Letter Re: A Recent Fire Evacuation Experience

James: Last weekend my town was threatened by a pretty big fire. Dozens of homes burned, thousands of citizens were evacuated. My neighborhood was among those ordered to flee the advancing flames. (Drama!) My family was prepared to leave ahead of time and evacuated safely in large part because of the advice and encouragement I have found at SurvivalBlog. Thank you. I did learn a few things. Theory flies out the window when panic is in the air. What is organized and prepared ahead of time actually works, what is thrown together at the last minute tends to fall apart. …




Letter Re: Advice on Storing Bulk Grain at Above Optimum Temperatures

Mr. Rawles, First, I’d like to thank you for your blog. It’s well worth the 10 Cent Challenge [voluntary subscription]! My question is about grain storage. We live on the outskirts of a big city and recently bought an old trailer on 25 acres in the country. It’s a three hour drive from where we are now and we can’t live there full time because of my husband’s job. I moved half of my bulk storage buckets (about 10) up there and during the winter it was fine but now it’s hot (in the 90’s) and humid during the day. …




Letter Re: Packing The Vehicle G.O.O.D. Bag

Mr. Rawles I’d just like to present an alternate thought to one of the statements made in the most recent piece written about G.O.O.D. bags: “Try to avoid foods that are high in sodium. You will have to drink more water.” Salt is not the enemy! Especially in hot climates. If you are traveling on foot you will be depleting a lot of your body’s salt. Low sodium levels in the body can, in a surprisingly short time, lead to muscle cramps at the least and seizures and death in the more severe losses. Salt also provides an osmotic gradient …




Letter Re: Update on Storage Food Shortages

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers: As you may know Mountain House has curtailed all shipment of their freeze dried foods in cans throughout the U.S. until at least October of this year. I repeat, the supply from Mountain House has been cut and I fully believe that when their food in #10 cans is available again, it will be at much higher prices. We still have a large supply of Mountain House Freeze Dried foods in our warehouse. It appears that we have one of the largest remaining supplies in the country as some of our biggest competitors are referring their customers …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Eric sent us this “signs of the times” article: More and More Moving to Escape Gas Price Burden. Meanwhile, the British press reports: Gas and electricity bills to rise 40 Percent, experts warn. (A hat tip to Jack B. for that link.)    o o o From a South African newspaper comes more troubling news from Zimbabwe. Here is a quote: “We are not going to give up our country because of a mere ‘X.’ [on a ballot]. How can a ballpoint fight with a gun?” Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said yesterday while campaigning for reelection, in warning that he …