Notes for Saturday – April 15, 2017

The “unsinkable” Titanic sank on April 15th, 1912. 1,517 people lost their lives on the ship’s maiden voyage. As research into the incident has progressed over the last 100 years, it seems as if, one way or another, the ship was just going to sink. With the adversities including an iceberg, raging coal fires in the fuel supply, wrong turns, locked-up binoculars, weak rivets, too few lifeboats, and more, perhaps this whole incident was really the result of man’s hubris. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 70 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $15,000 …




Key Elements for Self-Sufficient Gardening – Part 3, by B.C.

Element Number Three: Irrigation A downside to growing in greenhouses and high tunnels is that you have to have access to water and a way to irrigate these crops. That can be a positive, as it motivates you to build a system that you can use for your field crops as well. Even in the eastern U.S. where we farm, our irrigation is used every year. Rainfall seldom comes exactly when you need it, and having a way to irrigate your crops is the difference between being subject to droughts and being able to produce a crop every single year. …




Letters Re: The Human-Powered Veggie Garden, by J.A.

HJL, To be successful, the gardener needs to know about their local soil. We have taught vegetable gardening down in South Florida. Often it is more manageable to build a raised garden. Since our soil is about 2” to 4″ before we hit coral rock, we are more successful with the raised garden. This also applies to other poor soiled areas. And if the soil quality is controlled, so are pests. The better the soil, the sweeter the yield. – ebec.usa o o o Hugh, The only thing that I would add is to include a spading fork to the …




Economics and Investing:

Gold Prices Near Five Month High: Is More Climbing In Store? o o o Federal government reports deficit of $526 BILLION despite record-breaking income and payroll tax collection – G.G. o o o 104 Years of the Income Tax: Then and Now – B.B. o o o Goldman’s $50 Forecast May Prove Bullish. Goldman Sachs is standing by its oil price forecast of $50 a barrel, predicting stability but a limited upside in the future. o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

Getting ready: Pentagon to protect electric grid from massive attack. “Kim Duck Soup” doesn’t have the missile technology (yet) to land a warhead on the West Coast of North America, but he could do a high-altitude air-burst of a warhead over the Pacific and still impact the West Coast. – P.S. o o o U.S. May Launch Strike if North Korea Reaches for Nuclear Trigger – W.W. o o o How an Anarchist Bitcoin Coder Found Himself Fighting ISIS in Syria o o o Coming to a city near you: ‘shariah Cop’ Cracks Down On Minnesota Muslims – H.L. o …







Notes for Friday – April 14, 2017

For those who use RSS feeds to follow SurvivalBlog: We recently retired a holdover from our old blog format. The “atom.xml” will no longer work. Instead, we are using a WordPress native format. You can access the feeds at these URLs: https://survivalblog.com/feed/ https://survivalblog.com/feed/rss/ https://survivalblog.com/reed/rss2/ https://survivalblog.com/feed/rdf/ https://survivalblog.com/feed/atom/ You can also directly access the feed for comments by inserting the word “comments” in the above URLs: https://survivalblog.com/comments/feed/ You can also subscribe to the comments of any individual post by inserting the permalink of that post in the above URLs: https://survivalblog.com/hughs-quote-of-the-day-973/feed/ o o o Sad News: William Norman Grigg passed away at age …




Key Elements for Self-Sufficient Gardening – Part 2, by B. C.

Heating the Greenhouse (continued) We’ve got a small solar system on one of our chicken tractors that can be switched over to control the thermostat on the heater and the exhaust fan if we lose electricity long-term in the greenhouse. If we need to, we can move the woodstove back in, but for now this system works well. No matter what kind of heating system you choose, having a backup plan makes you sleep easier at night. At minimum have a kerosene heater and a few cans of fuel on hand that you can move into the greenhouse for a …




SurvivalBlog Resources: Hidden Storage Spaces

Introductory Note: The following is another in a series of articles by JWR that links to some of the thousands of archived SurvivalBlog articles, grouped topically. Today we address hidden storage spaces, hidden rooms, secret compartments, wall caches, door caches, and related topics. Delving into SurvivalBlog’s deep archives, which now have more that 27,600 articles, columns, and letters that are all freely accessible, you will find many articles on this topic. The following is just a sampling: Letter Re: Advice on Construction a Hiding Place for Precious Metals in a Home Letter Re: Hidden Rooms and Compartments–Conning the Burglars Letter: …




Letter Re: The United Airlines Passenger Dragging Incident

JWR, I am a loyal reader, but your reference to the officers who removed this nut case off the plane as “goons” was uncalled for and unfortunate. With your military background, I would think that you would have been more inclined to view a “lawful order” as one that should be complied with and then questioned later. This disreputable, defrocked, drugs-for-sex doctor obviously has mental problems, and he refused to comply with federal law and the officers who were merely doing their duty. Were I there in an official capacity, he would have had even more problems. – E.M. HJL’s …




Economics and Investing:

Gold Owners See Massive Jump in Value on Fears of WWIII o o o Video interview: Peter Schiff: Yellen’s Fed Bad for America but Will be Good for My Investments o o o Using Postage Stamps for Money – DSV o o o Wind & Solar Technology Won’t Stop the Collapse Of The U.S. Empire o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

In a recent phone conversation, one of my relatives mentioned that he’s had great success in keeping his dog on his property by using a wireless system sold under the PetSafe brand. It is called the Free To Roam Wireless Fence. Most dogs learn quickly and become comfortable with the boundaries. The collar gives a warning before it shocks, so there are no accidental shocks from the collar. He mentioned that the positioning of the base station is critical, so take plenty of time to set it up right. – JWR o o o I just noticed that Brilliance Audio …







Notes for Thursday – April 13, 2017

April 13, 1743 was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. (He died on July 4, 1826 just a few hours before the death of John Adams. How patriotic of both of them to pass away on the Fourth of July.) o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 70 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $15,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course …




Key Elements for Self-Sufficient Gardening – Part 1, by B. C.

I was blessed to grow up on a farm and later was fortunate to be able to receive an advanced degree in Agriculture. For the last 15 years my wife and I have been running a small diversified farm where we produce vegetables, fruit, and animal products for local markets and a C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture). During this time we’ve spent several years in several countries doing agricultural mission work, seeing how the rest of the world feeds itself, and doing our part to assist them with that. Over time we’ve worked hard to turn our own 30-acre farm into …