Note from JWR:

The high bid is still at $200 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit AM/FM/Shortwave digitally-tuned radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one of our most loyal advertisers. Also included in the auction lot is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. These four items have a combined value of more than $350. The auction ends on November 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.




Letter Re: Eating The Food That You Store

Sir: I currently store many foods which I routinely eat, none of which has the long shelf life of many of the ‘survival staples’. I’m ready and willing to buy several thousand dollars’ worth of hard wheat and other canned supplies, but I have one problem: I don’t know if I will actually eat them! Is there anyone out there that has a sampler pack, that allows one to try various offerings to make sure that we and our families will eat those staples? Thanks for all your hard work in helping us prepare! Warm Regards, – Rich S. JWR …




Three Letters Re: Treadle Sewing Machines and Advice on Storing Bolts of Fabric

Mr. Rawles. I have thought about this at some length and being an avid seamstress it would be distressing to not have fabric to sew new or repair old clothing. I have bolts of muslin,denim,canvas stored in Rubbermaid tubs. Plus a huge stash of quilting fabrics. Also sewing thread,needles for hand and machine sewing, extra bobbins for my old treadle machine if I need to dig it out,zippers and a big button box. If new clothes aren’t available keeping the old ones patched will be very important. Some good places to get sewing supplies are www.homesew.com or www.newarkdress.com. For bolts …




Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Today we will be reviewing Colville, Washington as a possible retreat location. The city of Colville (population 5,000) is located about an hour and a half drive north of Spokane Washington (Pop. 200,000) and lies within Stevens County (Pop. 45,000). From many personal visits to the city and surrounding towns during my retreat search I can say that the Colville and surrounding area came a close second to our current locale of Northern Idaho. In 1811, the valley was explored by a man working for a fur trading company working the Columbia River. During the first year of operation nearly …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index Shows No Turnaround in Sight    o o o Vic at Safecastle mentioned that because this year’s hurricane season turned out to be more mile than expected, one their vendors found themselves overstocked on MREs. Safecastle was therefore able to arrange some advantageous pricing. They are now having a special short-term sale on MREs.    o o o RBS sent this: Vultures eyeing mortgage corpse    o o o D.V. suggested a piece by The Mogambo Guru (Richard Daughty): Drowning in Inflation is Never Popular. (Warning: this one has some literary license that is not …