Year: 2008

Letter Re: Bivouac Bags

Hi. As I read “Prepare or Die” I thought of one other item that could be very useful which is a Bivouac (“Bivy”) sack. I recently purchased one of these from Campmor for my Bug Out Bag (BOB). It takes the place of a tent. It is basically a waterproof, breathable sack which will entirely enshroud your sleeping bag. Mine was only about 1 pound and under $100. It takes up very little space when packed and according to the REI web site a bivy sack can add 10 degrees more warmth to the rating of your sleeping bag- an …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from Finland’s Winter War

Dear Jim and Family, I got notice through Amazon about an interesting novel: “The Winter War”, by William Durbin This sounds like it would be a good choice for historical fiction, though its listed under the Children’s section. The Winter War (Taalvisota) in 1938-39 details the invasion of Finland by communist Russia. I’ve studied it extensively and its a depressing tale, though heroic, because the Finns eventually lost and the Russian incompetence spurred Hitler to invade Russia, thinking it would be an easy victory and give him access to oil. Hitler might have held on longer if he hadn’t tried …


Letter Re: “Forever” US Postage Stamps as an Inflation Hedge

Sir: Something occurred to me while addressing an envelope today that I thought might be of value to your readers. One small way to beat inflation is to purchase US First Class Liberty Bell “Forever” stamps that guarantees a mailed envelope in the USA forever. They may or may not be available at your post office so ask for them. I bought about $200 worth of stamps before the prices went up and plan to hold on to them for a while. I don’t know if these are still being sold but I think we may have yearly or bi-yearly …


Two Letters Re: Radon Poisoning

Jim, After reading a few more snippets about Radon poisoning and checking a few sources via Internet. I hypothesize that this may be another hoax along the lines of “global warming”. There are more medical professionals saying lung cancer is [caused by] diet or smoking and general abuse of the body. If Radon has been present and naturally occurring since God created the earth, then its being blamed for illness is similar to skid-marks being blamed for car-wrecks. Global warming is increasingly being proved a hoax by the most respected meteorologists and climatologist’s who say the minute temperature changes have …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Eric sent us this: US recession will dwarf dotcom crash    o o o KMA found this one: Peak Oil Coming Sooner Than Previously Expected    o o o Three readers mentioned this article on The Torch flashlight. At the rate this thing eats batteries, I have serious doubts about its practicality, especially when living in Grid Down times!    o o o More for fun than for preparedness: Geometric pumpkins and squash. Well, at least it is an excuse to grow some unusual heirloom squash varieties, and practice saving seeds.



Note from JWR:

Because of some power outages and power spikes at our ISP, we’ve been having some serious problems accessing the Internet for the past couple of days. So rather than keeping you waiting for your daily dose of SurvivalBlog, I am posting a couple of days worth of posts in advance, whenever our connection sporadically comes up. So don’t be alarmed if in the next few days you see a future date on any posts.


Letter Re: A Reader’s Tale of Survival on Alaskan Rivers

In reading your last few days posts on preparedness for disaster, etc, it brought to mind an experience I had twenty plus years ago in Alaska’s wilderness. I am only here to relate this story for one reason – I listened to my father as a young man, one of the few times that I did, but it saved my life. In 1985 I was on a moose hunting trip on a river boat with a close friend, whose nickname is Dangerous Don. We had put in our boat at the town of Nenana and proceeded up river to a …


Two Letters Re: A Warning on Kelly Kettles

Jim: I finally heard from manufacturer. They wrote: “Firstly, my sincerest apologies for the delay in coming back to you – I was traveling a lot over the past week so apologies again. All of our kettles are manufactured by skilled tradesmen. During the spinning process a small amount of grease is applied to one side of the aluminum sheet to make spinning easier – particularly when attaching the spout for pouring. This greasy side should be the outside of the kettle and this is subsequently wiped clean. I have seen two occasions within the past two years where this …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Commercial real estate lending close to a standstill. (Another link courtesy of RBS.)    o o o Thanks to Eric B. for sending this link: FBI Investigates Subprime    o o o Hawaiian K. suggested an article on homemade vegetable oil lamps.    o o o Yishai found an article with some tips on urban gardening.



Notes from JWR:

Because of some power outages and power spikes at our ISP, we’ve been having some serious problems accessing the Internet for the past couple of days. So rather than keeping you waiting for your daily dose of SurvivalBlog, I am posting a couple of days worth of posts in advance, whenever our connection sporadically comes up. So don’t be alarmed if in the next few days you see a future date on any posts. Today we present the first article for Round 15 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable …


AA Cells and Mobile Power, by Brandon in Utah

The size AA battery is the ubiquitous form of mobile power that is presently available. There is a large amount of off the shelf devices that use AA cells. They are available everywhere at low cost. They are cost effective and very safe for lighting. The breadth and depth of equipment available in a portable format is unparalleled by any other type of battery. I will cover the known factors on how to care for and use this resource to help end users get the most out of their equipment. To start, some general information that covers all types of …


Letter Re: Frozen Livestock Water Tank Woes

Hi Jim, I wanted to ask the vast readership for their help with winter water needs for livestock when we don’t have the luxury of electric tank heaters. I had done some research in the past and the only way I found to keep a livestock tank from freezing up with arctic winds was a wood fired Chofu, (Japanese), tank heater. The capacity much too small to handle the trick. We have just survived another arctic blast with buckets and stock tanks freezing over immediately. The thought of relocating the livestock to open water does not seem viable unless it …


Letter Re: Birdshot Ineffective as a Home Defense Load

Dear Jim, Over the years I’ve probably given away five cases of your novel to friends and family, and I think the updated version is outstanding! Thank you so much for all that you’ve done to promote personal responsibility. Regarding the post on your home page about birdshot versus buckshot, I couldn’t agree more! I’m an instructor with [name of major firearms training school deleted for OPSEC] and this myth of birdshot being the best home defense round is a constant battle with many of our new shotgun students. As you already know, birdshot, when fired within 5′ of drywall …