Year: 2013

The Things that Drive Us to Prepare, by Bluegrass Preacher

When the subject of Prepping comes up there are many facets which can be equated with the reason for Prepping.  Many people in regions where severe weather is a perpetual problem are preparing to deal with the effects of a weather related emergency situation.  It was actually the ice storm of 2009 which devastated almost the entire state of Kentucky that opened my eyes to the potential danger of being unprepared.  We were without power for 3 weeks while others went longer.  The first week two of the grocery stores actually opened for a few hours a day on generator …


Letter Re: Salt Curing for Meat

Jim,This is something I hear from people often: “If things go down I’ll just salt my meat!” My answer, “Really!!!  Do you know how??” So here’s the question I have for you folks, assume we are now at that TEOTWAWKI. How many of you really “KNOW” how to salt the meat you have on? Or how to preserve the meat you may harvest in the future? Everyone knows in the winter, if you’re in a cold climate just hang it, it’ll freeze. They’re right it will! Good Luck carving some for dinner. Don’t believe me? Pull out a pound of …


Letter Re: Thoughts on Socks

Jim: In a recent contest entry post, Clarence A. wrote: ‘Warm up some round river rocks that are as big as you can fit into a wool sock.  When they are too hot to touch with your fingers put them in the wool sock and use them like you would a hot water bottle.’ No offense at your experience Clarence, but hot river rocks can hold moisture and can and do explode. I’ve had it happen camping as a kid, using a river rock for part of the fire ring, lucky no one was close when it exploded! it sent …


Economics and Investing:

Measured Against Gold, US Dollar Purchasing Power Drops By 99.9% Sometimes a graph shows it best: The Size of the Problem Pierre M. sent: Could Prepping Become Illegal Here Too? Venezuelan Gov’t To Detain “Hoarders” Items from The Economatrix: How To Build Wealth In This Economy: “Rattle Snake Investing” De-Crowning The Dollar, And The ‘Collapse’ Ahead Kiss The Dollar Goodbye


Odds ‘n Sods:

Megan W. suggested: Africa Teaches the West How to Build a Car    o o o Seed for Security has announcing a special bonus with every purchase of $75 dollars or more. They will add two packets of old-fashioned flower seeds (Love-in-a-Mist, and Yellow Hollyhock). Also added will be six tea bags filled with mixed mints from Nan’s herb garden. This bonus offer for a limited time and will be automatically included with your order.    o o o Reader C.D.M. suggested this piece: New York’s Looming Food Disaster    o o o Barney Fife is alive and well: Tennessee …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." – Ecclesiastes 9:9 (KJV)


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 49 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $8,500+ worth of 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 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.) …


From The Mountains of New York, by M.D.L.

In this, the third installment of the chronicles of my preparedness journey (#1 The Secret Prepper and #2 Selecting a Retreat), I hope to share with you the improvements I have made in my retreat home. I have found in the last couple of months that owning a second home is a monstrous headache.  If you only own one home just imagine everything that can go wrong and multiply it by a factor of two to the exponent of Murphy’s Law.  Or worse… my liquid asset value has fallen victim to the inverse square law: The amount of money I …


Letter Re: Voting With Our Feet And With Our Wallets–Standing on Principle

Jim: [I recently saw an announcement from a company that caught my attention.] This alone would seem to me to make a company at least worthy of consideration for future business:    ‘Effective Immediately!! Due to the recent changes in 2nd Amendment laws that are pending or currently enforced by states across the country, the J&T Family of Companies which includes J&T Distributing, DoubleStar Corp., Ace Limited, and the DoubleStar Training Academy has been forced to reassess our policies regarding government and law enforcement sales. Effective immediately, the J&T Family of Companies will be joining other manufacturers and distributors by …


Economics and Investing:

EU leaders to set tight timetable on completing banking union Reader M.M.E. like this piece at ZeroHedge: Shocking Clues What America Will Look Like When Next Great Economic Crisis Strikes G.G. flagged this: Study: 15 Percent of U.S. Youth Out of School, Work Also from G.G.: How the Dollar Could Eventually Collapse


Odds ‘n Sods:

David T. mentioned: Ford Fires Up Natural Gas Powered Pickups. Here in the States, these will undoubtedly be sold as fleet vehicles for utilities, at least at first. But eventually they will hit the secondary market. Fuel flexibility may prove to be crucial for preparedness. There is value in diversity. If you can have at least one gasoline/E85 vehicle, one diesel vehicle, one propane vehicle, and one natural gas vehicle at the retreat for your extended family, then your chances are much greater to keep rolling. In Argentina 15% of all vehicles now run on GNC. It is also popular …



Notes from JWR:

October 24th is the anniversary of the firing squad execution of Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling, in 1945. His ignominious place in history was to have his surname become a noun. “Quisling” is now a moniker synonymous with treason and alliance with an invading army. Something tells me that the popularity of bestowing “Vidkun” as a boys’ name in Scandinavia dropped precipitously after about 1942. Ditto for “Adolf”, in Germany, and “Benito”, in Italy, certainly by 1944. — Today we present another entry for Round 49 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) …


Thoughts on Socks, by Clarence A.

Extra Socks should be in your bug out bag your hunting pack and any other pack or bag you store outdoor gear or survival gear.  Now let me explain.  Your feet are super important to your safety and well-being. You’re healthy and fit. You take good care of yourself for Survival reasons.  But are you prepared to lose the ability to walk, run or move quickly without responding to pain caused by infection.  Soldiers in all recent recorded conflicts complained about their feet.  Cold and fungus cripple them.  OK, so you have a great pair of boots.  I get it …


Letter Re: Constructing In-House Caches

JWR, I hope all is well. I Was reading the reply to the post on “Constructing In-House Caches.” I have been thinking on this one lately and working on solutions to the problem of attachment, actually came across the solution while working for a contractor on a client’s high end project and trying to build false panels to hide a security control panel. The solution we came up with was rare earth magnets found here http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/ or elsewhere on the net as well. you can google it! If you have plywood paneling you can attach the magnets with a screw to …