Year: 2006

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 …


Two Letters Re: Alcohol and Tobacco as Barter Items

Mr. Rawles: Thanks to Warhawke for his very well written article. There are two items conspicuous in their absence, tobacco and alcohol. I seem to remember reading somewhere, perhaps in the novel Lucifer’s Hammer, that people will always want to smoke and drink no matter how bad things are. I am wondering if you and/or Warhawke have any thoughts? Would it be prudent to stock an occasional can of Plowboy tobacco and some of the little airline bottles of booze? I’m very Interested in your thoughts. – Carl In Wisconsin Sir: Greetings and thanks for the great web site. In …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Bad news for American ex-pats in Nicaragua? “Former Communist” Daniel Ortega won the Nicaraguan election. Ortega says he wants an end to “savage capitalism”.    o o o The folks at Ready Made Resources mentioned that they only have a few pair of AN/TA-1042 field telephones left in stock. They are late issue full duplex digital field phones.They even come with a trickle charging photovoltaic panel. I highly recommend these field phones for coordinating retreat security.    o o o John the Bowhunter recommended both our Quote of the Day and this article: Veteran CIA hand is choice for Secretary …



Note From JWR:

I am now back at the Rawles Ranch, after some travel on behalf of two consulting clients. I have resumed taking mail orders. I also now have some time for some consulting via telephone. Since we now have Vonage (voice over IP telephone service), I pay for the phone bills for consulting calls for most of my U.S., Canadian, and European clients.


Two Letters Re: Handgun Caliber Selection–Advice on .357 SIG and .40 S&W?

Jim, The .40 S&W is proving to be an effective caliber in law enforcement usage, thus its continued popularity in that venue. It is becoming commonplace everywhere, and finding ammo at decent pricing is not an issue. Further, reloading for this caliber is as simple as any straight walled pistol cartridge. .357 SIG is somewhat of a different animal. Some law enforcement agencies have adopted it, but it hasn’t seen widespread adoption like the .40 S&W has. Supposedly at least one agency adopted it because it was more effective at penetrating cars, but it didn’t seem to do any better/worse …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader S.H. mentioned a web site that shows tandem rain catchment barrels. S.H. says: “A great idea to supplement your survival water supplies, and nice for general gardening use too. (The pictures make the setup very clear.)”    o o o “If I can get an elephant led by a mariachi band into this country, I think Osama bin Laden could get across with all the weapons of mass destruction he could get into this country,” Bhakta said.    o o o Readers Gredd, Rourke, and Alfie Omega all mentioned this article from Energy Bulletin: Enlightened Survivalism. Alfie asked: “Is …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Since there have been so many great entries in this round of the contest, I will also be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start …


Getting Ready for Survival On a (Broken) Shoestring Budget by J. Cole

Since the mid-1960s, after reading Pat Frank’s novel Alas Babylon, I have been interested in preparing myself for TEOTWAWKI. And, as a child of the 1950s growing up in central Florida, I was taught early to be ready in case of nuclear war, so Frank’s book was not that far-fetched to me. My family was poor by any standard you could compare it to in those days. There was no chance of us ever affording a “bomb shelter” but preparations were made as best we could. We stocked up on canned food and water, we had a central hallway with …