Month: January 2010

Letter Re: Some Observations on Fortifications Versus Camouflaged Retreats

Last night I watched Jesse Ventura’s “Conspiracy Theory” show which centered around the government’s cover up of the coming 2012 scenario. The show featured people converting missile silos to survival bunkers. Historical precedent will quickly point out a glaring problem with this approach. Consider that relative to the technological level of their day, European castles were more heavily fortified than any bunker being built today (by virtue of the fact that your average monarch of Medieval times had far more resources available than anybody seeking to build a shelter). Still, no castle ever withstood siege indefinitely. No matter how much …


Letter Re: A Composting Hot Water Heater Experiment

Dear James Wesley, The following is a method of obtaining hot water in an off-grid situation. Even more exciting than the 6.5 earthquake this week was our new hot shower! We still have “no” indoor plumbing on our rather recent homestead. Showers in hot weather consist of a hot garden hose. Cold weather requires heating water on the stove and pouring it over ones self while standing on the yurt porch. Or just a spit bath with a washcloth if it’s too cold to stand on the porch. But I have seen what other clever off-grid folks cook up for …


Letter Re: An Interesting 19th Century Formulary Book

James Wesley, About 40 years ago I bought a copy of the book ”Dr. Chase’s Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book” printed in 1887 at an estate sale. It was written by Dr. Alvin Wood Chase and published after his death. It is a how-to jewel filled with general information about just about every aspect of Civil War era American life. Food preservation, storage and preparation in a pre-electrical time, along with animal husbandry and general farming and medicine make it a very interesting and potentially helpful read. It can be viewed online at www.archive.org. The site is by Internet …


Economics and Investing:

Tim B. sent this: Dollar Crisis Looms if US Doesn’t Curb Debt And in related news, GG sent us this: US must cut spending to save AAA rating, warns Fitch GG also sent this one: The Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis, by Nouriel Roubini and Arpitha Bykere Yet another from GG: A Season Of Discontent: The only alternatives for which majorities express “a lot” of trust to help manage financial risk are close family members (64 percent) and their own efforts (74 percent) Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Rise as Optimism Builds About Earnings Retails Sales Fall Unexpectedly; Jobless Claims Up …


Odds ‘n Sods:

News from across the Atlantic: Panic buying hits supermarkets as shelves stripped of essentials over snow fears. (Thanks to Chad S. for the link.)    o o o A SurvivalBlog reader took the initiative and had a small batch of subdued Battle of Bennington flag shoulder patches custom made. This is the same flag used on our OPSEC hats and T-shirts, but in subdued brown and black colors. He told me that he now has just 50 left, that he is now selling right near his cost, at $2.75 each. Contact:: opsecflag@verizon.net to reserve yours!    o o o Who’s …



Note from JWR:

Today we present two entries for Round 26 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. both are on the subject of survival dentistry. First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case …


Dental Preparedness, by Pat

You and your group are sitting around a roaring campfire enjoying the end of a long days hunting. You bite down on some trail mix and suddenly get a shooting pain in your mouth. You’ve just broken your first molar and are four hours from the nearest dentist. Now what? Believe it or not, this happens more often than we would like to believe. In a survival scenario, it may be days or weeks or never that you get to a dentist. So, what do you do?  The most important thing to do is to prepare for a dental emergency, …


Survival Dentistry, by Dr. Dent

Introduction There seems to be a lot of talk among the survivalist community regarding dental care and particularly dental extractions.  I am a practicing dentist at an urgent care facility and have addressed thousands of patients in varying situations that have had abscessed teeth that require extraction, and have subsequently extracted thousands of teeth.  I would like to provide some insight on dental care and in particular on the subject of tooth extraction and the materials required to perform a successful extraction without complicating the existing dental problem.  Also note that many medical problems particularly those relating to bleeding, stress, …


Economics and Investing:

Reader Pamela E. suggested this article: America’s vulnerable half-speed recovery Frequent content contributors GG and Charley S. both sent this piece by Jim Kunstler: Economy has Six Months to Live Items from The Economatrix: Japan Airlines to File for Bankruptcy and Cut 15,600 Jobs UK: Work Until 80 Under Plan to Abolish Retirement Venezuela: Devaluation Sparks Chaos in Caracas MyBudget360: The Capture of Our Government by Wall Street Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect US Bailout Secrets Wall Street, Politicians Still Don’t Get It


Odds ‘n Sods:

“N” mentioned this excellent YouTube video: “Concept U.S.K.” – Surviving Urban Disaster    o o o The latest from the White House: President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors; Executive Order will Strengthen Further Partnership Between the Federal and State and Local Governments to Better Protect Our Nation. Hmmm… In Beltway speak “partnership” or “cooperation” often mean “control.” This could considerably degrade our 10 Amendment protections!    o o o Veteran economic and preparedness commentator Howard J. Ruff warns: Things We’ve Forgotten. (Thanks to GG for the link.)    o o o Attention Oklahomans! Tibbs’ law makes it …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Survival begins not with guns, gold, and a garden. It starts with self-reliance, strong family and communal bonds, a plan of subterfuge, and clandestine acts centered in the refusal to be subdued. You can’t have it all so you had better spend the scarce time, energy and resources you have left to prepare.” – Tim Case


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 26 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Luger, 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP ammo, …


COA Analysis of Common Survival Strategies, by JIR

Having spent a lot of years on military planning staffs, I can’t help war-gaming scenarios. In short (as you know well) Course of Action (COA) development is a big part of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) and is a fairly reliable way of looking at possibilities and choosing likely sequels, given scenarios. In effect, a way of war-gaming out the future. There are a number of horror scenarios that seem to me to be fairly probable and they keep going around and around in my head as I try to sequence them and assign probabilities to each one. I …


Letter Re: Available Rawles Books–Request for Clarification on Various Editions

Mr . Rawles, I’m a bit confused. There are no so many editions of your books out there–hard copy, e-books, and audio books, and now I hear that there is a British Edition of “How to Survive TEOTWAWKI”. Can you please for me clarify exactly what the book options are, and your recommendations on the least expensive places to buy them? Are there autographed copies for sale? How many copies of each are in print? And what are you writing next? Thanks, – James Y., a Ten Cent Challenger JWR Replies: Sure, here is a thumbnail list: Fiction: “Patriots: A …