Day: July 4, 2013

Notes from JWR:

A wicked DDOS (“Ping”) hacker attack on SurvivalBlog began just before midnight, GMT, on July 3rd. This was obviously timed for maximum effect, since the hackers assumed that the Sys-Admins at our server site would be on vacation. Thanks for your patience while we get the site back up and running on one of our backup servers. — Happy Fourth of July, America! Please pray that our liberty is restored. Plan, purchase, train, and set the course of your actions to make that happen! — The U.S. Merchant Marine sustained the highest per capita losses of any service group in …


Survival Is Not Fun, by Wild EMT

Bug-Out! A friend and I recently discussed some of the possible physical difficulties that might be associated with a rapid exfiltration from a devastated area during a major grid-down scenario.  We thought it would be interesting to explore the personal effects of increased stress, combined with decreased caloric intake, which might be encountered while “bugging-out.”  We wanted to move away from academic knowledge to personal experience, so we created a seven day bug-out “challenge” for ourselves.   Background note: my survivalist friend was a U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam and then spent his career working on computers.  I’m a 46-year-old …


Letter Re: Corn: Our Best Ally Against Starvation

We have begun our corn harvest. We just finished canning the corn from 2 rows of hybrid sweet corn. We planted two rows 100 feet long. We made approximately 400 ears of corn. From this we ate all we wanted and canned 39 quarts and 12 pints whole kernel. We don’t can any cream style, because it doesn’t do well. Many times the corn has a musty taste. We put it in jars rather than the freezer to protect it from a grid down scenario. We gave 20 ears to a local widow, and 48 ears to a local gentleman …


Economics and Investing:

Brian C. sent: The Eight Least Expensive States to Live in the U.S. Argentina Legitimizes Black-Market Currency With New Dollar-Backed CDs. (Thanks to H.L. for the link.) Preppers Beware : Our “Hoarding” Can Be Deemed Illegal Items from The Economatrix: Consumer Spending, Jobs Data Point To Lukewarm Growth Meredith Whitney:  Did The Fed Just Torpedo The Muni Bond Market? New Data On Incomes, Spending, Jobless Claims; IPO Problems


Odds ‘n Sods:

In their latest podcast, the folks at the Pantry Paratus blog interviewed Pete Kennedy, the president of Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund.  They represent small farmers who are being targeted through government policies and regulations.  An interesting podcast!    o o o Hikers rescued trying to reach famed ‘Into the Wild’ bus. JWR’s Comment: Someday, a spectacularly unprepared hiker visiting this Shrine to Lack of Preparedness is going to die of exposure. OBTW, a similar locale exists in Utah, where people want to visit the spot where Aron Ralston was forced to amputate his own hand.    o o …