


Another Perspective on Selecting Barter Goods, by OSOM

Dear Jim: The recent letter on barter goods caused me to sit down and organize my thoughts on the matter. Running a successful retail/wholesale operation, I can see some caveats and analysis that needs further exploration. What’s WRONG with Barter Goods As has been well emphasized before – forget about barter goods until you are squared away for your own logistics. Beyond that, remember that barter goods are much inferior to money or cash in a functioning economy, with a good division of labor. If you need to sell them to raise cash, it will take some effort, and you …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The second Medal of Honor has been awarded for heroism in Iraq.    o o o Rourke (editor of the Jericho Discussion Group) mentioned this article: Jericho, the most heavily “streamed” TV series on Innnertube, will sadly be “split” into two half seasons, to avoid repeat episodes. (The first eight episodes, BTW, are available for free download.)    o o o ‘Aliens could attack at any time’ warns former British MoD chief Nick Pope  



Notes from JWR:

Fall, in all its glory, has come to the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Here at the Rawles Ranch, the aspen and tamarack trees recently took on a brilliant golden hue. With last week’s storm, the aspens shed all of their foliage, but the tamaracks still look resplendent. This is my favorite time of year. I love feeling the crisp air, the smell of wood smoke, the pleasant sights of venison hanging and cordwood stacked, and the taste of freshly made applesauce. All is well here. We are nearly ready for winter. The high bid is still at $100 …


The Forgotten Survival Skill: Physical Fitness, by Ron D.

Most of the people of the world and especially Americans are urban dwellers. We commute to an office every day and sit at a desk. Just as the skills needed to do this don’t prepare us for a shortage of water or food, they don’t prepare us to evacuate on foot or run from danger. But unlike other parts of preparedness, they actually work against us in a future survival situation. When I was a freshman in college I was returning to school in Oklahoma with a friend. About three miles outside a little town in the middle of no …