Month: January 2007

How to Reply to “When the SHTF, I’m Going Over to Your House”, by Rolf in the Northwest

How many times in the course of a conversation at a meeting, party, event, or whatever, has the subject of emergency preparedness come up, and you make a comment about the having done something (anything) about it in some way, and someone says “the next time [something bad] happens, I’m coming over to your place!” How do you reply? You can’t invite everybody in need, you don’t want to invite parasites, you don’t want to piss off friends and co-workers, and you may not be able to tell if they are joking or serious. However viscerally satisfying a “I got …


Letter Re: 10 Cent Challenge Subscription Renewal Reminders?

Jim, I just had to scan through tons of e-mails to see when I last contributed [to the10 Cent Challenge]. I just wanted to stay current because I sincerely appreciate the information you convey. It would be very helpful if you would just send out a little reminder as my year anniversary approaches so I can stay up to date. Once again, thanks for your wonderful blog! – Andy JWR Replies: Thank you for your continued support. It is very much appreciated. But as much as I value it, I don’t e-mail our 10 Cent Challenge subscribers, bugging/begging them to …


Odds ‘n Sods:

An Iran-Venezuela Axis?   o o o Reader Jason M. sent us this one: The perils of solo winter camping: Camper rescued after weeks in the wild    o o o President Bush Going For Broke With Iraq Troop Surge    o o o Snopes.com confirms: The rumored available refund on the Federal telephone tax (for2006 tax filings) is real.


Jim’s Quote of the Day

“I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools [in the U.S.] that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.” – Oprah Winfrey


Notes From JWR:

Congratulations to Chris in the Carolinas, the high bidder in the most recent SurvivalBlog benefit auction, that ended last night. He won a batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, most of them courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products.) Today we are starting another auction, which runs until February 15th. This one is for a pair of MURS band handheld transceivers, with extended range flex antennas–at least a $150 retail value.The high bidder …


Letter Re: How I Convinced My Wife to Prepare

Dear Jim, I am a very recent reader of your blog, and just finished your novel [“Patriots”] (which I thought was fantastic). I plan on taking the 10 Cent Challenge just as soon as I set up a PayPal account. Anyway I thought you might be interested in how I was able to convince my wife that our family needs to be more prepared in case “something happens.” My wife thinks that I am a little nuts because I believe that society is extremely fragile and will collapse with just a little prodding. She has always put off my desire …


Letter Re: New York Military Bunker on eBay

Hi Jim, I can’t say I see many bunkers for sale on eBay. I personally don’t consider New York state ideal for a retreat location, but it is interesting to see this property available nonetheless. I’d be a little concerned about potential HAZMAT issues. BTW – I’m really enjoy reading Rawles on Retreats and Relocation. I’m in between “permanent” dwellings at the moment and it helps to have such a resource when considering my options. Kind Regards, – M. Artixerxes


Letter Re: SHOT Show Report From Mr. B.

The following are my brief impressions of things that I got to see at the recent SHOT Show. There was lot of interest in the prototype .308 Bullpup from Kel-Tec, which takes standard metric FAL magazines. It is planned to be produced in various barrel lengths, and should be reasonably priced.It was interesting, with its forward axial cartridge ejection, just above the barrel. I don’t recall pricing but $2K would be my best recall/guess. Mr. Kellegren [the “Kel” in Kel-Tec] personally showed me the patent pending ejector. It ejects the casing on the same forward stroke of the bolt that …


Letter Re: Dog Food Alternatives and Dog Food Safety Warnings

Jim, Regarding Ginger B feeding her dog baked potatoes: Always be certain that potatoes are cut into small pieces before feeding them to dogs. Many of them (large dogs in particular) will simply swallow a baked potato whole, leading to awful problems and potentially, death. Another food that most folks are unaware of any danger from is onion, which is lethal to dogs and cats. Be careful not to feed them table scraps that have onion mixed in with them, not even in flavoring agents. The result of onion toxicity is anemia, which is difficult for the lay-person to diagnose …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Les Christie, editor of the British Columbia Housing Blog, penned this prescient article for CNNMoney.com: Housing market pain not revealed by statistics    o o o Rourke suggested that I highlight this product from Canada, which is one of the best door security peepholes on the market    o o o Bob B. mentioned this article from The Financial Times Online (by way of Matt Drudge): Euro displaces the U.S. Dollar in bond markets    o o o Nuclear Blast on TV’s ’24’ Causes Fallout for Fox



Notes From JWR:

Now that the holidays are over, we are enjoying the quiet season here at the Rawles Ranch. Other than church activities, 4H club meetings, and homeschooling group meetings, there is not a lot that induces us to go into town. This winter we can laugh at the weather. When it is snowing heavily, we just stay home and stoke the woodstove with a couple of extra chunks of red fir. We home school our kids, so there are no worries about school bus schedules. And we are very well provisioned, so we certainly don’t have to go into town for …


Letter Re: Yet Another Article Touting “Mobility” for Survival

Dear Jim: See this piece on Survival Preparedness as: “The Ultimate “Contrarian” Investment for 2007 — Be Prepared” The author knows a lot about economics (excellent web site), but one can certainly critique his “Batman in the Boondocks” or “mobile refugee” survival strategy. Regards, – OSOM JWR Replies: I’m dismayed to see such strategies proposed again and again, usually by folks who have never actually attempted to fill–much less actually shoulder–their “everything that I’ll need” backpack. It is incredibly naive to think that anyone can “head for the hills” with just what you can carry, and survive for an extended …


Letter Re: Survival Retreat Potential of Northwest Florida

Mr. Rawles: I live in south Florida. I would like to know your opinion on having a retreat in northwest Florida, Dixie County to be exact, known as the “least populated county in Florida”. I can’t afford to move out of the state right now and I am concerned about driving through major cities if I had to leave in an emergency from down here. I would like to be able to do it on one tank of gas which would put me about 5 or 6 hours away from where I am now. I already have a small piece …


Two Letters Re: The Novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”

Jim, I recently received the updated version of “Patriots” a couple days ago. At first I was just going to read the new chapters, but after seeing that you gave it an overall update, I decided to just read the whole thing. So far I have been very impressed. (The two new chapters alone were worth the price of the book.) Not to mention the way everything else was updated. Way to go! You have done a very good job with this new edition, and I have already ordered a few more copies to have on hand as gifts. I …