Notes from JWR:

Camping Survival’s Mountain House Sale begins today, and will run for just one week. They are offering Mountain House nitrogen-packed cans at 25% off and their pouches and long term storage HDPE buckets at 15% off. — Today we present another entry for Round 46 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) 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 …




Surviving TEOTWAWKI in Hawaii, by M. in Honolulu

Hawaii is in a special situation in a potential emergency.  The island chain has seven inhabited islands (of eight major islands) that support a total state population of 1,392,313, a land area of 6,422 square miles, with an overall average density of 217 persons per square mile (11th highest in the U.S., just above Virginia, Ohio and Indiana).  Most of the population (70% or 976,372) is concentrated on Oahu with an area of 597 square miles, an average density of 1,635 per square mile.  The urban core of Honolulu has an estimated population of 340,000 (ranked 55th by population, just …




Letter Re: Sewing, Mending and Altering Your Clothing After the Ball Drops

Dear James, As a former professional seamstress, I have a comment on using woolen materials for quilts.  They can successfully be washed, provided that the woolen material was previously washed before making a quilt of it, whether the wool is used as the top layer, or as the batting. The wool should be washed in hot water, and then dried on high heat in the dryer.  It will shrink, which has the double advantage of:  1. making it much warmer; and 2. washed wool becomes somewhat felted, which makes it much sturdier and less prone to wear and pulling of …




Economics and Investing:

Reader R.B.S. sent some more coin debasement news: Stivers proposes using steel for all U.S. coins – not just pennies and nickels. The compromise that the Congresscritters reach might be just dropping the penny and switching the nickel to stainless steel. The days of nickel made of copper and nickel are numbered, so stock up! Jim W. liked this: Gold – You Better Hold It Also from Jim: How Your Purchasing Power Was And Is Destroyed. “The fraud you’re being sold is exactly identical to going into a bakery and ordering a sheet cake.  The baker asks you how many pieces …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) found a link to a great video, profiling an old school, multigenerational machine shop: Central Texas Tool Co.    o o o A long-standing joke is that a lot of dead people cast votes in the eastern seaboard states. Not to be outdone, deceased anti-gun mayors sign petitions from the grave, again and again. In more recent news: Another one of the Bloomberg Crime Fighters goes to the Big House, for corruption: Hamilton, New Jersey Mayor John Bencivengo. And another, Former Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada, has just been charged with operating an illegal …