Month: January 2013

Note from JWR:

Today we present the final entry for Round 44 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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 C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for …


What Made Me Begin Preparing for TEOTWAWKI, by Elizabeth in the Northeast

I woke up a few months ago. Literally, I woke up one day and realized if TSHTF, I was toast. In a big way. It all started with Hurricane Sandy. I live in a coastal town in the Northeast. The beach is a comfortable twenty minute walk from my home. Three streets behind me is Water Street, so named because not only is home to various Marina’s and marine supply stores, it has a tendency to flood every high tide. I woke up the morning Sandy hit to an eerily lit sky. Even though a hurricane was heading our way …


Letter Re: Food Storage in the Southern United States

Sir: As a Central Texas Prepper, I have solved my food storage problem affordably, as follows: On my property there was an existing 20 foot by 24 foot sheetrock walled tool shed. I gutted this building and installed slabs of 8 inch styrofoam panels against interior walls. These blocks of foam were salvaged from floating docks on a local lake as most people were installing plastic floats under their docks. The styrofoam blocks were free for the taking..As the floats were used and had been in the water in some cases for years, they looked gross and smelled bad also. …


Economics and Investing:

Reader Michael W. sent this: Zimbabwe Is Down to Its Last $217. Comrade Mugabe and his cronies have absolutely destroyed and looted their nation which once had a vibrant economy. They must be overthrown! The destruction of the US Dollar continues: Bernanke Seen Buying $1.14 Trillion in Assets in 2014 Items from The Economatrix: Economists Growing More Upbeat About Year Ahead [JWR’s Comment: Well, golly gee, with the Federal Reserve and Treasury conspiring to soon double the money supply AGAIN, so stocks must go up, and we’ll all be “millionaires” soon, right? Given their monetary policies in recent years, I …


Odds ‘n Sods:

F Troop strikes again! ATF’s Milwaukee sting operation marred by mistakes, failures. The BATFE should have been disbanded many years ago.    o o o What Postponement Of The US’s Largest Gun Show Says About America    o o o Erich was the first of several readers to send this: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II. If you’ve ever read Robinson Crusoe, then this may sound familiar: “The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“All we need is for the Fed to live up to its promise that it has an exit strategy. I’m here to say that they don’t have an exit strategy. There isn’t an exit. A return to a normalization of interest rates, a withdrawal by the Fed and other central banks in their efforts to monetize debt and artificially suppress interest rates, as soon as that ceases, the system itself will freeze up just as it did a few years ago. The reason it will freeze up is the system can’t handle anything close to what would be considered historically …


Notes from JWR:

Today is the birthday of historian Barbara Tuchman (born 1912, died February 6, 1989.) She wrote some of the most engaging history books that I’ve ever read. — Today we present another entry for Round 44 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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 C.) Two cases …


Rules For Living and Rules For Staying Alive, by Arizona Slim

Survival can certainly include situations that are a bit short of, and a bit more mundane than TEOTWAWKI. And as much as we wish it were otherwise, I know a lot of us are in a suburban or even urban environment. We find ourselves in a great many situations with the potential to become survival scenarios on a smaller, more personal scale. We are also subject daily to a million ridiculous rules and laws and prohibitions and warnings and  statutes and such that most of our rural brethren can go for long periods of time without even having to consider. …


Letter Re: Sugar and Spice Will Always Be Nice

Dear Editor: My father worked for many years at a sugar factory, and I can tell you there is no such thing as a natural “brown sugar”.  Brown sugar is simply post-production white sugar with molasses added.   As you make your recipe, use slightly more than the called for amount of brown sugar–maybe an extra teaspoon or two, and then add molasses.  If the recipe calls for light brown sugar, add a little molasses.  Dark brown sugar? Just add more molasses.    Also, because you’re storing the components separately, your “brown sugar” never gets hard as a rock, because you mix it at …


Letter Re: California as a Precursor: Thoughts on Feinstein’s Ban Bill

JWR; First, I must mention that the Feinstein bill is remarkably similar to what we live with already in California, other than some additional models being added and some language changes. With all of Feinstein and colleague’s rhetoric about the California bullet button loophole, I notice that in her Federally proposed bill, if you have a fixed magazine (al la the California bullet button feature, which makes the magazine fixed) your (military) features are not limited. You are, however, limited to a 10 round fixed magazine capacity. Once you have a removable magazine, the “Military” (scary looking) features come into …


Economics and Investing:

SBSS has launched a new “Liberty Girl” one-ounce .999 silver coin. ‘Wall St.’ flees NY for tax-free Florida The Disappearing Gold Dr. Gary North: Fed Will Buy $1.1 Trillion in Bonds. Then It Will Buy More. Items from The Economatrix: IMF’s Lagarde Says US Leading Economic Role At Stake The Endgame Is Being Played Out:  World Plunges Into Currency War, Economy Underperforming Again, US Banks Shaken By Biggest Deposit Withdrawals Since 9/11…The Collapse Will Begin New Homes Sales Slip:  Jobs Are The Key To Housing Recovery


Odds ‘n Sods:

Scott G. mentioned this in The New York Times: The Preppers Next Door    o o o Here is a SHOT Show report: Gun Tote’n Mamas Concealed Carry Purses for Women    o o o Alan S. sent us the latest news from Oz: Floods cause Brisbane drinking water shortage. (Any family that does not own a high quality, high volume ceramic water filter is foolish!)    o o o H.L. forwarded this: Drought Seen Worsening in U.S. Plains and West Midwest


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Gun registration does nothing… can do nothing… to curb gun violence. All it can do is tell you who the gun belonged to at some point in in the past, should you happen to find it dropped at the murder scene, next to the cooling body. At best it’s a placebo to the perpetually fearful, while at worst (and historically it’s nearly always been worst) it’s a prelude to confiscation.” – Tamara K. in her View From The Porch blog


Notes from JWR:

I’m pleased to report that the expanded SurvivalBlog 2005-2012 archive has been selling at a fast pace, both via digital download and on DVD. This new archive collection has expanded bonus material (a digital copy of my book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation–normally $28 in hard copy–12 Firearms Manuals, and 14 U.S. Military Manuals), an improved user interface (with the same look and feel of the SurvivalBlog web site), and of course one more year of the blog content. The digital download and DVD both include the archives in HTML (10,131 pages) and PDF (7,923 pages). The blog archive is …


Sugar and Spice Will Always Be Nice, by Vic in Iowa

Many of the things we love today, and take for granted, will probably be very hard to come by, if things fall apart. This long list certainly includes condiments. You may be ready to grow your own food, and purify your own water. I hope you are. And you hopefully have tons of wheat and rye and rice and beans packed away, to fall back on while you learn to produce all the food you need. (I figure it may take me 3 years to get self-sufficient, and have stocked up accordingly.) But even if your pantry is stocked deep, …