Day: August 4, 2011

Notes from JWR:

Safecastle’s big 25% off sale on Mountain House long term storage foods ends tonight, so get your order in soon! — Today we present another entry for Round 36 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round 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 $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $300 value.) …


America’s Sovereign Debt Credit Rating and Interest Rate Imponderables

I’m frequently asked what is going to happen when the U.S. Treasury’s AAA credit rating is downgraded. First, consider this news article: Moody’s Affirms U.S. Rating, Warns of Downgrade. Here are my predictions, in a nutshell: We can expect continued credit market volatility. The recent debt limit increase did nothing to correct the basic problem. The U. S. government spends more than it takes in, so its residual payments are growing, inexorably. As this insanity continues, at some point U.S. Treasury paper will lose its AAA luster. that will initiate a very ugly chain of events that will play out …


Letter Re: Inexpensive Building and Gardening Techniques

I am writing this article to give suggestions and my experience of finding, buying and building my retreat so people can see that you don’t have to spend tons of money for one.  First off, let me tell you that it took over a year to find my retreat property, actively looking almost every weekend.  It included looking at more properties than I can count, and making an offer on 11 of them, before I got the price and property that I wanted.  It is a long and tedious process, but my family and I really enjoyed it.  We used …


Letter Re: Storing Calcium Hypochlorite

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James, Calcium Hypochlorite could be worth it’s weight in gold some day [, for drinking water treatment]. I’m very familiar with it because I’ve been a certified Aquatics Facility Operator for ten plus years and it’s a staple item for swimming pools. I’ve had Calcium Hypochlorite sitting around in it’s original shipping container (plastic) for several years, and have observed that the container will eventually turn brittle and break. Not a good situation, especially around some automotive fluids. I now store Calcium Hypochlorite in Ground Glass Stoppered Bottles that are inside of padded 6 gallon buckets. There is no metal to worry …


Letter Re: AR-7 Type .22 LR Survival Rifles

Jim, Regarding the Henry [AR-7 pattern] survival rifle, I feel it is important that readers be made aware of the front sight – in case anybody is considering ordering one before actually handling one. The front sight blade is a piece of plastic which is easily bent slightly with side pressure, and can easily be moved side to side with thumb pressure. I almost purchased the Henry survival rifle to carry in a backpack, in case a disturbance required me to walk a significant distance home. But without reliably accurate sights a firearm is worthless, and I have no confidence …


Economics and Investing:

Glenn Beck puts the Federal debt cap deal in prepper terms. SurvivalBlog’s G.G. sent several links: ‘The Bear Market Is Starting’: Marc Faber Europe on Brink of ‘Major Financial Collapse’: Guggenheim CIO Bank run! Greece in panic as it faces change of Homeric proportions Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Now Down For The Year As Economic Concerns Grow Hoarding Of Physical Gold, Voracious Global Demand To Produce Undeliverable Gold Futures, Parabolic Move To $2700-$3000/Oz. Global Manufacturing Collapses To Worst Levels Since Mid-2009, Markets “Shrug It Off” Bachmann:  Debt Limit Deal Means “We Embrace Being Greece”


Odds ‘n Sods:

John R. sent this: The Hobbits Win    o o o The new Red Dirt Cooking blog (penned by “Okie Ranch Wife”– a sobriquet familiar to SurvivalBlog readers) has some great insights and some very useful recipes. She plans to cover home canning and long term food storage, as well.    o o o Somehow, I missed this great piece when it was posted on July 6th in the Alt-Market blog: The Essential Rules Of Liberty. (Thanks to C.R.W. for sending the link.)    o o o My wife Avalanche Lily and several SurvivalBlog readers all alerted me to some …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation." – Dr. Adrian Pierce Rogers