Month: February 2013

One Way Out of Dodge by Mrs. W. in the Missouri Ozarks

Our story begins enslaved to a job in a middle-class suburb and ends mortgage-free in the Missouri Ozarks with us making ambitious strides toward off-grid living and growing all we eat. Unlike Jed Clampett’s kinfolk who urged luxurious city life, ours would have warned us to stay put, keep our jobs and fit in – if only they had known what we were up to. If you dream of “someday” leaving your weekly paycheck for a more rewarding, self-reliant country life, but think you must wait (because of your “secure” job, societal expectations or whatever else is holding you), consider …


Letter Re: Buying Ammo? There’s an App for That

Mr. Rawles I would like to share with you an automated (“Bot”) web site, that is currently in beta test, which hounds the Internet for current, in stock ammo.  It lists various calibers (5.56, 762×39, 7.62, 9mm,), brand, etc.  I discovered this when reading the Western Rifle Shooters Association blog. Best Regards, – G.H.


Two Letters Re: Buried Cache Retrieval

Dear JWR: After reading the post this morning on buried items, I would like to share a thought. If you bury items in PVC pipe and use threaded fittings, you will have to use a pipe dope to seal out moisture.  If you do this, unscrewing the fitting is going to be an ordeal.  You would have to dig out an area big enough to swing a very large wrench if you have one.  Or you would have to dig out the pipe and put the pipe in a large vise if you have one.  Or cut the pipe in the ground …


Economics and Investing:

By way of Investment Watch blog:comes this video: Currency War: U.S. Cannot Absorb a Deflationary Spiral – Yra Harris Terry in Florida suggested this by Charles Biderman: Fed Creating $4 Billion in New Money Each Day, Helping to Rig Stock Market Charles Hugh-Smith, over at Zero Hedge: Don’t Worry; Be Resilient. (Thanks to Geoff B. for the link.) Items from The Economatrix: Schiff:  US To Win Currency Wars, Then Implode Sprott:  Default Coming As 850 Tons Of Gold Supply Vanish Job Openings Decrease Amid US Budget Battles


Odds ‘n Sods:

An old friend sent me a link to a series of videos of the March, 2011 earthquake (magnitude 9.0) in Japan.    o o o 65.4 Million Gun Purchases Since Obama Took Office, 91% More Than Bush’s First-Term Total. JWR’s Comment: Oh, by the way, some of those background checks were for multiple gun purchases, so the real figure is probably somewhere closer to 70 million.)    o o o Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) mentioned a fascinating STRATFOR piece on embassy security    o o o Gun Owners of America (GOA) is urging folks to contact their …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a  thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine – the special pleading of selfish interests.” – Henry Hazlitt, Economics In One Lesson


Notes from JWR:

February 14th is the birthday of Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas (born 1928, died June 5, 2008). During the Iwo Jima campaign this 17 year-old won the Medal of Honor “for unhesitatingly hurling himself over his comrades upon one grenade and for pulling another one under himself. One of the grenades exploded, and Lucas absorbed the entire blasting force of it with his own body.” PFC Lucas was the youngest Marine ever to receive the Medal of Honor. (He was just just 13 when he forged his mother’s signature, to enlist.) — Now a bit long in the tooth …


Staying Sane (and Happy) at Your Winter BOL, by Mrs. Icebear

I laughed my way through the entertaining and informative (even for me – I had no theoretical knowledge of waxing skis whatsoever, just did “what the other kids did”) recent article on the “exotic Norwegian” cross country skis. So I thought that maybe a couple of other Norwegian experiences might be of interest to survivalblog-readers: Having lived the first 30 years of my life in Norway and had ample experience with both skiing and offgrid living as a part of everyday life, I have some personal tips on not just surviving offgrid, but actually having a good time even though: …


Details From American Jurisprudence on Unconstitutional Laws

In my recent (and now notorious) Burn Barrel essay on civil disobedience, I made reference to a legal summary in the 2d edition of American Jurisprudence. But at the time I didn’t have access to the important case citation footnotes. SurvivalBlog reader and legal scholar S.G. very kindly sent me an extract with full case cite footnotes, from American Jurisprudence 2d. This was from Volume 16 (Conflict of Laws to Constitutional Law 1-359). This came from the latest edition, so it cites cases as recent at 2009. Here it is: § 195 Generally The general rule is that an unconstitutional …


Five Letters Re: Addictions That Could Be Your Undoing

Mr. Rawles, The article written by Z.T. was spot on. As I write this, I have been five days caffeine free. For the past several months I have intentionally been cutting back on coffee. I was a chronic coffee drinker and had been for about 20 years. As many as four pots of coffee a day by myself. I loved coffee. Many years ago I spent several months in the woods camping and was stuck with no coffee. I learned first hand how debilitating ‘minor’ addictions can be. For the first two weeks I was useless. Couldn’t do anything but …


Economics and Investing:

Some more “Voting with our feet” news: State taxes and the Great Income Migration. The Kindle book cited in the article (How Money Walks – How $2 Trillion Moved Between the States, and Why It Matters) has all the details. (Thanks to Mark A. for the link.) Prosecuting the Messenger: Chief Greek Statistician Threatened with Jail. (Thanks to Peter S. for the link.) And speaking of “slaying the messenger”: Federal, State Governments to Sue S&P Over Mortgage-Bond Ratings Items from The Economatrix: The Economy Is Much Worse Than The Data Show Central Bankers One Wild: What Can Investors Do? Marc …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Ken D. suggested this over at Instructables: Stylish Two Drawer Faraday Cage    o o o The 25% to 35% off sales for Mountain House canned long term storage foods with free shipping and bonuses will end soon at both Ready Made Resources and Safecastle. Be sure to place your order before these sales end!    o o o Rick D. sent us an article that provides a microcosm of urban high rise housing in a grid-down collapse: Carpets soaked in urine, sewage running down walls and onion sandwiches for dinner: Passengers reveal dire conditions of US cruise ship …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts." – Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackston, W. Virginia Board of Education v. Burnette, 1943


Notes from JWR:

The big 25% to 35% off sales for Mountain House canned long term storage foods with free shipping and further bonuses are continuing at both Ready Made Resources and Safecastle. (Both companies are long-time SurvivalBlog advertisers and highly recommended. The overlap in their sales was a coincidence.) Be sure to place your order before these sales end! — Today is the birthday of two notable men: Robert Charles “R.C.” Sproul (born 1939), a well-respected American Calvinist theologian and, General Chuck Yeager (born, 1923), the first man to break the sound barrier. — Today we present another entry for Round 45 …


Do-It-Yourself Prepping, by L.J.D.

In the past year, prepping has gone from an interesting concept to a way of life for us. There are countless resources for information, products and equipment available to the person who has an open calendar and a bottomless bank account. Unfortunately for the rest of us, even if we can carve out enough time to fully devote ourselves to prepping, we tend to find a large portion of supplies to be out of the realm of our current budget. And, with the economy in crisis, it doesn’t seem probable that the budget will be increasing anytime soon. In our …