Year: 2010

Preparing Your Church Congregation, by JSX in Virginia

My preparedness background started as a youth.  My father took us camping often and had an amazing gun collection; I’ve been able to teach my kids what he taught me – great memories both then and now!  In the 1970s, my mom and step-dad bought a little 2-acre farm in the middle of nowhere.  We kept a dozen or so chickens, had a few garden spots (that seemed to grow and multiply with each new season), homemade soap, homemade root beer (an acquired taste!) a “sewing room”, a small orchard, solar heating, our own 250-gallon fuel tank, and a year …


Letter Re: The Rocket Stove, Refined

Several times in items I’ve sent out or in live presentations I’ve mentioned the “Rocket Stove,” a simple stove concept worked on over the last 20 years or so at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon (and elsewhere) by Larry Winiarski and others. The goal in refining this stove was to create a wood or charcoal – burning stove that would use the absolute minimum amount of widely available fuel to boil a given amount of water, thus minimizing fuel use and waste, and also smoke that could contribute to health issues for those tending, or in proximity …


Economics and Investing:

I warned you, folks! Coin Composition Change Included in Obama’s 2011 Budget. Have you socked away your nickels yet? Do so before they start making them out of stainless steel! Gresham’s Law is still in force. (Thanks to CRD for the link.) Matt B. mentioned that the Geography of Recession interactive map has been updated. This is looking grim! The Other Jim R. forwarded us a link to this Zero Hedge piece: Brace Yourself for the Coming Gold Shortage GG sent this: White House to paint grim fiscal picture Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large) flagged this: Obama’s 2011 …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Chad S.: Seed shortages could imperil home gardens. JWR Adds: Stock up on heirloom varieties before gardening season. I’m sure that our advertisers that sell non-hybrid seeds would appreciate your patronage.    o o o S.F. in Hawaii mentioned that John C. Campbell’s Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina has expanded its course catalog. Some of the traditional skills taught there such as metalworking, spinning, and weaving would be important in the event of a societal collapse.    o o o Inadequate sanitation leads to disease in Haiti, just as predicted: Chaos eases as Haiti food lines focus on …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him has no need of any other faculty than the ape like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision.” – John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”


Note from JWR:

Today we present the first entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: 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 …


Running for Disaster Readiness, by A.R.

Proviso: The writer of this article and SurvivalBlog shall not be liable for any loss, damage, injury or death as a result of any actions that the reader may take after reading.  This article is for informational purposes only.  I write this because one of the core elements of being prepared includes maintaining an above average level of physical fitness.  Having been a swim and fitness coach for over ten years, as well as training for and completing two marathons, along with a number of other road races, I feel adequately prepared to try to motivate readers of this blog …


Letter Re: Matching and Meshing Personalities for Close Quarters Living

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have read your novel “Patriots” and found your web site. I have been going through your archives to see if anyone has touched on this subject but so far I’ve only found partial references to this topic. Although I have not made it through all the archives yet.In your book I noticed that the characters knew each other for years and had time to work out differing personality traits or not be included in the group. (BTW, it really saddened me when you killed off two of the characters.) I got to thinking about the types …


Economics and Investing:

George Gordon (“GG”) sent this: In Coke We Trust; Investors now view a default by the U.S. Treasury as more likely than a default by the Coca-Cola Company. Sue C. sent us this: It only gets worse this year for commercial real estate Kevin K. flagged this: Kalashnikov Gun Factory Offers Food in Place of Salaries. JWR’s Comment: If they don’t have cash to pay workers, then they probably don’t have cash to pay the food suppliers, either. I suspect that some barter is going on. (Which would make me very happy, if I were a local farmer.) Items from …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Chad suggested this piece on austere medicine: Hard lessons, humility for big-city doctors in Haiti    o o o G.G. mentioned that both my novel “Patriots” and my latest non-fiction book were part of this round up book review: Three Views of TEOTWAWKI.    o o o SurvivalBlog regular Matt R. recently posted a great vehicular gear list, over at AtlasTrekker.


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“In a country like America where riots occur during brownouts, and people stab each other for cutting ahead in service station lines during gasoline shortages, one has to wonder how our society would react to a total disruption of its artificial life-support system. In researching magazine articles I’ve interviewed urban disaster planning authorities who are more skeptical about saving their citizens from major civil disruption than Mel Tappan ever was.” – Massad Ayoob, in “The Truth About Self Protection“


Notes from JWR:

And the winner is… We’ve completed the judging for Round 26 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. I must mention that the judging was very difficult, since there were 35 great articles submitted! First Prize goes to Lin for her article: Feeding Your Family Well During Hard — and Harder — Times, that was posted on December 9th. She will receive all the of the following: 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 …


The Money Market Managers Unleashed–An End to the Road to Redemption

Last week, SurvivalBlog reader Noah C. sent me a link to piece by Dan Denninger: SEC Tightens Rules for Money Funds. Noah made this comment that amplified Denninger’s observations: “Here is the most interesting part: That a Money Market Fund’s Board of Directors can now ‘inform’ the SEC (instead of request) that they are suspending fund redemptions.” I also heard from our friend Darrin in Wyoming about same topic. He wrote: “A Wall Street Journal report mentioned that the SEC voted Wednesday (1/27/10) to allow money market fund managers to freeze redemptions, in an effort to ‘make your investments more …


Letter Re: Are Decommissioned Missile Silos Still Potential Nuclear Targets?

Jim, I know your time is valuable,so I will get right to it. The recent post on buying [decommissioned underground US Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic] missile sites raises a question. Aren’t these sites vulnerable during nuclear attacks/exchange with a foreign country? Thanks for your site and your service. – John JWR Replies: They would only be pinpoint targets if the Soviets are still using ancient targeting data, and that is very unlikely. From all that I have read, they simply are no longer included in the “target structure” for any nation states that are potential combatants. (Like Russia, China, and …


Letter Re: The Importance of Testing “Dead” Batteries Before Recycling Them

James- I wanted to share a money saving tip that applies to inexpensively preparing for TEOTWAWKI. With so many digital devices depending on batteries these days, most of us are conditioned so that, when a device like a digital camera or other smart gadget tells us the AA or AAA batteries need replacing, we simply toss out the “dead” ones and put in fresh batteries. But are the batteries really dead? Usually, not all of them are. I have a handy little Canon digital camera that we use around the house for insurance documentation, family photo opportunities at parties, pictures …