Day: February 11, 2010

Letter Re: Post-Collapse Charity OPSEC

James Wesley: A buddy of mine and I were talking about giving out food in a post-collapse world and it occurred to us what we give out could have an impact on your operational security (OPSEC). Unless you come upon the refugees in the middle of your garden, then they’ll probably think (unless you tell them or give them reason to believe otherwise) that you are in much the same situation that they are in. The type of food you give charitably could be a message in and of itself. Give them store-bought food standard-form (processed food that can be …


Letter Re: My Experience in Setting Up a Community Survival Group

Jim, In these uncertain times many of us are preparing, some for economic collapse others for a coming pandemic or EMP strike, either natural or man made. Not having the option of relocating to a more ideal area my wife and I decided a few months ago to try to stack the odds in our favor by going a little different route. We have been able to partner with other local families and friends to be each others back-up and support systems. We initially started with just three families (6 of us total) and thru careful vetting and many meetings …


Letter Re: Combination Guns for Hunting?

Jim, In reading your article on choosing survival guns I noticed that you have a Savage Model 24F listed. Do you have any experience or opinions on the Valmet 412 ST, with barrels for 12 gauge and .30-06? I want to buy one but did not know if it would be a good choice for putting on the list for survival guns. Thank you ,- John JWR Replies: Combination guns are quite useful for areas where you have the opportunity to do both big game and bird hunting on the same hunt. There is many a time that I’ve been …


Letter Re: A Shortage of Mantles for Aladdin Kerosene Lamps

Dear Jim, I was trying to buy an Aladdin Loxon Mantle #R-150 for my Aladdin kerosene lamp and found that all suppliers seemed to be out of stock. Even Lehman’s Hardware here in Ohio was out of stock and showing an April delivery. I spent some time searching and found some very expensive ones on eBay but that was all. I then did a search for “Aladdin mantle problems” and found a cached press release from the Aladdin company. It looks like we have a major problem for Aladdin Lamp owners. From a loyal reader, – Jay H. JWR Replies: …


Letter Re: How I Made My iPhone a Useful Survival Reference

James, I depend on your invaluable books and Blog daily. I wanted to share with you and your readers my Archives Library system for when SHTF. I have an iPhone 3Gs ( and a spare one ). I feel that this is a more readily accessible and portable device as compared to a Kindle. I have loaded with many useful applications (“apps”) for survival and references. The main apps are : Carpenters Helper Photo Album and iTunes (for family viewing of pictures and my DVD collection DVDs ripped at 700Kbps VBR 2 pass h.264 is pretty good and saves on …


Letter Re: Practical Substitutes for Anvils

Dear JWR: In article in the February 9th edition of SurvivalBlog, author JIR wrote: “There is no substitute for a good anvil. The bigger it is, the more stable it is and the more enjoyable it is to work with. But, if you need to, you can get by with using almost any heavy chunk of steel or even a big rock. My first anvil was a 16 pound sledgehammer head and it worked pretty well.” The following three links offer descriptions and some thoughts regarding the construction of anvils from short sections of former railroad rail. Though not as …


Economics and Investing:

A link sent by SurvivalBlog’s Poet Laureate George Gordon (“GG”): Why Sovereign Debt Pain Has Only Just Started Also from GG come this big red flag article: Greece ‘Dress Rehearsal’ for U.S. and U.K., Deutsche Bank Says Sent by Trent: Britain faces ‘oil crunch’ within five years, Richard Branson warns Forget The Mortgage, I’m Paying My Credit Card First! (Thanks to Coyote in northern Michigan, for the link.) Items from The Economatrix: Greece’s Financial Crisis Puts Future of Euro in Question Super-wealthy Investors Move Billions Out of Greece World Bankers Meet in Sydney as Recovery Fears Intensify Bank Failures to …


Odds ‘n Sods:

There are just two days left in the 25% off sale at SafeCastle on all Mountain House foods in #10 cans is in progress. They are offering free shipping to the 48 continental states! The sale ends on February 13th, so order soon!    o o o “Hokie” sent us this: High demand for road salt prompts rationing in Maryland and Virginia    o o o Just one week remains in Directive 21’s sale on the Royal Berkey water filters. Presently just $262.50, the price will revert to $275, on the 18th of February.    o o o More about …