Year: 2014

An Old Man’s Long Gun Addiction, by *O.T.D*

I am 74 years old and have always been a little bit of a prepper. I was not into firearms and especially not hand guns, which I had never owned. I had rifles and shotguns from my youth, but never used them much after I got married. I had barely purchased a box of ammo for each. I even give them all away to my son a number of years ago. Then in the middle of 2009, I felt that everything was starting to fall apart and I needed to balance out my preparations by getting some firearms for protection …


Letter Re: EMP

Hugh, While the routers and switches do require power (which will be spotty at best), they too will be fried by the EMP. Many of the modern ASICs are based on IBM proprietary copper chips and as a result really don’t get along well with any form of EMP. It’s bad enough that I’ve seen a floating ground stretched between two buildings fry Cisco, ACC / Wellfleet, and Extreme gear. The only purpose-built router that is tempest hardened is the very old TGS router by Cisco. This was an AGS that was built into a hardened shell. Wide scale deployment …


Letter: 401K Rollovers And Precious Metals Investment

Hello Hugh, First of all I am not an investment expert, so I have to read and call experts. I recently left a company and moved to North Carolina. I was going to cash out my 401K, but I was starting a one-man business so I waited. I formed my own company and got started. After a short while I looked at 401 cash out options. (I am only 45.) One great option that is available is called a solo 401K. First, you have to be a one-person shop. That is easy. Go to the courthouse and register a DBA …


Economics and Investing:

Bitcoin firm CEO found dead. There sure are a lot of “coincidence”. We are now up to eight since January 1. Items from The Economatrix: U.S. factory activity growth hits highest since May 2010: Markit Gas And Oil Prices Soar And Petrol Could Be Next: Ukraine Crisis Shocks World Markets Amid Fears Russia’s Energy Resources Will Be Hit By Trade Sanctions Russia And China Stand In Agreement On Ukraine – And That Is Very Bad News For The United States Personal Income Faces First Year-Over-Year Drop Since Recession Ended: As Incomes Collapse, Spending Via Consumer Credit Begins To Increase.


Odds ‘n Sods:

Whole House Heating From A Single Wood Burner Or Open Fire The old Connecticut farm house I grew up in, had coal furnace in basement, and grills in first floor ceilings under the bedrooms. Dad put in oil furnace, BUT he kept the coal furnace and bin full of coal. Just in case!!!! Kept the DUG well, though he had drilled well put in. He was a prepper before the word was invented. – H.L. o o o Canadian Gun Confiscation Begins. Again – J.W. o o o L.G. sent this link in: Understanding The Stress response: It Can Buy …



Notes From HJL:

The secession movement in the U.S. is still running strong, but just not how people thought it was going to run. There are several areas of the U.S. that feel they are not represented by their state legislators very well. It’s not so much a conservative versus liberal conflict as much as a rural versus urban battle. Gun control laws seem to be at the heart of the issue, but there is more. The New USA? Secession Movement Gains Steam – US – CBN News o o o Today we present another entry for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction …


Prepping For The Kingdom: A Spiritual Perspective Of The Coming Collapse, by J.L.

Regardless of your eschatological views, you can be sure of one thing. When people unexpectedly fall on hard times, many an agnostic-in-practice suddenly become spiritual. It is known that the two places where prayers are most commonly offered are church pews and the back of a police cruiser. Humans return to their Creator in their time of need, as demonstrated time and time again in the Old Testament. Israel returned to obeying God after they encountered judgment for their disobedience and foolishness. Americans are no different. During the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, churches were flooded by individuals looking for …


Two Letters Re: Prepper Primer For Your Non-prepper Loved Ones, by T.S. – Part 4

I have to disagree with T.S.’ conclusion where Ham radios are concerned. The days of 40-pound or more base station radios is long gone. Even the backpack type radios from the Korean and Vietnam era that many preppers seem to be so fond of are large, bulky, and inefficient by today’s standards. There are many lightweight, portable solutions beyond that of the typical HT (handi-talkie). Take the Yaesu FT817ND, for example;it has multiple power options, is super lightweight, can easily fit into a cargo pocket and doubles as a general coverage/shorthand receiver. If someone is versed in Morse Code the …


Letter Re: Random Thoughts On Prepping

I really enjoyed the article “Random Thoughts on Prepping, by Stymie.” I want to thank him for writing that article for the blog. For a long time, I’ve also questioned the thinking that the golden horde would migrate to places like Idaho. I keep telling myself that better minds than mine have come to that conclusion, but I still can’t quite buy it. I’ve been thinking long and hard about the issue of establishing a truly remote homestead as a prepping strategy. We bought property in the Sierras, in Northern California, above the snow line. I kind of question how …


Letter Re: Econ 101 for Open Eyes

First I want to thank Little Fish for offering more explanation to readers on economics and finance. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the questions and concerns in this post in hopes of providing clarity on the IRA LLC concept and our company.   We at Perpetual Assets are staunch free market capitalists.  We do not like to be handcuffed and would never require anyone to purchase metals from our company. Most of our clients do because we have earned their trust, are competitively priced, executed their IRA LLC conversion perfectly, and provided excellent service along the way. In …


Economics and Investing:

As Bank Deaths Continue to Shock, Documents Reveal JPMorgan Has Been Patenting Death Derivatives– Diana Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Around The World Get Slammed: Here’s What You Need To Know Video: Eric Sprott on Ukraine Russia War: Capital Controls, Bank Runs, Gold and Silver Forecast Gold ends over 2% higher as Ukraine tensions spike Oil prices spike on Russia sanctions fears Ukraine crisis: 5 financial, economic effects


Odds ‘n Sods:

An anonymous reader sent in a list of ammunition makers that are based out of Ukraine and will probably see shortages or shipping delays due to the current crisis: Wolf/WPA/UCW ,Tulammo,Red Army/RASU,Brown Bear, Herters, MFS Ammunition, Russian 223 Note: SurvivalBlog has not confirmed that there are any interruptions in the supply of any of these brands. We are not even sure that all of these brands have origination points within Ukraine. o o o Krayton Kerns on Ukraine/USA: Sit o o o A roughly 25-minute audio interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts worth listening to on Ukraine: Ukraine rightest are …



Notes from HJL:

Today’s entry in the writing contest deals with a subject that many of us would just rather pretend doesn’t exist– mental illness. This subject has long been a difficult issue to deal with in our society, and being diagnosed as mentally ill (whether correctly or incorrectly) has long lasting consequences. Because the issue is so complicated, it is often terribly abused by those in authority, leaving no recourse for those who are victimized. It is also an area that we need to prepare for, because it is not going away. During a TEOTWAWKI event, it will only get worse. The …